accordingly， the instructions of the Committee of Public Safety， also the written orders of Carrier and Francastel， direct generals to "bleed freely" the insurgent districts，[38] and spare not a life： it is estimated that， in the eleven western departments， the dead of both sexes and of all ages exceeded 400，000.[39] - Considering the program and principles of the Jacobin sect this is no great number； they might have killed a good many more. But time was wanting； during their short reign they did what they could with the instrument in their hands. Look at their machine， the gradual construction of its parts， the successive stages of its operation from its starting up to Thermidor 9， and see how limited the period of its operation was.
Organized March 30 and April 6， 1793， the Revolutionary Committees and the Revolutionary Tribunal had but seventeen months in which to do their work. They did not drive ahead with all their might until after the fall of the Girondists， and especially after September， 1763 that is to say for a period of eleven months. Its loose wheels were not screwed up and the whole was not in running order under the impulse of the central motor until after December， 1793， that is to say during eight months. Perfected by the law of Prairial 22， it works for the past two months， faster and better than before， with an energy and rapidity that increase from week to week. - At that date， and even before it， the theorists have taken the bearings of their destinies and accepted the conditions of their undertaking. Being sectarians， they have a faith， and as orthodoxy tolerates no heresy， and as the conversion of heretics is never sincere or durable， heresy can be suppressed only by suppressing heretics. "It is only the dead，" said Barère， Messidor 16， "who never return." On the 2nd and 3rd of Thermidor，[40] the Committee of Public Safety sends to Fouquier-Tinville a list of four hundred and seventy-eight accused persons with orders "to bring the parties named to trial at once." Baudot and Jean Bon St. Andre， Carrier， Antonelle and Guifroy， had already estimated the lives to be taken at several millions and， according to Collot d'
Herbois， who had a lively imagination， "the political perspiration should go on freely， and not stop until from twelve to fifteen million Frenchmen had been destroyed."[41]