书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第865章

. . . and still pay agitators to intimidate honest folks by terror, in order to keep what they have seized, awaiting an opportunity to get more. . . . When the elections were over they sent daring men, undoubtedly paid, to insult people as they passed, calling them royalist chouans." (He mentions the dispatch of supporting affidavits.) - Mercier, "Le Nouveau Paris," II., 315. "Peaceable people in Paris refuse to go to the polls," so as to "avoid being struck and knocked down." - Sauzay, VIII., 9. At Besan?on, Nov. 6, 1795, out of 5,309 registered voters, only 1,324 vote and the elected are terrorists. - Archives Nationales, F.7, 7090. (Documents on the Jacobin insurrection of Niv?se 4 and 5, year IV., at Arles): "The exclusives, or amnestied, regarded the Constitution only as a means of arriving at a new state of anarchy by getting possession of all the offices. . . . Shouts and cries of Vive Marat! and Robespierre to the Pantheon! were often repeated. -- The principal band was composed of genuine Terrorists, of the men who under Robespierre's reign bore the guillotine about in triumph, imitating its cruel performances on every corner with a manikin expressly made for the occasion." --"Domiciliary visits, rummaging everywhere, stealing jewelry, money, clothes, etc."[33] Mallet-Dupan, II., 363. -- Schmidt (Police report of Brumaire 26and 27).

[34] Dufort de Cheverney, (manuscript memoirs communicated by Robert de Crêvec?ur). -- Report of the public prosecutor, dated Thermidor 13, year III., according to documents handed in on Messidor 16, by the foreman of the jury of indictment and by the juges de paix of Chinon, Saumur, Tours, Amboise, Blois, Beaugency, etc., relating to the charges made by the administrators of the department of Loire-et-Cher, dated Frimaire 30, year II., concerning the fusillades at Blois, Frimaire 19, year II.

[35] The line of this march from Saumur to Montsoreau could be traced by the blood along the road; the leaders shot those who faltered with fatigue. - On reaching Blois, Frimaire 18, Hézine says, before the town-hall, "To-morrow morning they shall be straightened out and we'll show the Blésois how the thing is managed." The following day, Hézine and Gidouin, taking a walk with Lepetit, commander of the escort, in the court of the inn, say to him: "You'll shoot some of them for us.

You must give the people an example by shooting some of those rascally priests." Lepetit orders out four peasants and placing them himself on the river bank, gives the command to fire and to throw them in.

Hézine and Gidoum shout Vive la Nation! Gidouin then says to Lepetit:

"You don't mean to stop with those four peasants? won't you give us a few curés?" Five priests are shot. - At Beaugency, there is a fresh fusillade. The leaders take the best part of the spoil. Among other objects, Lepetit has a coffer sent into his chamber and takes the effects it contains and sells a bed and mattress beside.

[36] Ibid., (March, 1796). "Meanwhile, the young men who were recruited, hid themselves: Bonnard made them pay, and still made them set out. Baillon, quartermaster in the war, told me that he had paid Bonnard 900,000 livres in assignats in twelve days, and 1,400,000 in twenty days; there were 35,000 in the memoir for pens, penknives, ink, and paper."[37] Mallet-Dupan, "Correspondance, etc.," I., 383. (Letter of Dec.13, 1795.) " The Directory keeps on filling the offices with Terrorists. The government agents in the departments arbitrarily set aside the constituted authorities and replace them with Jacobins."[38] Province in ancient Turkey governed by a Pasha. (SR.)[39] Thibaudeau, "Histoire de la Convention," I., 243. "Tallien, Barras, Chenier and Louvet talked of nothing but of annulling the elections. . . . Nothing was heard at the bar and in the tribunals but the most revolutionary propositions. The 'Mountain' showed incredible audacity. The public tribunes were filled with confederates who applauded furiously. . . Tallien and Barras ruled and shared the dictatorship between them. Since 13th of Vendémiaire, the Convention no longer deliberated except when in the middle of a camp; the exterior, the tribunes, even the hall itself are invested by soldiers and terrorists." - Mallet Dupan, "Correspondance, etc.," I., 248. (Letter of Oct. 31, 1795.)[40] Thibaudeau, Ibid., I., 246, et seq. -- Moniteur. (Session of Brumaire 1.) Speech by Thibaudeau.

[41] Mallet-Dupan, ibid., I., 328. (Letter Oct. 4, 1795.) "Nearly all the electors nominated at Paris are former administrators, distinguished and sensible writers, persons recommendable through their position, fortune and intelligence. They are the royalists of 1789, that is to say about in the sense of the constitution of 1791, essentially changed fundamentally. M. d'Ormesson, former comptroller-general of the Treasury, the Marquis of Gontant, M. de Vandeuil, former maitre de requêtes, M. Garnier, former conseiller au Chatelet of Paris and others of the same order, all electors. It is another world ; in one month we have gone back five years." - Ibid., 343, 350, 359, 373.

[42] Barbé-Marbois, " Journal d'un Déporté," preface, p. XIV.