retarded by these disorders, and pointing guns, which if fired would
only ruin your houses and destroy your wives and yourselves; in
fact, compromising the very Republic they pretend to defend; for if
it is firmly established in the opinion of France that the Republic
is the necessary companion of disorder, the Republic will be lost.
Do not place any trust in them, but listen to the truth which we
tell you in all sincerity.

"The Government instituted by the whole nation could have retaken
before this these stolen guns, which at present only menace your
safety, seized these ridiculous entrenchments which hinder nothing
but business, and have placed in the hands of justice the criminals
who do not hesitate to create civil war immediately after that with
the foreigner, but it desired to give those who were misled the time
to separate themselves from those who deceived them.

"However, the time allowed for honourable men to separate themselves
from the others, and which is deducted from your tranquillity, your
welfare, and the welfare of France, cannot be indefinitely
prolonged.

"While such a state of things lasts, commerce is arrested, your
shops are deserted, orders which would come from all parts are
suspended; your arms are idle, credit cannot be recreated, the
capital which the Government requires to rid the territory of the
presence of the enemy, comes to hand but slowly. In your own
interest, in that of your city, as well as in that of France, the
Government is resolved to act. The culprits who pretend to institute
a Government of their own must be delivered up to justice. The guns
stolen from the State must be replaced in the arsenals; and, in