dumb-founded at what he sees.[21] According to him, the excitement
is "incredible. . . . We think sometimes that Debrett's or
Stockdale's shops at London are crowded; but they are mere deserts
compared to Desenne's and some others here, in which one can
scarcely squeeze from the door to the counter . . . .Every hour
produces its pamphlet; 13 came out to-day, 16 yesterday, and 92 last
week. 95% of these productions are in favor of liberty;" and by
liberty is meant the extinction of privileges, numerical
sovereignty, the application of the Contrat-Social, "The Republic",
and even more besides, a universal leveling, permanent anarchy, and
even the jacquerie. Camille Desmoulins, one of the orators,
commonly there, announces it and urges it in precise terms:

"Now that the animal is in the trap, let him be battered to
death... Never will the victors have a richer prey. Forty thousand
palaces, mansions, and châteaux, two-fifth of the property of
France, will be the recompense of valor. Those who pretend to be
the conquerors will be conquered in turn. The nation shall be
purged."


Here, in advance, is the program of the Reign of Terror.

Now all this is not only read, but declaimed, amplified, and turned
to practical account. In front of the coffee-houses "those who have
stentorian lungs relieve each other every evening."[22] "They get
up on a chair or a table, they read the strongest articles on
current affairs, . .. . the eagerness with which they are heard,
and the thunder of applause they receive for every sentiment of more
than common hardiness or violence against the present Government,