e night before, Malouet had proposed to
ascertain, by a preliminary vote, on which side the majority was. In an
instant all those against had gathered around him to the number of three
hundred. "Upon which a mans springs out from the galleries, falls upon
him and takes him by the collar exclaiming, 'Hold your tongue, you false
citizen!'" Malouet is released and the guard comes forward, "but terror
has spread through the hall, threats are uttered against opponents, and
the next day we were only ninety." Moreover, the lists of their names
had been circulated; some of them, deputies from Paris, went to see
Bailly that very evening. One amongst them, "a very honest man and good
patriot," had been told that his house was to be set on fire. Now his
wife had just given birth to a child, and the slightest tumult
before the house would have been fatal. Such arguments are decisive.
Consequently, three days afterwards, at the Tennis-court, but one
deputy, Martin d'Auch, dares to write the word "opposing" after his
name. Insulted by many of colleagues, "at once denounced to the people
who had collected at the entrance of the building, he is obliged to
escape by a side door to avoid being cut to pieces," and, for several
days, to keep away from the meetings.[1227]--Owing to this intervention
of the galleries the radical minority, numbering about thirty,[1228]
lead the majority, and they do not allow them to free themselves.--On
the 28th of May, Malouet, having demanded a secret session to discuss
the conciliatory measures which the King had proposed, the galleries
hoot at him, and a deputy, M. Bourche, addresses him in very plain
terms. "You must know, sir, that we are deliberating here in the
presence of our masters, and that we must account to them for our
opinions." This is the doctrine of the Contrat-Social. Through timidity,
fear of the Court and of the privileged class, through optimism and
faith in human nature, through enthusiasm and the necessity of adhering
to previous actions, the deputies, who are novices, provincial, and
given up to theories, neither dare nor know how to escape from the
tyranny of the prevailing dogma.--Henceforth it becomes the law. All
the Assemblies, the Constituent, the Legislative, the Convention,[1229]
submit to it entirely. The public in the galleries is the admitted
representatives of the people, under the same title, and even under
a higher title, than the deputies. Now, this public is that of th