difficulty. When Couthon, who
alone was retained for a time in the prison of La Bourbe, was at last
brought to the Hotel de Ville, he found the Council solely occupied with
the attack on the Convention, without making any efforts for rousing the
populace or for the vigorous resumption of power. "Have the armies been
written to?" he asked. "In the name of whom?" said Robespierre,
disheartened but calm. "Of the Convention which exists wherever we are;
the rest are but a handful of factious men, who are about to be
dispersed by armed force." Robespierre reflected; he shook his head. "We
must write in the name of the French people," said he. The words "_Au
nom du peuple_" were found in his handwriting on a sheet of paper.

It was also in the name of the people that Barras and his companions
reunited the battalions of the sections which slowly assembled; some had
recalled their men from the Hotel de Ville. The new military school, the
Ecole de Mars, had not appeared well disposed toward Lebas, who had
written to the Commandant Labreteche to hinder his pupils from ranging
themselves under the banners of the Convention; the young men marched
willingly at the request of Barras. The gunners collected on the Place
de Greve permitted Leonard Bourdon to approach. "Go!" said Tallien to
him, "and let the sun when it rises find no more traitors living." The
crowd dispersed on hearing the proclamation which outlawed the Commune
of Paris. The gunners abandoned their pieces; a few hours later they
came to seek them to protect the Convention. "Is it possible," cried
Henriot, as he came forth from the Hotel de Ville, "that these
scoundrels of gunners have abandoned me? Presently they will be
delivering me to the Tuileries!" He ran to announce the desertion to the
assembled Council-General. Coffinhal, indignant at his cowardice, seized
him by the shoulder and pushed him out by the window. The agents of the
police arrested him in a sewer.

Meanwhile the section of the Gravilliers had put itself in marching
order, commanded by Leonard Bourdon and by a gendarme named Meda,
intelligent and devoted, and who had acquired an ascendency over those
around him. He advanced toward the Hotel de Ville without encountering
any obstacle. Meda cried, in mounting the flight of steps, "Long live
Robespierre!" He penetrated into the hall, obstructed by the crowd; the
club of the Jacobins was deserted, Legendre had had the door closed; all
the leaders of the