uspicious even of
those they loved most. Every one assumed the coarsest dress, and the
most squalid appearance; an elegant exterior would have been the certain
forerunner of destruction. At one hour only were any symptoms of
animation seen: it was when the victims were conveyed to execution; the
humane fled with horror from the sight, the infuriated rushed in crowds
to satiate their eyes with the sight of human agony.

"Night came, but with it no diminution of the anxiety of the people.
Every family early assembled its members; with trembling looks they
gazed around the room, fearful that the very walls might harbor
traitors. The sound of a foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the
streets, froze all hearts with horror. If a knock was heard at the door,
every one, in agonized suspense, expected his fate. Unable to endure
such protracted misery, numbers committed suicide. 'Had the reign of
Robespierre,' said Freron, 'continued longer, multitudes would have
thrown themselves under the guillotine; the first of social affections,
the love of life, was already extinguished in almost every heart.'"

With one more quotation from this historian I will dismiss this horrible
theme: "The combination of wicked men who thereafter governed France, is
without parallel in the history of the world. Their power, based on the
organized weight of the multitude, and the ardent co-operation of the
municipalities, everywhere installed by them in the position of power,
was irresistible. All bowed the neck before this gigantic assemblage of
wickedness. The revolutionary excesses daily increased, in consequence
of the union which the constant dread of retribution produced among
their perpetrators. There was no medium between taking part in these
atrocities, and falling a victim to them. Virtue seemed powerless;
energy appeared only in the extremity of resignation; religion in the
heroism of which death was endured. There was not a hope left for
France, had it not been for the dissentions which, as the natural result
of their wickedness, sprung up among the authors of the public
calamities.

"It is impossible not to be struck, in looking back on the fate of these
different parties, with the singular and providential manner in which
their crimes brought about their own punishment. No foreign
interposition was necessary, no avenging angel was required to vindicate
the justice of divine administration. They fell the victims of their own
atroci