re he was technically under arrest.

St. Just, who had seen war, and had made men wonder at his coolness
under heavy fire, did not calculate with so much nicety, and repaired,
with the younger Robespierre, to the municipality, where a force of
some thousands of men were assembled. They sent to summon their
leader, but the leader declined to come. He felt safer under arrest;
but he advised his friends at the Commune to ring the tocsin, close
the barriers, stop the Press, seize the post, and arrest the deputies.
The position of the man of peace encouraging his comrades to break the
law, and explaining how to do it, was too absurd to be borne.
Coffinhal, who was a much bigger man, came and carried him away by
friendly compulsion.

About ten o'clock the arrested deputies were united. Couthon, who was
a cripple, had gone home. The others sent for him, and Robespierre
signed a letter by which he was informed that the insurrection was in
full activity. This message, and the advice which he forwarded from
his shelter with the police prove that he had made up his mind to
fight, and did not die a martyr to legality. But if Robespierre was
ready, at the last extremity, to fight, he did not know how to do it.
The favourable moment was allowed to slip by; not a gun was fired, and
the Convention, after several hours of inaction and danger, began to
recover power. By Voulland's advice the prisoners out of prison were
outlawed, and Barras was put at the head of the faithful forces.
Twelve deputies were appointed to proclaim the decrees all over Paris.
Mounted on police chargers, conspicuous in their tricolor scarves, and
lighted by torches, they made known in every street that Robespierre
was now an outlaw under sentence of death. This was at last effective,
and Barras was able to report that the people were coming over to the
legal authority. An ingenious story was spread about that Robespierre
had a seal with the lilies of France. The western and wealthier half
of Paris was for the Convention but parts of the poorer quarters,
north and east, went with the Commune. They made no fight. Legendre
proceeded to the Jacobin Club, locked the door, and put the key in his
pocket, while the members quietly dispersed. About one in the morning,
Bourdon, at the head of the men from the district which had been the
stronghold of Chaumette made his way along the river to the Place de
Greve. The insurgents drawn up before the Hotel de Ville made no