as still no news of Verdun, but the moment could not be
delayed much longer. In the night preparations had been made. Men to do
the business of popular execution had been approached; some had been
offered pay. The leaders were determined to carry through their
enterprise. In the assembly Danton thundered from the tribune: {151}
"Verdun has not yet surrendered. One part of the people will march to
the frontier, another will throw up intrenchments, and the rest will
defend our cities with pikes. Paris will second these great efforts.
The assembly will become a war committee. We demand that whoever refuses
to serve shall be punished by death. The tocsin you will hear presently
is not a signal of alarm; it is ringing the charge against the enemies of
our country. To conquer them we must be audacious, yet more audacious,
and still more audacious, and France is saved."

The tocsin rang, as Danton had ordered; alarm guns were fired; drummers
woke the echoes of the streets and of the squares, and presently the deed
of supreme audacity and of supreme horror began to come into being.
Crowds collected about the prisons. Groups forced a way in. More or
less improvised committees took possession, and massacre began.

The massacre of September is one of the most lurid events of the
Revolution, easier therefore for the romancist to deal with than for the
historian. Its horrors are quite beyond question. At one point,
Bicetre, the killing continued until late on the 6th, nearly four days.
The {152} total number of victims was very large, possibly between 2,000
and 3,000. At many places the slaughter was indiscriminate, accompanied
by nameless barbarities, carried out by gangs of brutal ruffians who were
soon intoxicated with gore and with wine. But alongside of these aspects
were others more difficult to do justice to, but the careful weighing of
which is necessary if any just estimate of the event is to be reached.

The massacring was carried out by a small number of individuals, perhaps
two or three hundred in all, and of these a considerable proportion
undoubtedly acted in a spirit of blind political and social rage, and in
the belief that they were carrying out an act of justice. A large mass
of citizens gave the massacres their approval by forming crowds about the
prison doors. As to these crowds there are two salient facts. The first
is that on the first day they were large and excited, and afforded that
moral