d fifty, form "the veritable
Sacred Mountain." Now, the president, on the highest platform, turns
toward the eighty-seven elders; he confides to the Ark containing the
Constitutional Act and the list of those who voted for it; they, on
their part, then advance and hand him their pikes, which he
gathers together into one bundle as an emblem of national unity and
indivisibility. At this, shouts arise from every point of the immense
enclosure; salvoes of artillery follow again and again; "one would say
that heaven and earth answered each other" in honor "of the greatest
epoch of humanity."--Certainly, the delegates are beside themselves;
their nerves, strained to the utmost, vibrates too powerfully; the
millennium discloses itself before their eyes. Already, many among them
on the Place de la Bastille, had addressed the universe; others, "seized
with a prophetic spirit," promise eternity to the Constitution. They
feel themselves "reborn again, along with the human species;" they
regard themselves as beings of a new world. History is consummated in
them; the future is in their hands; they believe themselves gods
on earth.--In this critical state, their reason, like a pair of
ill-balanced scales, yields to the slightest touch; under the pressure
of the manufacturers of enthusiasm, a sudden reaction will carry them
away. They consider the Constitution as a panacea, and they are going to
consign it, like some dangerous drug, to this coffer which they call an
ark. They have just proclaimed the liberty of the people, and are going
to perpetuate the dictatorship of the Convention.

VI. The Mountain.

Maneuvers of the "Mountain."--The Jacobin Club on the eve of
August 11th.--Session of the Convention on the 11th of
August.--The Delegates initiate Terror.--Popular
consecration of the Jacobin dictatorship.

This volteface has, of course, to appear spontaneous and the hand of the
titular rulers remain invisible: the Convention, as usual with usurpers,
is to simulate reserve and disinterestedness.--Consequently, the
following morning, August 11, on the opening of the session, it simply
declares that "its mission is fulfilled:"[1141] on the motion of
Lacroix, a confederate of Danton's, it passes a law that a new census
of the population and of electors shall be made with as little delay
as possible, in order to convoke the primary assemblies at once; it
welcomes with joy the delegates who bring to it the Co