shall be kept as hostages by the women and children of
sans-culottes." Danton seizes the opportunity. With his usual lucidity
he finds the expression which describes the situation:

"The deputies of the primary assemblies," he says, "have just begun to
practice among us the initiative of terror."

He moreover reduces the absurd notions of the fanatics to a practical
measure: "A mobilization en masse, yes, but with order" by at once
calling out the first class of conscript, all men from eighteen to
twenty-five years of age; the arrest of all 'suspects', yes, but not to
lead them against the enemy; "they would be more dangerous than useful
in our armies; let us shut them up; they will be our hostages."--He also
proposes employment for the delegates who are only in the way in Paris
and might be useful in the provinces. Let us make of them "various kinds
of representatives charged with animating citizens... Let them, along
with all good citizens and the constituted authorities, take charge of
the inventories of grain and arms, and make requisitions for men, and
let the Committee of Public Safety direct this sublime movement....
All will swear that, on returning to their homes, they will give this
impulse their fellow citizens." Universal applause; the delegates
exclaim in one voice, "We swear!" Everybody springs to his feet; the men
in the tribunes wave their hats and likewise should the same oath.--The
scheme is successful; a semblance of popular will has authorized the
staff of officials, the policy, the principles and the very name of
Terror. As to the instruments for the operation they are all there ready
to be back into action. The delegates, of whose demands and interference
the "Mountain" is still in dread, are sent back to their departmental
holes, where they shall serve as agents and missionaries.[1146] There is
no further mention of putting the Constitution into operation; this
was simply a bait, a decoy, contrived for fishing in turbid waters: the
fishing ended, the Constitution is now placed in a conspicuous place
in the hall, in a small monument for which David furnished the
design.[1147]--The Convention, now, says Danton, "will rise to a sense
of its dignity, for it is now invested with the full power of the
nation." In other words, artifice completes what violence has begun.
Through the outrages committed in May and June, the Convention had lost
its legitimacy; through the maneuvers of July and August it reco