_That the vote must be free._ What freedom there was in the vote of the 20th of December, we have just pointed out; we have described that freedom by a striking display of evidence.

We might dispense with adding anything to it.

Let each of those who voted reflect, and ask himself under what moral and physical violence he dropped his ballot in the box.

We might cite a certain commune of the Yonne, where, of five hundred heads of families, four hundred and thirty were arrested, and the rest voted "aye;" or a commune of the Loiret, where, of six hundred and thirty-nine heads of families, four hundred and ninety-seven were arrested or banished; the one hundred and forty-two who escaped voted "aye." What we say of the Loiret and the Yonne might be said of all the departments.

Since the 2nd of December, each town has its swarm of spies; each village, each hamlet, its informer.