The nightmare is evidently too much for these unballasted minds.

They break down under the weight of their accidental kingship, their inflamed pride, extravagant desires, and intense and silent fears which form in them that morbid and evil concoction which, in democracy as well as in a monarchy, fashions a Nero.[26135] Their leaders, who are even more upset, conceited, and despotic, have no scruples holding them back, for the most noteworthy are corrupt, acting alone or as leaders.

Of the three chiefs of the old municipality, Petion, the mayor, actually in semi-retirement, but verbally respected, is set aside and considered as an old decoration.

The other two remain active and in office, Manuel,[26136] the syndic-attorney, son of a porter, a loud-talking, untalented bohemian, stole the private correspondence of Mirabeau from a public depository, falsified it, and sold it for his own benefit.

Danton,[26137] Manuel's deputy, faithless in two ways, receives the King's money to prevent the riot, and makes use of it to urge it on .-- Varlet, "that extraordinary speech-maker, led such a foul and prodigal life as to bring his mother in sorrow to the grave; afterwards he spent what was left, and soon had nothing."[26138]--Others not only lacked honor but even common honesty.
Carra, with a seat in the secret Directory of the Federates, and who drew up the plan of the insurrection, had been condemned by the Macon tribunals to two years' imprisonment for theft and burglary.[26139] Westermann, who led the attacking column, had stolen a silver dish, with a coat of arms on it, from Jean Creux, keeper of a restaurant, rue des Poules, and was twice sent away from Paris for swindling.[26140] Panis, chief of the Committee of Supervision,[26141] was turned out of the Treasury Department, where his uncle was a sub cashier, in 1774, for robbery.