It extends its protection to Geray, the journalist, against whom the new pashas had issued a warrant; it summons to its own bar the signers of the warrant, and orders them to confine themselves in future to the exact limits of the law which they transgress.

Better still, it dissolves the interloping Council, and substitutes for it ninety-six delegates, to be elected by the sections in twenty-four hours.

And, even still better, it orders an account to be rendered within two days of the objects it has seized, and the return of all gold or silver articles to the Treasury.
Quashed, and summoned to disgorge their booty, the autocrats of the Hotel-de-ville come in vain to the Assembly in force on the following day[3141] to extort from it a repeal of its decrees; the Assembly, in spite of their threats and those of their satellites, stands its ground .-- So much the worse for the stubborn; if they are not disposed to regard the flash of the saber, they will feel its sharp edge and point.
The Commune, on the motion of Manuel, decides that, so long as public danger continues, they will stay where they are; it adopts an address by Robespierre to "restore sovereign power to the people," which means to fill the streets with armed bands;[3142] it collects together its brigands by giving them the ownership of all that they stole on the 10th of August.[3143] The session, prolonged into the night, does not terminate until one o'clock in the morning.

Sunday has come and there is no time to lose, for, in a few hours, the sections, by virtue of the decree of the National Assembly, and following the example of the Temple section the evening before, may revoke the pretended representatives at the Hotel-de-ville.

To remain at the Hotel-de-ville, and to be elected to the convention, demands on the part of the leaders some striking action, and this they require that very day .-- That day is the second of September.
IV .-- Date of the determination of this .-- The actors and their parts.
Marat .-- Danton .-- The Commune .-- Its co-operators .-- Harmony of dispositions and readiness of operation.
Since the 23rd of August their resolution is taken.[3144] They have arranged in their minds a plan of the massacre, and each one, little by little, spontaneously, according to his aptitudes, takes the part that suits him or is assigned to him.
Marat, foremost among them all, is the proposer and preacher of the operation, which, for him, is a perfectly natural one.