At the Salpetriere, for example, the wife of Desrues, the poisoner, is, assuredly, like himself, "cunning, wicked, and capable of anything"; she must be furious at being in prison; if she could, she would set fire to Paris; she must have said so; she did say it[31118]--one more sweep of the broom .-- This time, as the job is more foul, the broom is wielded by fouler hands; among those who seize the handle are the frequenters of jails.

The butchers at the Abbaye prison, especially towards the close, had already committed thefts;[31119] here, at the Chatelet and the Conciergerie prisons, they carry away "everything which seems to them suitable," even to the clothes of the dead, prison sheets and coverlids, even the small savings of the jailers, and, besides this, they enlist their cronies.

"Out of 36 prisoners set free, many were assassins and robbers, the killers attached them to their group.

There were also 75 women, confined in part for larceny, who promised to faithfully serve their liberators." Later on, indeed, these are to become, at the Jacobin and Cordeliers clubs, the tricoteuses (knitters) who fill their tribunes.[31120]--At the Salpetriere prison, "all the pimps of Paris, former spies,...

libertines, the rascals of France and all Europe, prepare beforehand for the operation," and rape alternates with massacre.[31121]--Thus far, at least, slaughter has been seasoned with robbery, and the grossness of eating and drinking; at Bicetre, however, it is crude butchery, the carnivorous instinct alone satisfying itself.
Among other prisoners are 43 youths of the lowest class, from 17 to 19 years of age, placed there for correction by their parents, or by those to whom they are bound;[31122] one need only look at them to see that they are genuine Parisian scamps, the apprentices of vice and misery, the future recruits for the reigning band, and these the band falls on, beating them to death with clubs.