Malouet, led before that of Roule,[31128] sees before him a pandemonium of fanatics, at least a hundred individuals in the same room, the suspected, those denouncing them, collaborators, attendants, a long, green table in the center, covered with swords and daggers, with the committee around it, "twenty patriots with their shirt sleeves rolled up, some holding pistols and others pens," signing warrants of arrest, "quarreling with and threatening each other, all talking at once, and shouting: Traitor!--Conspirator!--Off to prison with him!--Guillotine him!--and behind these, a crowd of spectators, pell-mell, yelling, and gesticulating" like wild beasts pressed against each other in the same cage, showing their teeth and trying to spring at each other.

"One of the most excited, brandishing his saber in order to strike an antagonist, stopped on seeing me, and exclaimed, 'There's Malouet!'-- The other, however, less occupied with me than with his enemy, took advantage of the opportunity, and with a blow of his club, knocked him down." Malouet had a close shave, in Paris escapes take place by such accidents .-- If one remains in the city, one is beset with lugubrious fears by, 1.

the hurrying step of squads of men in each street, leading the suspected to prison or before the committee; 2.

around each prison the crowds that have come "to see the disasters"; 3.

in the court of the Abaye the cry of the auctioneer selling the clothes of the dead; 4.