"Otherwise," says the speaker, "we will not answer for the vengeance of the people."[3112] And in a still more imperative manner: "You have heard and you know that insurrection is a sacred duty," a sacred duty towards and against all: towards the Assembly if it refuses, and towards the tribunal if it acquits.

They dash at their prey contrary to all legislative and judicial formalities, like a kite across the web of a spider, while nothing detach them from their fixed ideas.

On the acquittal of M.Luce de Montmorin[3113] the gross audience, mistaking him for his cousin the former minister of Louis XVI., break out in murmurs.

The president tries to enforce silence, which increases the uproar, and M.de Montmorin is in danger.

On this the president, discovering a side issue, announces that one of the jurors is related to the accused, and that in such a case a new jury must be impaneled and a new trial take place; that the matter will be inquired into, and meanwhile the prisoner will be returned to the Conciergerie prison.
Thereupon he takes M.de Montmorin by the arm and leads him out of the court-room, amidst the yells of the audience and not without risks to himself; in the outside court a soldier of the National Guard strikes at him with a saber, and the following day the court is obliged to authorize eight delegates from the audience to go and see with their own eyes that M.de Montmorin is really in prison.
At the moment of his acquittal a tragic remark is heard: "You discharge him to-day and in two weeks he will cut our throats!" Fear is evidently an adjunct of hatred.