Let the "Right" or the "Left" of the Convention be victors or vanquished, that is a matter which concerns them; the public at large does not enter into the discussions of its conquerors, and no longer cares for either Gironde or "Mountain." Its old grievances always revive "against the Vergniauds, Guadets" and company;[3364] it does not like them, and has no confidence in them, and will let them be crushed without helping them.

The infuriates may expel the Thirty-Two, if they choose, and put them under lock and key.

"There is nothing the aristocracy (meaning by this, owners of property, merchants, bankers, the rich, and the well-to-do), desire so much as to see them guillotined."[3365] 'Even the inferior aristocracy (meaning petty tradesmen and head-workmen) take no more interest in their fate than if they were so many escaped wild beasts...

again caught and put in their cages."[3366] "Guadet, Petion, Brissot, would not find thirty persons in Paris who would take their part, or even take the first step to save them."[3367] Apart from all this, it makes little difference whether the majority has any preferences; its sympathies, if it has any, will never be other than platonic.

It no longer counts for anything in either camp, it has withdrawn from the battle-field, it is now simply the stakes of the conflict, the prey and the booty of the winner.