We demand that all 'suspects' be put under arrest; that they be dispatched to the frontiers, followed by the terrible mass of sans-culottes.

There, in the front ranks, they will be obliged to fight for that liberty which they have outraged for the past four years, or be immolated on the tyrants' cannon....

Women, children, old men and the infirm shall be kept as hostages by the women and children of sans-culottes." Danton seizes the opportunity.

With his usual lucidity he finds the expression which describes the situation: "The deputies of the primary assemblies," he says, "have just begun to practice among us the initiative of terror." He moreover reduces the absurd notions of the fanatics to a practical measure: "A mobilization en masse, yes, but with order" by at once calling out the first class of conscript, all men from eighteen to twenty-five years of age; the arrest of all 'suspects', yes, but not to lead them against the enemy; "they would be more dangerous than useful in our armies; let us shut them up; they will be our hostages."-- He also proposes employment for the delegates who are only in the way in Paris and might be useful in the provinces.

Let us make of them "various kinds of representatives charged with animating citizens...