You had your neighbor guillotined to prevent your neighbor from guillotining you."[3252] The same apprehension exists in stouter souls, although there may have been, along with fear, motives of a less debased order.
"How many times," says Carnot,[3253] "we undertook some work that required time, with the conviction that we should not be allowed to complete it!"-- "It was uncertain[3254] whether, the next time the clock struck the hour, we should not be standing before the revolutionary Tribunal on our way to the scaffold without, perhaps, having had time to bid adieu to our families....

We pursued our daily task so as not to let the machine stand still, as if a long life were before us, when it was probable that we should not see the next day's sun." It is impossible to count on one's life, or that of another, for twenty-four hours; should the iron hand which holds one by the throat tighten its grasp, all will be over that evening.
"There were certain days so difficult that one could see no way to control circumstances; those who were directly menaced resigned themselves wholly to chance."[3255]--"The decisions for which we are so much blamed," says another,[3256] "were not generally thought of two days, or one day, beforehand; they sprung out of the crisis of the moment.

We did not desire to kill for the sake of killing...

but to conquer at all hazards, remain masters, and ensure the sway of our principles."-- That is true,--they are subjects as well as despots.

At the Committee table, during their nocturnal sessions, their sovereign presides, a formidable figure, the revolutionary Idea which confers on them the right to slay, on condition of exercising it against everybody, and therefore on themselves.