Its decrees, received with blind obedience, startle France and upset all Europe.

At a distance, its majesty is imposing, more august than that of the Republican senate in Rome.

Near by, the effect is quite otherwise; these undisputed sovereigns are serfs who live in trances, and justly so, for, nowhere, even in prison, is there more constraint and less security than on their benches.

After the 2nd of June, 1793, their inviolable precincts, the grand official reservoir from which legal authority flows, becomes a sort of tank, into which the revolutionary net plunges and successfully brings out its choicest fish, singly or by the dozen, and sometimes in vast numbers; at first, the sixty-seven Girondist deputies, who are executed or proscribed; then, the seventy-three members of the "Right," swept off in one day and lodged in the prison of La Force; next, the prominent Jacobins: Osselin, arrested on the 19th of Brumaire, Bazire, Chabot, and Delaunay, accused by decree on the 24th Brumaire, Fabre d'Eglantine, arrested on the 24th of Nivose, Bernard, guillotined on the 3rd of Pluviose, Anacharsis Clootz guillotined on the 4th of Germinal, Herault de Sechelles, Lacroix, Philippeaux, Camille Desmoulins and Danton, guillotined with four others on the 10th of Germinal, Simon, guillotined on the 24th of Germinal, and Osselin, guillotined on the 8th of Messidor .-- Naturally, the others take warning and are careful.

At the opening of the session they are seen entering the hall, looking uneasy, full of distrust,"[3201] like animals driven into a pen and suspicious of a trap.
"Each," writes an eye-witness, "acted and spoke with circumspection, for fear of being charged with some crime: in effect, nothing was unimportant, the seat one took, a glance of the eye, a gesture, a murmur, a smile." Hence, they flock instinctively to the side which is best sheltered, the left side.
"The tide flowed towards the summit of the Mountain; the right side was deserted....