Paris was divided into districts, in each of which workers and reporters were engaged in propaganda. They did not, however, even know the names of the seven chiefs of the committee of insurrection, a general agent, Didier, acting as intermediary between the committee and other agents. The activity of the leaders was remarkable, and met with a considerable success in winning adherents. In April, 1796, seventeen thousand men were prepared to join them in an insurrection against the Directory and for the establishment of a communistic republic. A Manifesto of the Equals, prepared by Maréchal, was published and scattered broadcast among the people. It contained a development of their programme, and an invitation to join in the proposed movement. Tracts were distributed in large numbers, and incendiary broadsides were from time to time affixed to the walls. One of the leaders, however, proved false, turned informer, and procured the arrest of the chief conspirators on the 10th of May, 1796. After a considerable delay and a long trial, two of them, Babœuf and Darthé, were condemned to death in the following year, while Buonarroti and six others were sentenced to deportation. Sixty-five were tried, but fifty-six were discharged on account of lack of evidence. Babœuf and Darthé were guillotined on the 24th of May, 1797, Babœuf’s last words being, “I wrap myself into a virtuous slumber.”[21] Buonarroti did not suffer deportation, but was instead confined in prison for some time and then allowed to escape to Switzerland, whence he was obliged to flee to Belgium after the Congress of Vienna, because Geneva was unable to tolerate him during the reactionary period which followed. He supported himself by teaching music and other branches of learning, and wrote a remarkable account of the conspiracy in which he had been engaged. It was published in Brussels in 1828, and after the Revolution of July it became a power in France. It revived the memory of Babœuf and his schemes, and rallied a number of followers about the old flag. Babouvism, as Babœuf’s system was called, was thus enabled to play a _rôle_ in French history from 1830 to 1839, when a premature rising of the laborers was easily suppressed.[22] Even to-day, Buonarroti’s work has not ceased to influence the thought of French laborers.