Was Geneva, then, going to make trial of it? February 3, the day of election, at length arrived. The opposition, which was at the outset a minority, but a minority of the inflexible kind which generally wins, had succeeded in persuading the people that if they wished to keep their liberties they must change the government. The council general assembled in the cloisters of St. Peter’s, and the first syndic said, after the customary formalities--‘The election of syndics is a matter of so great importance, that it will be enough to occupy us to-day without any other business. Let everyone give his vote peaceably, and let no one be so rash as to stir up disorders, either by word or by sword. Any man who does so will be sent to prison, and will afterwards be punished according to his desert.’ The Two Hundred, according to custom, presented eight names, and the council general was to retain four of them. Two secretaries were at hand to enter the votes; and presently the citizens, coming forward group by group, gave their votes. Of the eight candidates the people chose three who had put themselves at the head of the opposition, and whom the impartiality of the Two Hundred had led them to present with the others. These three were Claude Richardet, who, with furious gesture, had declared that they would not get him to go to prison; Jean Philippe, who had proposed in the council general to name twenty-five citizens to watch the syndics; and Jean Lullin, who had accused the council of violating the franchises. These three enemies of the new order of things were named syndics. But there must be four of them. The opposition intended that the fourth should likewise be one of their party, but it did not find another set down in the list of the council. Regardless of the rule on that point, they chose a citizen who had not been proposed by the Two Hundred--De Chapeaurouge--who had greatly compromised himself by the vehemence of his speeches against the reformers. On February 4 and 5 the election of councillors as assistants to the syndics was conducted in almost the same spirit.