At this decisive moment, when it is necessary to
shed blood and kill a number of men, they obviously fear to take
the responsibility; their reply is, "We have no orders to give."--An
extraordinary spectacle now presents itself in this barrack courtyard
surrounding the prison. On the side of the law stand eight hundred armed
men, four hundred of the "Swiss" and four hundred of the National Guard
of Marseilles. They are drawn up in battle array, with guns to their
shoulders, with special orders repeated the evening before at three
different times by the municipal district and departmental authorities
and they have the sympathies of all honest people and of most of the
National Guard. But the legal indispensable phrase does not pass the
lips of those who by virtue of the Constitution should utter it, and a
small group of convicts are found to be sovereign.--The three municipal
officers are seized in their turn under the eyes of their own soldiers
who remain motionless, and "with bayonets at their breasts they sign,
under constraint, the order to give up M. Pascalis to the people." M. de
la Roquette is likewise surrendered. "The only portion of the National
Guard of Aix which was visible," that is to say, the Jacobin minority,
form a circle around the gate of the prison and organize themselves into
a council of war. And there they stand; at once "accusers, witnesses,
judges, and executioners." A captain conducts the two victims to the
public promenade where they are hung. Very soon after this old M.
de Guiramand, whom the National Guard of his village have brought a
prisoner to Aix, is hung in the same manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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