"Night came, but with it no diminution of the anxiety of the people. Every family early assembled its members; with trembling looks they gazed around the room, fearful that the very walls might harbor traitors. The sound of a foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the streets, froze all hearts with horror. If a knock was heard at the door, every one, in agonized suspense, expected his fate. Unable to endure such protracted misery, numbers committed suicide. 'Had the reign of Robespierre,' said Freron, 'continued longer, multitudes would have thrown themselves under the guillotine; the first of social affections, the love of life, was already extinguished in almost every heart.'" With one more quotation from this historian I will dismiss this horrible theme: "The combination of wicked men who thereafter governed France, is without parallel in the history of the world. Their power, based on the organized weight of the multitude, and the ardent co-operation of the municipalities, everywhere installed by them in the position of power, was irresistible. All bowed the neck before this gigantic assemblage of wickedness. The revolutionary excesses daily increased, in consequence of the union which the constant dread of retribution produced among their perpetrators. There was no medium between taking part in these atrocities, and falling a victim to them. Virtue seemed powerless; energy appeared only in the extremity of resignation; religion in the heroism of which death was endured. There was not a hope left for France, had it not been for the dissentions which, as the natural result of their wickedness, sprung up among the authors of the public calamities.