The last paragraph, ordering the closing of the ramparts, caused a shudder not unmingled with savage joy to shoot through the crowd. Through all minds flashed the thought: "The Commune orders the ramparts to be closed in order to prevent our enemies within from escaping. The work of justice will be the easier!" Another decree which was posted, read: THE COMMUNE OF PARIS Decrees: 1.º Enlistment shall go on in the Sections, in the theaters, in the churches and in the public places. 2.º Foreign citizens shall enrol at the City Hall. 3.º The Department of Paris shall furnish at once sixty thousand men. 4.º The armorers, iron-workers and blacksmiths shall report to the Military Committee how fast they can turn out guns, pikes, swords, etc. 5.º All leaden coffins shall be melted up for bullets. The retired soldiers will take charge of this work. Paris, September 2, 1792, COULOMBEAU. On this terrible day, everything converged to throw the population into a somber vertigo. There was not an event which did not drive fatally onward to the massacres in the prisons. "Long live the Nation! Death to the traitors!" rose the cry. The delegates of the Luxembourg Section declared to the Commune that they had adopted and recorded in their minutes the resolution "That it was urgent to purge the prisons before marching to the front." Three committee-men were sent to notify the Commune of this decision. The Sections of the Julian Hot-Baths, the Blind Asylum, and Ill-Counsel took the same action. The crowd about me echoed the cry: "To the prisons! To the prisons!" "Exterminate the rogues!" "Purge the prisons!" "Down with the black caps!" "Death to the aristocrats!" I sank into a stupor of despair. There was room for doubt no longer; public opinion was pronouncing itself for the mass extermination of the prisoners. The Sections were despatching their delegates to the Commune to notify it of the urgency of the move. The Commune, through Tallien's organ, approved the massacre; finally, Danton also approved it, Danton, the Minister of Justice, elected by the Assembly. How could I stem such a tide? Still I tried, not without the knowledge that I thereby risked my life; for in moments of popular impulse and enthusiasm, to pronounce oneself in opposition to the general opinion is to court being taken for a traitor. Nevertheless, I leaped upon a bench hard by, and cried in a voice vibrating with all the anguish of my heart: "Citizens, in the name of the country, in the name of the Revolution, hear me!" My paleness, my tears, my supplicating accents impressed the crowd; silence was given me, and I continued: