Their names speak for themselves: in the Commune, Manuel, the syndic-attorney; and his two deputies Hebert and Billaud-Varennes, Huguenin, Lhuillier, M.-J.

Chenier, Audoin, Leonard Bourdon, Boula and Truchon, presidents in succession.

In the Commune and the sections, Panis, Sergent, Tallien, Rossignol, Chaumette, Fabre d'Eglantine, Pache, Hassenfratz, the cobbler Simon, and the printer Momoro.

From the National Guard, the commanding-general, Santerre, and the battalion commander Henriot, and, lower down, the common herd of district demagogues, Danton's, Hebert's, or Robespierre's side kicks, guillotined later on with their file-leaders, in brief, the flower of the future terrorists.[3163]--Today they are taking their first steps in blood, each with their own attitude and motives: * Chenier denounced as a member of the Sainte-Chapelle club, in danger because he is among the suspected;[3164] * Manuel, poor, excitable, bewildered, carried away, and afterwards shuddering at the sight of his own work; * Santerre, a fine circumspect figure-head, who, on the 2nd of September, under pretense of watching the baggage, climbs on the seat of a landau standing on the street, where he remains a couple of hours, to avoid doing his duty as commanding-general;[3165] * Panis, president of the Committee of Supervision, a good subordinate, his born disciple and bootlicker, an admirer of Robespierre's whom he proposes for the dictatorship, as well as of Marat, whom he extols as a prophet;[3166] * Henriot, Hebert, and Rossignol, simple evil-doers in uniform or in their scarves; * Collot d'Herbois, a stage poetaster, whose theatrical imagination delights in a combination of melodramatic horrors;[3167] * Billaud-Varennes, a former oratorian monk, irascible and gloomy, as cool before a murder as an inquisitor at an auto-da-fe; finally, the wily Robespierre, pushing others without committing himself, never signing his name, giving no orders, haranguing a great deal, always advising, showing himself everywhere, getting ready to reign, and suddenly, at the last moment, pouncing like a cat on his prey, and trying to slaughter his rivals, the Girondists.[3168] Up to this time, in slaughtering or having it done, it was always as insurrectionists in the street; now, it is in places of imprisonment, as magistrates and functionaries, according to the registers of a lock-up, after proofs of identity and on snap judgments, by paid executioners, in the name of public security, methodically, and in cool blood, almost with the same regularity as subsequently under "the revolutionary government." September, indeed, is the beginning of it, a summary and a model; they will not do it differently or better than during the best days of the guillotine.

Only, as they are as yet poorly supplied with tools, they are obliged to use pikes instead of the guillotine, and, as decency has not entirely disappeared, the chiefs conceal themselves behind maneuvers.