Of the nine elected only six consent to sit, while often only three are found at its sessions, which three, to recruit their colleagues, are obliged to pay them.[2418] Hence, notwithstanding their position is the best in the department, they are worse treated and more unfortunate than their servants outside.

The delegates of the club, with the municipal officers of Marseilles seated alongside of them, oblige them either to keep silent, or to utter what they dictate to them.[2419] "Our arms are tied," writes one of them, "we are wholly under the yoke" of these intruders.

"We have twice in succession seen more than three hundred men, many of them with guns and pistols, enter the hall and threaten us with death if we refused them what they asked.

We have seen infuriate motionnaires, nearly all belonging to Avignon, mount the desks of the Directory, harangue their comrades and excite them to rioting and crime.

"You must decide between life or death," they exclaimed to us, "you have only a quarter of an hour to choose." "National guards have offered their sabers through the windows, left open on account of the extreme heat, to those around us and made signs to them to cut our throats."-- Thus fashioned, reduced and drilled, the Directory is simply an instrument in the hands of the Marseilles demagogues.