THE LAST YEARS 377 



hands of the mob. The Government temporised, the Clubs 

 always to the front in times of disorder were invited to send 

 delegates to the Hotel de Ville. To this irregular meeting was 

 left the appointment of a Revolutionary Committee. A number 

 of prominent citizens were hastily arrested and brought before an 

 improvised tribunal. 



The 24th July 1794 remains marked with a black stone in the 

 annals of Geneva as the date of the Massacre on the Bastions. 

 I give Theodore de Saussure's account, written to his sister three 

 days later, of the events that led up to it, and of his own and his 

 brother's escape from the distracted city : 



* ROLLE, 21th July 1794. 



' The presentiment which led us to pass the summer outside Geneva 

 was not ill-founded. The political situation in the city offered no 

 stable base for any long continuance of tranquillity. It seems as if 

 France had not lost sight of us, and that the misfortunes which afflict 

 us are brought about by her, so that we may be driven to seek 

 happiness by throwing ourselves into her arms. For some time the 

 Egaliseurs have affected to be dissatisfied with the Government. The 

 French Resident instigated them. He gave at Monty a splendid 

 party to the more violent of them who took the name of Montagnards : 

 there were about eighty. He advised them to work for their own ends 

 and to start a second revolution. For that it was necessary to have 

 a riot, and a pretext was soon found. It was reported at the Great 

 Club on Friday evening, 17th July, that a plot in which several 

 Genevese were implicated had been started in Switzerland, to raise 

 the neighbouring French Departments. At the word " Plot " several 

 individuals proposed to take up arms and seize the conspirators, whose 

 names were not even mentioned. The minority persisted, announced 

 that it would take up arms, and rushed tumultuously out of the 

 Club with shouts of "To Arms." All the Genevese then in Geneva 

 flew to arms. But the honnetes gens were at once disarmed. The 

 Montagnards proceeded, without order or distinction, to seize by 

 night the greater number of the so-called Aristocrats and shut up 

 more than six hundred in the Granges and the Granary. At the same 

 time they broke open bureaux, seized papers, money, and in some 

 cases plate. My father's house was respected, as well as those of a very 

 small number of others, without any known reason. Neither he nor 

 Alphonse nor I were arrested. Probably our father covered us with 

 his wings, for, as you know, we had not taken the famous oath, which 

 was quite a good enough reason at the moment for imprisonment. 



