IMAGINARY DETAILS OF HIS EXECUTION. 249 



meaning we may attribute to them, it is evident that the 

 sentiments and passions of the lower class have no share 

 in them ; it is a point beyond discussion. 



On reentering the Conciergerie, the evening before his 

 death, Bailly spoke of the efforts that must have been 

 made to excite -the passions of the auditors, who followed 

 the various phases of his trial. Factitious excitement is 

 always the produce of corruption. The working classes 

 are without money ; they then cannot have been the cor- 

 ruptors or direct promoters of the distressing scenes of 

 which Bailly complained. 



The implacable enemies of the former President of the 

 National Assembly had procured for pay some auxiliaries 

 among the turnkeys of the Conciergerie. M. Beugnot 

 informs us that when the venerable magistrate was con- 



G 



signed to the gendarmes who were to conduct him to the 

 Tribunal, " these wretches pushed him violently, sending 

 him from one to the other like a drunken man, calling 

 out: Hold there, Bailly! Catch, Bailly, there! and that 

 they laughed and shouted at the grave demeanour the 

 philosopher maintained amidst the insults of those can- 

 nibals." 



To confirm my statement that these violences (in com- 

 parison with which, in truth, those of the Champ de Mars 

 lose their virulence,) were fomented by pay, I have more 

 than the formal declaration of our colleague's fellow pris- 

 oner. For in fact I find that no other prisoner or convict 

 underwent such treatment ; not even the man called the 

 Admiral, when he was taken to the Conciergerie for hav- 

 ing attempted to assassinate Collot-d'Herbois. 



Besides, it is not only on indirect considerations that 

 my decided opinion is founded relative to the intervention 

 of rich and influential people in those scenes of indescrib- 



11 * 



