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minority in the majority,--an imperceptible minority. Antony Thouret
proposed to those who were leaders there to go in a body through the
working-class neighborhoods with the decree of deposition in their
hands. Brought to bay, they refused. They declared that they would only
protect themselves by organized powers, not by the people. It is a
strange thing to say, but it must be noted, that with their habits of
political shortsightedness, the popular armed resistance, even in the
name of the Law, seemed sedition to them. The utmost appearance of
revolution which they could endure was a regiment of the National Guard,
with their drums at their head; they shrank from the barricade; Right in
a blouse was no longer Right, Truth armed with a pike was no longer
Truth, Law unpaving a street gave them the impression of a Fury. In the
main, however, and taking them for what they were, and considering their
position as politicians, these members of the Right were well-advised.
What would they have done with the people? And what would the people have
done with them? How would they have proceeded to set fire to the masses?
Imagine Falloux as a tribune, fanning the Faubourg St. Antoine into a
flame!
Alas! in the midst of this dense gloom, in these fatal complications of
circumstances by which the coup d'état profited so odiously and so
perfidiously, in that mighty misunderstanding which comprised the whole
situation, for kindling the revolutionary spark in the heart of the
people, Danton himself would not have sufficed.
The coup d'état entered into this meeting impudently, with its
convict's cap on its head. It possessed an infamous assurance there, as
well as everywhere else. There were in this majority three hundred
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