[Footnote 26116: Imagine the impression these last lines may have upon any ardent, ambitious and arrogant young man who, like Lenin in 1907, would have read this between 1893 and 1962, date of the last English reprinting of Taine's once widely know work. They summed up both what had to be done and who would be the primary beneficiaries of the revolution. Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini and countless other young hopeful political men. Read it once more and ask yourself if much of this program has not been more or less surreptitiously carried out in most western countries after the second world war? (SR).]
[Footnote 26118: Mercure de France, July 21, 1792.]
[Footnote 26119: "Révolutions de Paris," XIII. 137.]
[Footnote 26120: Mallet du Pan. "Mémoires," I. 322. Letters to Mallet du Pan. Aug. 4 and following days.]
[Footnote 26121: Buchez et Roux, XVI. 446. Pétion's narrative.--Arnault, "Souvenirs d'un sexagénaire," I. 342. (An eye-witness on the 10th of August.) "The massacre extended but little beyond the Carrousel, and did not cross the Seine. Everywhere else I found a population as quiet as if nothing had happened. Inside the city the people scarcely manifested any surprise; dancing went on in the public gardens. In the Marais, where I lived then, there was only a suspicion of the occurrence, the same as at Saint-Germain; it was said that something was going on in Paris, and the evening newspaper was impatiently looked for to know what it was."]
[Footnote 26122: Moore, I. 122.--The same thing is observable at other crises in the Revolution. On the 6th of October, 1789 (Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du Lundi," XII. 461), Sénac de Meilhan at an evening reception hears the following conversations: "'Did you see the king pass?' asks one. 'No, I was at the theater.' 'Did Molé play?'--'As for myself; I was obliged to stay in the Tuileries; there was no way of getting out before 9 o'clock.' 'You saw the king pass then?' 'I could not see very well; it was dark.'--Another says: 'It must have taken six hours for him to come from Versailles.'--Others coolly add a few details.--To continue: 'Will you take a hand at whist?' 'I will play after supper, which is just ready.' Cannon are heard, and then a few whisperings, and a transient moment of depression,. 'The king is leaving the Hôtel-de-ville. They must be very tired.' Supper is taken and there are snatches of conversation. They play trente et quarante and while walking about watching the game and their cards they do some talking: 'What a horrid affair!' while some speak together briefly and in a low tone of voice. The clock strikes two and they all leave or go to bed.--These people seem to you insensible. Very well; there is not one of them who would not accept death at the king's feet."--On the 23d of June, 1791, at the news of the king's arrest at Varennes, "the Bois de Boulogne and the Champs Elysées were filled with people talking in a frivolous way about the most serious matters, while young men are seen, pronouncing sentences of death in their frolics with courtesans." (Mercure de France, July 9, 1791. It begins with a little piece entitled Dépit d'un Amant.)--See ch. XI. for the sentiment of the population in May and June, 1793.]