Since the Revolution was accomplished, and the constitution had imposed on each party legal order, it was different.  The insurrections of the people were no longer agitations, but plans.  The organised factions had their partisans—­their clubs—­their assemblies—­their army and their pass-word.  Amongst the citizens, anarchy had disciplined itself, and its disorder was only external, for a secret influence animated and directed it unknown even to itself.  In the same manner as an army possesses chiefs on whose intelligence and courage they rely; so the quartiers and sections of Paris had leaders whose orders they obeyed.  Secondary popularities, already rooted in the city and faubourgs, had been founded behind those mighty national popularities of Mirabeau, La Fayette, and Bailly.  The people felt confidence in such a name, reliance in such an arm, favour for such a face; and when these men showed themselves, spoke, or moved, the multitude followed them without even knowing whither the current of the crowd would lead; it was sufficient for the chiefs to indicate a spot on which to assemble, to spread abroad a panic terror, infuse a sudden rage, or indicate a purpose, to cause the blind masses of the people to assemble on the appointed spot ready for action.

IV.

The spot chosen was most frequently the site of the Bastille, the Mons Aventinus of the people, the national camp, where the place and the stones reminded them of their servitude and their strength.  Of all the men who governed the agitators of the faubourgs, Danton was the most redoubtable.  Camille Desmoulins, equally bold to plan, possessed less courage to execute.  Nature, which had given this young man the restlessness of the leaders of the mob, had denied him the exterior and the power of voice necessary to captivate them; for the people do not comprehend intellectual force.  A colossal stature and a sonorous voice are two indispensable requisites for the favourites of the people:  Camille Desmoulins was small, thin, and had but a feeble voice, that seemed to “pipe and whistle in the wind” after the tones of Danton, who possessed the roar of the populace.

Petion enjoyed the highest esteem of the anarchists, but his official legality excused him from openly fomenting the disorder, which it was sufficient that he desired.  Nothing could be done without him, and he was an accomplice.  After them came Santerre, the commander of the battalion of the faubourg St. Antoine.  Santerre, son of a Flemish brewer, and himself a brewer, was one of those men that the people respect because they are of themselves, and whose large fortune is forgiven them on account of their familiarity.  Well known to the workmen, of whom he employed great numbers in his brewery; and by the populace, who on Sundays frequented his wine and beer establishments—­Santerre distributed large sums of money, as well as quantities of provisions, to the poor; and, at a moment of famine, had distributed three hundred thousand francs’ worth of bread (12,000_l_.).  He purchased his popularity by his beneficence; he had conquered it, by his courage, at the storming of the Bastille; and he increased it by his presence at every popular tumult.  He was of the race of those Belgian brewers who intoxicated the people of Ghent to rouse them to revolt.