Note 404 — Front matter (continued 10)
Reading edition
"Never since the Knights Templar had a party appeared more numerous, more illustrious, or more eloquent. The renown of the accused, their long possession of power, their present danger, and that love of vengeance which arises in men's hearts at the spectacle of mighty reverses of fortune, had collected a crowd in the precincts of the Revolutionary Tribunal. A strong armed force surrounded the gates of the Conciergerie and the Palais de Justice. The cannon, the uniforms, the sentinels, the gens d'armes, the naked sabres, all announced one of those political crises in which a trial is a battle and justice an execution."—Hist. Gir., Lamartine, vol. ii., p. 169.