The Reign of Terror - v. 2 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: were enormous doors, with heavy bolts; and, further on, windows overcharged with thick bars, crossed in all directions, through which the light could barely pene... more »trate. All external communication was interdicted ; the public papers and the news were not permitted to proceed beyond the turnkey's room. Yet the prisoners succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of the decree which declared that France acknowledged the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul: " They are also going to acknowledge the claims of justice and humanity," said the prisoners to each other; " our fate is about to change, and the liberty which was so unjustly ravished from us will soon be restored to us. We shall likewise be able to celebrate, in conjunction with our brethren, the Rite which is preparing; we shall again be able to press them to our hearts, and that will prove the happiest day of our existence." Fatal error! the f£te was celebrated, and the massacre, far from being diminished, continued in increasing progression, till the day in which the tyrant's destruction once more restored hope to the suffering captives, who had no other prospect than the scaffold. Before the revolution of the 10th Thermidor, no one retired to rest without being pursued by the fear of receiving his extralt mortuaire (death-warrant) during the night; thus it was that the prisoners were wont to call the bill of accusation, by which they were summoned the following day before the tribunal. When it chanced that some individuals escaped the sword of tyranny, the revulsion of feel ing occasioned by the news of unexpected liberty, the ennui, and the despair to which they had been a prey, and the foul air which they had inhaled, sometimes produced long and cruel diseases, against which all the resources of art proved ...« less