Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/363

BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 321 who gathered the harvest as though it were his CHAP. own must have sown the seed in due season. 1_ Yet, so far as one knows, this argument from de- sign is not very well reinforced by external proof ; and perhaps it is more consistent with the princi- ples of human nature to believe that the slaughter of the Boulevard resulted from the mixed causes which are known to have been in operation, than from a cold design on the part of the President to have a quantity of peaceful men and women killed in order that the mere horror of the sight might crush the spirit of Paris. AVithout resort- ing to this dreadful solution, the causes of the massacre may be reached by fair conjecture. The army, as we have seen, was burning with hatred of the civilians, and its ferocity had been carefully whetted by the President and by St Arnaud. This feeling, apart from other motives of action, would not have induced the brave soldiery of France to fire point-blank into crowds of defenceless men and women ; but a passion more cogent than anger was working in the bosoms of the men at the Elys^e and the Generals in command, and from them it descended to the troops. According to its nature, and the circumstances mo passion in which it is placed, a creature struck by ter- ° ror may either lie trembling in a state of abject prostration, or else may be convulsed with hysteric energy ; and when terror seizes upon man or beast in this last way, it is the fiercest and most blind of all passions. The French unite the delicate, VOL I. X