five in the evening
Évariste Gamelin made his way into the nave ; the same vaults which had heard the surpliced clerks of the Congregation of St. Paul sing the divine offices , now looked down on red-capped patriots assembled to elect the Municipal magistrates and deliberate on the affairs of the Section . The Saints had been dragged from their niches and replaced by the busts of Brutus , Jean-Jacques and Le Peltier . The altar had been stripped bare and was surmounted by the Table of the Rights of Man . It was here in the nave that twice a week , from five in the evening to eleven , were held the public assemblies . The pulpit , decorated with the colours of the Nation , served as tribune for the speakers who harangued the meeting . Opposite , on the Epistle side , rose a platform of rough planks , for the accommodation of the women and children , who attended these gatherings in considerable numbers . On this particular morning , facing a desk planted underneath the pulpit , sat in red cap and _ carmagnole _ complete the joiner from the Place Thionville , the _ citoyen _ Dupont senior , one of the twelve forming the Committee of Surveillance .