What the Committee of Public Safety thought of the massacres will never be certainly known. Couthon, now back in Paris, must have been sickened. Nor could he have been the only one. To what extent the Committee was taken by surprise is also not quite clear. The procedure used in the Broteaux was exactly outlined by the Temporary Commission more than ten days in advance. It was common knowledge in the inner circle at Lyons. Ronsin predicted it when he wrote to the Cordeliers. But apparently his letter reached Paris at about the time of the massacre itself.