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command and the multitude rushed with such fury, not only into the court, but up the staircase of the palace, that a cannon was transported to the first story.

The king, with some of his new ministers and his officers, was in an apartment, of which the door was soon assailed. It was yielding to the effort when he ordered it to be opened, himself retreating to one window and Madame Elizabeth to another, both protected by a few national guards. Acloque, one of them, bade him not fear. "Put your hand to my breast," observed the monarch, "and see if my heart beats more than ordinary." The large room was soon full of the multitude, pikes, sabres, and naked arms being brandished over a sea of heads. "Down with Monsieur Veto!" was the general cry. "I have broken no article of the constitution!" exclaimed the king. The butcher Legendre then apostrophised the monarch.

"Mon

sieur," said he, "you are perfidious. You have always
deceived us, and are still doing so.
But take care;

the people's patience is wearied with being your play-
thing, and is nearly at an end." Legendre then read
aloud the people's petition, a tissue of coarse threats.
"I will do what the constitution and the laws direct,"
was all the answer of Louis. A red cap was then
extended at the extremity of a pike. The king took it
as offered, and placed it on his head, and at the same
time drank of a bottle, that was handed him by one of
the people, health to the Parisians and the French

nation.

Whilst the king was thus in a state of durance and danger, which lasted nearly three hours, the queen, with the dauphin and the ladies of the court, was besieged by a different portion of the mob in another room, that of the chambre du conseil. Having in vain endeavoured to force her way to the king, she was placed by some national guards behind the great table, drawn towards

CHAP.

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CHAP. XXXIX.

the window. Here she suffered the same threats and insults as the king. Reproached by a woman with ruining the country, Marie Antoinette replied in words at once so courageous and so tender that the woman burst into tears.

Santerre, the brewer, happened to reach the room where the queen was besieged, and he showed himself more humane than Legendre. He tore off the cap of liberty with which some one had crowned the little dauphin, and told Marie Antoinette that, had she behaved right, the people would have loved her as much as they loved the dauphin. Several of the deputies, Vergniaud and Isnard amongst them, had in the meantime penetrated into the palace, and sought to tranquillise the people. The assembly at first sent a deputation, but afterwards voted that the whole body should repair to the Tuileries. It was the mayor, Pétion, however, who finally succeeded in expelling the mob. He harangued them from the shoulders of two guardsmen; and the multitude, even the most ferocious and designing, on perceiving that no more violence would be tolerated for the present, slowly dispersed.

From the indignation which the outrage to the royal family and to the palace on the 20th of June excited not only throughout France but even in the capital and the assembly, it is evident that the party of the monarchy was still alive, and that, could the king have shown himself seriously opposed to the enemies without, to the sacerdotal and royalist rebellion within, he might have rallied to him a large and zealous body of defenders. But their resistance, to be effectual, must have avoided being reactionary, for the nation still floated between disgust of the sans-culottes and a horror of the ancien régime. On the day after the riot the general sentiment, even in the assembly, was against the anarchists. It voted that no petition supported by an armed multitude should be allowed or recorded. The Feuillants

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sought to direct vengeance against Pétion, who certainly CHAP. had not done his utmost to prevent the invasion of the palace. He had the audacity to appear on the 21st in the king's presence to assure him that the report of fresh turbulence on that day was false. Paris, he said, was tranquil. "The events of yesterday," observed the monarch, "were a great scandal. The municipality did not do its duty." Pétion replied that it had done its utmost, and did not fear the judgment of the public. He assured him that the capital was tranquil. The king said it was not so; and when the mayor was about to reply, Louis bade him hold his tongue. Pétion said the people's magistrate should not have silence thus rudely enjoined him. The municipality knew its duties, and had no need of being reminded of them. The king bade him withdraw.

Pétion's, however, ceased to be the name in every mouth when on the 28th Lafayette appeared at the bar of the assembly. The events of the 20th had, he said, filled the breasts of his soldiers and himself with indignation. He brought addresses from them to present. It was time, he said, to protect the constitution. from attacks, and to ensure the freedom of the national assembly itself as well as of the king. For this purpose he besought the assembly to order the prosecution of those guilty of the violent acts of the 20th, and to destroy a sect (meaning the Jacobins) that usurped sovereignty, and exercised tyranny over their fellow

citizens.

The assembly had previously appointed a committee of twelve to examine and report on all subjects essential to the surety of the state. It now proposed to send Lafayette's petition or remonstrance to this committee. Upon this the Girondist Guadet moved as an amendment, that Lafayette should be asked, had he obtained of the war minister permission to come to Paris, and that the committee should report upon the danger of

CHAP. general officers appearing at the bar to petition. This XXXIX. rude slur upon Lafayette was negatived by 339 votes against 234.

Lafayette then indicated for the morrow a review of the first division of the national guard. The mayor, Pétion, instantly forbade it. Lafayette did not conceal his intention of marching at the head of such legions as would follow him to close the hall of the Jacobins. The review being countermanded, the general summoned such of the national guard as shared his views to meet in the evening, and in the Champs Élysées, in order to accomplish his desire. The general visited the royal family in the Tuileries at the same time, but they received him coldly, especially the queen, and forbade their friends to lend him any support. Lafayette in consequence was unable to carry out his plan against the Jacobins, and returned to the army without having effected aught, save increasing their irritation against him.

If the Feuillants thus failed of their aim, the Girondists were scarcely more wise. One of their dominant ideas, which, indeed, they had propounded apropos of Servan's motion, was to bring up a body of provincials, people as well as soldiers, not only to oppose the royalists and awe the court, but to support the Gironde against the Paris mob and their leaders. Barbaroux, a hand

some young Marseillais, who had accompanied a certain portion of his countrymen as fédérés to Paris, had insinuated himself into Madame Roland's circle, and was continually expatiating on the energies and republican nature of the south. He recommended strongly that, if the German sovereigns should force their way to Paris, the patriots of the assembly should retire south, and there establish their line of defence. In case the foreign enemies were repulsed, he equally recommended the bringing his brave and simple southerners to Paris, so as not to leave such men as Santerre and Legendre,

a brewer and a butcher, uncontrolled power in the capital. Both propositions were foolish, for royalism disputed the south with Jacobinism; and their mutual hatred, joined to the ignorance and passions of the population, goaded both sides to ferocity, and rendered them dangerous auxiliaries either there or in Paris. Roland and the Gironde, however, strongly abetted the encouragement of the fédérés. In vain

the minister sought to stop their coming. The promise of thirty sous a day and the expense of the journey were strong inducements.* The fédérés were to arrive before the 14th, the day on which the fête of the federation was to be celebrated. The Feuillants and Lafayette had a scheme for that day, which was to bring off the king, under the protection of the troops of the line and the more faithful legions of the national guard.† The presence of the federals was thus unwelcome. The Girondists, however, not only facilitated their coming, but promulgated the extreme doctrines which they were expected to enforce.

The admiration of the Girondists for the energetic spirit of the south, and the aid they hoped from them, led them at the time to the fault most reproached to them. In the preceding years the different cities on the Rhone had taken different sides, as the upper or lower classes happened to predominate. Marseilles was democratic, Aix almost royalist. The Marseillais marched upon Aix, disarmed a Swiss regiment which supported the reactionists, and put down their antagonists. At Avignon the bourgeoisie and noblesse succeeded in repressing the people, who claimed that the town as well as the Comté Venaissin should be torn from the pope and united to France. Avignon had But the Comté

been purchased by the holy see.

Venaissin was but part of the spoil of the unfortunate

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