1 VII. 1792. Lac. i. 224. the crowds which filled its apartments, and found the CHAP. King seated in the same place, unshaken in courage, but almost exhausted by fatigue. One of the national guard approached him to assure him of his devotion. "Feel," said he, placing his hand on his bosom, "whether this is the beating of a heart agitated by fear?" Vergniaud, however, who was in the secret of the real object of the Mig. i.178. demonstration, at length became apprehensive it would Th. ii. 138, be carried too far, and was not without disquietude from Hist. Parl. the menaces which he had heard in the remoter parts of 1149,157, the crowd. With some difficulty he succeeded in obtaining a hearing, and persuaded the people to depart. He Campan, ii. was seconded by Pétion, and the mob gradually withdrew. Hist. des By eight o'clock in the evening they had all dispersed, 393, 394. and silence and astonishment reigned in the palace.1 141, 142. xv. Bert. de Moll. viii. 167, 177. 213. Lam. Gir. ii. 392, 73. duct of the Princess Elizabeth. During the terrors of this agitating day, the Queen and the Princess displayed the most heroic resolution. Heroic conThe whole royal family would, without doubt, have Queen and been massacred, had it not been for the presence of mind Elizabeth of Acloque, a colonel of the battalion of the Faubourg St Marceau, and of two cannoneers of the national guard, who interposed between them and the head of the columns, which had broken open or cut down with hatchets all the inner doors of the palace. "Sanction the decrees or death!" was the universal cry. Nothing could make the Queen separate herself from the King. "What have I to fear?" said she; "Death! It is as well to-day as to-morrow; they can do no more! Let me go to the King; it is at his side I will expire!—there is my post!" As they were retiring before the furious multitude, the Princess Elizabeth, as she held the King at a moment of the greatest danger embraced in her arms, was mistaken for the Queen, and loaded with maledictions. She forbade her attendants to explain the mistake, happy to draw upon herself the perils and opprobrium of her august relative.* Santerre shortly * "Des forcenés s'élancent vers la sœur du Roi les bras levés; ils vont la VII. 1792. CHAP. after approached, and assured her she had nothing to fear; that the people were come to warn, but not to strike. He handed her a red cap, which she put on the head of the Dauphin. The Princess-Royal, a few years older, was weeping at the side of the Queen; but the infant, with the innocence of childhood, smiled at the scene by which he was surrounded, and willingly put on an enormous red cap, which was handed to him by a ferocious pikeman. He was only seven years of age, seated on a table before his mother, to whom he constantly turned, more in wonder than alarm, as the crowd pressed around them. The innocence and naïveté of childhood were strongly depicted on his smiling counThe Princess-Royal was in her fourteenth year. Her noble countenance and precocious beauty were only rendered more interesting by the melancholy which the events of the last few years had imprinted on her expression. Blue eyes, a prominent forehead, and light ringlets flowing over her shoulders, recalled, in the last days of the monarchy, the image of the young daughters 1 Lam. Hist. of the Franks who adorned the throne of the first race of 401. Web. kings. She clung in terror to her mother, as if at once to give and receive protection. Even the most ferocious 213, 215. of the mob were for a moment subdued by the image of childhood, innocence, and misfortune.1 des Gir. ii. ii. 177. Lac. i. 244. Camp. ii. 74. First appearance of tenance. A young officer, with his college companion, was a witness, from the gardens of the Tuileries, of this disNapoleon, graceful scene. Though warmly attached at that period to the Jacobin party, he expressed great regret at the conduct of the populace, and the imbecility of the ministry; but when the King appeared at the window with the cap of liberty on his head, he could no longer 2 Bour. i. restrain his indignation.2 "The wretches!" he exclaimed; they should cut down the first five hundred with grape 73. frapper des officiers du palais les détrompent. Le nom vénéré de Madame Elizabeth fait retomber leurs armes. Ah! que faites-vous ?' s'écrie douloureusement la princesse ; laissez-leur croire que je suis la Reine. En mourant à sa place, je l'aurais peut-être sauvée !"—LAMARTINE, Histoire des Girondins, ii.391. VII. shot, and the remainder would soon take to flight." He CHAP. lived to put his principles in practice near that very spot -his name will never be forgotten: it was NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 1792. 75. of France at The events of the 20th June excited the utmost indignation throughout France. But no pity whatever was Indignation felt for the royal victims by the Girondist leaders. "How the events of I should have liked to behold her long humiliation, and how June 20. her pride must have suffered under it!" exclaimed Madame Roland, speaking of Marie Antoinette. But generally over the country more generous feelings prevailed. The violence of their proceedings, the violation of the Assembly and of the royal residence, the illegality of a petition supported by a tumultuous and disorderly rabble, were made the objects of warm reproaches to the popular party. The Duc de la Rochefoucauld, who commanded at Rouen, invited the King to seek an asylum in the midst of his army; Lafayette urged him to proceed to Compiègne, and throw himself into the arms of the constitutional forces: СНАР. VII. 1792. 1 Deux Amis, vii. 7, de Moll. viii. 185, 194. Dumont, 353. Jom. 144, 148, i. 246. Lam. iii. 4. 76. arrives at Paris. 1 to punish the authors of the late disorders; but such was the terror of that body, that they were incapable of taking any decisive steps. The conduct of the King excited general admiration: the remarkable coolness in danger which he had evinced extorted the applause even of his 12. Bert. enemies, and the unhappy irresolution of his earlier years was forgotten in the intrepidity of his present demeanour. Had he possessed vigour enough to have availed himself of the ii. 53. Th. ii. powerful reaction in his favour which these events excited, 149. Lac. he might still have arrested the Revolution; but his was the passive courage of the martyr which could endure, not the active spirit of the hero fitted to prevent or subdue danger. Lafayette, who was now thoroughly awakened to a sense Lafayette of the dreadful perils which threatened France from the Revolution which he had done so much to advance, made a last effort to raise from the dust the constitutional throne. Having provided for the command of the army, and obtained addresses from the soldiers against the recent excesses, he set out for Paris, and presented himself, on the 28th June, unexpectedly at the bar of the Assembly. He demanded, in the name of his troops and of himself, that the authors of the revolt should be punished; that vigorous measures should be taken to destroy the Jacobin sect. "A powerful reason," said he, "has brought me amongst you. The outrages committed on the 20th June in the Tuileries have excited the indignation and the alarm of all good citizens, and particularly of the army. In the one I command, all the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, have but one opinion. I have received from all the corps addresses, expressive of their attachment to the constitution, their respect for the authorities which it has established, and their patriotic hatred against all the factions. I lay at your bar these addresses. You will see that I have only expressed their unanimous opinion. I am convinced that their sentiments are those of all the French who love their country. It is time to save the constitution from the attacks which are so generally made VII. 1792. upon it; to secure to the National Assembly, to the King, CHAP. their independence and their dignity; to take from bad citizens their hopes of establishing a régime which, for the good, would only be an insupportable tyranny. I supplicate the National Assembly to give directions that the instigators of the crimes committed on the 20th June at the Tuileries be prosecuted for high treason, and that measures be taken to destroy a sect which at once invades the national sovereignty, tyrannises over the citizens, and daily affords, in its public speeches, decisive evidence of xv.198, 200. the designs by which it is animated." 1 1 Hist. Parl. rousing This speech was loudly applauded by the Côté Droit of 77. the Assembly, and excited the utmost dismay in the revo- But fails in lutionary party. They dreaded the promptitude and noting the vigour of their adversary in the Champ de Mars. majority of 339 to 234 was obtained by the constitutional party in the Assembly, upon a motion to send Lafayette's letter to the standing committee of twelve, to report on its adoption. Encouraged by this success, slight as it was, the general next presented himself at the court. He was coolly received by the King, who thanked him for his services, but did nothing to forward his views. It was even with some difficulty that he succeeded in obtaining a review of the national guard. The leaders of the royalists anxiously inquired at the palace what course they should adopt in this emergency. Both the King and the Queen answered, that they could place no confidence in Lafayette. He next applied, with a few supporters who were resolved to uphold the crown in spite of itself, to the national guard; but the influence of the general with that 2 Toul. ii. body was gone. He was received in silence by all the 21. Hist. battalions who had so recently worshipped his footsteps, 204. Maand retired to his hotel despairing of the constitutional pan, ii. 224. cause.2 Determined, however, not to abandon his enterprise without a struggle, he appointed a rendezvous in the evening at his own house, of the most zealous of the troops, Parl. xv. dame Cam |