sent three deputies, d'André, Tronchet, and Duport, to demand, from both king and queen, declarations regarding their journey. This was an act of assumption that none but a monarch like Louis would have submitted to. But Barnave was consulted, and he dictated the answer. That of the king was as follows: "I see, gentlemen, by the object of the mission given to you, that there is no question of an examination; I will, therefore, answer the inquiries of the assembly. I shall never be afraid of making public my

should have been better able to oppose every kind of invasion of France, had a disposition been shown to attempt any. One of the principal motives for quitting Paris was to set at rest the argument of my non-freedom, which was likely to furnish occasion for disturbances. If I had harboured any intention of quitting the kingdom, I should not have published my memorial on the very day of my departure; I should have waited till I was beyond the frontiers. But I always desired to return to Paris. It is in this sense that

conduct.

It was the insults and menaces offered to my family and myself on the 18th of April that were the cause of my departure from Paris. Several publications have endeavoured to provoke acts of violence against my person and my family. I deemed that there would not be safety, nor even decency, in my remaining longer in this city; yet, never was it my intention to leave the kingdom. I had had no concert on this subject, either with foreign powers, or with my relatives, or with any of the French emigrants. I can state, in proof of my intentions, that apartments were prepared at Montmedy for my reception. I had selected this place because, being fortified, my family would be safer there; and because, being near the frontiers, I

taken. All these reasons, after the many statements made by Louis at different times, which were all swept away by his memorial, could not appear very convincing to the assembly, and then he came upon the sore question of the strong protests which he had made in that memorial. "That protest," he said, "does not bear, as the tenor of it attests, upon the principles of the constitution, but on the little liberty that I appeared to enjoy, and on the circumstance that, as the decrees had not been laid before me en masse, I could not judge of the constitution as a whole. The chief reproach in the memorial relates to the means of administration and execution. I have ascertained during my journey that public opinion was decidedly in favour of the constitution; I did not conceive that I could judge fully of this public opinion in Paris; but, from the observations which I have personally made during my journey, I am convinced how necessary it is for the support of the constitution to give strength to the powers established for the maintenance of public order. As soon as I had ascertained the general will I hesitated not, as I never have hesitated, to make a sacrifice of everything that is personal to The happiness of the people has always been the object of my wishes. I will gladly forget all the crosses that I have experienced, if I can but insure the peace and felicity of the nation."

me.

The declaration of the queen, of course, entered into no reasons of state. Her reason for accompanying the king was simply her duty, which she had always shown; namely, that she would not quit him. In all the rest, she supported the assertions of the king, that he did not mean to quit the kingdom, and even added that, had such been his wish, she would have used her influence to dissuade him. She made the same assertion regarding monsieur and madame. She screened madame de Tourzel and the three gardes-du-corps, by declaring that they knew nothing whatever of their intentions, or the object of the journey. The gardes-ducorps had already, by order of the assembly, been conveyed from the Tuileries to a common prison.

These declarations were taken on the 27th of June, and, on the 30th, the assembly, after receiving these from the commissioners, and leaving them for the present unnoticed, decreed, on the motion of Menou, afterwards distinguished as a general in Egypt, that the white flag of the Bourbons should be for ever abolished, and the tricolour become that of the nation, and be borne by every regiment.

This being done, the president announced the receipt of two letters from marshal Bouillé, late commandant of the forces on the frontiers: one to himself, in a few words, inclosing another to the assembly; but he observed that it appeared to him to be a very insolent letter. The assembly, however, resolved on hearing it. In fact, Bouillé tells us, in his memoirs, that his motive in writing that letter was to turn the rage of the assembly from the king upon himself. He feared for the king's life, and determined to take all the blame of planning the attempt at escape on himself, although he had really opposed the plan which Louis adopted. He wished, moreover, to impress on the assembly, that any injury done to the king would be avenged by all Europe. He commenced by telling them that he shuddered to think that a blind destiny had put the king and queen at the

mercy of a people whom the assembly had made at once ferocious and the scorn of the universe. He declared that it was necessary for all parties that the truth should be known, and that he was now resolved to speak it, though he knew they would not listen to it:-"The king wa become the prisoner of his people. Attached to my sovereign, though detesting arbitrary power, I groaned at the frenzy of the people. I blamed your proceedings; but, for a long time, I hoped that, in the end, the wicked would be confounded, and the anarchy cease; and that we should have some sort of government that would be, at least, supportable. My attachment to my king and country gave me strength to support the humiliation of corresponding with you. But then I saw that the spirit of faction was becoming dominant; that some wished for a civil war; that some wished for a republic; and that amongst the latter was M. La Fayette. Jacobin clubs were established to destroy the army; the populace were led on by cabal and intrigue. The king was without power and without respect; the army without chiefs and without discipline; and I then proposed to the king and queen to quit Paris, in the persuasion that this might operate a useful change. They declined; but the day of poniards induced me to renew my solicitations, and, after the 18th of April, when the king was not even permitted to go to St. Cloud, I was able to induce him to see the necessity of going to Montmedy, whence he would be able to prevail on the foreign powers, who were arriving, to suspend their vengeance against France." (At this declaration the cute gauche laughed in affected derision.) Bouillé then stated the beneficial changes which he had hoped the king would be able to effect by this step; that the people, to avert an invasion, would choose a new and very different assembly, by whose higher sagacity a system of rational liberty would be wrought out in conjunction with the king. And Bouill then concluded thus:-" Believe me, all the princes of the universe know that they are threatened by the monsters you have generated, and they will soon fall upon our unhappy country, for I cannot prevent myself calling it still my country. I know our forces. Every kind of hope is chimerical, and soon will your chastisement serve as a memorable example to posterity. It is in this way that a man ought to speak, who, all along, has had pity for you. Do not accuse any one of a plot against your infernal constitution. The king did not draw up the orders which were given; it was I alone who ordered everything; it is against me alone that you ought to sharpen your daggers and prepare your poisons. You will answer for the life of the king and queen to all the kings of Europe. If you touch a hair of their heads, one stone will not be left on another in Paris. (At this, yells of laughter arose.) I know the roads; I will guide the foreign armies. This letter is but the forerunner of the manifestoes of the sovereigns of Europe; they will warn you, in a more emphatic manner, of the war which you will have to fear. Adieu! messieurs" This letter was treated by the assembly with affectel contempt. They passed to the order of the day; but they soon showed how deeply they felt his stinging remarks, by setting a price upon his head. But he was safe beyond their power, and his generous letter was read in every quarter of Europe. Had the sovereigns of Europe beca

A.D. 1791.]

really as earnest in behalf of the king of France, and had immediately marched into the country, they could scarcely have failed of making themselves masters of Paris; but they might have precipitated the deaths of the king and queen. But, in truth, the kings of Europe were in no such chivalrous mood; they were thinking more of their own interests, and actually, some of them, planning the most disgraceful robberies of their neighbours. Spain, seeing no sign of coalition amongst the northern sovereigns, expressed its friendly disposition towards the French government, and prevented an attempt on its southern provinces, in which the knights of Malta were to assist with two frigates. The insurgents at Brussels and Coblentz were in a state of agitation, declaring that monsieur, who had now joined them, was the regent of the kingdom, seeing that the king was a prisoner, and had no will of his own. The poor king was compelled by the assembly to write to them, disavowing these proceedings. As to the powers in general, Pitt made pretences of great sympathy, but did nothing; Leopold of Austria, who had the most direct interest in the rescue of his sister and her family, was, notwithstanding his recent declarations, desirous rather of peace, and by no means pleased with the emigrants. A declaration of allied Bovereigns was, indeed, made at Pilnitz, that Prussia, and Austria, and Russia, would advance to the rescue of Louis XVI.; but the more immediate object of the agreement made there was, the dismemberment of Poland, which was determined in secret articles. Austria, in fact, had to purchase the assistance of Prussia against France, by offering it a share in this national plunder; and this scheme soon assumed a more lively interest with these northern vultures than the ostensible one of aiding the suffering family of France.

But whilst the sovereigns were lukewarm, the democrats in Paris, and, through them, all over France, were active. The question was no longer blinked in the clubs that there should be no king; that Louis had forfeited his throne by his flight; and that a republic was the only rational form of government for free men. In the journals, too, the jacobins not only advocated this step, but heaped the most unmeasured contempt and ridicule on the king and hatred on the queen. Camille Desmoulins styled Louis the crowned Sancho, who was always thinking of his stomach, and at Varennes lost the time in which he might have escaped by staying to eat pig's pettitoes. Fréron declared that the king called for wine before entering Paris at Pantin, and entered his capital dead drunk. He described the queen as with eyes blood-shot with dust and anger, and looking like a fury that thirsted for the blood of Frenchmen. The description of Louis by Wilberforce, that he looked a strange animal of the hog kind, and that it was worth going a hundred miles to see him, especially when boarhunting, was nothing to the portraitures of him by these rabid republicans. Brissot proposed several plans for the crisis to the consideration of Frenchmen: to abolish monarchy at once, and adopt the republican form; to put the question of king or no king to the nation at large; or to leave him as a harmless thing on the throne, and have a regent. No sooner was a regent named, than the duke of Orleans was suggested by some parties; but Orleans made

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haste to declare that he would not accept any office; he would remain a simple citizen. Orleans had seen that it was no desirable thing to be the chief officer of a nation of wolves; and he had learned, too, the very little weight that his name carried with it.

The Cordeliers club sent a deputation to the jacobin club to propose a republic, and it was warmly received by many; but the wily Robespierre affected at this moment to demur as to a republic, though he was secretly bent on its accomplishment. When some of the republican party of the Rolands spoke of the republic now being certain on the day of the king's flight, Robespierre said, with a laugh, "A republic! what is that?" But whilst this sanguinary hypocrite was pretending moderation, his supporters were marching, in open day, towards the object that his soul longed for. Drouet, the postmaster, was fêted throughout Paris as the saviour of France, and was carried nightly from club to club to relate the story of the king's capture as he had told it to the assembly. The jacobin club, of Marseilles, also sent up a fiery address to the mother society, plainly declaring that the time was come to abandon the farce of royalty, and recommending the safety of Robespierre and Danton as of the highest importance to the state. As for Robespierre, they said, "He is the vigilant sentinel, whom nothing can take by surprise; he is the only emulator of the Roman Fabricius, whose virtues the despot Pyrrhus lauded in these celebrated words, 'It is easier to turn the sun from his course than to turn Fabricius from the paths of honour.'

Similar language came up from most of the jacobin clubs of France, and on the evening of the 27th of June the parent society held a great debate on the best mode of treating the king. In this debate the co-editor of Brissot, a young man named Girey-Dupré, made a long and violent speech, declaring that the word of the king was not to be trusted; that he had perjured himself to the nation, and that the nation ought to punish a perjured king. Others, amongst whom was Anthoine, advocated the shutting up the king and queen for life, and appointing a regent; but, besides some violent denunciations of La Fayette, Bailly, Barnave, and the Lameths, no conclusion was arrived at.

Two days later, the coté-droit, or moderate party in the assembly, presented a protest against the usurpations of that body, signed by two hundred and seventy names, prominent amongst which were those of Maury, Malouet, Bonnay, cardinal la Rochefoucault, &c. This protest declared that the assembly had forcibly invaded all the rights of the king as secured to him by the constitution; that they had imprisoned his person, placed him under continual insults in his own palace, deprived him of the education of his own son; that they had seized the great seal, and given authority to their decrees without any sanction from the king, which was the annihilation of the constitution. Such being the case, the signers of it declared that they would take no further part in this usurping assembly, except to defend the king and his family. The reading of this protest was interrupted by a terrible clamour, and the president adjourned the house, but the supporters of the protest published and circulated it through the country. The only effect, however, was to strengthen the jacobin party, which went all the more boldly to pass their own measures,