History of the Girondists, Volume I: Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French RevolutionLamartine, Alphonse de
History
History of the Girondists, Volume I: Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution
Lamartine, Alphonse de
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799; Girondists
The Assembly then decreed that immediately after the arrival of Louis
XVI. at the Tuileries, a guard should be given him, under the orders of
La Fayette, who should be responsible for his security. Malouet was the
only one who ventured to remonstrate against this captivity. "It at
once destroyed inviolability and the constitution; the legislative and
executive powers are now united." Alexandre Lameth opposed Malouet's
motion, and declared that it was the duty of the Assembly to assume and
retain, until the completion of the constitution, a dictatorship, forced
upon it by the state of affairs, but that the monarchy being the form of
government necessary to the concentration of the forces of so great a
nation, the Assembly would immediately afterwards resume a division of
powers, and return to the forms of a monarchy.
XXV.
At this moment the captive king entered Paris. It was on the 25th of
June, at seven o'clock in the evening. From Meaux to the suburbs of
Paris, the crowd thickened in every place as the king passed. The
passions of the city, the Assembly, the press, and the clubs worked more
intensely, and even closer in this population of the environs of Paris.
These passions, written on every countenance, were repressed by their
very violence. Indignation and contempt controlled their rage. Insult
escaped them only in under tones; the populace was sinister, and not
furious. Thousands of glances darted death into the windows of the
carriages, but not one tongue uttered a threat.
This calmness of hatred did not escape the king; the day was burning
hot. A scorching sun, reflected by the pavement and the bayonets, was
almost suffocating in the berlin, where ten persons were squeezed
together. Volumes of dust, raised by the trampling of two or three
hundred thousand spectators, was the only veil which from time to time
covered the humiliation of the king and queen from the triumph of the
people. The sweat of the horses, the feverish breath of this multitude
compact and excited, made the atmosphere dense and fetid. The travellers
panted for breath, the foreheads of the two children were bathed in
perspiration. The queen, trembling for them, let down one of the windows
of the carriage quickly, and addressing the crowd in an appeal to their
compassion, "See, gentlemen," she exclaimed, "in what a state my poor
children are--one is choking!" "We will choke you in another fashion,"
replied these ferocious men in an under tone.
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