Lafayette, We Come!: The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in FranceHolland, Rupert Sargent
History
Lafayette, We Come!: The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France
Holland, Rupert Sargent
Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834
Lafayette then went to the Tuileries, where he saw the royal family.
Louis was ready to receive any assurance of help that the General
could give him, for the King saw now that his only reliance lay in the
constitution he had signed, and felt that might prove a slight support.
Marie Antoinette, however, refused to forgive Lafayette for the part he
had taken in the early days of revolution, and would have no aid at his
hands.
When he left the Tuileries some of his former National Guards followed
his carriage with shouts of “Vive Lafayette! Down with the Jacobins!”
and planted a liberty pole before his house. This gave Lafayette the
idea of appealing to the whole force of the National Guard and urging
them to stand by the constitution. He asked permission to speak to them
at a review the next day, but the mayor, fearing Lafayette’s influence,
countermanded the review. Then the General held meetings at his house
and did all he could to persuade Guards and citizens to oppose the
Jacobins, who, if they had their way, would, in his opinion, ruin the
country.
At the end of June he returned to the army. Daily he heard reports of
the growing power of his enemies, the Jacobins. Then he resolved to make
one more attempt to save the King and the constitution. He received
orders to march his troops by a town called La Capelle, which was about
twenty miles from Compiègne, one of the King’s country residences.
His plan was that Louis XVI. should go to the Assembly and declare
his intention of passing a few days at Compiègne; there Lafayette’s
army would meet him, and the King would proclaim that he was ready
to send his troops against the enemies of France who had gathered on
the frontiers and should reaffirm his loyalty to the constitution. The
General thought that if the King would do this it would restore the
confidence of the people in their sovereign.
But neither the King nor the nobles who were with him at the Tuileries
were attracted by this plan, which meant that Louis would openly
declare his hostility toward those emigrant nobles who had gathered
on the borders. And when the Jacobins learned that Lafayette had been
communicating secretly with the King they used this news as fresh fuel
for their fire. So the result of the scheme was only to add to the
currents of suspicion and intrigue that were involving Paris in the
gathering storm.
The power of the Assembly grew weaker; its authority was more and more
openly thwarted; the deputies wanted to stand by the constitution, but
it appeared that the country did not care to live under its laws. The
government of Paris was now entirely under the control of the Jacobins.
They filled the ranks of the National Guards with ruffians in their
pay. On July fourteenth the King reviewed soldiers who were secretly
ready to tear the crown from his head and was forced to listen to bitter
taunts and jibes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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