[226] "The expression of the Queen's countenance on this day will never be effaced from my remembrance; her eyes were swollen with tears; the splendour of her dress, the dignity of her deportment, formed a contrast with the train that surrounded her. It required the character of Louis XVI., that character of martyr which he ever upheld, to support, as he did, such a situation. When he mounted the steps of the altar, he seemed a sacred victim, offering himself as a voluntary sacrifice. He descended; and, crossing anew the disordered ranks, returned to take his place beside the Queen and his children."--M. DE STAËL, vol. ii., p. 53. [227] "To the astonishment of both parties, the accusation against La Fayette was thrown out by a majority of 446 to 224,"--LACRETELLE, tom. ix., p. 190. [228] Le Fanatisme. [229] Madame Roland describes him as one "whose features no painter would disdain to copy for the head of an Antinous."--_Memoirs_, part i., p. 146. [230] "I never," says Madame de la Rochejaquelein, "heard any thing more impressive and terrible than their songs." [231] Espremenil suffered by the guillotine in June, 1793; but Pétion, becoming at that time an object of suspicion to Robespierre, took refuge in the department of the Calvados, where he is supposed to have perished with hunger; his body being found in a field half devoured by wolves. [232] See Annual Register, vol. xxxiv., p. 229. [233] Thiers, tom. ii., p. 145. CHAPTER IX. _The Day of the Tenth of August--Tocsin sounded early in the Morning--Swiss Guards, and relics of the Royal Party, repair to the Tuileries--Mandat assassinated--Dejection of Louis, and energy of the Queen--King's Ministers appear at the Bar of the Assembly, stating the peril of the Royal Family, and requesting a Deputation might be sent to the Palace--Assembly pass to the Order of the Day--Louis and his Family repair to the Assembly--Conflict at the Tuileries--Swiss ordered to repair to the King's Person--and are many of them shot and dispersed on their way to the Assembly--At the close of the Day almost all of them are massacred--Royal Family spend the Night in the Convent of the Feuillans._