Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
This according with the dispositions of the King, he went
about eleven o’clock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the Assembly,
and there read to them a speech, in which he asked their interposition
to re-establish order. Although couched in terms of some caution, yet
the manner in which it was delivered made it evident, that it was
meant as a surrender at discretion. He returned to the Chateau afoot,
accompanied by the Assembly. They sent off a deputation to quiet Paris,
at the head of which was the Marquis de la Fayette, who had, the same
morning, been named _Commandant en Chef_ of the _Milice Bourgeoise_; and
Monsieur Bailly, former President of the States General, was called for
as _Prévôt des Marchands_. The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered
and begun. A body of the Swiss guards, of the regiment of Ventimille,
and the city horse-guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles
increased. The foreign troops were ordered off instantly. Every Minister
resigned. The King confirmed Bailly as Prévôt des Marchands, wrote to
Mr. Necker, to recall him, sent his letter open to the Assembly, to be
forwarded by them, and invited them to go with him to Paris the next
day, to satisfy the city of his dispositions; and that night, and
the next morning, the Count d’Artois, and M. de Montesson, a deputy
connected with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de Guiche, and the Count
de Vaudreuil, favorites of the Queen, the Abbe de Vermont her confessor,
the Prince of Conde. and Duke of Bourbon fled. The King came to Paris,
leaving the Queen in consternation for his return. Omitting the less
important figures of the procession, the King’s carriage was in the
centre; on each side of it, the Assembly, in two ranks afoot; at their
head the Marquis de la Fayette, as commander-in-chief, on horse-back,
and _Bourgeois_ guards before and behind. About sixty thousand citizens,
of all forms and conditions, armed with the conquests of the Bastile and
Invalids, as far as they would go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes,
pruning hooks, scythes, &c. lined all the streets through which the
procession passed, and with the crowds of people in the streets,
doors, and windows, saluted them everywhere with the cries of ‘_Vive la
Nation_,’ but not a single ‘_Vive le Roi_’ was heard. The King stopped
at the _Hotel de Ville_. There M. Bailly presented, and put into his
hat, the popular cockade, and addressed him. The King being unprepared,
and unable to answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him some
scraps of sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to the
audience, as from the King. On their return, the popular cries were
‘_Vive le Roi et la Nation_.’ He was conducted by a _garde Bourgeoise_,
to his palace at Versailles, and thus concluded such an ‘_amende
honorable_,’ as no sovereign ever made, and no people ever received.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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