[Footnote 197: "It is an indisputable fact that the murder of Foulon and Berthier was not looked upon by the majority of the people of Paris with horror and disgust. So unpopular were these two men that their death was viewed as an act of justice, only irregular in its execution. Frenchmen were still accustomed to witness the odious punishment of torture and the wheel; and society may hence learn a lesson that the sight of cruel executions tends to destroy the feelings of humanity."--_France and its Revolutions, by George Long, Esq._, p. 47.] [Footnote 198: "The people and the militia did actually throng around La Fayette, and promised the utmost obedience in future. On this condition he resumed the command; and subsequently he had the satisfaction of preventing many disturbances by his own energy and the zeal of the troops."--_Thiers_, vol. i., p. 76.] [Footnote 199: "You would have prevented," said Kerengal, "the burning of the chateau, if you had been more prompt in declaring that the terrible arms which they contain, and which for ages have tormented the people, were to be destroyed. Let these arms, the title-deeds, which insult not only modesty but even humanity, which humiliate the human species by requiring men to be yoked to a wagon like beasts of labor, which compel men to pass the night in beating the ponds to prevent the frogs from disturbing the sleep of their voluptuous lords, let them be brought here. Which of us would not make an expiatory pile of these infamous parchments? You can never restore quiet to the people until they are redeemed from the destruction of feudalism."] [Footnote 200: "That night, which an enemy of the Revolution designated at the time the Saint Bartholomew of property, was only the Saint Bartholomew of abuses."--_Miguet_, p. 54.] CHAPTER XVI. FORMING THE CONSTITUTION. Arming of the Peasants.--Destruction of Feudal Charters.--Sermon of the Abbé Fauchet.--Three Classes in the Assembly.--Declaration of Rights.--The Three Assemblies.--The Power of the Press.--Efforts of William Pitt to sustain the Nobles.--Questions on the Constitution.--Two Chambers in one?--The Veto.--Famine in the City.--The King's Plate melted.--The Tax of a Quarter of each one's Income.--Statement of Jefferson.