"But why," rejoined Desmoulins, "does the Assembly affect to speak of the _carrying off_ (enlévement) of the king in its decrees, when the king himself writes that he escaped of his own free will? What baseness or what treason in the Assembly to use such language, when we are threatened by three millions of bayonets!" "The word _carrying off_," La Fayette replied, "is a mistake in dictation, which the Assembly will correct. This conduct of the king is infamous." The news of the flight of the king created consternation through all the departments of France. It was regarded as the signal for both foreign and civil war, and all expected immediately to hear the tramp of hostile legions. With singular unanimity the people of France rallied to meet the crisis. From the Gironde a message was sent to the Assembly, saying, "We have eighty thousand men enrolled in the National Guard, who are all ready to march. But we have not as many guns as we have intrepid and patriotic men. Send us arms." The municipality of Villepaux sent word, "We are all ready to be torn into ribbons rather than allow the integrity of the Constitution to be violated." "Our fields," wrote the citizens of Allier and Nivernais, "are covered with harvests and men. Men and harvests are alike at the service of the country, if she needs them." "We are but few, but we are determined," wrote the inhabitants of a little town in Normandy. "We have but two hundred men capable of bearing arms, but they are young, strong, and courageous. They are all ready to rush upon any foe who shall invade the soil of France." Bordeaux assured the Assembly that it would immediately send two thousand four hundred men to meet the foe. The whole kingdom was in this blaze of patriotic enthusiasm. The ladies, ever participating in devotion to a noble cause, sent in their jewelry to the Assembly, saying, "Change these ornaments into arms. It is not in our power to combat for our country; but we can at least aid in arming our brave defenders." Merchants left their shops, artisans their benches, and laborers the fields, to toil as volunteers in throwing up fortifications around the exposed towns. All hearts seemed to vibrate with the same hopes and fears, and all hands united in the same patriotic toils. The partisans of the court, few in numbers, were silent, waiting for the approach of foreign armies before they should throw off the mask and avow their treason. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 275: Mirabeau, after his interview with Marie Antoinette, remarked in confidence to a friend, "You know the queen. Her force of mind is prodigious. She is a man for courage."--_Dumont_, p. 211.]