[Footnote 295: The Riot Act established by the Constitution was a great improvement upon the Riot Act of England. It declared that the municipal officers, if the public peace is endangered, shall declare that military force must be produced; and the signal of this declaration shall be a red flag upon the Hôtel de Ville, and then carrying before them a red flag through the streets, wherever they, with their armed force, go. On the appearance of the red flag, all crowds refusing instantly to disperse shall be held criminal, and shall be liable to be dispersed by force. In a crowd a _voice_ can not always be heard, but a _red flag_ can always be seen. The crowd, though thus dispersed, were authorized to depute six persons to state their grievance to the government.] [Footnote 296: There are many conflicting partisan accounts of this event. The most careful and thorough investigation has led me to the statement given above. When the Jacobins came into power they sent Bailly to the guillotine for this noble deed. La Fayette would have perished with him had he not been sheltered in the dungeons of Olmutz. Bailly, in his narrative of this affair, says that there were but twelve killed and about as many wounded.] [Footnote 297: The narrative of this interview is given in full in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. It was communicated to that journal by an Italian gentleman, a pupil of Condorcet, who was present on the occasion.] [Footnote 298: The Constitution was commenced the 17th of June, 1789, and completed the 3d of September, 1791.] [Footnote 299: Madame Campan's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 157.] [Footnote 300: All contemporary history unites in testifying to the enthusiasm displayed on this occasion.] CHAPTER XXIV. THE APPROACH OF WAR. Sentiments of the King and Queen upon the Constitution.--The Legislative Assembly.--Its democratic Spirit.--The King's Speech.--Painful Scene.--The Queen plans Escape.--Riot in the Theatre.--Infatuation of the Aristocrats.--Insult to the Duke of Orleans.--Embarrassment of the Allies.--Replies to the King from the European Powers.--The Emigrants at Coblentz.--The King's Veto.--Letters of the King to his Brothers.--Their Replies.--Cruel Edicts.--Pétion chosen Mayor.--The King visits the Assembly.--Rise of the Republican Party. The monarch of France, though deprived of absolute power, was still in the enjoyment of extensive prerogatives. The Assembly had conferred upon him the title of King of the French, an annual income of five millions of dollars, the command of the armies, and the right of suspending the national decrees. The king and queen were probably at this time sincere in their resolve to be resigned to the change, and to accept the Constitution. In the first interview which Bertrand de Moleville, a Royalist whom the king had appointed Minister of Marine, had with the king, the following remarks were made by the monarch: