There was no battle any more. The last shots died away as one hunted refugee after another, discharging his last desperate cartridge, was run down with the bayonet; and at last all that sound of men in arms ceased and gave place to the muffled tumult rolling in the rooms of the palace, a looting and a scuffling, a rumbling sound upon the many stairs. There chimed, heard through this new lull, the strokes of ten o’clock from the dial upon the garden front and from the church of St. Roch, hard by. In those two hours since eight all had been accomplished. [Illustration: THE STRUGGLE IN THE HALLS OF THE TUILERIES, AUGUST 10, 1792 _To face p. 114_ ] PART FOUR THE ROLE OF LAFAYETTE INTRODUCTION After the palace had been stormed, it seemed as though Lafayette, who was in command of the principal army toward the frontier, might change all the destinies of France. It was a moment in which discipline had been very badly shaken, and he had the best trained troops to his hand. He was trusted by the wealthier classes in Paris, and though the queen and the royal family as a whole disliked him, it was known that he would not consent to the abolition of the monarchy. Undoubtedly if Lafayette had been either a less scrupulous or a more energetic man, he would have intervened; but that would have required a certain amount of preparation. He would have had to “feel” the opinion of his subordinates, and perhaps compromise with the new Government. He did neither. He acted immediately, but too simply, refused to acknowledge the new Government, failed to resist it, and was superseded by it. Doubting his power to unite his command against the new state of affairs, he crossed the frontier and abandoned both his country and its king. PART FOUR THE ROLE OF LAFAYETTE The life of Lafayette has one supreme critical moment, which coincides with a supreme and critical moment in the story of our civilization. It was that moment in the afternoon of Sunday, the nineteenth of August, 1792, when he crossed the frontier and abandoned upon one side his king, upon the other the defence of his own country. Both the story and the legend of Lafayette have another aspect; an aspect more familiar in the United States than in Britain. He came there as the leader to a rally of young Frenchmen who were enthusiastic for an experiment in political freedom. He was immensely wealthy and the master of his own young life, for his father and mother were long dead; there was nothing to trammel his action; and though he was only a boy not yet of age, his figure acquired, as was right, a simple and luminous quality in the eyes of those whom he had joined before they had successfully confirmed their independence.