No other man in France would have dared to write such a letter; and this brave letter lost him his popularity, for the masses were imbued with the influence of the Jacobins. This party now took an oath to destroy the fearless marquis who had thus laid bare their base designs. They harangued the mob, and persuaded them to believe that Louis and La Fayette were leagued against them. It required little to inflame the excited people. Twenty thousand men from the lowest ranks paraded the streets, and with wild shouts of “_Down with the king! to the Tuileries!_” they swept onward to the palace, and with yells of execration they trampled down the guard and burst into the very apartment of the king. Louis for once was roused and played the part of a man. His calmness awed the mob; and the Assembly sending a deputation to his relief, the multitude were persuaded to retire. This news was wafted quickly to La Fayette; and on the 28th of June he appeared in Paris. He left the army, and came alone as a simple citizen, and, visiting the Assembly, he boldly met their charge against him, which was that he had made an attempt at dictation; and he was there to answer this slander, and to demand reparation for the indignity to which the king had been subjected. He ended his speech with the words, “Such are the representations submitted to the Assembly by a citizen whose love for liberty, at least, will not be disputed.” But the Jacobin leaders had now the upper hand in the Assembly; and they declared him guilty of treason. And when the chivalrous and true-hearted La Fayette waited upon the king, for whom he had risked his reputation and his life, “he was insulted by the courtiers, coolly received by the king, and the queen expressly forbade any one to give him the slightest support. His efforts at rallying around him the National Guard, in order to march upon the Jacobins and make them prisoners, proved equally fruitless. He returned full of grief, but not utterly discouraged, to the army, whence he continued to offer his services to the king; but all his offers were rejected. ‘The best counsel I can give M. de La Fayette,’ answered the king, ‘is to serve as a scarecrow to the factions in following his profession as a general.’” [Illustration: PRINCESS ELIZABETH.] The Princess Elizabeth, more clear-sighted than Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, advised that the royal family should throw themselves with confidence into the protection of the only man who could save the king and deliver his family from the awful dangers which threatened them. But the imprudent queen is reported to have replied, “It is better to perish than to be saved by La Fayette and the Constitutionals.” Thus was this noble-spirited man rewarded by those whom he had risked his life to try to save.