At that moment there advanced, through the crowd which made way for him, a municipal officer bearing a banner, and followed by several drummers beating the charge. They preceded a troop of volunteers of all ages and conditions, singing the Marseillaise, that sacred hymn of the Revolution. At the end of each stanza they waved their pikes, their guns, their sabers, their caps, their hats, crying: "To arms, brothers! To the Field of Mars! And to-night, off for the frontier!" The majority of the citizens, who, after reading the decree of the Commune, also cried "To arms!" fell in line with the volunteers. Among them I beheld a man in the prime of life, his face radiant with civic ardor, embrace his wife and little daughters who accompanied him, and, his eyes filled with tears, exclaim--"Adieu! I go to defend you!" I was still thrilling under the impression produced by this patriotic act, when I heard someone read, in a loud voice, this fragment of a placard, posted, they said, by order of the ministry: "--Citizens of Paris, you have traitors in your midst. Ah, but for them, the strife would soon be over!" "Who are the traitors?" the word went 'round. "Who are they, if not the royalists, hidden in the two hundred dens mentioned by Gorsas--if not the priests and the monks?" "And our fathers, our husbands, our sons, our brothers, are enrolling in mass to run to the frontiers!" cried a woman, in terror. "Who will defend us against the fury of the enemies within?" "The royalists will let slip upon Paris the counterfeiters and the brigands shut up with them in the prisons!" "Mercy of God! While we are at the front, these wretches will pillage our shops, assault our daughters, slaughter our wives. No, no, it shall never be!" "Can we go away and leave behind us our women, our children, the old men, exposed to the rage of our enemies? What shall we do?" "The _Friend of the People_ tells us what to do!" cried a voice in the crowd. "Long live Marat. To the lamp-post with the aristocrats! Here is what it says: "'_The Friend of the People_ to the Parisians: "'Folly! Folly! It is useless to proceed with law against the counter-revolutionaries! "'People, march in arms to the Abbey! "'Drag out the traitors, the Swiss officers, and their accomplices, the priests, the Jesuits, the monks--let them feel the edge of the sword! "'People, strike your enemies with terror; otherwise you are lost!'" "We approve the advice!" shouted several voices in response. "Legal justice absolves the guilty. Let us replace the judges, and strike the culprits. To the Abbey!--to the Abbey!" Frightened at the turn things were taking, and dreading the consequences of the assent given to Marat's appeal, I attempted to fend off the massacre of the prisoners. Raising my voice above the tumult, I addressed myself to the speaker: