ud the motive which prompted this proposition. But, convinced
that there is nothing to be feared by any person from the citizens of
Paris, I regard the motion as insulting to them."

Meanwhile, the noise at the door redoubles; the petitioners are growing
impatient. Guadet rises to demand that they shall come in with their
arms. It is plain that the Gironde has taken the riot under its
patronage. After some disorderly and violent debate, it is resolved
that the president shall put the question: Are the petitioners to be
admitted to the bar? They do not yet decide this other: Shall the
armed citizens defile before the Assembly after they have been heard?
The first question is answered in the affirmative. The delegates of
the crowd are {192} admitted to the bar. They make their entry into
the Assembly between one and two in the afternoon.

Their orator is a person named Huguenin, who will preside a few weeks
later at the Council of the Commune during the September massacres. In
his declamatory harangue he includes every tirade, threat, and insult
current in the streets. "We demand," said he, "that you should find
out why our armies are inactive. If the executive power is the cause,
let it be abolished. The blood of patriots must not flow to satisfy
the pride and ambition of the perfidious palace of the Tuileries."
Here the galleries burst into enthusiastic applause. The orator goes
on: "We complain of the delays of the Superior National Court. Why is
it so slow in bringing down the sword of the law upon the heads of the
guilty? ... Do the enemies of the country imagine that the men of July
14 are sleeping? If they appear to be so, their awakening will be
terrible.... There is no time to dissimulate; the hour is come, blood
will flow, and the tree of Liberty we are about to plant will flourish
in peace." The applause from the galleries redoubles. Huguenin
excites himself to fury: "The image of the country," he shouts, "is the
sole divinity which it shall be permitted to adore. Ought this
divinity, so dear to Frenchmen, to find in its own temple those who
rebel against its worship? Are there any such? Let them show
themselves, these friends of arbitrary power; let them make themselves
known! This is not their {193} place! Let them depart from the land
of liberty! Let them go to Coblentz and rejoin the _emigres_. There,
their hearts will expand, they will distil their venom, they will
machinate, they