fear of a foreign invasion had disturbed all minds. The National
Assembly, sitting both day and night, was like an arena of gladiators
fighting without truce or pity. It was this moment which the good Abbe
Lamourette chose for delivering his most touching sermon from the
tribune.

During the session of July 7, Brissot was about to ascend the tribune
and propose new measures of public safety. Lamourette, getting before
him, asked to be heard on a motion of order. He said {242} that of all
the means proposed for arresting the divisions which were destroying
France, but one had been forgotten, and that the only one which could
be efficacious. It was the union of all Frenchmen in one mind, the
reconciliation of all the deputies, without exception. What was to
prevent this? The only irreconcilable things are crime and virtue.
What do all our mistrust and suspicions amount to? One party in the
Assembly attributes to the other a seditious desire to destroy the
monarchy. The others attribute to their colleagues a desire to destroy
constitutional equality and to establish the aristocratic government
known as that of the Two Chambers. These are the disastrous suspicions
which divide the empire. "Very well!" cried the abbe, "let us crush
both the republic and the Two Chambers." The hall rang with unanimous
applause from the Assembly and the galleries. From all sides came
shouts of "Yes, yes, we want nothing but the Constitution." Lamourette
went on: "Let us swear to have but one mind, one sentiment. Let us
swear to sink all our differences and become a homogeneous mass of
freemen formidable both to the spirit of anarchy and that of feudalism.
The moment when foreigners see that we desire one settled thing, and
that we all desire it, will be the moment when liberty will triumph and
France be saved. I ask the president to put to vote this simple
proposition: That those who equally abjure and execrate the republic
and the Two Chambers shall rise." At {243} once, as if moved by the
same impulse, the members of the Assembly rose as one man, and swore
enthusiastically never to permit, either by the introduction of the
republican system or by that of the Two Chambers, any alteration
whatsoever in the Constitution.

By a spontaneous movement, the members of the extreme left went towards
the deputies of the right. They were received with open arms, and, in
their turn, the right advanced toward the ranks of the left. A