th rattles; who
have pretended to love the laws only to preserve the power that will
enable you to defy them; the Constitution only that it may not cast you
from the throne where you must remain in order to destroy it; the
nation only to assure the success of your perfidy by inspiring it with
confidence,--do you think you can impose upon us to-day by hypocritical
protestations?" What has occurred since the day when Vergniaud,
uttering such words as these, was frantically cheered? Nothing. That
day, the weather-cock pointed to anger; to-day to concord. Why? No
one knows. Tired of hating, the Assembly doubtless needed an instant
of relaxation. Violent sentiments end by wearying the souls that
experience them. They must rest and renew their energies in order to
hate better to-morrow. And why say to-morrow? This very evening the
quarrelling, anger, and fury will begin anew.

At half-past three Louis XVI. left the Hall of the Manege, in the midst
of joyful applause from the Assembly and the galleries. During the
evening session discord reappeared. The following letter from the King
was read: "I have just been handed the departmental decree which
provisionally suspends the mayor and the procureur of the Commune of
Paris. As this decree is based on facts which personally concern me,
the first impulse of my heart is to beg the Assembly to decide upon
it." Does any one believe that the Assembly will have the courage to
condemn Petion and the 20th of June? Not a bit {246} of it. It makes
no decision, but passes unanimously from the King's letter to the order
of the day. And what occurs at the clubs? Listen to Billaud-Varennes
at the Jacobins: "They embrace each other at the Assembly," he
exclaims; "it is the kiss of Judas, it is the kiss of Charles IX.,
extending his hand to Coligny. They were embracing like this while the
King was preparing for flight on October 6. They were embracing like
this before the massacres of the Champ-de-Mars. They embrace, but are
the court conspiracies coming to an end? Have our enemies ceased their
advance against our frontiers? Is Lafayette the less a traitor?" And
thereupon the cry broke out: "Petion or death!" The next day, June 8,
at the Assembly, loud applause greeted the orator from a section who
said, concerning the department: "It openly serves the sinister
projects and disastrous conspiracies of a perfidious court. It is the
first link in the immense chain of plots