to the right under the trees, went towards
the staircase leading to the Assembly from the terrace of the
Feuillants. The second, which followed at a short distance and acted
as a rearguard, went on as far as the Place Louis XV., where it found
the mounted gendarmes. If this body of cavalry had done its duty, it
would have united with the {312} Swiss. But, far from that, it
declared for the insurrection, and sabred them. It is said that the
officers and soldiers killed in this retreat across the garden were
interred at the foot of the famous chestnut whose exceptional
forwardness has earned the surname of the tree of March 20. Thus the
Bonapartist tree of popular tradition owes its astonishing strength of
vegetation solely to the human compost furnished by the corpses of the
last defenders of royalty.

The first column, that which was on its way to the Assembly, presented
itself resolutely in front of the terrace of the Feuillants, which was
full of people. These took flight, and the Swiss entered the corridors
of the Assembly. Carried away by his zeal, one of their officers,
Baron de Salis, entered the hall with his naked sword in his hand. The
left uttered a cry of affright. A deputy went out to order the
commander, Baron de Durler, to make his troop lay down their arms. M.
de Durler, having refused, he was conducted to the King. "Sire," said
he, with sorrowful indignation, "they want me to lay down arms." Louis
XVI. responded: "Put them in the hands of the National Guard; I am not
willing that brave men like you should perish." To surrender arms!
Did Louis XVI. fully comprehend that for soldiers like these such an
outrage was a hundred times worse than death? The King's words were
like a thunderbolt to them. They wept with rage. "But," said they,
"even if we have no more cartridges, we can still defend ourselves with
our {313} bayonets!" Such devotion, such courage, such discipline,
such heroism to end like this! And yet the unfortunate Swiss, though
grieved to the heart, resigned themselves to the last sacrifice their
master required from their fidelity, laid down their arms, and were
imprisoned in the ancient church of the Feuillants, to the number of
about two hundred and fifty. It was all that remained of this
magnificent regiment. The others had been killed in the garden or had
their throats cut in the palace, and the greater part of the survivors
were to be assassinated in the massacres of Se