The
Swiss Guard died in the Court of the Carrousel as they marched to
the Assembly to save the King. Thus the last circle of defence
round the throne was broken. The palace was given over to flame and
the sword. Of twenty nobles of the court I alone escaped. France
is become a slaughter-house. The people cried out for more liberty,
and their liberators gave them the freedom of death. A fortnight
ago, Danton, the incomparable fiend, let loose his assassins upon
the priests of God. Now Paris is made a theatre where the people
whom Louis and his nobles would have died to save have turned every
street into a stable of carnage, every prison and hospital into a
vast charnel-house. One last revolting thing alone remains to be
done--the murder of the King; then this France that we have loved
will have no name and no place in our generation. She will rise
again, but we shall not see her, for our eyes have been blinded with
blood, for ever darkened by disaster. Like a mistress upon whom we
have lavished the days of our youth and the strength of our days,
she has deceived us; she has stricken us while we slept. Behold a
Caliban now for her paramour!

"Weep with me, for France despoils me. One by one my friends have
fallen beneath the axe. Of my four sons but one remains. Henri was
stabbed by Danton's ruffians at the Hotel de Ville; Gaston fought
and died with the Swiss Guard, whose hacked and severed limbs were
broiled and eaten in the streets by these monsters who mutilate the
land. Isidore, the youngest, defied a hundred of Robespierre's
cowards on the steps of the Assembly, and was torn to pieces by the
mob. Etienne alone is left. But for him and for the honour of my
house I too would find a place beside the King and die with him.
Etienne is with de la Rochejaquelein in Brittany. I am here at
Rouen.

"Brittany and Normandy still stand for the King. In these two
provinces begins the regeneration of France: we call it the War of
the Vendee. On that Isle of Jersey there you should almost hear the
voice of de la Rochejaquelein and the marching cries of our loyal
legions. If there be justice in God we shall conquer. But there
will be joy no more for such as you or me, nor hope, nor any peace.
We live only for those who come after. Our duty remains, all else
is dead. You did well to go, and I do well to stay.

"By al