r exultation. Many of the recent measures of the
Assembly, and especially the extinction of the old provinces, had created
great discontent in the rural districts. Formidable riots had broken out
in many quarters, especially in the great southern cities, in some of
which the mob had rivaled the worst excesses of its Parisian brethren;
massacring the magistrates, tearing their bodies into pieces, and
terrifying the peaceable inhabitants by processions, in which the mangled
remains of their victims formed the most conspicuous feature. At Brest and
at Toulon the sailors showed that they fully shared the general
dissatisfaction; while in the army a formidable mutiny broke out among the
troops which were under the command of the Marquis de Bouille, in
Lorraine. That, indeed, had a different object, since it had been excited
by Jacobin emissaries, who were aware that the marquis, the soldier who,
of the whole French army at that time, enjoyed the highest reputation, was
firmly attached to the king; though he was not one of the nobles who had
opposed all reform, nor had he hesitated to follow his royal master's
example and to declare his acceptance of the new Constitution. Fortunately
he had subalterns worthy of him, and faithful to their oaths; and as he
was a man of great promptitude and decision, he, with their aid, quelled
the mutiny, though not without a sanguinary conflict, in which he himself
lost above four hundred men, while the loss which he inflicted on the
mutineers was far heavier. But he had set a noble example, and had given
an undeniable proof of the possibility of quelling the most formidable
tumults; and it may be said that his quarters were the only spot in all
France which was not wholly given up to anarchy and disorder.

For even the Assembly itself was a prey to tumult and violence. From the
time of its assuming that title admission had been given to every one who
could force his way into the chamber, whether he was a member or not; nor
was any order preserved among those who thus obtained admission; but they
were allowed to express their opinion of every speaker and of every speech
by friendly or unfriendly clamor: a practice which, as may well be
supposed, materially influenced many votes. And presently attendance for
that purpose became a trade; some of the most violent deputies hiring a
regularly appointed troop to take their station in the galleries, and
paying them daily wages to applaud or hiss in ac