re retreating
before their triumphant adversaries. Sanguine hopes sprung up in the
bosoms of the friends of the monarchy that the artillery of the
Prussians would soon demolish the iron doors of the Temple, where the
king and the royal family were imprisoned, and reinstate the captive
monarch upon his throne. The Revolutionists were almost frantic in
view of their peril. They knew that there were tens of thousands in
Paris, of the most wealthy and the most influential, and hundreds of
thousands in France, who would, at the slightest prospect of success,
welcome the Prussians as their deliverers. Should the king thus prove
victorious, the leaders in the revolutionary movement had sinned too
deeply to hope for pardon. Death was their inevitable doom.
Consternation pervaded the metropolis. The magnitude of this peril
united all the revolutionary parties for their common defense. Even
Vergniaud, the most eloquent leader of the Girondists, proposed a
decree of death against every citizen of a besieged city who should
speak of surrender.

It was midnight in the Assembly. The most extraordinary and despotic
measures were adopted by acclamation to meet the fearful emergency.
"We must rouse the whole populace of France," exclaimed Danton, in
those tones which now began to thrill so portentously upon the ear of
Europe, "and hurl them, _en masse_, upon our invaders. There are
traitors in Paris, ready to join our foes. We must arrest them all,
however numerous they may be. The peril is imminent. The precautions
adopted must be correspondingly prompt and decisive. With the morning
sun we must visit every dwelling in Paris, and imprison those whom we
have reason to fear will join the enemies of the nation, even though
they be thirty thousand in number."

The decree passed without hesitation. The gates of Paris were to be
locked, that none might escape. Carriages were to be excluded from
the streets. All citizens were ordered to be at home. The sections,
the tribunals, the clubs were to suspend their sittings, that the
public attention might not be distracted. All houses were to be
brilliantly lighted in the evening, that the search might be more
effectually conducted. Commissaries, accompanied by armed soldiers,
were, in the name of the law, to enter every dwelling. Each citizen
should show what arms he had. If any thing excited suspicion, the
individual and his premises were to be searched with the utmost
vigilance. If the slight