er
yielded or perished. Santerre, certain of the issue, preferred to take
no part in this affair; he prudently holds back, he shies away, and lets
the crowd push him into the council chamber, where the Queen, the young
Dauphin, and the ladies have taken refuge.[2548] There, with his tall,
corpulent figure, he formed a sort of shield to forestall useless and
compromising injuries. In the mean time, in the Oeil de Boeuf, he lets
things take their course; everything will be done in his absence that
ought to be done, and in this he seems to have calculated justly.--On
one side, in a window recess, sits the King on a bench, almost alone,
while in front of him, as a guard, are four or five of the National
Guards; on the other side, in the apartments, is an immense crowd,
hourly increasing according as the rumor of the irruption spreads in the
vicinity, fifteen or twenty thousand persons, a prodigious accumulation,
a pell-mell traversed by eddies, a howling sea of bodies crushing each
other, and of which the simple flux and reflux would flatten against the
walls obstacles ten times as strong, an uproar sufficient to shatter the
window panes, "frightful yells," curses and imprecations, "Down with M.
Veto!" "Let Veto go to the devil!" "Take back the patriot ministers!"
"He shall sign; we won't go away till he does!"[2549]--Foremost among
them all, Legendre, more resolute than Santerre, declares himself the
spokesman and trustee of the powers of the sovereign people: "Sir," says
he to the King, who, he sees, makes a gesture of surprise, "yes, Sir,
listen to us; you are made to listen to what we say! You are a traitor!
You have always deceived us; you deceive us now! But look out, the
measure is full; the people are tired of being played upon!"--" Sire,
Sire," exclaims another fanatic, "I ask you in the name of the hundred
thousand beings around us to recall the patriot ministers... I demand
the sanction of the decree against the priests and the twenty thousand
men. Either the sanction or you shall die!"--But little is wanting for
the threat to be carried out. The first comers are on hand, "presenting
pikes," among them "a brigand," with a rusty sword blade on the end of
a pole, "very sharp," and who points this at the King. Afterwards the
attempt at assassination is many times renewed, obstinately, by three or
four madmen determined to kill, and who make signs of so doing, one,
a shabby, ragged fellow, who keeps up his excitement w