Petion, who does not want to
be requisitioned against the rioters,[2675] they send him a guard of 400
men, thus confining him in his own house, and, apparently in spite of
himself.

On one side, sheltered by treachery and, on the other side, by
assassination, the insurrection may now go on in full security in
front of the terrible hypocrite who solemnly complains of his voluntary
captivity, and before the corpse, with shattered brow, lying on the
steps of the Hotel-de-ville. On the right bank of the river, the
battalions of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and, on the left, those of the
Faubourg Saint-Marcel, the Bretons, and the Marseilles band, march forth
as freely as if going to parade. Measures of defense are frustrated
by the murder of the commanding general, and by the mayor's duplicity;
there is not resistance on guarded spots, at the arcade Saint-Jean,
the passages of the bridges, along the quays, and in the court of the
Louvre. An advance guard of the mob, women, children, and men, armed
with cutters, cudgels, and pikes, spread over the abandoned Carrousel,
and, towards eight o'clock, the advance column, led by Westerman,
appears in front of the palace.

VII.--August 10.

The King's forces.--Resistance abandoned.--The King in the
National Assembly.--Conflict at the palace and discharge of
the Swiss Guard.--The palace evacuated by the King's order.
--The massacres.--The enslaved Assembly and its decrees.

If the King had wanted to fight, he might still have defended himself,
saved himself, and even been victorious.[2676]--In the Tuileries, 950 of
the Swiss Guard and 200 gentlemen stood ready to die for him to the last
man. Around the Tuileries, two or three thousand National Guard,
the elite of the Parisian population, had just cheered him as he
passed.[2677] "Hurrah for the King! Hurrah for Louis XVI.! He is our
King and we want no other; we want him only! Down with the rioters! Down
with the Jacobins! We will defend him unto death! Let him put himself
at our head! Hurrah for the Nation, the Law, the Constitution, and
the King, which are all one! If the gunners were silent, and seemed
ill-disposed,[2678] it was simply necessary to disarm them suddenly,
and hand over their pieces to loyal men. Four thousand rifles and eleven
pieces of artillery, protected by the walls of the courts and by the
thick masonry of the palace, were certainly sufficient against the nine
or ten thousand Jacobi