us posts entrusted to them.

The decrees of the 4th of August, by which all privileges were abolished,
are well known.

["It was during the night of the 4th of August," says Rivarol, "that the
demagogues of the nobility, wearied with a protracted discussion upon the
rights of man, and burning to signalise their zeal, rose all at once, and
with loud exclamations called for the last sighs of the feudal system.
This demand electrified the Assembly. All heads were frenzied. The
younger sons of good families, having nothing, were delighted to sacrifice
their too fortunate elders upon the altar of the country; a few country
cures felt no less pleasure in renouncing the benefices of others; but
what posterity will hardly believe is that the same enthusiasm infected
the whole nobility; zeal walked hand in hand with malevolence; they made
sacrifice upon sacrifice. And as in Japan the point of honour lies in a
man's killing himself in the presence of the person who has offended him,
so did the deputies of the nobility vie in striking at themselves and
their constituents. The people who were present at this noble contest
increased the intoxication of their new allies by their shouts; and the
deputies of the commons, seeing that this memorable night would only
afford them profit without honour, consoled their self-love by wondering
at what Nobility, grafted upon the Third Estate, could do. They named
that night the 'night of dupes'; the nobles called it the 'night of
sacrifices'."--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]

The King sanctioned all that tended to the diminution of his own personal
gratifications, but refused his consent to the other decrees of that
tumultuous night; this refusal was one of the chief causes of the ferments
of the month of October.

In the early part of September meetings were held at the Palais Royal, and
propositions made to go to Versailles; it was said to be necessary to
separate the King from his evil counsellors, and keep him, as well as the
Dauphin, at the Louvre. The proclamations by the officers of the commune
for the restoration of tranquillity were ineffectual; but M. de La Fayette
succeeded this time in dispersing the populace. The Assembly declared
itself permanent; and during the whole of September, in which no doubt the
preparations were made for the great insurrections of the following month,
the Court was not disturbed.

The King had the Flanders regiment removed to Versailles; unfortunately
t