he, to M. de Malesherbes, with a
melancholy smile, "whether I shall behold the sun set to-morrow?"

Petion, by ordering the municipal forces and the national guards under
his orders to resist, could have entirely put down the sedition. The
directory of the department presided over by the unfortunate Duc de la
Rochefoucauld, summoned Petion in the most energetic terms to perform
his duty. Petion smiled, took all on himself, and justified the legality
of the proposed meetings and the petitions presented _en masse_ to the
Assembly.

Vergniaud in the tribune repelled the alarm felt by the
constitutionalists, as calumnies against the innocence of the people.
Condorcet laughed at the disquietude manifested by the ministers, and
the demands for armed force they addressed to the Assembly. "Is it not
amusing," said he, addressing his colleagues, "to see the executive
power demanding the means of action from the legislators? let them save
themselves, it is their trade." Thus derision was united to the plots
against the unfortunate monarch; the legislators derided the power their
hands had disarmed, and applauded the factious.

IX.

It was under these auspices that the 20th of June dawned. A second
council, more secret and less numerous than the former, had assembled
the men destined to put these designs into execution, and they only
separated at midnight. Each of them went to his post, awoke his most
trusty followers, and stationed them in small groups, to stop and
assemble together the workmen, as they quitted their homes. Santerre
answered for the neutrality of the national guard. "Do not fear," said
he; "Petion will be there." Petion in reality had on the previous
evening ordered the battalions of the national guard to get under arms,
not to oppose the columns of the people, but to fraternise with the
petitioners and swell the cortege of sedition. This equivocal measure at
once saved the responsibility of Petion to the department, and his
complicity before the assembled people; to the one he said I watch; to
the other, I march with you.

At daybreak the battalions were assembled, and their arms piled on all
the _grandes places_. Santerre harangued his on the Place de la
Bastille, whilst around him flocked an immense throng, agitated,
impatient, ready to rush upon the city at his signal. Uniforms and rags
were blended, and detachments of invalides, gendarmes, national guards,
and volunteers, received the orders of Sant