and La Fayette also appeared there, and took the oath
of fidelity to the nation. Camille Desmoulins thus relates the results
of this sitting:

"Whilst the National Assembly was decreeing, decreeing, decreeing, the
people were acting. I went to the Jacobins, and on the Quai Voltaire I
met La Fayette. Barnave's words had begun to turn the current of popular
opinion, and some voices cried 'Vive La Fayette.' He had reviewed the
battalions on the quay. Convinced of the necessity of rallying round a
chief, I yielded to the impulse that drew me towards the white horse.
'Monsieur de La Fayette,' said I to him in the midst of the crowd, 'for
more than a year I have constantly spoken ill of you, this is the moment
to convict me of falsehood. Prove that I am a calumniator, render me
execrable, cover me with infamy, and save the state.' I spoke with the
utmost warmth, whilst he pressed my hand. 'I have always recognised you
as a good citizen,' returned he; 'you will see that you have been
deceived; our common oath is to live free, or to die--all goes
well--there's but one feeling amongst the National Assembly--the common
danger has united all parties.' 'But why,' I inquired, 'does your
Assembly affect to speak of the carrying off (_enlevement_) of the king
in all its decrees, when the king himself writes that he escaped of his
own free will? what baseness, or what treason, in the Assembly to employ
such language, when surrounded by three millions of bayonets.' 'The word
_carrying off_ is a mistake in dictation, that the Assembly will
correct,' replied La Fayette; then he added, 'this conduct of the king
is infamous.' La Fayette repeated this several times, and shook me
heartily by the hand. I left him, reflecting that possibly the vast
field that the king's flight opened to his ambition, might bring him
back to the party of the people. I arrived at the Jacobins, striving to
believe the sincerity of his demonstrations, of his patriotism, and
friendship; and to persuade myself of this, which, in spite of all my
efforts, escaped by a thousand recollections, and a thousand issues."

When Camille Desmoulins entered Robespierre was in the tribune: the
immense credit that this young orator's perseverance and
incorruptibility had gained him with the people, made his hearers crowd
around him.

"I am not one of those," said he, "who term this event a disaster; this
day would be the most glorious of the Revolution, did you but know how
to