from the king all popular indignation,
and to assume to himself the projection and execution of the king's
departure. "If," he added, "one hair of the head of Louis XVI. fall to
the ground, not one stone of Paris shall remain upon another. I know the
roads, and will guide the foreign armies thither." A laugh followed
these words. The Assembly was sufficiently wise not to require the
advice of M. de Bouille, and strong enough to despise the threats of a
proscribed man.

M. de Cazales sent in his resignation, in order to _go and fight (aller
combattre)_. The most prominent members of the right side, amongst whom
were Maury, Montlozier, the abbe Montesquieu, the abbe de Pradt, Virieu,
&c. &c., to the number of two hundred and ninety, took a pernicious
resolution, which, by removing all counterpoise from the extreme party
of the Revolution, precipitated the fall of, and destroyed, the king,
under pretext of a sacred respect for royalty. They remained in the
Assembly, but they annulled their power, and would only be considered as
a living protest against the violation of the royal liberty and
authority. The Assembly refused to hear the reading of their protest,
which was itself a violation of their elective power; and they then
published it and circulated it profusely all over the kingdom. "The
decrees of the Assembly," they said, "have wholly absorbed the royal
power. The seal of state is on the president's table; the king's
sanction is annihilated. The king's name is erased from the oath which
is taken from the law. The commissioners convey the orders of the
committees direct to the armies. The king is a captive; a provisional
republic occupies the interregnum. Far be it from us to concur in such
acts; we would not even consent to be witnesses of it, if we had not
still the duty of watching over the preservation of the king. Excepting
this sole interest, we shall impose on ourselves the most absolute
silence. This silence will be the only expression of our constant
opposition to all your acts."

These words were the abdication of an entire party, for any party that
protests abdicates. On this day there was emigration in the Assembly.
This mistaken fidelity, which deplored instead of combating, obtained
the applause of the nobility and clergy; it merited the utmost contempt
of politicians. Abandoning, in their struggle against the Jacobins,
Barnave and the monarchical constitutionalists, it gave the victory to
Robespierre