de-Ville, the populace rushed upon them, tore them from the
soldiers who were escorting them, rent them in pieces, and their heads,
placed on the tops of pikes, were carried by a band of ferocious
children to the environs of the Palais Royal.

XII.

The news of these murders, confusedly spread and variously interpreted
in the city, in the Assembly, among various groups, excited various
feelings, according as it was viewed as a crime of the people or a crime
of its enemies. The truth was only made apparent long after. The
agitation increased from the indignation of some and the suspicions of
others. Bailly, duly informed, sent three commissaries and a battalion.
Other commissaries traversed the quarters of the capital, reading to the
people the proclamation of the magistrates and the address of the
National Assembly.

The ground of the Bastille was occupied by the national guard and the
patriotic societies, which were to go thence to the field of the
Federation. Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Freron, Brissot, and the
principal ringleaders of the people had disappeared; some said in order
to concert insurrectional measures, at Legendre's house in the country;
others, in order to escape the responsibility of the day. The former
version was the more generally accredited, from Robespierre's known
hatred to Danton, to whom Saint Just said, in his accusation--"Mirabeau,
who meditated a change of dynasty, appreciated the force of thy
audacity, and laid hands upon it. Thou didst startle him from the laws
of stern principle; we heard nothing more of thee until the massacres of
the Champ-de-Mars. Thou didst support that false measure of the people,
and the proposition of the law, which had no other object than to serve
for a pretext for unfolding the red banner, and an attempt at tyranny.
The patriots, not initiated in this treachery, had opposed thy
perfidious advice. Thou wast named in conjunction with Brissot to draw
up this petition. You both escaped the prey of La Fayette, who caused
the slaughter of ten thousand patriots. Brissot remained calmly in
Paris, and thou didst hasten to Arcis-sur-Aube, to pass some agreeable
days. Can one fancy thy tranquil joys--thou being one of the drawers up
of this petition, whilst those who signed the document were loaded with
irons, or weltering in their blood? You were then--thou and
Brissot--objects for the gratitude of tyranny; because, assuredly, you
could not be the objects of its det