of liberty might hurry into crime those
malcontents who cherish the hope; and these are the crimes we should
crush in the bud. Let us teach these princes that the nation is resolved
to preserve its constitution pure and unchanged, or to perish with it.
In one word, let us mark out the place for these traitors, and let that
place be the scaffold. I propose that the decree pass at this instant;
That the nation regards as infamous, as traitors to their country, and
as guilty of _leze-majeste_, every agent of the executive power, every
Frenchman (several voices, 'every _legislator_') who shall take part,
directly or indirectly, at this congress, whose object is to obtain
modifications in the constitution, or a mediation between France and the
rebels."

At these words the Assembly rose as if by common consent. Every hand was
raised in the attitude of men ready to take a solemn oath; the tribunes
and the chamber confounded their applause, and the decree was passed.

M. de Lessart, whom the gesture and the allusion of Guadet seemed to
have already designated as the victim to the suspicions of the people,
could not remain silent under the weight of these terrible allusions.
"Mention has been made," said he, "of the political agents of the
executive power: I declare that I know nothing which can authorise us to
suspect their fidelity. For my own part, I will repeat the declaration
of my colleagues in the ministry, and adopt it for my own--the
constitution or death."

Whilst Gensonne and Guadet aroused the Assembly by this preconcerted
scene, Vergniaud aroused the crowd by the copy of an address to the
French people, which had been spread abroad for the last few days
amongst the masses. The Girondists remembered the effect produced two
years previously by the proposed address to the king to dismiss the
troops.

"Frenchmen," said Vergniaud, "war threatens your frontiers; conspiracies
against liberty are rife. Your armies are assembling: mighty movements
agitate the empire. Seditious priests prepare in the confessional, and
even in the pulpit, a rising against the constitution; martial law
becomes essential. Thus it appeared to us just. But we only succeeded in
brandishing the thunderbolts for a moment before the eyes of the
rebels--the king has refused to sanction our decrees; the German princes
make their territories a stronghold for the conspirators against us.
They favour the plots of the emigres, and furnish them with an a