the
citadel, as they had learnt that a conspiracy was formed in the
regiment, which threatened alike his and their lives. M. de Chollet
complied with their earnest request, whilst they went to the barracks,
and ordered the men to follow them to the citadel. The soldiers replied
that they would only obey M. Desbordes, their lieutenant-colonel, in
whose patriotism they had the greatest confidence. M. Desbordes came,
and read to the soldiers the order of the general; but the inflexion of
his voice, the expression of his face, his glance, alike seemed to
protest against the order which his duty as a soldier compelled him to
communicate to them. The troops understood this mute appeal, and
declared that they would not quit their quarters, because the municipal
authorities had forbidden them: the national guard joined them and
patrolled the streets: the officers shut themselves up in the citadel,
and shots were fired from the ramparts. Lieutenant-Colonel Desbordes,
the national guard, the _gendarmerie_, and the regiments, stormed the
citadel. The officers of the regiment of Cambresis were imprisoned by
their soldiers; one, however, escaped, and committed suicide on the
frontiers of Spain. The unfortunate general, Chollet, victim of the
violence of the officers and soldiers, was impeached with fifty
officers, or inhabitants of Perpignan. They were ordered before the high
national court of Orleans; and thus were fifty victims predestined to
perish in the massacre at Versailles.

XVI.

Blood flowed every where. The clubs seduced the regiments; patriotic
motions, denunciations against the generals, perfidious insinuations
against the fidelity of the officers, were constantly instilled into the
minds of the army by the people. The officer was a prey to terror, the
soldier to mistrust. The premeditated plan of the Jacobins and
Girondists was to destroy in concert this body that was yet attached to
the king, deprive the nobility of their command, substitute plebeians
for nobles as officers, and thus give the army to the nation. In the
meantime they surrendered it to anarchy and sedition; but these two
parties finding that the disorganisation was not sufficiently rapid,
wished to sum up in one act the systematic corruption of the army, the
ruin of all military discipline, and the legal triumph of the
insurrection.

We have already mentioned how prominent a part the Swiss regiment of
Chateauvieux had taken in the famous insurrect