ures with the king, supported Guadet's motion, in
order to give the king popularity by an act agreeable to the nation; and
the freedom of the soldiers of Chateauvieux was voted by the Assembly.
The king, having delayed his sanction for some time, in order not to
wound the cantons by this violent usurpation of their rights over their
own countrymen, afforded the Jacobins fresh ground for imprecation and
invective against the court and the ministers. "The moment is come when
one man must perish for the safety of all," cried Manuel, "and this man
must be a minister; they all appear to me so guilty, that I firmly
believe the Assembly would be free from crime did it cause them to draw
lots for who should perish on the scaffold," "All, all," vociferated the
tribunes. But at this very moment Collot d'Herbois mounted the tribune,
and announced, amidst loud applause, that the royal assent to the decree
for their liberation had been given the previous evening, and that in a
few days he should present to his brother deputies these victims of
discipline.

The soldiers of Chateauvieux were in reality advancing to Paris, having
been liberated from the galleys at Brest, and their march was one
continued triumph, but Paris prepared for them a still more brilliant
one through the exertions of the Jacobins. In vain did the Feuillants
and the Constitutionalists energetically protest, through the mouth of
Andre Chenier, the Tyrtaeus of moderation and good sense, of Dupont de
Nemours, and the poet Roucher, against the insolent oration of the
assassins of the generous Desilles. Collot d'Herbois, Robespierre, the
Jacobins, the Cordeliers, and the very commune of Paris, clung to the
idea of this triumph, which, according to them, would cover with
opprobium the court and La Fayette. The feeble interposition of Petion,
who appeared as though he wished to moderate the scandal, served only to
encourage it, for he of all men was most fitted to plunge the people
into the last degree of excess. His affected virtue served only to cloak
violence, and to cover with an hypocritical appearance of legality the
outbreaks he dared not punish; and had a representative of anarchy been
sought to be placed at the head of the commune of Paris, it could have
found no fitter type than Petion. His paternal reprimands to the people
were but promises of impunity. The public force always arrived too late
to punish; excuse was always to be found for sedition, amnesty for