nd returned after ten
at night to find that the bishop of Langres, disgusted with the scene
before him, had adjourned the Assembly. Mounier instantly convoked
them, by beat of drum. He had other things to speak of besides the
Rights of Man; for he knew that an invader more formidable than
Maillard with his Amazonian escort was approaching.

For the later weeks of September Lafayette had cast his influence on
the side of those who designed to strengthen the executive. He had
restrained his men when they threatened to come to support the
National Assembly. To yield to that movement was to acknowledge
defeat, and loss of available popularity and power. When he came to
the Hotel de Ville and found that his army was resolved to go, he
opposed the project, and for many hours held his ground. The men whom
he commanded were not interested on their own account in the daily
allowance of food. Their anger was with the Royal Guards, and their
purpose was to take their place. Then there would be less danger of
resistance to the decrees, or of flight to the provinces.

Lafayette could not appear before the king at their head without
evident hostility and revolt; for their temper was threatening, and he
was rapidly losing control. By delay and postponement he gained
something. Instead of arriving as an assailant, he came as a
deliverer. When he remonstrated, his soldiers said that they meant no
injury to the king, but that he must obey or abdicate. They would make
their general Regent; but if he refused to put himself at their head,
they would take his life. They told him that he had commanded long
enough, and now he must follow. He did not yield until the tumult had
risen high, and the strain on his authority was breaking.

Early in the afternoon the watchers who followed the march of the
women from the rare church towers reported that they had crossed the
Seine without opposition. It was known, therefore, that the road was
open, that the approach of the army would be under cover of the
contingent that had preceded, that there was no danger of collision.

About four o'clock Lafayette sent word to the Hotel de Ville--for his
men would not allow him out of sight--that it was time to give him his
orders, as he could not prevent the departure. They were brought to
him where he sat in the saddle in the Place de Greve, and he read them
with an expression of the utmost alarm. They contained all that
ambition could desire, for the four p