debated the state of the Nation, but at Paris
that the group known as "Friends of the People" lashed the popular
discontents to unmeasured and ungovernable fury.

It begins in the Palais Royal where "there has been erected, apparently
by subscription, a kind of Wooden Tent, most convenient--where select
Patriotism can now redact resolutions, deliver harangues, with
comfort, let the weather be as it will. Lively is that Satan-at-Home!
On his table, on his chair, in every cafe, stands a patriotic
orator; a crowd round him within; a crowd listening from without,
open-mouthed, through open door and window; with 'thunders of
applause for every sentiment of more than common hardiness.'"

Strange that in a Royalist garden should sprout the seeds of a great
Revolution! Stranger the crowds that gathered there, and the leaders
both popular and Royalist--among the former, our fiery friend Danton,
our cautious, snuffling Robespierre, and the boy of genius Camille
Desmoulins, Danton's "slight-built comrade and craft-brother, he with
the long curling locks, with the face of dingy blackguardism,
wondrously irradiated with genius!"

General Lafayette and Minister from America Thomas Jefferson came
there too now and again, to watch the crowds and hear the speeches.
Symbols of America's newly won freedom, they were objects of almost
superstitious veneration to the agitators for an enfranchised France.
Danton, Desmoulins and the rest crowded around them, eager to shake
their hands and listen to their comments. In particular, Lafayette's
sword--the gift of the American Congress a decade before, excited
their admiration.

"From America's Congress!" repeated Danton fervently as he eyed the
inscription on the scabbard. "Why, that's the kind of Government we
want over here!" Tears came into the Frenchman's eyes, to think of the
Liberty that Lafayette had helped to win.

The Palais Royal gardens were the property of the King's cousin, Louis
Phillipe. Disgusted with not being in the councils of the monarch and
leaning to democracy, he permitted the place to be used for public
promenades, lovers' meetings--and popular harangues. Friends of the
People, Friends of Phillipe, and Friends of the King freely rubbed
elbows. The popular tide set so strongly that none dared openly oppose
the demagogic orators. A bread famine had descended upon Paris. The
scarcity of wheat and flour was an ever-present theme; the oppression
of autocracy and seigniora