t they have
instigated the late tumults with money, that they had taken or were
preparing to take Cherbourg, Brest, &c.; and even reasonable men have
believed, or pretended to believe, all these. The British ambassador has
thought it necessary to disavow them in a public letter, which you will
find in one of the papers accompanying this.

I have lately had an opportunity of knowing with certainty the present
state of the King of England. His recovery was slow; he passed through a
stage of profound melancholy; but this has at length dissipated, and he
is at present perfectly re-established. He talks now as much as ever,
on the same trifling subjects, and has recovered even his habitual
inquisitiveness into the small news of the families about him. His
health is also good, though he is not as fleshy as he used to be. I have
multiplied my letters to you lately, because the scene has been truly
interesting; so much so, that had I received my permission to pay my
projected visit to my own country, I should have thought, and should
still think it my duty to defer it a while. I presume it cannot now
be long, before I receive your definitive answer to my request. I send
herewith the public papers, as usual; and have the honor to be, with the
most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble
servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER V.--TO JOHN JAY, August 5, 1789

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, August 5, 1789.

Sir,

I wrote you on the 19th of the last month, with a postscript of the
21st; and again on the 23rd and 29th. Those letters went by private
conveyances. This goes by the London post. Since my last, some small and
momentary tumults have taken place in this city, in one of which a
few of the rioters were killed by the city militia. No more popular
executions have taken place. The capture of the Baron de Besenval,
commandant of the Swiss troops, as he was flying to Switzerland, and of
the Duke de la Vauguyon, endeavoring to escape by sea, would endanger
new interpositions of the popular arm, were they to be brought to Paris.
They are, therefore, confined where they were taken. The former of
these being unpopular with the troops under his command, on account of
oppressions, occasioned a deputation from their body, to demand justice
to be done on him, and to avow the devotion of the Swiss troops to
the cause of the nation. They had before taken side in part only. Mr.
Necker's return contributed much to r