of Choudieu’s; it would seem as though this crowd had no longer any feeling, and that passion triumphed over nature.  But M. de Gouvion was sustained by a sentiment stronger than popular fury—­that of generous despair; he continued:  “As a man, I applauded the clemency of the National Assembly when it burst the fetters of these unhappy soldiers who were misled.”  He was again interrupted, but continued:  “the decrees of the Constituent Assembly, the orders of the king, the voice of their officers, the cries of their country, all were unavailing; without provocation on the part of the national guards of the two departments, they fired on Frenchmen, and my brother fell a victim to his obedience to the laws.  No, I cannot remain silent, so long as the memory of the national guards is disgraced by the honours decreed to these men who murdered them.”

Couthon, a young Jacobin, seated not far from Robespierre, from whose eyes he seemed to gain his secret inspirations, rose and replied to Gouvion, without insulting him.  “Who is the slave of prejudices that would venture to dishonour men whom the law has absolved; who would not repress his personal grief in the interest and the triumph of liberty?” But Gouvion’s voice touched that chord of justice and natural emotion that always vibrates beneath the insensibility of opinion.  Twice did the Assembly, summoned by the president to vote for or against their admission to the debate, rise in an even number for and against this motion.  And the secretaries, the judges of these decisions, hesitated to pronounce on which side the majority was; they at length, after two attempts, declared that the majority was in favour of the admission of the Swiss; but the minority protested, and the appel nominal was demanded.  This pronounced a feeble majority that the Swiss should be admitted; and they instantly entered, amidst the applause of the tribunes, whilst the unfortunate Gouvion left the chamber by the opposite door, his forehead scarlet with indignation, and vowing never to set foot in that Assembly, where he was forced to behold and welcome the murderers of his brother.  He instantly applied to the minister of war to join the army of the north, and fell there.

XX.

The soldiers were introduced, and Collot d’Herbois presented them to the admiring tribunes.  The national guard of Versailles, who had followed them to the Assembly, defiled in the hall amidst the sound of drums, and cries of “Vive la Nation!” Groups of citizens and females of Paris, with tricoloured flags and pikes brandished over their heads, followed them; then the members of the popular societies of Paris presented to the president flags of honour given to the Swiss by the departments which these conquerors had just traversed.  The men of the 14th of July, with Gouchon, the agitator of the faubourg St. Antoine, as their spokesman, announced that this faubourg had fabricated 10,000 pikes to defend their liberties and their country.  This legitimate ovation, offered by the Girondists and Jacobins to undisciplined soldiers, authorised the people of Paris to decree to them the triumph of such an infamous proceeding (le triomphe du scandale).