and said, “No, no we do not require actual proofs for a criminal accusation—­presumptive proofs are sufficient.  There is not one of us in whose minds the cowardice and perfidy which characterises the acts of the minister have not produced the most lively indignation.  Is it not he who has for two months kept in his portfolio the decree of the reunion of Avignon with France? and the blood spilled in that city, the mutilated carcases of so many victims, do they not cry to us for vengeance against him?  I see from this tribune the palace in which evil counsellors deceive the king whom the constitution gives to us, forge the fetters which enchain us, and plot the stratagems which are to deliver us to the house of Austria.  (Loud acclamations.) The day has arrived to put an end to such audacity and insolence, and to crush such conspirators.  Dread and terror have frequently, in the ancient times, come forth from this palace in the name of despotism:  let them return thither to-day in the name of the law (loud applauses); let them penetrate all hearts; let all those who inhabit it know that the constitution promises inviolability to the king alone; let them learn that the law will reach all the guilty, and that not one head convicted of criminality can escape its sword.”

These allusions to the queen, who was accused of directing the Austrian committee, this threatening language, addressed to the king, went echoing into the king’s cabinet, and forced his hand to sign the nomination of a Girondist ministry.  This was a party manoeuvre, executed beneath the appearance of sudden indignation in the tribune—­it was more, it was the first signal made by the Girondists to the men of the 20th of June and the 10th of August.  The act of accusation was carried, and De Lessart sent to the court of Orleans, which only yielded him up to the cut-throats of Versailles.  He might have fled, but his flight would have been interpreted against the king.  He placed himself generously between death and his master, innocent of every crime except his love for him.

The king felt that there was but one step between himself and abdication:  that was, by taking his ministry from amongst his enemies, and giving them an interest in power, by placing it in their hands.  He yielded to the times, embraced his minister, and requested the Girondists to supply him with another.  The Girondists were already silently occupied in so doing.  They had previously made, in the name of the party, overtures to Roland at the end of February.  “The court,” they said to him, “is not very far off from taking Jacobin ministers:  not from inclination, but through treachery.  The confidence it will feign to bestow will be a snare.  It requires violent men in order to impute to them the excesses of the people and the disorders of the kingdom:  we must deceive its perfidious hopes, and give to it firm and sagacious patriots.  We think of you.”

XI.