the people.  The Assembly, formed up to the present time, appears sanctioned by the silence of the law.  It is true that the magistrates demand force to put them down:  but what should you do in such circumstances?  I think that it would be an excess of severity to be inflexible to a fault, the origin of which is in your decrees:  it would be an insult to the citizens to imagine they had any evil designs.  It is said that this Assembly wishes to present an address at the chateau:  I do not believe that the citizens who compose it will demand to be presented with arms in their hands to the king:  I think that they will obey the laws, and that they will go unarmed, and like simple petitioners.  I demand that these citizens be instantly permitted, to defile before us.”  Dumolard and Raymond, indignant at the perfidy or the cowardice of these words, energetically opposed this weakness or complicity of the Assembly.  “The best homage to pay the people of Paris,” cried Raymond, “is to make them obey their own laws.  I demand that before these citizens are introduced they lay down their arms.”  “Why,” returned Guadet, “do you talk of disobedience to the law, when you have so often disobeyed it yourself? you would commit a revolting injustice; you would resemble that Roman emperor who, in order to find more guilty persons, caused the laws to be written in letters so obscure that no one could read them.”

The deputation of the insurgents entered at these last words, amidst the bursts of applause and the indignant murmurs of the Assembly.

XIV.

The orator of the deputation, Huguenin, read the petition concerted at Charenton.  He declared that the city had risen ready to employ every means of avenging the majesty of the people, whilst he deplored the necessity of staining their hands with the blood of the conspirators.  “But,” said he, with apparent resignation, “the hour has come; blood must be shed.  The men of the 14th of July are not asleep, they only appeared to be; their awakening is terrible:  speak, and we will act.  The people is there to judge its enemies:  let them choose between Coblentz and ourselves; let them purge the land of their enemies—­the tyrants; you know them.  The king is not with you:  we need no other proof of it than the dismissal of the patriot ministers and the inaction of the armies.  Is not the head of the people worth that of kings?  Must the blood of patriots flow with impunity to satisfy the pride and ambition of the perfidious chateau of the Tuileries?  If the king does not act, suspend him from his functions:  one man cannot fetter the will of twenty-five millions of men.  If through respect we suffer him to retain the throne, it is on condition that he observe the constitution.  If he depart from this he is no longer anything.  And the high court of Orleans,” continued Huguenin, “what is that doing?—­where are the heads of those it should have doomed to death?” These sinister expressions threw the constitutionalists into alarm, and caused the Girondists to smile.  The president, however, replied with a firmness which was not sustained by the attitude of his colleagues.  It was decided that the people of the faubourgs should be allowed to defile before them under arms.