ftance, as to any thing; fo that it is hardly poffible in fome inftances to trace, what was the preceding or the fubfequent act; and we mult trust more to opinion than knowledge for placing them in their proper and natural order. 66 We are informed by Rabaut, that after Maillard, with his female army, had fet cut from Paris, there iffued forth also a multitude "of men, armed with pikes, battle"axes, and tharpened stakes, men whose hatred was principally di"rected against the queen, and against the warriors of the life "guards." That, "with this "fecond army of invaders, came "feveral perfons, whofe appearance "betokened that they were foreign"ers, and who feemed to have been "fummoned for the occafion; for "the men of Paris have a caft of "countenance peculiar to themfelves, and those who are acquainted with it are well able to diftinguish fuch strangers as mix among them. Thefe ferocious "battalions had taken the lead of "the national guards, with whom we must be careful to avoid confounding them. They proved "the caufe of all the disturbance "which enfued on the following day." This ftrange flory of imaginary foreigners, feems calculated merely to remove from his favourite Parifians fome part of the odium attached to the enfuing atro cities, and to perfuade his readers that an infufion of foreign ferocity into the milky difpofition of thofe peaceful citizens, was abfolutely neceffary to their production. While the extraordinary appearance and conduct of thefe unnumbered hofts of male and female ruffians ftruck terror into all beholders, and each of their movements feemed calculated to overwhelm every object that came in their way, the first measure adopted by the king was an order to the troops not to fire by any means upon the people. The next was naturally an enquiry into the means of protection and fafety which he poffeffed; and these were found miferably defective indeed. The dragoons of Flanders had already been as thoroughly debauched at Verfailles, and as totally feduced from their duty, as the French guards had before been at Paris. The national guards of Verfailles, who amounted to about four thoufand, and who might have been expected to be the natural and zealous protectors of their fovereign, who had spent his life amongit them, were in fact his moft determined enemies, and vied with the Parifians, if they did not exceed them, in their inveteracy against the whole royal family. As if this had not been fufficient, they likewife bore a long and particular animofity to the life guards, which one Le Cointre, of Versailles, had for feveral days been equally inceflant and fuccefsful in his endeavours to increase to the highest poflible pitch. In thefe circumitances, the king ordered the dragoons to retire from Versailles, retaining only a fall number, who acted as centinels in the interior parts of the palace. Thus his whole means of fecurity and defence, environed on every fide, as he was, with enemies and danger, was at length reduced to the single body of the gardes du corps: and thefe, whofe courage and fidelity were undoubted, were, however, far from being numerous; and were at the fame time furrounded by private as well as by public enemies. It is impoffible to speak with any accuracy as to the manner in which the first scuffle originated at Verfailles; nor would it be eafily fettled, at what particular time even it took place, any farther than that it was in fome part of the evening, and probably before it was dark. The democratic accounts fay, that the life guards fired wantonly upon the national guards of Verfailles, and having wounded fome of them, occafioned a return of their fire. This appears fo contrary to all reason and probability, that it would require the ftrongest and most pofitive evidence to render it credible. Another account, which feems much more probable, states, that an inhabitant of Versailles, whofe name is mentioned, having mixed with the rabble, and endeavouring with them to force his way through the iron gates, was wounded by the life guard's who defended the entrance, and that this being refented by the national guards as an attack upon the whole corps, immediately drew on their fire. However it happened, it was productive of lefs mischief than could have been expected; a few were wounded on both fides, but we do not learn that any perfon was killed. The hoftile parties came to fome explanations; and it feems as if something like an armistice was concluded between them for the prefent. As foon as the king's ratification of the conftitutional articles, which was about ten at night, was received by the aembly, most of the members, if at all, were glad to make their efcape from the capricious rage and eternal clamour of the frantic female bacchanals, by whom they were still accompanied, furrounded, and in every sense incommoded: fo that the hall and the feats of legiflation were literally abandoned to them. In the mean time, the furious banditti without, who filled every place, excepting the interior of the caftle or palace, which they furrounded and befieged, fpread tercity, as it was impoffible even for ror and confufion through the whole. their friends to determine to what objects the rapine or fury of fo lawlefs and frantic a rabble might chance to be directed. to efcape from the noife and tumult The deputies. had scarcely time in their hall, and to feek for retire apartments, when a new alarm was ment and quiet in their respective given, which occafioned their immediate recal, and appeared more formidable than any that had yet taken place. This proceeded from the unexpected news, that Fayette army of 30,000 men, to Verfailles; was marching, at the head of an and this intelligence was foon confirmed by fignals of mufquetry and rockets which were feen and heard at a distance. march, and for the better prefervaTo expedite the army into three columns, each of tion of order, he had divided his which proceeded by a feparate route; but adjusted their movements with fo much regularity, that they As no intelligence had yet been all arrived about the fame time. received of the caufes or objects of this march, it could not fail to excite doubt, and fome degree of alarm, in all the different parties. made his troops ftop in the avenue It is ferioufly told, that Fayette of Verfailles, and fwear fidelity to the king and to the laws. Who can avoid being furprised that the fabricators of this abfurd ftory fhould not once have reflected, how many [D) 2] hours hours it would coft, even in open day light, to administer an oath to an army of 30,000 men? nor how extenfive a plain would have been neceffary for the purpofe; or at least for the troops who were fworn to file off to and form on, while their remaining fellows were undergoing the ceremony. It is, indeed, not impoffible, that Fayette, and thofe principal officers who were immedi. ately about his perfon, might, at the awful appearance of the cafle, to which they were approaching, and perhaps fome recollection of former greatnefs and fplendour, have entered into fome fuch compact or oath. However that was, La Fayette certainly thewed the most pacific difpofition. He prefented himfelf firit before the king, and then before the affembly, and behaved to both with every appearance of the greateft refpect and even fubmiffion. He lamented to Mounier, the measures which a powerful cabal had forced him into; and it was understood from his discourse, that by a few fubmillions from the gardes du corps, and their adoption of the national cockade, all the exifting differences would be reconciled, and all jealoufies removed. This was excellent, and fpeaking like a man of honour; without facrificing any part of his principles, or deviating in any degree from his duty, with refpect to the cause which he efpoufed. And if it had not been for the fubfequent error, mistake, imprudence, or whatever it may be called, which he fell into, the event might poflibly have been happy, much, if not the whole, of the fucceeding evils prevented, and his name long remembered with praife. It was about midnight when La Fayette arrived at Versailles: between two and three in the morning, he most unfortunately and fatally perfuaded Mounier to break up the affembly and retire to reft; an advice which opened the way to all the ruin which eníued. It is not to be doubted, but that, through the bustle, fatigues, and fears of the preceding day, Fayette muft have been greatly exhaufted, and fleep highly neceffary to him; but he fhould have remembered, particularly as a foldier, that in cafes of great emergency, moment, and danger, it was his duty to refift to the utmoft, and even to overcome, if poffible, the calls of nature. He well knew the cruel and bloody difpofition of that uncountable crew of male and female ruffians, who filled and furrounded the whole city and its environs; and if he thought at all, he could not but expect, knowing fo well as he did the motives and objects of their coming, that they would take fome fatal advantage of his going to reft. Nor were the national affembly at all excufable, in purfuing his ad. vice; they could not but perceive the preffure of the motive on his part which produced it; and as they had fo lately made no difficulty of fitting up and watching a night for their own protection, they fhould not have hefitated in paying a fimilar attention to the fafety of their fovereign at this moment of fuch imminent danger, when his own life, and the lives of his whole family, were evidently at stake. Notwithstanding the korrors of the fituation, the hearing her life repeatedly threatened, and her blood howled for, the queen poffeffed fuch a stock of intrepidity and coolness, that the retired to reft at two two o'clock, and if we credit the atteftations of her bed-chamber women, flept foundly. At fix o'clock, a numerous body of thofe ruffians who had arrived the day before from Paris, broke, with furious menaces, into the courts of the palace, where they seized Monfrs. de Huttes and Varicourt, two of the life guards, dragged them from their pofts, and murdered them in the most cruel manner; their heads being, with many blows, fevered from their bodies by the bungling hands and blant axe of one Nicolas, a felfconftituted executioner, who had from liking taken up this bufinefs, and from the beginning of the troubles gloried in mangling and beheading all the fufpected royalifts that were put into his hands. Another party rushed into the queen's apartments, with loud outcries, execrations, and threats, too horrid to be related or endured, by any but the moft favage minds, in the recital. The centinel, M. de Miomandre, after bravely refifting for a few minutes, finding himself entirely overpowered, opened the queen's door, and called out with a loud voice, Save the queen, her "life is aimed at! I ftand alone "against two thousand tigers!" He foon after funk down covered with wounds, and was left for dead; but coming again to the ufe of his fenfes, he had the fortune to creep away unobferved through the crowd: it will afford pleasure to all admirers of courage and fidelity to know that he was afterwards cured of his wounds. The unhappy queen flew almost naked through the apartments, starting at the found of the pistols which were continually fired in the courts, and calling eagerly to fuch guards as fhe happened to meet, "O my friends! fave my "life, fave my children!" From whatever caufe it proceeded, fome inftantaneous impulfe feemed to fix a perfuafion in the minds of the attendants, that the life of the poor young prince, the heir to the crown, was particularly aimed at; and this operated fo ftrongly, that without waiting for orders, they ran inftantly, as if by a common fympathy, to the children's apartments, and brought them away halfnaked, to place them under the protection of their royal father. Such being the force of ancient prejudice and opinion, that they ftill thought Frenchmen could not but pay fome reverence to the perfon of their king. The king, awakened by the noife, flew through a private paffage to the queen's apartment, in order to fave her life, or to perish along with her. He was met by fome of his guards, who escorted him back to his own apartment, where the queen was already arrived, and the children fpeedily after. The guards were in the mean time hunted from place to place, through all the purlieus of the palace, much in the fame manner that the proteftants had been after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. A confiderable party of those who had been on duty in the interior palace had only time to barricade themselves in fome of the rooms adjoining to the royal apartments; and being there completely enclofed, the purfuing murderers were in the act of forcing open the doors. At this critical moment La Fayette and his officers fortunately appeared, and with much perfuafion and intreaty induced them to defift. It would feem ftrange in any other poffible cafe, that a general' at the head of a powerful army, instead of immediately applying the force in [D3] his his hands to difperfe, if not to punih, a body of ruffians, whom he had detected in the very acts of murder and treafon, fhould degrade himfelf to intreaty and fupplication to procure their forbearance. But fuch was the prefent unexampled ftate of affairs, that Fayette could not act otherwife. His faithful foldiers, the Parifian or national guards, had already declared that they would not ufe force against their fellow citizens, in which description they included all the banditti who were now in and about Versailles; and a few of them had this very morning afforded a fpeci. men of the difpofition and conduct to be expected from the whole; for being on duty near the fpot where MM. de Huttes and Varicourt were fo barbaroufly murdered, and in full fight of that inhuman tranfaction, no principle of generofity or fympathy could induce them to interfere, or make the smallest attempt to fave thera. It cannot but excite furprize that a man who, like Rabaut, had fome character to fupport and preferve, fhould have fo difguifed, altered, and miftated the tranfactions of this night and morning, that no one, acquainted with them, could, without referring to the date, judge, from his account, what period he alluded to, or what events he was defcribing. In the face of the most irrefragable teftimonies, and in fome inftances of facts corroborated upon bath before a tribunal of justice, he ftates things directly contrary. In particular, with refpect to the refpect to the conduct of the national troops and the banditti, he states feveral rencounters to have taken place between them; that the former, by force, not only foon cleared the palace and its environs of the ruffians, but that they likewise compelled them to leave all the plunder which they had feized behind; that, upon fome new occafion, they purfued and routed them again; and they feem at length to have driven them quite away, and obliged them to purfue a new route to Paris. So that by this statement, the national troops would have merited high praise for the zeal and activity with which they quelled and difperfed this rabble. But it is time to return, and to fee things as they really were. The king, accompanied and protected by La Fayette, went through the palace, his mind being fo occupied by the danger of the guards, that it could dwell upon no other fubject than that of recommending them to the mercy of the crowd, with affurances to all that they were unjustly accufed. He then went to a balcony, where he repeated the fame interceffion to the crowd who filled the courts below; but the mob, intead of paying any attention to the fupplication of their fovereign, roared out with the utmost violence and indecency for the queen. Fayette accordingly went for her. She hefitated a moment, and asked if her prefence was neceflary to appeafe the people? He affured her it was. "Then," faid he, "I will go, even if "I was fure that I went to execution." She accordingly appeared in the bal cony, with the dauphin in her arms; and the popular fury feemed in fome degree to fubfide; although in the depofitions given before the chatelet it is teftified, that mufkets were at that very time feen levelled in the crowd, which appeared to the deponents to be pointed directly at the queen. Some fort of calm, how |