th fire and sword. Tidings were
floating upon every breeze, grossly exaggerated, of the designs of the
king and queen to escape, to join the avenging army, and to wreak a
terrible vengeance upon their country. Furious speeches were made in the
Assembly and in the streets, to rouse to madness the people, now
destitute of work and of bread. "Citizens," ferociously exclaimed Marat,
"watch, with an eagle eye, that palace, the impenetrable den where plots
are ripening against the people. There a perfidious queen lords it over
a treacherous king, and rears the cubs of tyranny. Lawless priests there
consecrate the arms which are to be bathed in the blood of the people.
The genius of Austria is there, guided by the Austrian Antoinette. The
emigrants are there stimulated in their thirst for vengeance. Every
night the nobility, with concealed daggers, steal into this den. They
are knights of the poniard--assassins of the people. Why is not the
property of emigrants confiscated--their houses burned--a price set upon
their heads? The king is ready for flight. Watch! watch! a great blow is
preparing--is ready to burst; if you do not prevent it by a counter blow
more sudden, more terrible, the people and liberty are annihilated."

The king and queen, in the apartments where they were virtually
imprisoned, read these angry and inflammatory appeals, and both now felt
that no further time was to be lost in attempting to effect their
escape. It was known that the brother of the king, subsequently Charles
X., was going from court to court in Europe, soliciting aid for the
rescue of the illustrious prisoners. It was known that the King of
Austria, brother of Maria Antoinette, had promised to send an army of
thirty-five thousand men to unite with the emigrants at Coblentz in
their march upon Paris. Every monarch in Europe was alarmed, in view of
the instability of his own throne, should the rebellion of the people
against the throne in France prove triumphant; and Spain, Prussia,
Sardinia, Naples, and Switzerland had guaranteed equal forces to assist
in the re-establishment of the French monarchy. It is not strange that
the exasperation of the people should have been aroused, by the
knowledge of these facts, beyond all bounds. And their leaders were
aware that they were engaged in a conflict in which defeat was
inevitable death.

The king had now resolved, if possible, to escape. He, however, declared
that it never was his intention to joi