ard is unable to prevent every murder, it prevents some
of them. People live as they can under the constant expectation of fresh
popular violence. "To every impartial man," says Malouet, "the Terror
dates from the 14th of July".--On the 17th, before setting out for
Paris, the King attends communion and makes his will in anticipation
of assassination. From the 16th to the 18th, twenty personages of high
rank, among others most of those on whose heads a price is set by the
Palais-Royal, leave France: The Count d'Artois, Marshal de Broglie, the
Princes de Conde, de Conti, de Lambesc, de Vaudemont, the Countess
de Polignac, and the Duchesses de Polignac and de Guiche.--The day
following the two murders, M. de Crosne, M. Doumer, M. Sureau, the most
zealous and most valuable members of the committee on subsistence, all
those appointed to make purchases and to take care of the storehouses,
conceal themselves or fly. On the eve of the two murders, the notaries
of Paris, being menaced with a riot, had to advance 45,000 francs which
were promised to the workmen of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; while the
public treasury, almost empty, is drained of 30,000 livres per day to
diminish the cost of bread.--Persons and possessions, great and small,
private individuals and public functionaries, the Government itself,
all is in the hands of the mob. "From this moment," says a deputy,[1256]
"liberty did not exist even in the National Assembly. . . France stood
dumb before thirty factious persons. The Assembly became in their hands
a passive instrument, which they forced to serve them in the execution
of their projects."--They themselves do not lead, although they seem to
lead. The great brute, which has taken the bit in its mouth, holds on to
it, and it's plunging becomes more violent. Not only do both spurs which
maddened it, I mean the desire for innovation and the daily scarcity
of food, continue to prick it on. But also the political hornets which,
increasing by thousands, buzz around its ears. And the license in which
it revels for the first time, joined to the applause lavished upon it,
urges it forward more violently each day. The insurrection is glorified.
Not one of the assassins is sought out. It is against the conspiracy of
Ministers that the Assembly institutes an inquiry. Rewards are bestowed
upon the conquerors of the Bastille; it is declared that they have saved
France. All honors are awarded to the people-to their good sense, th