those who are in best repute, are at the mercy of
the throng who clamor at their doors. In the district of St. Roch,[1407]
after many useless refusals, the General Assembly, notwithstanding all
the reproaches of its conscience and the resistance of its reason, is
obliged to open letters addressed to Monsieur, to the Duke of Orleans,
and to the Ministers of War, of Foreign Affairs, and of the Marine. In
the committee on subsistence, M. Serreau, who is indispensable and who
is confirmed by a public proclamation, is denounced, threatened,
and constrained to leave Paris. M. de la Salle, one of the strongest
patriots among the nobles, is on the point of being murdered for having
signed an order for the transport of gunpowder;[1408] the multitude, in
pursuit of him, attach a rope to the nearest street-lamp, ransack the
Hotel-de-Ville, force every door, mount into the belfry, and seek for
the traitor even under the carpet of the bureau and between the legs of
the electors, and are only stayed in their course by the arrival of the
National Guard.

The people not only sentence but they execute, and, as is always the
case, blindly. At Saint-Denis, Chatel, the mayor's lieutenant, whose
duty it is to distribute flour, had reduced the price of bread at
his own expense: on the 3rd of August his house is forced open at two
o'clock in the morning, and he takes refuge in a steeple; the mob follow
him, cut his throat and drag his head along the streets.--Not only do
the people execute, but they pardon--and with equal discernment. On the
11th of August, at Versailles, as a parricide is about to be broken on
the wheel, the crowd demand his release, fly at the executioner, and set
the man free.[1409] Veritably this is sovereign power like that of the
oriental sovereign who arbitrarily awards life or death! A woman who
protests against this scandalous pardon is seized and comes near being
hung; for the new monarch considers as a crime whatever is offensive to
his new majesty. Again, he receives public and humble homage. The
Prime Minister, on imploring the pardon of M. de Bezenval at the
Hotel-de-Ville, in the presence of the electors and of the public, has
put it in appropriate words:

"It is before the most unknown, the obscurest citizen of Paris that I
prostrate myself; at whose feet I kneel."

A few days before this, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and at Poissy, the
deputies of the National Assembly not only kneel down in words, but
actua