'2,000 letters" will be sent into the provinces to
denounce to the people the conduct of the malignant deputies: "Your
houses are held as a surety for your opinions: keep this in mind, and
save yourselves!" At last, on the morning of the 1st of August, five
deputations from the Palais-Royal, one of them led by Loustalot, march
in turn to the Hotel-de-Ville, insisting that the drums should be beaten
and the citizens be called together for the purpose of changing the
deputies, or their instructions, and of ordering the National Assembly
to suspend its discussion on the veto until the districts and provinces
could give expression to their will: the people, in effect, alone being
sovereign, and alone competent, always has the right to dismiss or
instruct anew its servants, the deputies. On the following day, August
2nd, to make matters plainer, new delegates from the same Palais-Royal
suit gestures to words; they place two fingers on their throats, on
being introduced before the representatives of the commune, as a hint
that, if the latter do not obey, they will be hung.

After this it is vain for the National Assembly to make any show of
indignation, to declare that it despises threats, and to protest its
independence; the impression is already produced. "More than 300 members
of the communes," says Mounier, "had decided to support the absolute
veto." At the end of ten days most of these had gone over, several of
them through attachment to the King, because they were afraid of "a
general uprising," and "were not willing to jeopardize the lives of the
royal family." But concessions like these only provoke fresh extortions.
The politicians of the street now know by experience the effect of
brutal violence on legal authority. Emboldened by success and by
impunity, they reckon up their strength and the weakness of the latter.
One blow more, and they are undisputed masters. Besides, the issue is
already apparent to clear-sighted men. When the agitators of the public
thoroughfares, and the porters at the street-corners, convinced of their
superior wisdom, impose decrees by the strength of their lungs, of their
fists, and of their pikes, at that moment experience, knowledge, good
sense, cool-blood, genius, and judgment, disappear from human affairs,
and things revert back to chaos. Mirabeau, in favor of the veto for
life, saw the crowd imploring him with tears in their eyes to change his
opinion:

"Monsieur le Comte, if the Kin