tribune, to take or refuse the oath to the civil
constitution of the clergy, a furious clamor ascends in the Tuileries,
and even penetrates into the Chamber. "To the lamp post with all those
who refuse!" On the 27th of September, 1790, M. Dupont, economist,
having spoken against the assignats, is surrounded on leaving the
Chamber and hooted at, hustled, pushed against the basin of the
Tuileries, into which he was being thrown when the guard rescued him. On
the 21st of June, 1790, M. de Cazales just misses "being torn to pieces
by the people."[2140] Deputies of the "right" are threatened over and
over again by gestures in the streets and in the coffee-houses; effigies
of them with ropes about the neck are publicly displayed. The Abbe Maury
is several times on the point of being hung: he saves himself once by
presenting a pistol. Another time the Vicomte de Mirabeau is obliged
to draw his sword. M. de Clermont-Tonnerre, having voted against the
annexation of the Comtat to France, is assailed with chairs and clubs
in the Palais-Royal, pursued into a porter's room and from thence to his
dwelling; the howling crowd break in the doors, and are only repelled
with great difficulty. It is impossible for the members of the "right"
to assemble together; they are "stoned" in the church of the Capuchins,
then in the Salon Francais in the Rue Royale, and then, to crown the
whole, an ordinance of the new judges shuts up their hall, and punishes
them for the violence which they have to suffer.[2141] In short they are
at the mercy of the mob. The most moderate, the most liberal, and the
most manly both in heart and head, Malouet, declares that "in going to
the Assembly he rarely forgot to carry his pistols with him."[2142]
"For two years," he says, "after the King's flight, we never enjoyed one
moment of freedom and security."

" On going into a slaughter-house," writes another deputy, "you see some
animals at the entrance which still have a short time to live, until
the hour comes to dispatch them. Such was the impression which the
assemblage of nobles, bishops, and parliamentarians[2143] on the right
side made on my mind every time I entered the Assembly, the executioners
of the left side permitting them to breathe a little longer."

They are insulted and outraged even upon their benches; "placed
between peril within and peril without, between the hostility of the
galleries,"[2144] and that of the howlers at the entrance, "between
pe