eing compelled
to act against the rioters. So now, to recover their good-will, he handed
over the weapons of the Nobles, which were only pistols, rapiers, and
daggers, to the National Guard; and after reproaching D'Espremesnil and
his companions for interfering with the duties of his troops, he drove
them down the stairs, unarmed and defenseless as they were, among the
drunken and infuriated mob. They were hooted and ill-treated; but not only
did he make no attempt to protect them, but the next day he offered them a
gratuitous insult by the publication of a general order, addressed to his
own National Guard, in which he stigmatized their conduct as indecent,
their professed zeal as suspicious, and enjoined all the officials of the
palace to take care that such persons were not admitted in future. "The
king of the Constitution," he said, "ought to be surrounded by no
defenders but the soldiers of liberty."

Marie Antoinette had good reason to speak as she did the next week to
Mercy; though we can hardly fail to remark, as a singular proof of the
strength of her political prejudices, and of the degree in which she
allowed them to blind her to the objects and the worth of the few honest
or able men whom the Assembly contained, that she still regards the
Constitutionalists as only one degree less unfavorable to the king's
legitimate authority than the Jacobins. And we shall hereafter see that to
this mistaken estimate she adhered almost to the end. "Mischief," she
says, "is making progress so rapid that there is reason to fear a speedy
explosion, which can not fail to be dangerous to us, if we ourselves do
not guide it There is no middle way; either we must remain under the sword
of the factions, and consequently be reduced to nothing, if they get the
upper hand, or we must submit to be fettered under the despotism of men
who profess to be well-intentioned, but who always have done, and always
will do us harm. This is what is before us, and perhaps the moment is
nearer than we think, if we can not ourselves take a decided line, or lead
men's opinions by our own vigor and energetic action. What I here say is
not dictated by any exaggerated notions, nor by any disgust at our
position, nor by any restless desire to be doing something. I perfectly
feel all the dangers and risks to which we are exposed at this moment. But
I see that all around us affairs are so full of terror that it is better
to perish in trying to save ourselve