ar the weaker. He
had encouraged those whom he had intended to daunt, and strengthened those
whom he had hoped to crush; and they, in consequence, proceeded in their
treasons with greater boldness and openness than ever. Marie Antoinette,
as we have seen, had expressed her belief that they designed to
assassinate Louis, and she now employed herself, as she had done once
before, in quilting him a waistcoat of thickness sufficient to resist a
dagger or a bullet; though so incessant was the watch which was set on all
their movements that it was with the greatest difficulty that she could
find an opportunity of trying it on him. But it was not the king, but she
herself, who was the victim whom the traitors proposed to take off in such
a manner; and in the second week of July a man was detected at the foot of
the staircase leading to her apartments, disguised as a grenadier, and
sufficiently equipped with murderous weapons. He was seized by the guard,
who had previous warning of his design; but was instantly rescued by a
gang of ruffians like himself, who were on the watch to take advantage of
the confusion which might be expected to arise from the accomplishment of
his crime.

Meanwhile the Assembly wavered, hesitated, and did nothing; the Girondins
and Jacobins were fertile in devising plots, and active in carrying them
out. One day, as if seized with a panic at some report of the strength of
the Austrian and Prussian armies, the Assembly again passed a vote
declaring the country in danger; on another, roused by a letter which a
Madame Gouges, a daughter of a fashionable dress-maker, a lady of more
notoriety than reputation, but who cultivated a character for philosophy,
took upon herself to write to them, and still more by a curiously
sentimental speech of the Bishop of Lyons, with the appropriate name of
Lamourette,[5] the members bound themselves to have for the future but one
heart and one sentiment; and for some minutes Jacobins, Girondins,
Constitutionalists, and Royalists were rushing to and fro across the floor
of the hall in a frenzy of mutual benevolence, embracing and kissing one
another, and swearing an eternal friendship. They even sent a message to
Louis to beg him to come and witness this new harmony. He came at once.
With his disposition, it was not strange that he yielded to the illusion
of the strange spectacle which he beheld. He shed tears of joy, declared
the complete agreement of his sentiments with th