to have made some stand in defence of the king,--
some delay in the dissolution of society; and these people declared
themselves by public acts, particularly by petitions to the Assembly. A
man of spirit would have seized the occasion: and if the king had been
such a man, he might possibly have risen from this point out of his
misfortunes, and so have made a favourable day out of that most
miserable one. But, as usual, the royal family overlooked the
opportunity. They were so occupied in looking for help from Germany,
that they had no attention, no trust, for friends nearer home. The Duke
of Brunswick was coming with an army to rescue them. The people knew
this well enough; and their panic about an invasion did not make them
love the more the family at whose call the invaders were coming. On the
25th of July, the Duke of Brunswick began his march into France, and
issued a proclamation which said that the whole French nation should be
protected by him in rallying round their king; but that, if any parties
should insult the king, or carry him away from Paris, such persons
should be destroyed, and Paris blown to pieces with his cannon. As the
French nation did not wish or intend to rally round their king, this
proclamation made them furious, and caused the destruction of the royal
family in a shorter time than it would otherwise have happened; if it
had otherwise happened at all. Was ever such mournful folly heard of as
marks the whole history of this unhappy king? One's compassion,
however, is chiefly for the three who were victims of this folly without
sharing it. The king and queen brought much of their misery upon
themselves; but the sweet Princess Elizabeth and the two children
suffered without having sinned. The darkness of their lot was now
gathering fast about them.

It was impossible, after the late proceedings, to consider the palace
safe at any hour. The queen feared assassination for herself as a
foreigner, and a trial for the king, preparatory to his death upon the
scaffold; and she desired to guard against any seizure of papers, which
might now take place at any time. She deposited her ready money in the
hands of a faithful person; and the king employed his old companion,
Gamin, the locksmith, to make, in great secrecy, a safe for papers in a
place where no one would suspect its existence. This fellow betrayed
the secret; first, luckily, to some friends; and the queen, hearing of
this, persuade