d
flung into the river; two of the insurgents were at the same time hanged
at Paris on a gallows forty feet high; and a notice was sent to the
parish priests, which they were to read from the pulpit in order to
enlighten the people as to the folly of such outbreaks and as to the
conditions of the trade in grain. "My people, when they know the authors
of the trouble, will regard them with horror," said the royal circular.
The authors of the trouble have remained unknown; to his last day M.
Turgot believed in the existence of a plot concocted by the Prince of
Conti, with the design of overthrowing him.

Severities were hateful to the king; he had misjudged his own character,
when, at the outset of his reign, he had desired the appellation of Louis
le Severe. "Have we nothing to reproach ourselves with in these
measures?" he was incessantly asking M. Turgot, who was as conscientious
but more resolute than his master. An amnesty preceded the coronation,
which was to take place at Rheims on the 11th of June, 1775.

A grave question presented itself as regarded the king's oath: should he
swear, as the majority of his predecessors had sworn, to exterminate
heretics? M. Turgot had aroused Louis XVI.'s scruples upon this subject.
"Tolerance ought to appear expedient in point of policy for even an
infidel prince," he said; "but it ought to be regarded as a sacred duty
for a religious prince." His opinion had been warmly supported by M. de
Malesherbes, premier president of the Court of Aids. The king in his
perplexity consulted M. de Maurepas. "M. Turgot is right," said the
minister, "but he is too bold. What he proposes could hardly be
attempted by a prince who came to the throne at a ripe age and in
tranquil times. That is not your position. The fanatics are more to be
dreaded than the heretics. The latter are accustomed to their present
condition. It will always be easy for you not to employ persecution.
Those old formulas, of which nobody takes any notice, are no longer
considered to be binding." The king yielded; he made no change in the
form of the oath, and confined himself to stammering out a few incoherent
words. At the coronation of Louis XV. the people, heretofore admitted
freely to the cathedral, had been excluded; at the coronation of Louis
XVI. the officiator, who was the coadjutor of Rheims, omitted the usual
formula addressed to the whole assembly, "Will you have this king for
your king?" This inso