t, when the Assembly, giving
way to a spontaneous enthusiasm, with an unanimous voice, proclaimed
Bailly Mayor of Paris, and Lafayette Commander-in-Chief of the National
Guard, the creation of which had just been authorized.

The official minutes of the Municipality state, that on being thus
unexpectedly named, Bailly bent forward to the Assembly, his eyes bathed
in tears, and that amidst his sobs he could only utter a few unconnected
words to express his gratitude. The Mayor's own recital differs very
little from this official relation. Still I shall quote it as a model of
sincerity and of modesty.

"I know not whether I wept, I know not what I said; but I remember well
that I was never so surprised, so confused, and so beneath myself.
Surprise adding to my usual timidity before a large assembly, I rose, I
stammered out a few words that were not heard, and that I did not hear
myself, but which my agitation, much more than my mouth, rendered
expressive. Another effect of my sudden stupidity was, that I accepted
without knowing what a burden I was taking on myself."

Bailly having become Mayor, and being tacitly accepted by the National
Assembly, even from the 16th of July, availed himself of his intimacy
with Vicq-d'Azyr, the Queen's physician, to persuade Louis XVI. to show
himself to the Parisians. This advice was listened to. On the 17th the
new magistrate addressed the king near the barriere de la Conference, in
a discourse that began thus:--

"I bring to your Majesty the keys of your good city of Paris. They are
the same that were presented to Henry IV. He had reconquered his people,
here the people have reconquered their king."

The antithesis: "he had reconquered his people, here the people have
reconquered their king," was universally applauded. But since then, it
has been criticized with bitterness and violence. The enemies of the
Revolution have striven to discover in it an intention of committing an
outrage, to which the character of Bailly, and still more so the first
glance at an examination of the rest of his discourse, give a flat
contradiction. I will acknowledge, Gentlemen, I think that I have even a
right to decline the epithet of "unfortunate," which one of our most
respectable colleagues in the French Academy has pronounced relative to
this celebrated phrase, while doing justice at the same time to the
sentiments of the author. The poison contained in the few words that I
have quoted, was very i