he streets, but
also in the strongly organized clubs. The Mayor answered in a peremptory
manner, but without entirely effacing the first impression. During
several days after the king's flight, both Bailly and La Fayette were in
personal danger. The National Assembly had often to look to their
safety.

I have now reached a painful portion of my task, a frightful event, that
led finally to Bailly's cruel death; a bloody catastrophe, the relation
of which will perhaps oblige me to allow a little blame to hover over
some actions of this virtuous citizen, whom thus far it has been my
delight to praise without any restriction.

The flight of the king had an immense influence on the progress of our
first revolution. It threw into the republican party some considerable
political characters who, till then, had hoped to realize the union of a
monarchy with democratical principles.

Mirabeau, a short time before his death, having heard this projected
flight spoken of, said to Cabanis: "I have defended monarchy to the
last; I defend it still, although I think it lost.... But, if the king
departs, I will mount the tribune, have the throne declared vacant, and
proclaim a Republic."

After the return from Varennes, the project of substituting a republican
government for a monarchical government was very seriously discussed by
the most moderate members of the National Assembly, and we now know
that the Duke de La Rochefoucauld and Dupont (de Nemours) for example,
were decidedly in favour of a republic. But it was chiefly in the clubs
that the idea of such a radical change had struck root. When the
Commission of the National Assembly had expressed itself, through M.
Muguet, at the sitting of the 13th of July, 1791, against the forfeiture
of Louis XVI., there was a great fermentation in Paris. Some agents of
the Cordeliers (Shoemakers') Club were the first to ask for signatures
to a petition on the 14th of July, against the proposed decision. The
Assembly refused to read and even to receive it. On the motion of
Laclos, the club of the Jacobins got up another. This, after undergoing
some important modifications, was to be signed on the 17th on the Champ
de Mars, on the altar of their country. These projects were discussed
openly, in full daylight. The National Assembly deemed them anarchical.
On the 16th of July it called to its bar the municipality of Paris,
enjoining it to have recourse to force, if requisite, to repress any
culpa