at seemed to have obscured this
point, this sole point, in the life of Bailly. I have succeeded,
Gentlemen, without ever having had a wish or occasion to veil the truth.
I do no Frenchman the injustice to suppose that I need define to him an
event of the national history that has been so influential on the
progress of our revolution, but perhaps, there may be some foreigners
present at this sitting. It will be therefore for them only that I shall
here relate some details. We must bring to mind some deplorable
circumstances of the evening of the 17th July, when the multitude had
assembled on the Champ de Mars or Champ de la Federation, around the
altar of their country, the remains of the wooden edifice that had been
raised to celebrate the anniversary of the 14th of July. Part of this
crowd signed a petition tending to ask the forfeiture of the throne by
Louis XVI., then lately reconducted from Varennes, and on whose fate the
Constituent Assembly had been enacting regulations. On that occasion
martial law was proclaimed. The National Guard, with Bailly and La
Fayette at their head, went to the Champ de Mars; they were assailed by
clamours, by stones, and by the firing of a pistol; the Guard fired;
many victims fell, without its being possible to say exactly how many,
for the estimates, according to the effect that the reporters wished to
produce, varied from eighty to two thousand!

The Revolutionary Tribunal heard several witnesses relative to the
events on the Champ de Mars: amongst them I find Chaumette, Procurator
of the Commune of Paris; Lullier, the Syndic Procurator General of the
Department; Coffinhal, Judge of the Revolutionary Tribunal; Dufourny,
manufacturer of gunpowder; Momoro, a printer.

All these witnesses strongly blamed the old Mayor of Paris; but who is
there that does not know how much arbitrariness and cruelty these
individuals, whom I have mentioned above, showed during our misfortunes?
Their declarations, therefore, must be received with great suspicion.

The sincere admirers of Bailly would be relieved of a great weight, if
the event of the Champ de la Federation had been darkened only by the
testimonies of Chaumettes and Coffinhals. Unfortunately, the public
accuser produced some very grave documents during the debates, which the
impartial historian cannot overlook. Let us say, however, just to
correct one error out of a thousand, that on the day of Bailly's trial,
the public accuser was Nauli