On
June 21, and on the 25th, the Cordeliers attempted to renew, with
better effect, the attack which had been baffled by a divided purpose
on the 20th. But their men would not move. The minister, Montciel,
gave orders that the departments should not send _federes_ to Paris,
and he succeeded in stopping all but a couple of thousand. Nothing
could be done until the contingents from the seaports arrived. The
crisis was postponed, and some weeks of July were spent in
parliamentary warfare. Here the Girondins had the lead; but the
Feuillants were the majority in the Assembly, while the Jacobins were
supreme in Paris. The Girondins were driven into a policy both
tortuous and weak. The Republic would give power to one of their
enemies as the Monarchy gave it to the other. All they could do was to
increase hostile pressure on the king, in the hope of bringing him to
terms with them. They oscillated between open attack and secret
negotiation and offers of defence.

Lewis was inclined to accept a scheme for his deliverance which was
arranged by his ministers in conjunction with the generals. He was to
have been taken to Compiegne, within reach of the army. But the army
meant Lafayette, and Lafayette would only consent to restore the king
as the hereditary chief of a commonwealth, who should reign, but
should not govern. The queen refused to reign under such conditions,
or to be saved by such hands. The security for her was in power, not
in limitations to power. The sacred thing was the ancient Crown, not
the new Constitution. Lally Tollendal came over from England,
conferred with Malouet and Clermont Tonnerre, and exhorted her to
consent. Morris, whose ready pen had put the American Constitution
into final shape five years before, aided them in drawing up an
amended scheme of government to be proclaimed when they should be
free. But the strong will and stronger passion of the queen prevailed.
When all was accurately combined, and the Swiss troops were on the
march to the rendezvous, the king revoked his orders, and on July 10
the Feuillant ministry resigned, and the Girondins saw power once more
within their grasp. They had vehemently denounced the king as the
cause of all the troubles of the State, and on July 6 the assault had
been interrupted for a moment by a scene of emotion, when the bishop
of Lyons obtained a manifestation of unanimous feeling in the presence
of the enemy.

On July 11 the Assembly passed a vote declarin