the oaths prescribed by the law, and
which they said were contrary to their conscience. Thence _these
executors of speedy justice_ went to the _Abbaye_, where the persons
were confined who were at court on the tenth of August. These were
despatched also, and afterward they visited the other prisons. All those
who were confined either on the accusation or suspicion of crimes were
destroyed."

Morris then detailed other horrors; yet Mr. Jefferson, looking upon the
whole movement against monarchy and aristocracy as essentially right,
and based upon the same principles as that of the American Revolution,
persisted in regarding the Jacobins, who were the chief promoters of
these bloody deeds, and who had laid violent hands on the constitution
and its supporters, as "republican patriots." He was shocked, but was
neither disappointed nor very sorrowful. He looked upon the whole affair
as an indispensable struggle of freemen in the abolition of monarchy and
all its prerogatives and injustice; and he deplored the death of the
innocent who had fallen, but only as he should have done "had they
fallen in battle." "The liberty of the whole earth," he said, "was
depending on the issue of the contest; and was ever such a prize won
with so little innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply
wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause," he continued; "but rather
than that it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth
desolated. Were there but an Adam and Eve left in every country, and
left free, it would have been better than it now is."

When fully assured of Lafayette's fate, Washington felt an ardent desire
to befriend his family, consisting of his wife and young children. He
knew that their situation, in the raging storm, must be dreadful at the
best; and on the first information of their probable residence, at the
close of January, 1793, he addressed the following letter to the
marchioness:--

"If I had words that could convey to you an adequate idea of my
feelings on the present situation of the Marquis de Lafayette,
this letter would appear to you in a different garb. The sole
object in writing to you now is, to inform you that I have
deposited in the hands of Mr. Nicholas Van Staphorst, of Amsterdam,
two thousand three hundred and ten guilders, Holland currency,
equal to two hundred guineas, subject to your orders.

"This sum is, I am certain, the least I am indebted f