the neck in a kind of agony, lest the waving multitudes which receive
him may not render him back alive. No cry of Vive le Roi salutes
the ear; cries only of Vive Petion; Petion ou la Mort. The National
Solemnity is as it were huddled by; each cowering off almost before
the evolutions are gone through. The very Mai with its Scutcheons
and Lawyers'-bags is forgotten, stands unburnt; till 'certain Patriot
Deputies,' called by the people, set a torch to it, by way of voluntary
after-piece. Sadder Feast of Pikes no man ever saw.

Mayor Petion, named on hats, is at his zenith in this Federation;
Lafayette again is close upon his nadir. Why does the stormbell of
Saint-Roch speak out, next Saturday; why do the citizens shut their
shops? (Moniteur, Seance du 21 Juillet 1792.) It is Sections defiling,
it is fear of effervescence. Legislative Committee, long deliberating
on Lafayette and that Anti-jacobin Visit of his, reports, this day, that
there is 'not ground for Accusation!' Peace, ye Patriots, nevertheless;
and let that tocsin cease: the Debate is not finished, nor the Report
accepted; but Brissot, Isnard and the Mountain will sift it, and resift
it, perhaps for some three weeks longer.

So many bells, stormbells and noises do ring;--scarcely audible; one
drowning the other. For example: in this same Lafayette tocsin, of
Saturday, was there not withal some faint bob-minor, and Deputation of
Legislative, ringing the Chevalier Paul Jones to his long rest; tocsin
or dirge now all one to him! Not ten days hence Patriot Brissot,
beshouted this day by the Patriot Galleries, shall find himself
begroaned by them, on account of his limited Patriotism; nay pelted at
while perorating, and 'hit with two prunes.' (Hist. Parl. xvi. 185.) It
is a distracted empty-sounding world; of bob-minors and bob-majors, of
triumph and terror, of rise and fall!

The more touching is this other Solemnity, which happens on the morrow
of the Lafayette tocsin: Proclamation that the Country is in Danger. Not
till the present Sunday could such Solemnity be. The Legislative decreed
it almost a fortnight ago; but Royalty and the ghost of a Ministry held
back as they could. Now however, on this Sunday, 22nd day of July 1792,
it will hold back no longer; and the Solemnity in very deed is. Touching
to behold! Municipality and Mayor have on their scarfs; cannon-salvo
booms alarm from the Pont-Neuf, and single-gun at intervals all day.
Guards are mounted, scar