ce himself
under their protection. He imagined that he would there be safe, but the
first act of the assembly told him that his hopes were fallacious: under
the plea that his presence marred the freedom of debate, he was removed
from the side of Vergniaud, the president of the chamber, where he
instinctively took his seat, to the box reserved for the reporters. This
was the last day of the monarchy. The assembly concluded the crimes
of that day by a decree suspending Louis from his kingly functions, by
ordering the formation of a national convention, and by the appointment
of a new ministry, the members of which were taken conjointly from the
ranks of the Girondists and Jacobins. The national convention was to
have unlimited authority to decide in the name of the people upon all
the interests of the country, and its session was to commence on the
20th of September. In the meantime several important events took place.
Lafayette, having in vain endeavoured to re-establish the constitutional
throne, fled with his staff over the frontier, and was arrested in Liege
by an Austrian general, and thrown into prison. The allied armies
had taken Longwy and Verdun, and a report was spread that they were
advancing upon the capital. These successes alarmed the patriots, and
made them turn their rage upon each other. The Girondists conceived the
plan of abandoning the capital and defending the country behind the
Loire; but the Jacobins opposed this, and it was resolved that, rather
than surrender the capital, the population should be buried beneath its
ruins. Division was in the camp, and blood-thirsty men were now to
rule. Thousands suspected of being unfavourable to the principles of
the revolution were thrown into prison, and thousands were barbarously
massacred. The Jacobin faction of Paris ruled France; and such
sanginuary fanatics as Robespierre and Marat carried the sway. The
guillotine was declared permanent, and many members of the legislative
assembly were themselves menaced by the fatal axe. At length this
assembly, after having passed a great many decrees--decrees which were
partly fanatical and partly inefficacious--closed its session, and
the national convention rose upon its ruins. This new assembly was
principally composed of the Jacobin or republican party; the elections
preponderating in their favour. This spirit was manifested almost in the
first hour of its session; the legislative assembly had transferred the
king