Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/177

Rh All the events, crimes, misfortunes, and excesses which rapidly followed were but the inevitable consequences of these first acts, and therefore I will not dwell here upon the 14th July, and all the awful scenes of that terrible day.

The establishment of the National Guard at Paris to keep the insurrection within bounds, was deemed a sacred duty, but by that very act the Royal power was suspended, and, from that day, France had twelve hundred legislators, of whom the Empress Catharine II said, that "No one would obey them, except the King." It was not the King, it was not the so-called National Assembly, it was the people, who, on 16th July, appointed M. Bailly Mayor of Paris, and M. de la Fayette, Commander of the National Guard.

The same day,—16th July,—the Comte d'Artois, the House of Conde, and Prince de Conti, left France, and the emigration commenced.

M. de la Fayette was then Commander