Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 6.djvu/15



CHAPTER I

of doors, the jacobins and their journals urged on the catastrophe. Camille Desmoulins declared that there was a horrible plot against the people. At a grand meeting of the jacobin club, on the 13th, the day-prior to the anniversary, he said that marshal Luckner had been seen in Paris; that La Fayette had returned secretly; and that they meant to repeat the massacre of the Champ de Mars on the morrow. The king and royal family were to be then carried off by them to the Austrian camp. All these were, of course, sheer falsehoods; but they were the usual way of rousing the mad fury of the people, and they served their purpose. Merlin and Chahot confirmed these lies, declaring that they had seen letters from the queen to La Fayette, and from La Fayette in answer, which had been intercepted, and which proved all this. Robespierre added his solemn affirmation to these invectives. He asserted that it was true that not only La Fayette but Narbonne had arrived in Paris. Some deadly plot against liberty were certainly on foot; and he did not forget to repeat his