Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 6.djvu/20

6 with laughter; but Vergniaud gravely replied that the assembly would protect the people, and the sans culottes again denounced the king, the court, the ministers, and the executive.



In the midst of this scene. Petion entered the assembly at the head of a deputation from the commune of Paris, and demanded the dethronement of the king. He went through the whole history of Louis, and represented him as one of the worst of princes, as from his youth one of the vilest and most bloody of tyrants; that he had always shown a rooted aversion to all men except priests and aristocrats—a base calumny, for, long before his elevation to the throne, men of the tiers-état had been amongst his most familiar companions. But, in fact, the whole harangue of the sleek Petion was one tissue of falsehoods. He was not contented with representing the king as secretly averse to the revolution—which was true enough—but he charged him with systematically returning ingratitude for kindness; and he concluded by exclaiming, "Let every one of us, before we yield our last sigh, illustrate his memory by killing a slave and a tyrant."

He then dwelt on the dangers that surrounded them—the approach of vast armies, the total inadequacy of the means of defence, the terrible threats of Brunswick, and the danger of a treacherous court in their midst in secret alliance with the invaders. The assembly was taken by surprise. This was the first time that this momentous proposition had come formally from the municipality of Paris. In the morning session, the balance of opinion was against it; but, in the evening, it ran the other way. However, it was decreed to adjourn the question till the 9th of August, but the assembly went on receiving petitions of the same tone and tenor. All the sections of Paris were for the dethronement except the Filles St. Thomas and the Petits Peres. That of Mauconseil did not wait for the decree of the assembly; it pronounced the dethronement of the king on its own authority. It called on all the sections of the "empire"—for it would not use the word "kingdom"—to