Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/194

 T70 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. the Swiss. It was only when the fighting had continued for some time, and i6o of the people had been shot down by the troops, that the king sent an order to the troops to leave the palace. As ihey passed through the garden of the Tuilleries they were surrounded by the mob and massacred. When the horrible work was over, the mob rushed into the Assembly, declaring that the king had levied war on the nation and must be deposed. A vote was passed for the suspension of the king from his authority, for the appointment of a ministry by the Assem- bly, and for the summoning of a new assembly called the National Convention. The king and his family were taken to the old tower of the Temple^ the castle of the Knights Templars, under the charge of the National Guard. The army on the borders became the more bent on the rescue of the king, and alarm added to the fury of the revolutionary party, who thought the cause of liberty would be lost if there were aristocrats within to join the enemies without. So all the so-called enemies of the State who could be found in Paris, and especially the clergy who refused the constitutional oath, were arrested and carried to the jails. On the 2nd of September, 1792, a body of ruffians, armed with swords and pikes, was sent round. The prisoners were brought one by one before a pretended jury in each of the prison-courts. Those whom they condemned were thrust out into the street, where the murderers waited to receive them. More than a thousand were thus massacred, the horrible women of Paris looking on with applause, and bringing food to the butchers. The massacre lasted four days, and worked up the mob of Paris to a fiendish delight in blood. The Legislative Assembly dissolved itself on 21st September, 1792, and was succeeded by the National Convention. II. The National Convention, 1792. — The first act of the Convention was to abolish rdyalTy and to declare France a'republic. The words monsieur and viadanie, with the ordinary forms of polite language, ceased to be used, and men and women called one another " citoycn" and " citi''yfn?ic." The Duke of Orleans took his seat by the name of the citizen Egaliic. To understand the state of things, it must be remembered that the power of the king and the privileges of the nobles and clergy had created an intolerable amount of oppression and misery which only a violent convulsion could break. The people had become maddened with the cflbrt and the excitement