Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/97

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ment of Ventimille, and the city horse guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles increased. The foreign troops were or dered off instantly. Every Minister resigned. The King con firmed Bailly as Prevot des Marchands, wrote to Mr. Necker, to recall him, sent his letter open to the Assembly, to be forwarded by them, and invited them to go with him to Paris the next day, to satisfy the city of his dispositions ; and that night, and the next morning, the Count d Artois, and M. de Montesson, a deputy con nected with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de Guiche, and the Count de Vaudreuil, favorites of the Queen, the Abbe de Ver mont her confessor, the Prince of Conde, and Duke of Bourbon fled. The King came to Paris, leaving the Queen in consternation for his return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, the King s carriage was in the centre ; on each side of it, the As sembly, in two ranks a foot ; at their head the Marquis de la Fayette, as Commander in chief, on horse back, and Bourgeois guards be fore and behind. About sixty thousand citizens, of all forms and conditions, armed with the conquests of the Bastile and Invalids, as far as they would go, the lest with pistols, swords, pikes, prun ing hooks, scythes, &ic. lined all the streets through which the procession passed, and with the crowds of people in the streets, doors, and windows, saluted them every where with the cries of vive la nation, but not a single * vive le roy was heard. The King stopped at the Hotel de Ville. There M. Bailly presented, and put into his hat, the popular cockade, and addressed him. The King being unprepared, and unable to answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to the audience, as from the King. On their return, the popular cries were vive le roy et la nation. He was conducted by a garde Bourgeoise, to his palace at Ver sailles, and thus concluded such an amende honorable, as no sovereign ever made, and no people ever received.

And here again, was lost another precious occasion of sparing to France the crimes and cruelties through which she has since passed, and to Europe, and finally America, the evils which flowed on them also from this mortal source. The King was now become a passive machine in the hands of the National Assembly, and had he been left to himself, he would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as best for the nation. A wise con stitution would have been formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head, with powers so large, as to enable him to do all the good of his station, and so limited, as to restrain him from its abuse. This he would have faithfully administered, and more than this, I do not believe, he ever wished. But he had a Queen VOL. i. 11

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