x 
so6] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
‘continually taking place, and all the 
af indications of mifchief were re- 
mewed, and feemed to appear in 
ftronger colours than ufual, The 
Verfaillians were again fuppofed 
formidable, and thoufands of them 
were {aid to be mixed with the Pa- 
rifians. Mifchiefs of every kind, 
and accompanied with every degree 
of horror and ruin, were generally 
expected ; and even thofe the beft 
informed, fuppofed fome great, and 
sprobably dreadful event. The arif- 
tocrates were charged with being 
the authors of -all this evil, jn their 
endeavours to carry off the king, 
and to bring about a counter-revo- 
Jution. -It would only have expofed 
.aftranger to mockery or fufpicion, 
af he attempted to fhow the glaring 
improbability of fo unnatural .and 
imonftrous a coalition or alliance, as 
‘that fuppofed between the royalitts 
,and the rabble of Paris or Vertuilles, 
awho feemed by fome inherent ip- 
_ftin& deftined to be their morta] and 
‘implacable;enemies. At the fame 
-time, it-was openly faid on all fides, 
that the king’s life would be the im- 
mediate facrifice to any attempt to 
refcue his perfon; and that the 
-whole-royal family would probably 
eperifh at the fame initant. ~All fo- 
"-reigners, who hed any knowledge of 
the former, and even very late cha- 
rater of the people, were aftonifhed 
-at the:coolnefs and indifference with 
which the immolation of the fove- 
reign, in fuch a circumftance, was 
publicly talked of,in all companies, 
trom the highelt to the loweft, as,an 
act whith of courfe muft take 
lace. 
Jn the mean time, La Fayette and 
his militia, by a vigorous act of ex- 
ertion; putan end to the combuiftion 
»4n-Paris. :He’ fuddenly furrounded 
‘ap night, a body-of 1399 9f the mu- 
tineers, who were aflembled in the © 
Champs Elyfées, of whom he made.z00 
-prifoners ; the reftbeing fo terrified, 
that they feemed to confider them- 
felyes happy in efcaping with their 
lives. On fearching the, prifoners, 
they were found well furnifhed.with 
powder and ball, made up into car- 
tridges, but ngt-a-fingle mufket was 
found or feen in the whole party. 
This put a ftop for the prefent to 
nocturnal meetings, as well as to 
riots by day, Yet fuch was the ge- 
nius of the:time for: the fabrication 
of plots, for the difcovery of mytte- 
ries in the moft common. and. obvi- 
ous occurrences, and for the belief 
of the -moft incredible fables, that 
this was {till infifted upon, and that 
-by men otherwife of good fenfe and 
well informed, to be, the. beginning 
of a grand ariftocratical plot, deeply’ 
laid for the fubverfion of the coniti- 
tution and prefent government, A 
troublefome queftion, however, {till 
remained to be folved, who: thofe 
‘immediate inftraments. of the plot, 
«thofe actual rioters were ? With the 
evidence af z00.prifoners before 
.them, this feemed..a queftign eafily: 
_refolved; but it would be too much 
to fuppofe the patriotic Parifians the 
authors. of fuch a crime ; and asta 
the Verfaillians, befides that they 
-had' borne their full thare-of »re- 
‘proach already,, they were: too-near 
neighbours to-be legded:with all the 
infamy. In thisodifficulty, the term 
of brigands, which had alreadysan- 
-{wered fo excellent-apurpofes in de- 
-ftroying the:-cattles of the nobility, 
lugisily occurred ; but; as if queftions 
multiplied in propertion -as they. 
were refolved, it filbremained to be 
-anfwered, who thefe-brigqnds were? 
if. they were ‘men like jothers, and 
not totally imaginary beings, :their 
exiflence might furely . be -eafily 
sige identified, 
