42] 
conducted to present their petition 
to the King. They retired to. con- 
fer with their leaders on this pro- 
posal. 
M. Rhederer, after this, spoke to 
the national guard within the court, 
and told them, that although they 
were there for the purpose of pre- 
serving the peace, yet the law al- 
lowed them, in case of being at- 
tacked, to repel force by force, and 
that they seemed disposed to do 
their duty : but on his speaking the 
same language to the cannoniers, 
they, by way of answer, unloaded 
their pieces, and plainly shewed they 
would make no resistance whatever 
to the multitude. That having 
heard nothing of the commander in 
chief of the national guards, not 
knowing what his plan of defence 
was, and there having been no 
communication whatever between 
the department and the municipa- 
lity.since Mandat had left the pa- 
lace to goto the town-house ; hear- 
ing every moment of fresh multi- 
tudes advancing from the suburbs, 
and perceiving no means of pro- 
tecting the King and royal family, 
he had proposed that they should 
leave the palace and seek an asylum 
inthe Assembly. M. Rhederer had 
scarcely ended his report, when an 
officer appeared at the bar, and de- 
clared that the gates of the palace’ 
were on the point of being forced. 
M. Lamarque moved that the As- 
sembly should instantly order ten of 
their number to go and admonish 
the people against such excesses, 
“¢Let the commissaries throw them- 
selves between the assailants and 
the defenders of the palace; and I 
desire to present myself to their first 
fire, if they should fire on each 
other.” M. Gaudet proposed to 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1702. 
the Assembly that twelve of their 
number should go to the town- 
house, take the commander in chief 
out of arrest (which he was suppos- 
ed to be under) and re-establish 
the communication between the 
department and the municipality. 
Both these motions were adopted ; 
and the president having named the 
members for the first deputation, 
they hastened to the Carousel to 
prevent the commencement of 
bloodshed. A very short time after 
they were gone, the firing of cannon? 
was heard, with that of musquetry 
in the interval of the cannonade, 
and a great noise in the garden of 
the Thuilleries. 
It is to beregretted that the King, 
on quitting the palace, did not di- 
rect those within it immediately tov 
capitulate with the leaders of the 
insurrection, and throw the gates 
open tothe people; which would 
have saved the lives of many gal-) 
lant men : an omission to be wholly 
ascribed to the agitation of his mind” 
at so dreadful a crisis. It has been 
observed, indeed not without plau- 
sibility, that such orders were virtu- 
ally implied in the words of the 
King, on his resolving to go to the 
Assembly, already mentioned. 
It is scarcely possible for an offi- 
cer even of high command, to give 
‘an account of all the vicissitudes, 
all the causes and circumstances 
that have led on any occasion to 
victory or defeat, even in a regular 
and pitched battle in an open couns— 
try ; much less is it in the power of — 
any one accurately to describe all 
the movements of such numerous 
bodies on ground so greatly varied, — 
-and in circumstances so eomplicated 
and changing. Butifit were, such 
a description could not possibly be 
intelligible — 
