STATE PAPERS. 
tated at this resource of justice and 
reason. The most criminal attempts 
‘were projected. A number of 
seditious persons hurried to Ver- 
sailles; the castle was forced. The 
King, exposed, as well as the Queen 
and royal family, to every outrage, 
every crime, and unheard-of at- 
tacks, thought only of sparing the 
blood of his people ; and the tears 
which he wou!d not have shed for 
himself, moistened the bodics of the 
generous and faithful guards who 
had been inhumanly butchered on 
the stepsof the throne. Providence, 
which watches over the destiny of 
kings and nations, saved at length 
his Majesty, with the Queen and 
august family, from this horrible 
conspiracy ; and if the criminals 
who were the authors of the exe- 
crable atrocities committed on the 
night between the 5th and 6th of 
October, 1789, have hitherto en- 
joyed an odious impunity, the Di- 
vine Justice has doubtless deferred 
their punishment, in order to re- 
serve to all sovereigns, offended 
against in the persons of their most 
Christian Majesties, the inflicting 
of the most striking and exemplary 
vengeance on the guilty. 
Escaped from the most immi- 
nent dangers, his most Christian 
Majesty at length thought of free- 
ing himself from that captivity in 
which he was detained, and of plac- 
ing his sacred person in a place of 
ty, by retiring to the frontiers 
of France. He hoped that heshould 
then be able to exert himself with 
more effect in bringing back his 
subjects to a sense of duty, and in 
saving the monarchy; and by yield- 
ing to the most imperious of all 
ae, self-preservation, his most 
istian Majesty meant solemnly 
to have protested against all those 
Vou. XXXIV. 
241 
acts to which he had consented dur- 
ing his captivity.—But Providence, 
which in its wisdom often deranges, 
for the instruction of mankind, the 
best concerted plans, did not per- 
mit a resolution so just, so lawful, 
and so necessary to thehappiness of 
France, to besuccessfully executed. 
An infamous town, the name of 
which posterity will never pro- 
nounce but with horror, the just and 
terrible punishment of which will 
serve as an example to all rebelli- 
ous and sacrilegious towns that may 
ever have the criminal madness to 
wish to imitate it, and to attempt 
the liberty of their sovereign—this 
town hadtheaudacity toarrest their 
King. By a signal he might have 
overcome this obstacle; but in that 
case it would have been necessary to 
shed blood; and his Most Christian 
Majesty has proved, upon all occa- 
sions, that he would rather suffer 
death himself than expose the lives 
of his subjects. The return made to 
this generosity, goodness, and sig- 
nal magnanimity, was, that he was 
conducted, amidst a thousand dan- 
gers, and a thousand outrages conti- 
nually renewed, back to his capital, 
to be there imprisoned in his palace, 
in virtue of a decree passed by the 
usurping assembly ; to be there sus- 
pended from his authority, as ifany 
power upon earth had aright of 
passing so infamous and odious a 
sentence, and at length to be re- 
duced to thealternative of forfeiting 
the throne, orsubmitting to the most 
pitiable concessions, that is to say, 
the alternative of a civil war, which 
would have converted France into 
an immense grave, or the accept- 
ance of a constitution, dictated by 
the mean populace to perjured 
wretches without legal power, and 
deprived themselves of their liberty, 
Q when 
