HIST@RY OF EUROPE, 
to a legal distance, attributing their 
approach to the inadvertence of the 
commissary at war, or some other 
inistake. e 
’ This’ answer did not remove the 
Suspicions or fears of the council. 
It appointed a committee to exa- 
mine the message of the directory. 
‘This committee reported, that no 
answer had been given to the prin- 
cipal part of the council’s message, 
demanding who had given orders 
for the marching of those troops. 
On this'report, another message was 
voted to the directory, requiring.an 
~ explicit answer. 
ie rb che teqtairiSs: the directory 
replied by acknowledging, that they 
; had given thé order to march, but 
not the line of marching. It stated 
~ the distance from Paris, to the place 
where the troops had arrived, to be 
’ thirteen leagues, instead of seven, as 
: ‘at first dsserted. . 
_ This ‘reply did not appear satis- 
‘factory. Pichegru represented it as 
evasive. Tad the destination of 
the troops been for Brest, as pre- 
fended, their line of march should 
have been to the north, and not to 
the south of Paris. ‘The speech of 
Willot, on this subject, unfolded a 
_ Wariety of alarming particulars. The 
troops themselves did not scruple, 
he said, to avow against whom they 
“Were marching. It was, by their 
- wn confession, against the councils, 
whom they had been taught to look 
‘pon as the enemies of their country, 
nd striving to dissolve its present 
vernment. ‘Delahaic, anotlier 
ber of the opposition, spoke no 
gs explicitly, on this occasion. 
€ represented the march of the 
ops, as the effect of a conspiracy 
inst the legislature, of which the 
tainty could not be doubted. 
yps, he said, were within a day’s 
or. XXXIX. 
[6s 
march of Paris, and, as it had been 
surmised, by one in power, a thou- 
sand men were to attack the council 
of five hundred, as many more that 
of the ancients, and the patriots 
would perform the rest. 
These transactions took place be- 
tween the twentieth and the last of 
July. On the fourth of August, 
information was brought to the 
councils, of the various circum- 
stances attending the movements of 
the troops destined for Paris. ‘They 
consisted of about twenty-seven 
thousand men, drawi from the army 
of the Sambre and Meuse, instead 
of nine thousand, as had been re- 
ported. -They were to encamp in 
the neighbourhood of the capital. 
Every effort was used to seduce the 
officers and soldiers, and to enflame 
them against the legislative body. 
Numbers of them had resorted clan 
destinely to Paris, and some hun- 
dreds of disorderly people had been 
provided with arms and ammuni- 
tion, to join them. ‘The armies, in 
violation of all discipline and subor- 
dination to the laws, deliberated 
and corresponded with each other. 
‘They made decrees, and issued pro- 
clamations, without any attempt to 
testrain them by the constituted 
authorities. 
On receiving. this intelligence, 
the council resolved to demand’ of 
the directory the documents it had 
promised, relating to the march of 
the troops, requiting an answer in 
three days. and insisting, at the same 
time, on knowing what measures 
had been taken to put a stop to the 
violation of that article of the cons 
stitution, which prohibited the ar- 
mies from entering into delibera= 
tions. 
. During these critical agitations, 
the heads of the military had either 
Vip assumed, 
