EVENTS ON THE CHAMPS DE MARS. 209 



were carried through the streets. The news of this attack 

 excited the indignation of all the deputies, and under this 

 impression, Alexander Lameth, then President of the 

 Assembly, of his own accord transmitted to Bailly very 

 severe new orders, a circumstance which, though only 

 said en passant, has been but recently known. 



The municipal bodv, as soon as it was informed, about 

 eleven o clock, of the two assassinations, deputed three of 

 its members, furnished with full powers, to reestablish 

 order. Strong detachments accompanied the municipal 

 officers. About two o clock it was reported that stones 

 had been thrown at the National Guard. The Municipal 

 Council instantly had martial law proclaimed on the 

 Place de Greve, and the red flag suspended from the 

 principal window of the Hotel de Ville- At half- past 

 five o clock, just when the municipal body was about 

 to start for the Champ de Mars, the three councillors, 

 who had been sent in the morning to the scene of dis 

 order, returned, accompanied by a deputation of twelve 

 persons, taken from among the petitioners. The ex 

 planations given on various sides occasioned a new de 

 liberation of the Council. The first decision was main 

 tained, and at six o clock the municipality began its 

 march with the red flag, three pieces of cannon, and 

 numerous detachments of the National Guard. 



Bailly, as chief of the municipality, found himself at 

 this time in one of those solemn and perilous situations, 

 in which a man becomes responsible in the eyes of a 

 whole nation, in the eyes of posterity, for the inconsider 

 ate or even culpable actions of the passionate multitude 

 that surrounds him, but which he scarcely knows, and 

 over which he has little or no influence. 



The National Guard, in that early epoch of the revo- 



