HIS OWN TRIAL. 233 
- I might invoke the testimony of one of my honourable 
colleagues. Led by the fine weather, and somewhat also 
by curiosity, towards the Champ de Mars, he was enabled 
to observe all; and he has assured me that there never 
was a meeting which showed less turbulence or seditious 
spirit; that especially the women and children were very 
numerous. Is it not, besides, perfectly proved now, that 
on the morning of the 17th July, the Jacobin club, by 
means of printed placards, disavowed any intention of 
petitioning ; and that the influential men of the Jacobins 
and of the Cordeliers,—those men whose presence might 
have given to this concourse the dangerous character of 
a riot,—not only did not appear there, but had started in 
the night for the country ? 
By thus connecting together all the circumstances 
whence it is proved that martial law was proclaimed 
and put in’ practice on the 17th of July.without legiti- 
mate motives, a most terrible responsibility seems at first 
sight to be cast on the memory of Bailly. But reassure 
yourselves, Gentlemen; the events which are now 
grouped together, and are exhibited to our eyes with 
complete evidence, were not known on that inauspicious 
day at the Hétel de Ville, until they had been distorted 
by the spirit of party. 
In the month of July, 1791, after the king had returned 
from Varennes, the monarchy and the republic began for 
the first time to be dangerously opposed to each other ; 
in an instant passion took the place of cool reason in the 
minds of the respective partisans of the two different 
forms of government. The terrible formula: We must 
make an end of it! was in everybody’s mouth. 
Bailly was surrounded by those passionate politicians 
who, without the least scruple as to the honesty or legal- 
