HIS ADMINISTRATION AS MAYOR. 199 



under those cruel circumstances, an aspersion that I read 

 with surprise and grief. Foulon was detained in the 

 Hotel de Yille. Bailly went down into the square, and 

 succeeded for a moment in calming the multitude. " I 

 did not imagine," said the Mayor in his memoirs, " that 

 they could have forced the Hotel de Ville, a well-guarded 

 post, and an object of respect to all the citizens. I 

 therefore thought the prisoner in perfect safety; I did 

 not doubt but the waves of this storm would finally 

 subside, and I departed." 



The honourable author of the History of the Reign of 

 Louis XVI. opposes to this passage the following words 

 taken from the official minutes of the Hotel de Ville : 

 " The electors (those who had accompanied Bailly out to 

 the square) reported in the Hall the certainty that the 

 calm would not last long." The new historian adds: 

 " How could the Mayor alone labour under this delusion ? 

 It is too evident, that on such a day, the public tranquillity 

 was much too uncertain, to allow of the chief magistrate 

 of the town absenting himself without deserving the re- 

 proach of weakness." The remainder of the passage 

 shows too evidently, that in the author's estimation, weak- 

 ness here was synonymous with cowardice. 



It is against this, Gentlemen, that I protest with heart- 

 felt earnestness. Bailly absented himself because he did 

 not think that the Hotel de Ville could be forced. The 

 electors in the passage quoted do not enunciate a different 

 opinion : where then is the contradiction ? 



Bailly deceived himself in this expectation, for the 

 multitude burst into the Hotel de Ville. We will Grant 



O 



that there was an error of judgment in this ; but nothing 

 in the world authorizes us to call in question the courage 

 of the Mayor. 



