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 Hotel 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- 



