134 Jeanette Needham. 
them. The firmness of their officers finally induced them to do 
their duty.2° He adds that it was only the fearlessness of the 
first lieutenant, M. de la Valette, which enabled the latter to 
bring them back the next day. He heard that market women 
awaited the troops on the route with wreaths of laurel and 
pitchers of wine. To avoid such a scene, he proposed to have 
them march by another route, whereupon they refused, but 
drawing his sword, the officer stood in the way and swore to 
kill the first man who attempted to pass.*! At this, the troops 
stopped their murmuring and obeyed their lieutenant. A rumor 
which evidently was based upon no foundation in fact, but 
which was widely circulated in Paris, declared that the guards in 
Versailles, ordered to fire upon the people, some time during 
June 23, had flatly refused to obey the command. Despite its 
falsity, people persisted in believing it and it doubtless con- 
tributed its share to the popular agitation in the capital. As 
previously noted in connection with the attack on the Archbishop 
of Paris, June 24, the French guards at Versailles did conduct 
themselves on that day in a way to make their loyalty appear 
very questionable. 
From that date on, all accounts from Paris are filled with | 
reports of the openly expressed disloyalty of the French Guards, 
of their hobnobbing with the crowds that surged through the 
50 Maleissye, 22. It is probable that Maleissye has attributed to June 23 
events that occurred on June 25. Such a mistake would not be strange, 
since he wrote several years after 1789. Additional guards were summoned 
to Versailles for June 25. Jallet states, evidently in reference to June 25, 
that four companies of French and Swiss Guards were ordered trom Paris, 
but that they refused to march. He might have heard of the incident related 
by Maleissye, who may have the date wrong. Still, Maleissye says that 
they went on June 23, but returned the next day. 
51 Thid., 26. 
82 Bailli de Virieu, 102; Desmoulins, II, 82; Correspondance d’un député .. . 
avec la Marquise de Crequy, Documents inédits, Revue de la rév., II, 38. The 
latter says: ‘‘ Pour augmenter cette fermentation, on a dit-on, imprimé, 
ou a publié que le jour de la séance royale on a ordonné aux gardes frangaises 
de faire feu sur le tiers, mais que les soldats ont baissé les armes en répondant, 
qu’ils ne tireraient pas sur leurs fréres.’” This man added that he had asked 
officers as to the truth of the matter and found it to be a fabrication, but 
people believed in the order as well as in the troops’ refusal to execute it. 
248 
seth, intr a 
