Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 139 
of the first company of French Guards, the afternoon of June 24, 
9. 
The next day there appeared an anonymous pamphlet pur- 
porting to be the Lettre d’un grenadier des gardes francgaises ad M. 
le duc de Chatelet which declared in part: ‘‘We have refused to 
arm ourselves against our own family. Yes, Monsieur le duc, 
if we are still supposed to cherish base and selfish motives, I am 
charged by all my comrades to assure you that every time you 
order us to be criminals, you will find us disobeying .... The 
title of French Guards does not impose upon us the necessity of 
dipping our hands in the blood of our fellow citizens. And 
now, my colonel, have you dared ask us to take the horrible 
- oath to murder those who pay us to protect them?’ 
On June 25, another curious public letter appeared, addressed 
to the Comte de Mirabeau ostensibly by a French officer upon 
the natural, necessary, and indubitable inclinations of the 
French and foreign officers and soldiers. Opening with a 
eulogy of Mirabeau for his energetic and unflinching opposition 
“against the odious yoke of this aristocracy’’ and ‘‘against the 
ingenious vexations of this tyrannical government,” the author 
in turn gave expression to a scathing denunciation of the “ tyran- 
nical ministry,’ the “criminal aristocracy,” the ‘infamous 
clergy’’ and the ‘‘odious government.’’ He branded as deserving 
of death, ‘‘those cowards who, judging French officers and 
soldiers by themselves, have dared, for an instant, to suspect 
their honor and their inviolable fidelity to the country; who 
have dared, for a moment, to think that French officers and 
soldiers, suddenly abjuring common sense and every sentiment 
of equity, humanity, and gratitude, would go at the orders of a 
ministry, tyrannical, atrocious, and always supported by the 
68 Quoted by Rouff, “ Le peuple ouvrier de Paris au 30 juin et 30 aoiit 
1789,” La révolution francaise, LXIII, 434-435. 
64 Quoted by Rouff, La révolution francaise, LXIII, 435-436. Excerpts 
from other pamphlets illustrative of the spirit of the French Guards are 
given in the same pages. 
8 Lettre d M. le Comte de Mirabeau, L’un des représentants de l’assemblée 
nationale, sur les dispositions naturelles, nécessaires et indubitables des officiers 
et des soldats francais et étrangers, par un officier frangais. The pamphlet 
comprises 24 pages. 
253 
