The Uprising of June 20, i'/p2 27 



of course, from the Jacobin club as the center of the most intense 

 feeling. The death struggle had begun between this society and 

 Lafayette.® He was denounced in their meeting of June 18, as 

 being in league with the enemies of the country, as playing the 

 role of a " new General Alonk," and the demand was made that 

 he be called before the bar of the assembly to answer for his 

 acts and be sent to the high court of Orleans.^ 



But the feeling against Lafayette grew still more intense when 

 he addressed another letter to the king in which he surpassed the 

 dictatorial character displayed in the letter to the assembly. He 

 advised the king to persist in his veto. " Maintain, Sire, the 

 authority which the national will has delegated to you," are his 

 words. ^'^ The newspapers accused him of treason and the assem- 

 bly and clubs joined in the outcry. ^^ A keen observer of his 

 conduct declared that he must be either a rascal or an imbecile.^^ 



Neither did Lafayette pass for being loyal to the cause of the 

 king.^^ Early in May, he sent an agent to Mercy at Brussels to 

 ascertain the situation in governmental affairs and to learn the 

 king's wishes in regard to the constitution. He indicated that he 

 and Rochambeau would use all their efforts to carry out the 

 king's desires, saying they alone possessed the means of establish- 

 ing royal authority. But Mercy distrusted him and ascribed to 

 him one of three motives: (i) embarrassment attendant on the 



ig, 1792; Correspondance entre le comte de Mirabeau et le comte de La 

 Marck, III, 311-19, Montmorin to La Marck, June 19, 1792. 



* Glagau, Die franzosische Legislative, 342-60, Pellenc to La Marck, 

 Paris, June 29, 1792; Pellenc to La Marck, Paris, June 30, 1792; Pellenc 

 to La Marck, Paris, July 13-1S, 1792; Clapham, Causes of the War of 

 1792, 212. 



'^Revolutions de Paris, XII, 537; Aulard, La societe des Jacobins, IV, 

 10-16. 



" See the letter in full in Histoire parlementaire, XV, 100, and in Revo- 

 lutions de Paris, XII, 535, and in Roederer, Chronique de cinquante jours, 

 10. 



^'^Revolutions de Paris, XII, 535-37. 



" Oelsner in Revue historique, LXXXIV, 71 ; Condorect in Chroniques 

 de Paris, No. 172, 682; Paroy, Mcmoires, 297. 



^* Glagau, Die franzosische Legislative, 341, Abbe Louis to Mercy, June 

 26, 1792. 



223 



