30 Laura B. Pfeiffer 



thetnselvos surrouiulod by plots and were ready to take the 

 offensive. There was a growing belief in the king's treachery 

 and the Tuileries were no longer considered inviolable.-'' A plan 

 was concerted for the morrow for which the Girondins were not 

 withont responsibility.'-^ 



V 



The Twentieth of June 



There have been various explanations of the uprising of the 

 20th of Jinie. One of those asserts that it was a deep laid con- 

 spiracy on the part of the Girondist leaders to reinstate them- 

 selves in power or to avenge themselves for their defeat.^ An- 

 other asserts just as confidently that it was a popular demonstra- 

 tion, an instantaneous response of the masses to the king's refusal 

 to sanction the decrees and to his dismissal of the three ministers.^ 

 Still a third explanation regards it as a reply to the letter of Lafa- 

 yette, originating with the people or with the Jacobins.* Probably 

 all of these statements contain a part of the truth. It was a pop- 

 ular demonstration and it did have leadership, but no plan of leaders, 

 however skillful, could have succeeded in creating such general 

 and intense feeling. The feeling must alreadv have existed. It 



*Paroy, Memoires, jgr ; Journal d'une bourgeoise. IJ4. June 16. 1702; 

 Chronique du tm>is, June 19, 1792; Chaiimette, Metnoires, 12; Dreyfus in 

 Les fe^tnmes de la re^i'olution frani,'aise. 1789-1795, says the people saw 

 that the intrigvies of the Tuileries would lead to the power of the Feuil- 

 lants, i. e., the constitutional royalists would ally with royalists of the 

 court. 



" Masson, Petites histoircs. serie I, 246-5S; Clapham, Causc^s of the War 

 of IT9^, 212. 



^ Temaux, I, i29-2o<^; Louis Blanc. Histoire de la re-iolution, VIII, 53; 

 Blanc-Gilli, Lettre d'un depute de I'assemblee nationale au dtpartement des 

 Bouchese-du-Rhone, Paris, June 21, 1702. 



'Aulard in Rexolution frattiaise. XXXV, 532; Lettre de Ph-Ch-Ai- 

 Goupilleau, depute de la Vendee, Paris, June 20. 1792; Correspondance 

 secrete, 601-02, Lettre 20; Journal d'une bourgeoise, 130-33, June 19, 1792. 



^ Patriote fran^ais. No. 1046. 68^), June 21, 1792; Clapham, Causes of 

 the War of 1792, 2I2. 



226 



