46 Laura B. Pfeiffcr 



assembly that it had asked the mayor to report the situation of 

 the city every day and that it could scarcely refuse to hear the 

 decree of the department that shared its solicitude. The reading 

 was received in silence.'"' Did this silence signify " tacit approba- 

 tion, calculated inditTerence or disguised blame?" A contempo- 

 rary ventures the assertion that there was an understanding be- 

 tween the leaders of the movement and the principal men in the 

 assembly to the effect that the assembly would give its approval 

 by its silence.^* 



Meantime the excitement in the faubourgs had reached its 

 highest pitch. In the faubourg Saint-Antoine, the section Quinze- 

 Vingts held a meeting in the church, Enfants-Trouvees, begin- 

 ning about eight o'clock and lasting until after one. It was at- 

 tended by over a thousand citizens. A decree was passed pro- 

 viding for the section to join with other sections in presenting a 

 petition to the king and to the assembly to invite the commission- 

 ers of the section, the commissioners of police and the justice of 

 the peace to go with them. The petition to the assembly was read 

 and adopted. A deputation from the committee of the section 

 Popincourt presented itself asking that the section might join the 

 Ouinze-Vingts in presenting the petition to the assembly. This 

 was joyfully received. The address to the king was then read 

 and adopted with slight change. 



Chabot then spoke to the meeting informing them of the ad- 

 dress of the Marseillais which had been read in the legislative 

 assembly that evening. He also urged the citizens to go to the 

 assembly and to the king unarmed and to conduct themselves 

 peacefully and with moderation on the morrow and so to give 

 the lie to the semi-prophecy of Lafayette on the subject of pre- 

 tended regicides. But when the citizens pronounced strongly in 

 favor of going to the assembly armed, the president of the sec- 

 tion stated that Petion in a letter to him had requested that they 

 do not present themselves armed either to the king or to the 



Moniteur, XII, 710-11; Journal des debats et decrets. Xo. 267, p. 259. 

 Roederer, Chronique de cinquante jours, 23. 



242 



