54 Laura B. Pfciffcr 



these letters IVtion at once convoked the niunicipahty for tlie 

 morning/'"' \\'liile waiting for the nienihers to assemble and 

 realizing the gravity of the sitnation he sent some administrators 

 of police, Sargent and Panis to the faubourg Saint-Antoine and 

 Perron and Vigner to the I'auhourg Saint-Marcel. This was be- 

 tween seven and eight o'clock.**' At about eight-thirty he sent 

 three municipal officers to Ihc faubourg Saint-Marcel where there 

 seemed to be the greatest fermentation. Pie charged them to 

 make every effort to prevent the gathering of armed men or to 

 disperse them if they were already gathered, and to prevent the 

 union of others with them.**"* 



The commandants of the battalions of the faubourgs now 

 fi>und themselves with conflicting instructions. They were sub- 

 ject to extra requisitions from their sections as well as to orders 

 from the commandant of the national guards. As noted above, 

 the sections that had remained sitting all night asked their com- 

 mandants to march with them. We saw that Alexandre had been 

 asked by the Ciobelins and the Ouinze-Vingts to march with them. 

 The section of the Gobelins by a decree asked Saint-Prix to march 

 at their head and help them in the ceremony of planting the liberty 

 tree on the terrace of the Feuillants. He answered that he could 

 not lead his battalion without a legal order, but as a citizen he 

 would go to the section unarmed. In addition to these invitations 

 three commandants, Santerre, Alexandre, and Saint-Prix, re- 

 ceived during the night a written order through the acting chief 

 of the second legion, to which their battalions belonged, to hold 

 themselves in readiness to march at the first order. This came 

 by order of the general conmiandant.®^ This commandant of the 



been able to find why it is so signed. It is plainly Alexandre's answer 

 to Petion for he was commandant of Saint-Marcel. He adds a P. S., say- 

 ing " Perron is with me and we are going to the gathering to disperse 

 them." Perron in his " Proces-verbal " confirms Alexandre's P. S. 



** " Conduite tenue par M. le maire," 8. 



" " Proces-verbal dresse par Sergent " ; " Proces-verbal dresse par Per- 

 ron." As we shall see later he did not convoke all the members. 



*"' Proces-verbal dresse par ^IM. Mouchet. Guiard et Thomas." 



*" " Rapport d'Alexandre." Ternaux T, -107 ; '' Rapport de ce qui s'est passe 

 dans le bataillon du \'al-de-Grace " in "Pieces justificatives," Nos. II and 



250 



