Ii6 Laura B. Pfeiffer 



then there were heard again the cries, "Down with the veto! 

 Recall the ministers ! Sanction the decrees ! "-'^'* 



Champion, who was standing near the mayor while he spoke, 

 was much offended and expressed his displeasure with the mayor's 

 words. He was, however, reproached by his colleagues, accord- 

 ing to the account of one of them, for showing too great 

 excitement.-"^ 



During this scene of confusion a handsome, blond young man 

 made his way through the crowd and approaching the king, spoke 

 to him with vehemence. He addressed him as " Sire " and said 

 that if he did not enforce the constitution and sanction the decrees 

 of the assembly and recall the patriotic ministers the people would 

 force him from the throne. The king calmly answered, " I have 

 not turned aside from the path of the constitution." Petion who 

 stood near and heard these words addressed to the king said 

 nothing.^"® 



^'* " Proces-verbal dresse par Sergent " ; " Proces-verbal dresse par 

 Champion"; report made in the Society of the Jacobins, June 20, Aulard, 

 Societc des Jacobins, IV, 22. 



^* " Proces-verbal dresse par Champion " ; " Proces-verbal dresse par 

 Patris." Champion was one of the municipal officers who had not re- 

 ceived a notice of the meeting of the municipal corps on the morning of 

 the 20th. His proces-verbal shows great animus against Petion and his 

 statements that Petion was indifferent in his efforts to clear the apart- 

 ments are contradicted by every other account. His suppression of the 

 things Petion said in his address to the crowd amounts to misrepre- 

 sentation. 



"*" Declaration de Lecrosnier"; "Declaration de M. Vinfray," both 

 guards in the ail-de-banf. ' Aulard, Societc des Jacobins, IV, 22, gives 

 the young man's own version of this incident as he gave.it to the Jacobin 

 Club the same evening. The king's exact words are not established by 

 the evidence. I have used the 3'oung man's own report of the king's 

 words in the text. Lecrosnier says the king said: "You do not conform 

 to the law. Address j'ourself to the magistrate of the people." Vinfray 

 does not give the king's answer. The Nouvelle correspondance politique 

 for June 24 (XIII, 2) says the young man's name was Clement and that 

 he was twenty-two years old. The same statement is made in Le cri de la 

 doulcur of June 23. The paper is royalist and contrasts the young man's 

 handsome exterior with his tiger's heart ; Lecrosnier says he was twenty- 

 five. 



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