132 Laura B. Pfeiffer 



he would even be dethroned, if he did not change his attitude 

 toward the revolution, was clearly voiced. The crowd withdrew 

 from the Tuileries only when urged by Petion to allow the king 

 to decide freely concerning the demands made upon him and when 

 assured that he would " acquiesce in the manifest desire of the 

 people." The demands were not withdrawn. The people even 

 threatened to return, if the king did not yield to their wishes; 

 he was simply given time in which to act. Should he persist in 

 his duplicity, should he refuse to recall the ministers and with- 

 draw his vetoes, a second and more serious uprising, an uprising 

 that would cost him his throne seemed inevitable. The afifair 

 of June 20 was not, then, a wild outbreak of unreasoning popular 

 fury, but a demonstration of the political intelligence of the resi- 

 dents of the faubourgs of Paris, of their determination to put 

 an end to a situation that had already lasted too long. On that 

 day Louis XVI received his last opportunity to abandon his policy 

 of duplicity and frankly accept the revolution. He failed to under- 

 stand and on August lo the men of the faubourgs kept their 

 promise, returned to the Tuileries, forced the suspension of the 

 king and saved France from the invading armies. The days of 

 June 20 and August lo, 1792 are inseparable and are no less sig- 

 nificant than that of July 14, 1789.^^* 



^"* That the significance of this day was clearly understood by the Rus- 

 sian government is shown by the fact that diplomatic relations were broken 

 off with France because of it. On July 19, Catharine II sent a note of 

 dismissal to M. Genet, charge des affaires de France. Relations were not 

 to be renewed until the king of France should be reinstated in his rights 

 and prerogatives. Catharine understood that the events of June 20 were a 

 menace to all royalty. In a letter to Grimm, August 13, 1792, she said so 

 and explained her reasons for dismissing Genet. Recueil des instructions 

 donnes au.r anibassadetirs et ministres de France, II, 530, 536. The royalists 

 throughout France felt the significance of the day also and expressed their 

 abhorrence in pamphlets and addresses to the king on the following days. 

 See Addresse au roi apres la journee du 20 juin, 1792'; Au roi; Aux 

 citoyens amis de la constitution par les federes; De I'affreuse conspiration 

 qui vient d'etre decouverte par des members de I'assemblee nationale; 

 Description de la fete civique donnee au roi; Lettre au roi presents par 

 scs fiddles sujets, signed P. M. D. V. ; Paroles d'un vrai Frangais. 



328 



