122 Ethel Lee Howie 



by the military preparations around Paris. ^'^ To him, this sub- 

 ject was the most urgent of all subjects. He recalled the time 

 when the prisoners had been taken from the abbey of Saint- 

 Germain, the decree then passed by the assembly, the answer of 

 the king to the deputation from the assembly and the letter of the 

 king to the archbishop of Paris. In considering the expressions 

 of this letter to the archbishop doubt and anxiety arose concern- 

 ing the nature of the measures which the king would employ. 

 This anxiety should cause the assembly to ask some explanations 

 from the king and a characterization, in detail, of the measures 

 for which he desired the approbation of the assembly. " Already 

 a great number of troops surround us. They have come from 

 all quarters. Every day more troops arrive. Thirty-five thou- 

 sand are now stationed between Paris and Versailles and twenty 

 thousand more are expected. Trains of artillery are coming. 

 Some places are designated for batteries, communication is as- 

 sured for them ; all passages are interrupted. Our roads, bridges, 

 promenades are turned into military posts. Public events, hidden 

 facts, secret orders, hasty counter orders and preparations for 

 war strike us on every side and fill out hearts with indignation. 

 Thus it is not enough that the asylum of liberty has been ex- 

 plored by troops, not enough that one has witnessed the unheard- 

 of spectacle of a national assembly surrounded by military 

 sentinels and submitting to an armed force ; not enough that incon- 

 veniences and lack of regard are joined to these outrages . . . 

 but every appearance of despotism must be used ; more soldiers, 

 threatening the nation, on the day when the king himself sum- 

 moned the nation to counsel him and help him ; more soldiers 

 than an invasion of the enemy would demand or at least a thou- 

 sand times more than could be collected to help some martyred 

 friends, suffering because of their fidelity to us, in order to pre- 

 serve our most sacred engagements, to preserve our political con- 



^'^ Point du jour, I, 140; Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 174; Proces-verbal, 

 No. 18, 2; Biauzat, Sa vie et sa correspondance, II, 165; Assemblee na- 

 tionale, I, 416 ; Courrier de Provence, I, i8th letter, i ; Bulletins de 

 I'assemblee nationale, Jul}' 8; Gazette de Leyde, Sup. No. 56 (July 9); 

 Journal de Paris, No. 191, 859 (July 10). 



404 



