The Counter Revolution of June-July 129 



ents, public tranquility and the happiness of the monarch. The 

 true safety of the French lay in the impulses of the king's heart. 

 " When troops come from all sides, camps are formed around us, 

 and the capital is invested we ask ourselves in astonishment, ' Is 

 the king deceived regarding the fidelity of his people? . . . What 

 do these threatening preparations tell us ? Where are the enemies 

 of the state and the king to be subjugated? Where are the rebels 

 and the members of a league to be reduced? A unanimous voice 

 in the capital and in the kingom replies ' We cherish our king ; we 

 bless heaven for the gift of his love. Your confidence can be 

 deceived only under the pretext of public good. . . . How do they 

 manage, sire, to make you doubt the attachment and love of your 

 subjects? Have you wasted their blood? Are you cruel, im- 

 placable ? Have you violated law ? Do the people blame you for 

 their misfortunes? Do they associate you with their calamities? 

 Have they told you that the people are tired of your yoke, that 

 they are weary of the scepter of the Bourbons? No, they have 

 not done this. Calumny is, at least, not absurd. It seeks a little 

 truth to color its blackness.' " Reference was then made to the 

 trouble with the French guards and the restoration of order by a 

 word of clemency on the part of the king. " France will not per- 

 mit the best kings to be abused or allow him to be diverted by 

 evil influences from the noble plan which he himself has traced. 

 You have called us to fix, in concert with you, the constitution, in 

 order to effect the regeneration of the kingdom. The national as- 

 sembly comes to solemnly declare to you that your wishes will be 

 fulfilled, that your promises will not be in vain, that intrigues, 

 difficulties, terrors will not stop its progress or intimidate its cour- 

 age. Where then is the danger from the troops ? " 



The address then enumerated five places of danger: (i) The 

 people of the provinces would be alarmed concerning the liberty 

 of the assembly and could not be checked, for at a distance every 

 thing is exaggerated; (2) in Paris. The people in the depths of 

 poverty would not see the remainder of their substance disputed 

 by a crowd of threatening soldiers without being excited and 

 indulging in riots; "the first act of violence, exercised under the 

 pretext of police may produce a horrible succession of calamities" ; 



411 



