768 FRA 
fortrefs of defpotifm. The ma(live walls of the Baffile, 
with the wide and deep ditch that furrounded them, 
might have defied the frantic rage of the infurgents, had 
the command been held by any other perfon than the 
marquis de Launay. Bet the conduct of that officer was 
equally fatal to his life and his reputation; he rejected 
the demand of the people to remove the artillery from 
the ramparts ; yet lie negleCted to raife the draw-bridge, 
and fuffered a qrowd to place themfelves upon it. On 
thefe unhappy people,who peaceably waited the effeCt of 
a parley which he held, he fuddenly fired ; many were 
the vi 61 ims of this guilty raflinefs ; but the populace, in- 
Itead of being intimidated, were only irritated by the fate 
of their companions ; they preffed forwards in myriads to 
avenge them ; in vain did the wretched governor propofe 
terms of capitulation ; their fury was deaf to every en¬ 
treaty, and fuperior to every obftacle. Refiftance was in 
vain; each avenue was forced; M. de Launay was dragged 
to the place of public execution ; and his head, fevered 
from his body, was carried in triumph through the afto- 
niffied multitude. See all the particulars of this dread¬ 
ful cataflrophe fully detailed under the article Bastile, 
vol. ii. p. 793, illuffrated by a ground plan and elevation 
of that famous date prifon. 
The deputies who had been difpatched from the na¬ 
tional a (Terribly at Verfailles to reftore order to the city of 
Paris, were witnelfes of thefe fanguinary feenes of commo¬ 
tion ; they now haftened to inform that affembly that the 
voice of the nation imperioufiy demanded the recal of 
M. Necker, as a pledge of the fincerity of the court. No¬ 
thing now remained but to footh the minds of the people 
by immediate compliance ; and numerous couriers were 
difpatched after M. Necker, to folicit his return ; and 
while the royal couriers were purfuingthe hafty fteps of 
M. Necker, the fovereign prefence was deemed neceffary 
to allay the difquietudes in Paris, and the king entered 
that city amidft the acclamations of its inhabitants. He 
was met by M. Builly, who had been chofen mayor of 
Paris, and whofe election the king had been pleafed to 
confirm ; that officer prefented to his majefty the keys of 
the capital, addrefiing him at the fame time in the follow¬ 
ing remarkable words : “ Thefe, fire, are the fame keys 
which were prefented to Henry IV. He came to conquer 
his people ; this day it is the people who re-conquer their 
king.” 
Whatever might be the fecret mortification of the fo¬ 
vereign at this lingular harangue, his whole conduct was 
fuch as highly merited the applaufe of the mod zealous 
champions of patriotifm. The marquis de la Fayette, 
whofe enthuliaftic ardour had impelled him to crofs the 
Atlantic, and fight under the banners of America, was 
now feleCted to command the militia of Paris, while 
Louis manifefted a feeming compliance with the withes of 
the multitude, by fhewing himfelf at the windows of the 
Hotel de Ville with the national cockade. After thefe 
conceffions, the king was allowed to return again to Ver- 
faiiles ; but the calm that his prefence had diffufed was de¬ 
ceitful and of fiiort duration ; the minds of the people 
were dill agitated ; didrud and cruelty characterised the 
multitude ; and the flighted fufpicions w'ere fufficient in 
their eyes to fandtion the mod barbarous executions. 
Each day beheld fome new facrifice to their fanguinary 
caprice; while the fuperior charadters of Foulon and Ber- 
thier difiinguifhed their fate from not lefs innocent, 
though lefsconfpicuous, victims of popular fury. M. Fou¬ 
lon, on the difmifial of Necker, had been named to a pod 
in the new adminidration ; though in conjunction with 
his colleagues he had retired from office on the recal of 
that datefman, yet his retreat ferved not to extinguifh the 
hatred of the Parifians ; his difpofition, naturally fevere 
and uncomplying, probably increafed the general difiike ; 
and an expreflion that public rumour had once attributed 
to him, “ that hay was food good enough for the com¬ 
mon people,” inflamed the fanguinary multitude into open 
menaces of dedruction. Senfible of the dorm that threat¬ 
N C E. 
ened him, he had retired into the country, and hoped in 
privacy to await the return of general tranquillity. But 
his retreat was unfortunately difeovered ; he was dragged 
in triumph to the capital ; judges were appointed to try 
him ; but the impatience of the multitude could not 
brook delay ; he was forced from the guards ; the cord 
of a lanthorn fupplied the indrument of execution ; and 
his head, with the mouth filled with hay, was carried 
through the ftreets to the eternal difgraceof the Parifians. 
Berthier, his fon-in-law, was no lefs culpable in the eyes 
of the mob. An idle rumour prevailed that he bad fur- 
nifhed the troops in the environs of Paris with ammuni¬ 
tion ; he was alfo accufed with not only having mono; 
polized great quantities of corn, but alfo with having de- 
droyed the growing harved, to enhance the price of grain 
in his own poffeffion. Though his f3te was longer de¬ 
ferred, it was no lefs inevitable. The head of the unfor¬ 
tunate Foulon was thrud into his carriage, and he was 
compelled by the populace to falute it. This cruel in- 
fult ferved only to procradinate the hour of his dedruc¬ 
tion; and the lad moments of his life were embittered by 
reproach, inhumanity, and torture. 
To appeafe the capital, notices were given of the hourly 
expectation of the return of Necker, and corn was pro¬ 
cured from the mod didant parts of the kingdom, while 
agents were difpatched to every court in Europe to folicit 
fupplies. The minds of the citizens were afiuaged by 
tlie hopes of returning plenty ; and the affeCtions of the 
foldiers were confirmed by the decree which abolidied 
whipping: a mod unmanly and degrading punilhment, 
which originated among the favage hordes of the prieds of 
Germany, and had been received into the armies of 
France with uuiverfal detedation and abhorrence. 
The melancholy diforders which thus afflicted the 
date, and which equally menaced the public revenue, and 
all private property and perfonal fecurity, awakened the 
national affembly to a fenfe of the danger, and in an in- 
dant impteffed their minds with the urgent neceflity of 
proceeding to form that conditution, which was become 
no lefs neceffary to the exiltence of France, than requifite 
to preferve the lives and liberties of her citizens. The 
committee of reports had prefented an affeCting picture 
of the national calamities; and it was propofed, as a re¬ 
medy for the evils which daily multiplied, to publifh a 
folemn declaration, in which all conditions of men were 
commanded to contribute their proportions to the bur¬ 
den of the date, and not to withhold, underany pretence, 
thofe dues to which the original land-holders were en¬ 
titled. It was in confequence agreed, that a committee 
dioiild be entruded to draw up a plan for the prefervation 
of the rights of the proprietors ; and which on the 4th of 
Augud was prefented for the approbation of the national 
affembly. It dated, “ That the national affembly taking 
into confideration, whild it had been folely occupied in 
erecting the happinefs of the nation on the bafis of a free 
conditution, that the diforders and violences which had af¬ 
flicted the different provinces, had fpread the moft boding 
alarms throughout the minds of the people, and had 
fundamentally (truck at the facred rights of property, and 
at perfonal liberty ; and confcious that thefe diforders 
could not but retard the labours of that affembly, and 
encourage the criminal deligns of the enemies of the pub¬ 
lic welfare : 
It now declared, “ That the ancient laws fubfifted, and 
were to be carried into execution to that moment when 
the nation might think proper to modify orabolifh them ; 
that the taxes alfo, fuch as they were at prefent, were 
punctually to be paid, according to the arret of the na¬ 
tional affembly of the 17th of June laft, till other imports 
could be deviled, and new modes of collection lefs griev¬ 
ous to the people. That all cuftomary rents and fervices 
were to be difeharged as formerly ; and that all efia- 
blilhed laws, for the fecurity of perfons or their property, 
were to be univerfally refpeCtecL That the prefent de¬ 
claration was to be difperfed throughout the provinces; 
