He now repeated by word of mouth the statements and arguments which he had previously advanced in writing, with the addition of a denunciation of the recent insurrection and its authors, whom, he insisted, the Assembly was bound instantly to prosecute.  His speech was not ill received; for the Constitutionalists, who knew what he designed to say, had mustered in full force, and had packed the galleries beforehand with hired clappers; and many even of the Deputies who did not belong to that party cheered him, so obvious to all but the most desperate was the danger to the whole State, if Santerre and his brigands should be allowed to become its masters.  But they cared little for a barren indignation which had no more effectual weapon than reproaches.  He had said enough to exasperate, but had not done enough to intimidate; while those whom he denounced had greater boldness and presence of mind than he, and had the forces on which they relied for support at hand and available.  They instantly turned the latter on himself, and in their turn denounced him for having left his army without leave.  He was frightened, or at least perplexed, by such a charge.  He made no reply, but seemed like one stupefied; and it was only through the eloquence of one of his friends, M. Ramond, that he was saved from the impeachment with which Guadet and Vergniaud openly threatened him for quitting the army without leave.

Ramond’s oratory succeeded in carrying through the Assembly a motion in his favor, and several companies of the National Guard and a vast multitude of the citizens showed their sympathy with his views by escorting him with acclamations to his hotel.  But neither their evident inclination to support him, nor even the danger with which he himself had been threatened, could give him resolution and firmness in action.  For a moment he made a demonstration as if he were prepared to secure the success of his designs by force.  He proposed that the king should the next morning review Acloque’s companies of the National Guard, after which he himself would harangue them on their duty to the king and Constitution.  But the Girondins persuaded Petion to exert his authority, as mayor, to prohibit the review.  La Fayette was weak enough to submit to the prohibition; and, quickened, it is said, by intelligence that Petion was preparing to arrest him, the next day retired in haste from Paris and rejoined the army.

He had done the king nothing but harm.  He had shown to all the world that though the Royalists and Constitutionalists might still be numerically the stronger party, for all purposes of action they were by far the weaker.  He had encouraged those whom he had intended to daunt, and strengthened those whom he had hoped to crush; and they, in consequence, proceeded in their treasons with greater boldness and openness than ever.  Marie Antoinette, as we have seen, had expressed her belief that they designed to assassinate Louis, and she now employed herself, as she had done