Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 704 pages of information about Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1.

Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 704 pages of information about Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1.
the retirement of the deputies, the people rushed forward, and almost in an instant, were in possession of a fortification, of infinite strength, defended by one hundred men, which in other times, had stood several regular sieges, and had never been taken.  How they forced their entrance has never been explained.  They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and such of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury; carried the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to the Place de Greve (the place of public execution), cut off their heads, and sent them through the city, in triumph, to the Palais Royal.  About the same instant, a treacherous correspondence having been discovered in M. de Flesselles, Prevot des Marchands, they seized him in the Hotel de Ville, where he was in the execution of his office, and cut off his head.  These events, carried imperfectly to Versailles, were the subject of two successive deputations from the Assembly to the King, to both of which he gave dry and hard answers; for nobody had as yet been permitted to inform him, truly and fully, of what had passed at Paris.  But at night, the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the King’s bed-chamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated detail of the disasters of the day in Paris.  He went to bed fearfully impressed.  The decapitation of De Launay worked powerfully, through the night, on the whole Aristocratical party; insomuch, that in the morning, those of the greatest influence on the Count d’Artois, represented to him the absolute necessity, that the King should give up every thing to the Assembly.  This according with the dispositions of the King, he went about eleven o’clock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the Assembly, and there read to them a speech, in which he asked their interposition to re-establish order.  Although couched in terms of some caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made it evident, that it was meant as a surrender at discretion.  He returned to the Chateau afoot, accompanied by the Assembly.  They sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of which was the Marquis de la Fayette, who had, the same morning, been named Commandant en Chef of the Milice Bourgeoise; and Monsieur Bailly, former President of the States General, was called for as Prevot des Marchands.  The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun.  A body of the Swiss guards, of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city horse-guards joined the people.  The alarm at Versailles increased.  The foreign troops were ordered off instantly.  Every Minister resigned.  The King confirmed Bailly as Prevot des Marchands, wrote to Mr. Necker, to recall him, sent his letter open to the Assembly, to be forwarded by them, and invited them to go with him to Paris the next day, to satisfy the city of his dispositions; and that night, and the next morning, the Count d’Artois, and M. de Montesson, a deputy connected with him,
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