to cause an equivalent to it to be accepted by the Assembly?  I dare you to deny this fact—­that damns you.  How comes it that the king in his proclamation uses the same language as yourself?  How have you dared to infringe an order of the day on the circulation of the pamphlets of the defenders of the people, whilst you grant the protection of your bayonets to cowardly writers, the destroyers of the constitution?  Why did you bring back prisoners, and as it were in triumph, the inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, who wished to destroy the last stronghold of tyranny at Vincennes?  Why, on the evening of this expedition to Vincennes, did you protect in the Tuileries assassins armed with poignards to favour the king’s escape?  Explain to me by what chance, on the 21st June, the Tuileries was guarded by the company of the grenadiers of the Rue de l’Oratoire, that you had punished on the 18th of April for having opposed the king’s departure?  Let us not deceive ourselves:  the king’s flight is only the result of a plot; there has been a secret understanding, and you, M. de La Fayette, who lately staked your head for the king’s safety, do you by appearing in this assembly seek your own condemnation?  The people must have vengeance; they are wearied of being thus alternately braved or deceived.  If my voice is unheard here, if our weak indulgence for the enemies of our country continually endanger it, I appeal to posterity, and leave it to them to judge between us.”

M. de La Fayette, thus attacked, made no reply to these strong appeals; he merely said that he had come to join the assembly, because it was there that all good citizens should hasten in perilous times; and he then left the place.  The assembly having issued a decree next day calling on the general to appear and justify himself, he wrote that he would do so at a future period; he however never did so.  But the motions of Robespierre and Danton did not in the least injure his influence over the national guard.  Danton on that day displayed the greatest audacity.  M. de La Fayette had the proofs of the orator’s venality in his possession—­he had received from M. de Montmorin 100,000 francs.  Danton knew that M. de La Fayette was well aware of this transaction; but he also knew that La Fayette could not accuse him without naming M. de Montmorin, and without also accusing himself of participation in this shameful traffic, that supplied the funds of the civil list.  This double secret kept them mutually in check, and obliged the orator and general to maintain a degree of reserve that lessened the fury of the contest.  Lameth replied to Danton, and spoke in favour of concord.  The violent resolutions proposed by Robespierre and Danton had no weight that day at the Jacobins’ Club.  The peril that threatened them taught the people wisdom, and their instinct forbade their dividing their force before that which was unknown.

XX.