This is not the wish of the people, and the decree is therefore annulled.  He has been carried off by the two hundred and ninety-two aristocrates, who have themselves declared that they have no longer a voice in the National Assembly.  It is annulled because it is in opposition to the voice of the people, your sovereign.  Repeal your decree:  the king has abdicated by his crime:  receive his abdication; convoke a fresh constitutive power; point out the criminal, and organise a new executive power.”

This petition was laid on the altar of the country, and quires of paper, placed at the four corners of the altar, received six thousand autographs.

This petition is still preserved in the archives of the Municipality, and bears on it the indelible imprint of the hand of the people.  It is the medal of the Revolution struck on the spot in the fused metal of popular agitation.  Here and there on it are to be traced those sinister names that for the first time emerged from obscurity.  These names are like the hieroglyphics of the ancient monuments.  The acts of men now famous, who signed names then unknown and obscure, give to these signatures a retrospective signification, and the eye dwells with curiosity on these characters that seem to contain in a few marks the mystery of a long life—­the whole horror of an epoch.  Here is the name of Chaumette, then a medical student, Rue Mazarine, No. 9.  There Maillard, the president of the fearful massacres of September.  Further on, Hebert; underneath it, Hanriot, Inspector Warden of the condemned prisoners (General des Supplicies) during the reign of terror.  The small and scrawled signature of Hebert, who was afterwards the “Pere Duchesne,” or le Peuple en colere, is like a spider that extends its arms to seize its prey.  Santerre has signed lower down:  this is the last name of note, the rest are alone those of the populace.  It is easy to discern how many a hasty and tremulous hand has traced the witness of its fury or ignorance on this document.  Many were even unable to write.  A circle of ink with a cross in the centre marks their anonymous adhesion to the petition.  Some female names are to be seen, and numerous names of children are discernible, from the inaccuracy of their hand, guided by another:  poor babes, who professed the opinions of their parents, without comprehending them; and who signed the attestation of the passions of the people, ere their infant tongues could utter a manly sound.

XIV.

The municipal body had been informed at two o’clock of the murders committed at the Champ-de-Mars, and of the insults offered to the body of national guards sent to disperse the mob.  M. de La Fayette himself, who headed this detachment, had been struck by several stones hurled at him by the populace.  It was even reported that a man in the uniform of the national guard had fired a pistol at him, and that he had generously