The letter written by the King to the Assembly, claiming to accept the constitution in the very place where it had been created, and where he announced he would be on the 14th September at mid-day, was received with transport, and the reading was repeatedly interrupted by plaudits.  The sitting terminated amidst the greatest enthusiasm, and M. de La Fayette obtained the release of all those who were detained on account of the King’s journey [to Varennes], the abandonment of all proceedings relative to the events of the Revolution, and the discontinuance of the use of passports and of temporary restraints upon free travelling, as well in the interior as without.  The whole was conceded by acclamation.  Sixty members were deputed to go to the King and express to him fully the satisfaction his Majesty’s letter had given.  The Keeper of the Seals quitted the chamber, in the midst of applause, to precede the deputation to the King.

The King answered the speech addressed to him, and concluded by saying to the Assembly that a decree of that morning, which had abolished the order of the Holy Ghost, had left him and his son alone permission to be decorated with it; but that an order having no value in his eyes, save for the power of conferring it, he would not use it.

The Queen, her son, and Madame, were at the door of the chamber into which the deputation was admitted.  The King said to the deputies, “You see there my wife and children, who participate in my sentiments;” and the Queen herself confirmed the King’s assurance.  These apparent marks of confidence were very inconsistent with the agitated state of her mind.  “These people want no sovereigns,” said she.  “We shall fall before their treacherous though well-planned tactics; they are demolishing the monarchy stone by stone.”

Next day the particulars of the reception of the deputies by the King were reported to the Assembly, and excited warm approbation.  But the President having put the question whether the Assembly ought not to remain seated while the King took the oath “Certainly,” was repeated by many voices; “and the King, standing, uncovered.”  M. Malouet observed that there was no occasion on which the nation, assembled in the presence of the King, did not acknowledge him as its head; that the omission to treat the head of the State with the respect due to him would be an offence to the nation, as well as to the monarch.  He moved that the King should take the oath standing, and that the Assembly should also stand while he was doing so.  M. Malouet’s observations would have carried the decree, but a deputy from Brittany exclaimed, with a shrill voice, that he had an amendment to propose which would render all unanimous.  “Let us decree,” said he, “that M. Malouet, and whoever else shall so please, may have leave to receive the King upon their knees; but let us stick to the decree.”