last two murders, do Bailly and Lafayette indignantly threaten to
withdraw; they are forced to remain; their protection, such as it
is, is all that is left, and, if the National Guard is unable to
prevent every murder, it prevents some of them. People live as they
can under the constant expectation of fresh popular violence. "To
every impartial man," says Malouet, "the Terror dates from the 14th
of July". - On the 17th, before setting out for Paris, the King
attends communion and makes his will in anticipation of
assassination. From the 16th to the 18th, twenty personages of high
rank, among others most of those on whose heads a price is set by
the Palais-Royal, leave France: The Count d'Artois, Marshal de
Broglie, the Princes de Condé, de Conti, de Lambesc, de Vaudemont,
the Countess de Polignac, and the Duchesses de Polignac and de
Guiche. -- The day following the two murders, M. de Crosne, M.
Doumer, M. Sureau, the most zealous and most valuable members of the
committee on subsistence, all those appointed to make purchases and
to take care of the storehouses, conceal themselves or fly. On the
eve of the two murders, the notaries of Paris, being menaced with a
riot, had to advance 45,000 francs which were promised to the
workmen of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; while the public treasury,
almost empty, is drained of 30,000 livres per day to diminish the
cost of bread. -- Persons and possessions, great and small, private
individuals and public functionaries, the Government itself, all is
in the hands of the mob. "From this moment," says a deputy,[56]
"liberty did not exist even in the National Assembly . . . France
stood dumb before thirty factious persons. The Assembly became in
their hands a passive instrument, which they forced to serve them in
the execution of their projects." -- They themselves do not lead,
although they seem to lead. The great brute, which has taken the
bit in its mouth, holds on to it, and it's plunging becomes more