the morning, he had the sheets carried to the porcelain manufactory at
Sevres, in a cart which he himself accompanied, and made a large fire of
them before all the workmen, who were expressly forbidden to approach it.
All these precautions, and the suspicions to which they gave rise, under
such critical circumstances, gave so much publicity to this affair that it
was denounced to the Assembly that very night. Brissot, and the whole
Jacobin party, with equal effrontery and vehemence, insisted that the
papers thus secretly burnt could be no other than the registers and
documents of the correspondence of the Austrian committee. M. de Laporte
was ordered to the bar, and there gave the most precise account of the
circumstances. Riston was also called up, and confirmed M. de Laporte's
deposition. But these explanations, however satisfactory, did not calm
the violent ferment raised in the Assembly by this affair.--"Memoirs of
Bertrand de Molleville."]

Some time afterwards the Assembly received a denunciation against M. de
Montmorin. The ex-minister was accused of having neglected forty
despatches from M. Genet, the charge d'affaires from France in Russia, not
having even unsealed them, because M. Genet acted on constitutional
principles. M. de Montmorin appeared at the bar to answer this
accusation. Whatever distress I might feel in obeying the order I had
received from the King to go and give him an account of the sitting, I
thought I ought not to fail in doing so. But instead of giving my brother
his family name, I merely said "your Majesty's charge d'affaires at St.
Petersburg."

The King did me the favour to say that he noticed a reserve in my account,
of which he approved. The Queen condescended to add a few obliging
remarks to those of the King. However, my office of journalist gave me in
this instance so much pain that I took an opportunity, when the King was