request it; let us go where I am expected." They had scarcely reached the
great hall, when the attention of the multitude was drawn off by shouts on
the Place de Greve. They heard the cries of "Victory! victory! liberty!"
It was the arrival of the conquerors of the Bastille which this announced.
They themselves soon entered the hall with the most noisy and the most
fearful pomp. The persons who had most distinguished themselves were
carried in triumph, crowned with laurels. They were escorted by more than
fifteen hundred men, with glaring eyes and dishevelled hair, with all
kinds of arms, pressing one upon another, and making the flooring yield
beneath their feet. One carried the keys and standard of the Bastille;
another, its regulations suspended to his bayonet; a third, with horrible
barbarity, raised in his bleeding hand the buckle of the governor's stock.
With this parade, the procession of the conquerors of the Bastille,
followed by an immense crowd that thronged the quays, entered the hall of
the Hotel de Ville to inform the committee of their triumph, and decide
the fate of the prisoners who survived. A few wished to leave it to the
committee, but others shouted: "No quarter for the prisoners! No quarter
for the men who fired on their fellow-citizens!" La Salle, the commandant,
the elector Moreau de Saint-Mery, and the brave Elie, succeeded in
appeasing the multitude, and obtained a general amnesty.

It was now the turn of the unfortunate Flesselles. It is said that a
letter found on De Launay proved the treachery of which he was suspected.
"I am amusing the Parisians," he wrote, "with cockades and promises. Hold
out till the evening, and you shall be reinforced." The mob hurried to his
office. The more moderate demanded that he should be arrested and confined
in the Chatelet; but others opposed this, saying that he should be
conveyed to the Palais-Royal, and there tried. This decision gave general
satisfaction. "To the Palais-Royal! To the Palais-Royal!" resounded from
every side. "Well--be it so, gentlemen," replied Flesselles, with