The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 41
tumult either in Versailles itself, or directed thither must be viewed by posterity. The jacobins were
from Paris. These troops consisted of gentlemen the first to sound the alarm through all their clubs
of trust and confidence, but their numbers were few and societies, and the hundreds of hundreds of poin proportion to the extent of the palace, and their pular orators whom they had at their command, exvery quality rendered them obnoxious to the people cited the citizens by descriptions of the most dreadas armed aristocrats. ful plots, fraught with massacres and proscriptions.
About two-thirds of their number, to avoid suspi- Every effort had already been used to heat the pocion and gain confidence, had been removed to pular mind against the king and queen, whom, in
Rambouillet. In these circumstances, the grena- allusion to the obnoxious power granted to them by
diers of the French Guards, so lately in arms against the law, they had of late learned to curse and insult,
the royal authority, with an inconsistency not unna- under the names of Monsieur and Madame Veto.
tural to men of their profession, took it into their The king had recently delayed yielding his sanction
heads to become zealous for recovery of the posts to the declarations of the Rights of Man, until the
which they had formerly occupied around the king's constitution was complete. This had been severely
person, and threatened openly to march to Versailles censured by the Assembly, who spoke of sending a
to take possession of the routine of duty at the, pa- deputation to extort his consent to these declaralace, a privilege which they considered as their due, tions, before presenting him with the practical
notwithstanding that they had deserted their posts results which they intended to bottom on them. A
against the king's command, and were now about to dreadful scarcity, amounting nearly to a famine,
resume them contrary to his consent. The regiment rendered the populace even more accessible than
of Flanders was brought up to Versailles, to prevent usual to desperate counsels. The feasts, amid which
a movement fraught with so much danger to the the aristocrats were represented as devising their
royal family. The presence of this corps had been plots, seemed an insult on the public misery. When
required by the municipality, and the measure had the minds of the lower orders were thus prejudiced,
been acquiesced in by the Assembly. though. not it was no difficult matter to produce an insurwithout some expressive indications of suspicion. rection.
The regiment of Flanders arrived accordingly, That of the 5th October, 1789, was of a singular
and the aardes dt Corps, according to a custom description, the insurgents being chiefly of the feuniversal in the French garrisons, invited the officers. male sex. The market-women, dames de la halle,
to an entertainment, at which the officers of the as they are called, half unsexed by the masculine
Swiss Guards, and those of the National Guard of nature of their employments, and entirely so by
Versailles, were also guests. This ill-omened feast the ferocity of their manners, had figured early in
was given in the Opera Hall of the palace, almost the Revolution.'With these were allied and assowithin hearing of the sovereigns; * the healths of ciated most of the worthless and barbarous of their
the royal family were drank with the enthusiasm own sex, such disgraceful specimens of humanity
naturally inspired by the situation. The king and as serve but to show in what a degraded state it
queen imprudently agreed to visit the scene of fes- may be found to exist. Females of this description
tivity, carrying with them the dauphin. Their pre- began to assemble early in the morning, in large
sence raised the spirits of the company, already groups, with the cries for " bread," which so easily
excited by wine and music to the highest pitch; rouse a starving metropolis. There were observed
royalist tunes were played, the white cockade, dis- amongst them many men disguised as women, and
tributed by the ladies who attended the queen, was they compelled all the females they met to go along
mounted with enthusiasm, and it is said that of the with them. They marched to the H6tel de Ville,
nation was trodden under foot. broke boldly through several squadrons of the NaIf we consider the cause of this wild scene, it tional Guard, who were drawn up in front of that
seems natural enough that the queen, timid as a wo. building for its defence, and were with difficulty
man, anxious as a wife and a mother, might, in order dissuaded from burning the records it contained.
to propitiate the favour of men who were summoned They next seized a magazine of arms, with three
expressly to be guard of the royal family, incau- or four pieces of cannon, and were joined by a
tiously have recourse to imitate, in a slight degree, miscellaneous rabble, armed with pikes, scythes,
and towards one regiment, the arts of conciliation, and similar instruments, who called themselves the
which in a much grosser shape.had been used by the conquerors of the Bastille. The still increasing
popular party to shake the fidelity of the whole multitude re-echoed the cry of "Bread, bread!-to
army. But it is impossible to conceive that the king, Versailles! to Versailles!"
or ministers, could have hoped, by the transitory and The National Guard were now called out in force,
drunken flash of enthusiasm elicited from a few but speedily showed their officers that they too were
hundred men during a carousal, to commence the infected with the humour of the times, and as much
counter-revolution, which they dared not attempt indisposed to subordination as the mob, to disperse
when they had at their command thirty thousand which they were summoned. La Fayette put himtroops, under an experienced general. self at their head, not to give his own, but to reBut as no false step among the royalists remained ceive their orders. They refused to act against
unimproved by their adversaries, the military feast women, who, they said, were starving, and in their
of Versailles was presented to the people of Paris turn demanded to be led to Versailles, to dethrone,
under a light very different from that in which it -such was their language,-" the king, who was a
driveler, and place the crown on the head of his
+ October lef. son." La Fayette hesitated, implored, explained;
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