It is true that the Republicans had only just begun to appear, but in their first birth they formed this terrible principle—No more monarchy!
You will remember that the commissioners had been appointed by the Assembly to examine Louis XVI.
These three declared, in the name of their seven committees, that they had found no reason to put Louis XVI on his trial.
The Assembly took the opinion of the commissioners, but the Jacobin Club refused its sanction to the Assembly. The Assembly had then above it a high chamber, which could annihilate its decisions with its veto.
In order to understand the situation and the events about to take place, it is necessary to say that at this juncture there were opposed to each other, three distinct parties.
The Royalists who wished the King absolute—that is to say, without the Constitution; the Constitutionals, who wished the King with a Constitution; and the Republicans, who wished neither King nor Constitution, but a republic.
The Assembly, as we have said, voted that there was no necessity to put the King on trial.
But, through concession to the public feeling, it had voted two measures—one preventive, the other repressive.
This was the repressive measure.
“That Bouillé, and all servants, officers, couriers, and accomplices in the flight, should be prosecuted.”