This was the preventive measure:—
“That if a king breaks his oath, or attacks, or does not defend, his people, he shall be cast from his throne, become a simple citizen, and be tried for the offences committed previous to his degradation.”
The repressive measure was one of those timid ones proper to a decayed Assembly, which feels that its power is crumbling away.
During some days, or, rather, nights, the Jacobin sitting became stormy.
During the sitting, in which the true culprit—that is to say, the King—was left alone, in order to arrest and punish the minor offenders—that is to say, Bouillé, Fersen, the gardes du corps, and Madame de Tourzel,—M. Robespierre asked in vain to have the report distributed, and the discussion adjourned.
As it was known in advance that the discussion would be stormy, Robespierre went to the club. He had been accused, at the Assembly, of republicanism, and—mark this well,—on the 13th of July 1791, Robespierre did not disdain to again avow himself a Republican.
On that evening, we all went to the Jacobins; M. Duplay and myself in the superior hall, and the three women and Félicién in the inferior, where a society was held, called the Society of the Two Sexes.
During my absence from Paris, Robespierre had acquired a great popularity, to which he had succeeded by degrees. He had still the same voice, though, perhaps, he spoke a little stronger than the last time that I had heard him; and I fancied that I noted a marked progress in his intonation, but still the same spinning-out of his facts.
He had just finished his discourse, when a great disturbance was heard. It was the Cordeliers’ Club, which, in the persons of Danton and Legendre, had made an irruption among the Jacobins.
They were neither vague nor lengthy in their demands.