The King, who had, on the 12th of February, sworn friendship to the Constitution, not only was in direct correspondence with the exiles, but went to Trêves, a military post, where his stables were situated, and which was in charge of Prince Lambese, the very man who had charged on the people in the garden of the Tuileries, on the 12th of July, and wounded an old man with his sabre, and trodden the helpless under foot.
The same kind of thing went on at Versailles. The King had a Minister of Foreign Affairs; uniforms were made for the gardes du corps, and sent to Trêves; horses were bought in England for the accommodation of the King’s household; and the only grumble that Louis XVI made, when he paid the bills, was, that, at least, they might have bought the horses in France.
The Comte D’Artois, the Prince Condé, and the other exiles, received enormous pensions.
They had not then been able to find what became of the sixty millions.
But now the Red Book pointed out where they had gone.
If, up to this moment, there had been any hesitation on the minds of the people, that hesitation now disappeared.
They knew where was their enemy.
The enemy was the exiles, and their ally, the King, who pensioned them.
This was the reason why the Assembly struck a decisive blow, and put up for sale, at one time, ecclesiastical benefices to the tune of four hundred millions. Paris alone bought two hundred millions’ worth.
All the municipalities followed that example. They bought a great number, and then sold them, one by one. In a word, they wished to expropriate the clergy, and they did not hesitate to do it.