This time again, in the court of the Carrousel, the magistrates on the spot, finding that "their responsibility is insupportable," concern themselves only with how to "avoid the effusion of blood;" it is with regret, and this they state to the troops, "in faltering tones," that they proclaim martial law.[82] They "forbid them to attack," merely "authorizing them to repel force with force;" in other words, they order them to stand up to the first fire; "you are not to fire until you are fired upon." -- Still better, they go from company to company, "openly declaring that opposition to such a large and well-armed assemblage would be folly, and that it would be a very great misfortune to attempt it." -- "I repeat to you," said Leroux, "that a defense seems to me madness." -- Such is the way in which, for more than an hour, they encourage the National Guard. "All I ask," says Leroux again, "is that you wait a little longer. I hope that we shall induce the King to yield to the National Assembly." -- Always the same tactics: hand the fortress and the general over rather than fire on the mob. To this end they return to the King, with R?derer at their head, and renew their efforts: "Sire," says R?derer, "time presses, and we ask you to consent to accompany us." -- For a few moments, the last and most solemn of the monarchy, the King hesitates.[83] His good sense, probably, enabled him to see that a retreat was abdication; but his phlegmatic understanding is at first unable to clearly define its consequences; moreover, his optimism had never explored the vastness of the stupidity of the people, nor sounded the depths of human malice and spite; he cannot imagine that slander may transform his determination not to shed blood into a desire to shed blood.[84] Besides, he is bound by his past, by his habit of always yielding; by his determination, declared and maintained for the past three years, never to cause civil war; by his obstinate humanitarianism, and especially by his religious goodwill. He has systematically extinguished in himself the animal instinct of resistance, the flash of anger in all of us which starts up under unjust and brutal aggressions; the Christian has supplanted the King;he is no longer aware that duty obliges him to be a man of the sword that, in his surrender, he surrenders the State, and that to yield like a lamb is to lead all honest people, along with himself, to the slaughterhouse. "Let us go," said he, raising his right hand; "we will give, since it is necessary, one more proof of our self-sacrifice."[85] Accompanied by his family and Ministers, he sets out between two lines of National Guards and the Swiss Guard,[86] and reaches the Assembly, which sends a deputation to meet him; entering the chamber he says: "I come here to prevent a great crime. " -- No pretext, indeed, for a conflict now exists. An assault on the insurgent side is useless, since the monarch, with all belonging to him and his government, have left the palace. On the other side, the garrison will not begin the fight; diminished by 150 Swiss and nearly all the grenadiers of the Filles-Saint-Thomas, who served as the King's escort to the Assembly, it is reduced to a few gentlemen, 750Swiss, and about a hundred National Guards; the others, on learning that the King is going, consider their services at an end and disperse.[87] -- All seems to be over in the sacrifice of royalty.
Louis XVI. imagines that the Assembly, at the worst, will suspend him from his functions, and that he will return to the Tuileries as a private individual. On leaving the palace, indeed, he orders his valet to keep up the service until he himself returns from the National Assembly.[88]
He did not count on the exigencies, blindness and disorders of the riot. Threatened by the Jacobin gunners remaining with their artillery in the inside courts, the gatekeepers open the gates. The insurgents rush in, fraternise with the gunners, reach the vestibule, ascend the grand staircase, and summon the Swiss to surrender.[89] -- These show no hostile spirit; many of them, as a mark of good humor, throw packets of cartridges out of the windows; some even go so far as to let themselves be embraced and led away. The regiment, however, faithful to its orders, will not yield to force.[90] "We are Swiss,"replies the sergeant, Blaser; "the Swiss do not part with their arms but with their lives. We think that we do not merit such an insult.
If the regiment is no longer wanted, let it be legally discharged.