Every hand was raised in the attitude of men ready to take a solemn oath; the tribunes and the chamber confounded their applause, and the decree was passed.
M.de Lessart, whom the gesture and the allusion of Guadet seemed to have already designated as the victim to the suspicions of the people, could not remain silent under the weight of these terrible allusions.
"Mention has been made," said he, "of the political agents of the executive power: I declare that I know nothing which can authorise us to suspect their fidelity.

For my own part, I will repeat the declaration of my colleagues in the ministry, and adopt it for my own--the constitution or death." Whilst Gensonne and Guadet aroused the Assembly by this preconcerted scene, Vergniaud aroused the crowd by the copy of an address to the French people, which had been spread abroad for the last few days amongst the masses.

The Girondists remembered the effect produced two years previously by the proposed address to the king to dismiss the troops.
"Frenchmen," said Vergniaud, "war threatens your frontiers; conspiracies against liberty are rife.

Your armies are assembling: mighty movements agitate the empire.

Seditious priests prepare in the confessional, and even in the pulpit, a rising against the constitution; martial law becomes essential.