The miasmas of this horde set in motion tainted the air, and stifled respiration.

Three hours elapsed ere all the troop had defiled.

The president hastened to adjourn the sitting, in the expectation of approaching excesses.
XVI.
But an imposing force was drawn up in the courts of the Tuileries and the garden, to defend the dwelling of the king against the invasion of the people.

Three regiments of the line, two squadrons of gendarmes, several battalions of the national guard, and several pieces of cannon, composed the means of resistance; but the troops, undecided, and acted upon by sedition, were but an appearance of force.

The cries of _Vive la nation_, the friendly gestures of the insurgents, the appearance of the women extending their arms towards the soldiers through the palisades, and the presence of the municipal officers, who displayed a disdainful neutrality towards the king, shook the feeling of resistance amongst the troops, who beheld on either side the uniform of the national guard; and between the population of Paris, in whose sentiments they participated, and the chateau, which was represented to them as full of treason, they no longer knew which it was their duty to obey.