But we must remember that the nation had the right to say to its chief; "If thou wilt reign over us, thou shalt not quit the kingdom, thou shalt not convey the royalty of France amongst our enemies." And as to the forms of that captivity in the Tuileries, we must remember too that the National Assembly had not prescribed them,--that in fact it had risen with indignation at the word imprisonment,--that it had commanded a political resistance and nothing more, and that the severity and odium of the precautionary measures used were occasioned by the zealous responsibility of the national guard, more than to the irreverence of the Assembly.

La Fayette guarded, in the person of the king, the dynasty, its proper head, and the constitution--a hostage against the republic and royalty at the same time.

_Maire du palais_, he intimidated by the presence of a weak and degraded monarch, the discouraged royalists and the restrained republicans.

Louis XVI.

was his pledge.
Barnave and the Lameths had within the Assembly the attitude of La Fayette without.