An abbe or soldier is unmercifully beaten and dragged into the Tuileries basin.

One of the gunners of the Guard reviles the queen like a fish woman, and exclaims to her, "How glad I should be to clap your head on the end of my bayonet!"[2512] They supposed that the King is brought to heel under this double pressure of the Legislative Body and the street; they rely on his accustomed docility, or at least, on his proven lethargy; they think that they have converted him into what Condorcet once demanded, a signature machine.[2513] Consequently, without notifying him, just as if the throne were vacant, Servan, on his own authority, proposes to the Assembly the camp outside Paris.[2514] Roland, for his part, reads to him at a full meeting of the council an arrogant, pedagogical remonstrance, scrutinizing his sentiments, informing him of his duties, calling upon him to accept the new "religion," to sanction the decree against unsworn ecclesiastics, that is to say, to condemn to beggary, imprisonment, and transportation[2515] 70,000 priests and nuns guilty of orthodoxy, and authorize the camp around Paris, which means, to put his throne, his person, and his family at the mercy of 20,000 madmen, chosen by the clubs and other assemblages expressly to do him harm;[2516] in short, to discard at once his conscience and his common sense .-- Strange enough, the royal will this time remains staunch; not only does the King refuse, but he dismisses his ministers.

So much the worse for him, for sign he must, cost what it will; if he insists on remaining athwart their path, they will march over him .-- Not because he is dangerous, and thinks of abandoning his legal immobility.

Up to the 10th of August, through a dread of action, and not to kindle a civil war, he rejects all plans leading to an open rupture.

Up to the very last day he resigns himself even when his personal safety and that of his family is at stake, to constitutional law and public common sense.