omitting some facts, distorting others, and making the whole machinery
bend to produce a stage effect. Of this kind is his account of the
expedition to Versailles. He begins this account by omitting the
only facts which as causes are known to be true; everything beyond
these is conjecture, even in Paris; and he then works up a tale
accommodated to his own passions and prejudices.

  It is to be observed throughout Mr. Burke's book that he never
speaks of plots against the Revolution; and it is from those plots
that all the mischiefs have arisen. It suits his purpose to exhibit
the consequences without their causes. It is one of the arts of the
drama to do so. If the crimes of men were exhibited with their
sufferings, stage effect would sometimes be lost, and the audience
would be inclined to approve where it was intended they should
commiserate.

  After all the investigations that have been made into this intricate
affair (the expedition to Versailles), it still remains enveloped in
all that kind of mystery which ever accompanies events produced more
from a concurrence of awkward circumstances than from fixed design.
While the characters of men are forming, as is always the case in
revolutions, there is a reciprocal suspicion, and a disposition to
misinterpret each other; and even parties directly opposite in
principle will sometimes concur in pushing forward the same movement
with very different views, and with the hopes of its producing very
different consequences. A great deal of this may be discovered in this
embarrassed affair, and yet the issue of the whole was what nobody had
in view.

  The only things certainly known are that considerable uneasiness was
at this time excited at Paris by the delay of the King in not
sanctioning and forwarding the decrees of the National Assembly,
particularly that of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the
decrees of the fourth of August, which contained the foundation
principles on which the constitution was to be erected. The kindest,
and perhaps the fairest conjecture upon this matter is, that some of
the ministers intended to make remarks and observations upon certain
parts of them before they were finally sanctioned and sent to the
provinces; but be this as it may, the enemies of the Revolution
derived hope from the delay, and the friends of the Revolution
uneasiness.

  During this state of suspense, the Garde du Corps, which was
composed as such regiments generally are, of persons much connected
with the Court, gave an entertainment at Versailles (October 1) to
some foreign regiments then arrived; and when the entertainment was at
the height, on a signal given, the Garde du Corps tore the national
cockade from their hats, trampled it under foot, and replaced it
with a counter-cockade prepared for the purpose. An indignity of
this kind amounted to defiance. It was like declaring war; and if
men will give challenges they must expect consequences. But all this
Mr. Burke has carefully kept out of sight. He begins his account by
saying: "History will record that on the morning of the 6th October,
1789, the King and Queen of France, after a day of confusion, alarm,
dismay, and slaughter, lay down under the pledged security of public
faith to indulge nature in a few hours of respite, and troubled
melancholy repose." This is neither the sober style of history, nor
the intention of it. It leaves everything to be guessed at and
mistaken. One would at least think there had been a battle; and a
battle there probably would have been had it not been for the
moderating prudence of those whom Mr. Burke involves in his
censures. By his keeping the Garde du Corps out of sight Mr. Burke has
afforded himself the dramatic licence of putting the King and Queen in
their places, as if the object of the expedition was against them. But
to return to my account-

  This conduct of the Garde du Corps, as might well be expected,
alarmed and enraged the Partisans. The colors of the cause, and the
cause itself, were become too united to mistake the intention of the
insult, and the Partisans were determined to call the Garde du Corps
to an account. There was certainly nothing of the cowardice of
assassination in marching in the face of the day to demand
satisfaction, if such a phrase may be used, of a body of armed men who
had voluntarily given defiance. But the circumstance which serves to
throw this affair into embarrassment is, that the enemies of the
Revolution appear to have encouraged it as well as its friends. The
one hoped to prevent a civil war by checking it in time, and the other
to make one. The hopes of those opposed to the Revolution rested in
making the King of their party, and getting him from Versailles to
Metz, where they expected to collect a force and set up a standard. We
have, therefore, two different objects presenting themselves at the
same time, and to be accomplished by the same means: the one to
chastise the Garde du Corps, which was the object of the Partisans;
the other to render the confusion of such a scene an inducement to the
King to set off for Metz.

  On the 5th of October a very numerous body of women, and men in
the disguise of women, collected around the Hotel de Ville or
town-hall at Paris, and set off for Versailles. Their professed object
was the Garde du Corps; but prudent men readily recollect that
mischief is more easily begun than ended; and this impressed itself
with the more force from the suspicions already stated, and the
irregularity of such a cavalcade. As soon, therefore, as a
sufficient force could be collected, M. de la Fayette, by orders
from the civil authority of Paris, set off after them at the head of
twenty thousand of the Paris militia. The Revolution could derive no
benefit from confusion, and its opposers might. By an amiable and
spirited manner of address he had hitherto been fortunate in calming
disquietudes, and in this he was extraordinarily successful; to
frustrate, therefore, the hopes of those who might seek to improve