Suddenly it flew open.
The guards of the Hôtel de Ville appeared, and advanced upon the assailants, who, in their first terror, retreated, and left a large open space in the front of the building.
This guard stationed itself upon the front steps, and presented a bold front to the crowd.
The officers, moreover, instead of threatening, harangued the crowd in friendly terms, and endeavored to calm it by their protestations.
Bailly had become quite confused. It was the first time that the poor astronomer had found himself in opposition to the popular tempest.
“What is to be done?” demanded he of the electors,—”what is to be done?”
“We must try him.”
“No trial can take place when under the intimidation of the mob,” said Bailly.
“Zounds!” exclaimed Billot, “have you not, then, men enough to defend you?”
“We have not two hundred men.”
“You must have a reinforcement, then.”
“Oh, if Monsieur de Lafayette were but informed of this!”
“Well, send and inform him of it.”
“And who would venture to attempt it? Who could make his way through such a multitude?”
“I would,” replied Billot.
And he was about to leave the hall.
Bailly stopped him.
“Madman!” cried he; “look at that ocean! You would be swallowed up even by one of its waves. If you wish to get to Monsieur de Lafayette,—and even then I would not answer for your safety,—go out by one of the back doors. Go!”
“‘Tis well!” tranquilly replied Billot.
And he darted out of the room with the swiftness of an arrow.
Chapter XI
The Father-in-Law
THE clamor, which kept on constantly increasing from the square, clearly proved that the exasperation of the mob was becoming greater. It was no longer hatred that they felt; it was abhorrence. They no longer merely threatened; they foamed.
The cries of “Down with Foulon! Death to Foulon!” crossed each other in the air, like projectiles in a bombardment. The crowd, which was still augmenting, pressed nearer to the entrance of the Hôtel de Ville, till they, as it may be said, almost suffocated the civic guards at their posts.
And already there began to circulate among the crowd, and to increase in volume, those rumors which are the precursors of violence.
These rumors no longer threatened Foulon only, but the electors who protected him.
“They have let the prisoner escape!” said some.
“Let us go in! let us go in!” said others.
“Let us set fire to the Hôtel de Ville!”
“Forward! forward!”
Bailly felt that as Monsieur de Lafayette did not arrive, there was only one resource left to them.
And this was that the electors should themselves go down, mix in with the groups, and endeavor to pacify the most furious among them.
“Foulon! Foulon!”
Such was the incessant cry, the constant roaring of those furious waves.
A general assault was preparing; the walls could not have resisted it.
“Sir,” said Bailly to Foulon, “if you do not show yourself to the crowd, they will naturally believe that we have allowed you to escape. Then they will force the door, and will come in here; and when once here, should they find you, I can no longer be responsible for anything.”
“Oh, I did not know that I was so much execrated!” exclaimed Foulon.
And supported by Bailly, he dragged himself to the window.
A fearful cry resounded immediately on his presenting himself. The guards were driven back; the doors broken in; a torrent of men precipitated themselves up the staircase into the corridors, into the rooms, which were invaded in an instant.
Bailly threw around the prisoner all the guards who were within call, and then he began to harangue the crowd.
He wished to make these men understand that to assassinate might sometimes be doing justice, but that it was never an act of justice.
He succeeded, after having made the most strenuous efforts, after having twenty times perilled his own existence.
“Yes, yes,” cried the assailants, “let him be tried! let him be tried! but let him be hanged!”
They were at this point in the argument when General de Lafayette reached the Hôtel de Ville, conducted there by Billot.
The sight of his tricolored plume—one of the first which had been worn—at once assuaged their anger, and the tumult ceased.