Lafayette replied; and that more was nothing less than a charter from the king, by which the public and individual liberty should be acknowledged and guarantied by the future States General.

That body opened their session at Versailles in May, and soon constituted themselves a National Assembly. Their hall was closed by order of the king, on the 20th, and from that time until early in July, Paris was dreadfully agitated. Every one felt that a terrible storm was ready to burst. The king, surrounded by bad advisers, attempted to avert it by means which precipitated it. He placed a cordon of troops around Paris, to overawe the opposers of government. The Assembly, supported by the people, organized a militia within the city. The number required was forty-eight thousand. In two days, two hundred and seventy thousand citizens enrolled themselves. A state mayor was appointed by the town assembly, and the Marquis La Salle was named commander-in-chief.

The armed people intercepted the court dispatches by arresting the royal couriers; and an immense assemblage went to the Hospital of the Invalids, on the 10th of July, and demanded of the governor to deliver up to them all the arms depos ited there. He refused, and they seized thirty thousand muskets and twenty pieces of cannon. They also seized all the arms in the shops of the armorers, and those of the GardeMeuble. The tumult throughout the city became terrible in strength and intensity, and the National Assembly sent a deputation to the king to inform him of the disturbances, and to point to the cause the surrounding troops. The king, under advice, refused to make a change, haughtily declaring that he alone had the right to judge of the necessity of public measures.

On the night of the 13th, Paris was comparatively quiet. It was the lull before the bursting of the storm. The dismissal of M. Necker from the post of minister of finance, had greatly exasperated the inhabitants. The streets were barricaded.

The people formed themselves into a National Guard, and chose Lafayette as their commander. Each assumed some sort of military dress, and laid hold of gun, sabre, scythe, or whatever weapon first fell in their way. Multitudes of men of the same opinion, embraced each other in the streets as brothers; and in an instant, almost, a National Guard was formed, consisting of a hundred thousand determined men.

It was believed that the Bastile contained a large quantity of arms and ammunition, and thither the people repaired on the morning of the 14th. A parley ensued, the gates were opened, and about forty citizens, leaders of the people, were permitted to go in. The bridges were then drawn, and a firing was heard within!

That moment marks the opening of the terrible drama of the French revolution. The fury of the populace was excited beyond all control. That firing fell upon their ears as the death-knell of their friends who had gone within the walls of the hated prison. With demoniac yells they dragged heavy cannon before the gates, in the face of a storm of grape-shot from the fortress. They quailed not before the storm, but attacked the stronghold of Despotism with tiger-like ferocity. The alarmed governor, Delaunay, soon displayed a white flag, and the firing ceased.

A second deputation was now sent to the governor. They shared the fate of the former. With redoubled fury the people again assailed the walls, made a breach, rushed in,

MOUNT VERNON

seized the governor and other officers, and conducting them in triumph to the Place de Grace, first cut off their hands, and then their heads. The latter were then paraded upon pikes through the streets, and the great iron key of the Bastile was carried to the Hotel de Ville, or town hall. The National Assembly decreed its demolition. Seven prisoners who had been confined in its dungeons since the reign of Louis the Fifteenth (three of whom had lost their reason) were set at liberty, and the old fortress was demolished soon afterward.

Upon its site is now the Place de Bastile, within which stands the Column of July, erected by order of Louis Philippe, in commemoration of the events of the memorable Three Days of July, 1830, which placed him upon the throne of France.

The National Assembly, by unanimous vote, now elected Lafayette commander-in-chief of the National Guard of all France, a corps of more than four millions of armed citizens. He accepted the appointment, but, imitating the example of Washington, he refused all remuneration for his services, notwithstanding a salary of fifty thousand dollars a year was voted. The king approved of his appointment, and the monarch, being deserted by his bad advisers, threw himself upon the National Assembly. "He has hitherto been deceived," Lafayette proclaimed to the people, "but he now sces the merit and justice of the popular cause." The people shouted "Vive le roi !" and for a moment the revolution seemed to be at an end.

The key of the Bastile was placed in the hands of Lafayette, and in March following he sent it to Thomas Paine, then in London, to be forwarded as a present to Washington, together with a neat drawing, in pencil, representing the destruction of

the prison. A copy of that sketch is given on page 221. With these Lafayette enclosed a letter to Washington, dated the 17th of March, in which he gave him a general picture of affairs in France, and added:

"After I have confessed all this, I will tell you, with the same candor, that we have made an admirable and almost incredible destruction of all abuses and prejudices; that every thing not directly useful to or coming from the people has been levelled; that in the topographical, moral, and political situation of France, we have made more changes in ten months than the most sanguine patriots could have imagined; that our internal troubles and anarchy are much exaggerated; and that, upon the whole, this revolution, in which nothing will be wanting but energy of government, as it was in America, will implant liberty and make it flourish throughout the world; while we must wait for a convention, in a few years, to mend some defects, which are not now perceived by men just escaped from aristocracy and despotism."

He then added:

"Give me leave, my dear general, to present you with a picture of the Bastile, just as it looked a few days after I ordered its demolition, with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute which I owe as a son to my adopted father—as an aide-de-camp to my general-as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch.'

After considerable delay, Paine forwarded the key and drawing to Washington, with a letter, in which he said:

"I feel myself happy in being the person through whom the Marquis has conveyed this early trophy of the spoils of despotism, and the first ripe fruits of American principles trans