l66 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. mob of iParis, and worked them up to a fury of impatience to see the changes which they fancied would bring plenty and freedom to all. In July the king, in alarm, drew the army nearer and dismissed Necker, and it was at once reported that he was going to put down the National Assembly by force of arms. This made the respectable men of the city enrol themselves in a force which took the name of the National Gtiard; they wore red-blue-and- white scarves and cockades, choosing for their captain La Fayette, who was enthusiastic in the cause of liberty. 7. The National Assembly, 1 78^ .— On July 14th, on a report that the cannon of the Bastille had been turned towards the city, the mob, in a fury, rushed on the old prison, and forced its commander and garrison to sur- render. They pulled down the whole building, but without finding a single state-prisoner. Necker was presently restored, but it was felt that a revolution had begun, for the mob had learnt their power. On the smallest excitement they rose and hunted down those whom they thought their foes, sometimes hanging them to the iron bars on which the lamps were placed over the street, sometimes tearing them to pieces, the fishwomen being the foremost in all these violences. In many parts of the country the peasants and townspeople were attack- ing the houses of the nobles, plundering and sometimes killing the inhabitants, but more often dragging them off to prison. The army, where no merit made up for lack of birth, was of course anxious to carry on the changes ; but the guards, being all men of rank, Mere devoted to the king, and on the 2nd of October, 17S9, at a dinner at Versailles, there was an outburst of loyalty, and the song, ^^ O Richard, O vion ;v/," was rapturously applauded. This was so reported at Paris as to make the people imagine that the queen was sending for troops to massacre them. There was besides a great scarcity of provisions, and the people, in the wildest rage, rushed out to Versailles, and while some burst into the National Assembly and insisted on Mirabeau's speaking, others clamoured round the palace. Lewis would neither fight nor fly ; he was resolved to shed no blood, he would not let his Swiss guard defend him, and trusted to La Fayette and the National Guard ; but in the night the mob were seized with a fresh fit of frenzy, and broke into the palace, screaming for the life of the queen. A lady and a Swiss guard gained a moment for her by barring the door of
