with generous excitement, urged Buzot to defend Robespierre at the Feuillans, so as to ward off the apprehended Act of Accusation, which she feared the Assembly would ratify without hesitation. Buzot, although he refused to comply with her request, promised to defend Robespierre in the Assembly if necessary.
In spite of the prevalent expectation, the Assembly did not follow up its "one fell blow" with the decisive measures which might have nipped the rapidly-growing influence of the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, and the Fraternal Societies. Instead of closing the clubs, arresting the leaders, suppressing the most violent journals, it deliberated, discussed, delayed, and so lost its final opportunity—for the time of its dissolution was fast approaching. Countless addresses, too, arrived from the country, protesting against the Royalist proclivities of their representatives. One of them, addressed to the Chamber, and brought in person by Bancal des Issarts, was evidently due to the impulse of the woman who possessed the secret of communicating her own fiery energy to her friends. This address, in which the electors of Clermont accused the Deputies of having twice disappointed the hopes of the nation by the adjournment of the elections and deferring the completion of the Constitution, and in which it was further stated that, if a term were not fixed within the fortnight, steps would be taken, regardless of the Assembly, was not admitted before the Bar of the Chamber. Bancal had hurried up to Paris with the address, in spite of a dissuasive letter from Madame Roland, who, in the deepest depression at the massacre, had written all was over, and that it was useless for him to come to Paris.
