Only be brave and undismayed, God will go
with mothers who are bringing bread to their children, and your
husbands will protect you!"
They were brave and undismayed, the wives and mothers of Paris. In
broad streams they rushed on; they broke over every thing which was
in their way; they drew all the women into their seething ranks. "To
Versailles! To Versailles!"
It was to no avail that De Bailly, the mayor of Paris, encountered
the women on the street, and urged them with pressing words to
return to their families and their work, and assured them that the
bakers had already opened their shops, and had been ordered to bake
bread. It was in vain that the general of the National Guard,
Lafayette, had a discussion with the women, and tried to show them
how vain and useless was their action.
Louder and louder grew the commanding cry, "To Versailles! We will
bring the baker and his wife to Paris! To Versailles!"
The crowds of women grew more and more dense, and still mightier was
the shout, "To Versailles!"
Bailly went with pain to General Lafayette. "We must pacify them, or
you, general, must prevent them by force!" "It is impossible,"
replied Lafayette. "How could we use force against defenceless
women? Not one of my soldiers would obey my commands, for these
women are the wives, the mothers, the sisters of my soldiers! They
have no other weapons than their tongues with which to storm the
heart of the queen! How could we conquer them with weapons of steel?
We must let them go! But we must take precautions that the king and
the queen do not fall into danger.
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