But December took this last consolation from the queen. The National
Assembly, which had now been transformed into the Convention,
brought the charge of treason against the king. He was accused of
entering into a secret alliance with the enemies of France, and
calling the monarchs of Europe to come to his assistance. In an iron
safe which had been set into the wall of the cabinet in the
Tuileries, papers had been discovered which compromised the king,
letters from the refugee princes, from the Emperor of Germany, and
the King of Prussia. These monarchs were now on the very confines of
France, ready to enter upon a bloody war, and that was the fault of
the king! He was in alliance with the enemies of his country! He was
the murderer of his own subjects! On his head the blood should
return, which had been shed by him.
This was the charge which was brought against the king. Twenty
members of the Convention went to the Temple, to read it to him, and
to hear his reply. He stoutly denied haying entertained such
relations with foreign princes; he declared, with a solemn oath,
that he had declined all overtures from such quarters, because he
had seen that, in order to free an imprisoned king, France itself
must be threatened.
The chiefs of the revolution meant to find him guilty. Louis Capet
must be put out of the way, in order that Robespierre and Marat,
Danton, Petion, and their friends, might reach unlimited power.
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