There may have been several in the Convention who shrank from this
last consequence of their doings, but they did not venture to raise
their voices; they chimed in with the terrorism which the leaders of
the revolution exercised upon the Convention. They knew that behind
these leaders stood the savage masses of the streets, armed with
hatred against monarchy and the aristocracy, and ready to tear in
pieces any one as an enemy of the country who ventured to join the
number of those who were under the ban and the sentence of the
popular hate.
Still there were some courageous, faithful servants of the king who
ventured to take his part even there. Louis had now been summoned to
the bar as an accused person, and the Convention had transformed
itself into a tribunal whose function was to pass judgment on the
guilt or innocence of the king!
In order to satisfy all the forms of the law, the king should have
had an advocate allowed him, and the benefit of legal counsel. The
Convention demanded that those who were ready to undertake this task
should send in their names. It was a form deemed safe to abide by,
because it was believed that there would be no one who would venture
to enter upon so momentous and perilous a duty.
But there were such, nevertheless. There were still courageous and
noble men who pitied the forsaken king, and who wanted to try to
save him; not willing to see him atone for the debts of his
predecessors, and bleed for the sins of his fathers.
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