This poem first appeared in the _Journal de Paris_, on April 15, 1792,
the day of the festival. In 1790 the Swiss Regiment of Chateauvieux at
Nancy had mutinied, seized the military chest, and killed heroic young
Desilles, captain of the _Régiment du Roi_, who was attempting to
prevent fratricide bloodshed. For these misdeeds they were condemned
to the galleys. In 1792 they were amnestied by a decree of the National
Assembly, and Collot d'Herbois, at the _Club des Jacobins_, carried a
motion that they should make a triumphal entry into Paris. See Carlyle,
_French Revol._, pt. ii, bk. ii, ch. vi, and bk. vi, ch. x.
Against this disgraceful resolution Chénier rose indignantly in several
letters to the editors of the _Journal de Paris_, in an _address_ to the
National Assembly, and in the present poem.