ANOTHER particular relative to the _sans-culottes_ is their standard,
being an old pair of breeches, which they carry on the top of a pike,
thrust through the waistband: the _poissardes_ likewise use the same
standard, though it so happened that I never saw it. On the memorable
20th of June last, a pike-man got on the top of the Tuileries, where he
waved the ensign, or rather shook the breeches to the populace.
The pike-staves for the army are of different lengths; of six, nine, and
twelve feet: by this means three ranks of pike-bearers can use their
arms at once, with the points of the three rows of pikes evenly
extended.
The letter which I had written to the President, notwithstanding its
eventual ill success, caused several English persons jointly to write a
somewhat similar letter; in which, after having represented that their
_wives_ and children _wanted_ them, they said, they hoped their reasons
would appear _vrai-semblables_, or have the semblance of truth. The
Assembly on hearing this burst into a laugh, and passed on to the order
of the day.
On the 16th I carried a passport from _Lord Gower_ to the office of _Mr.
le Brun_, the minister for foreign affairs; here I was told to leave
it, and I should have another in its stead the next day. The next day I
applied for it, and was told, no passports could be delivered.
The matter now appeared to me to become serious, as the courier who had
carried the account of the affair of the 10th to London was not yet
returned, and that rumours were spread, that the English in Paris were
almost all _grands seigneurs & aristocrates_; so that I saw only two
probable means of safety; one of which was, to draw up a petition to the
National Assembly, in behalf of all the British subjects, to get it
signed by as many as I could find, and who might chuse to sign it, and
to carry it to the Assembly in a small body, which might have been the
means of procuring a pass; and in case this was refused, the other plan
would have been for all the British to have incorporated themselves into
a _Legion Britannique_, and offered their services according to the
exigence of the case.[32] This petition was accordingly, on the 18th,
drawn up by a member of the English Parliament; translated into French,
and carried about to be signed; when at the bankers we fortunately met
with a person who informed us, that our passes were ready at the moment,
at _Mr. Le Brun's_: thither we went; I obtained my pass at two o'clock
afternoon, the petition was torn and given to the winds; I took a
hackney coach that instant, to carry me to the _Poste aux chevaux_,
ordered the horses, and before three I was out of the barriers of Paris.
[Note 32: Before, and on the 10th of August, there were not above
thirty British travellers in Paris, but after that day, in less than a
week it was supposed that above two thousand had from all parts of the
kingdom resorted to the capital, in order to obtain passports to get
away.]
Here follows a copy of my passport.
At the top of the paper is an engraving of a shield, on which is
inscribed _Vivre libre ou mourir_ (live free or die,) supported by two
female figures, the _dexter_ representing _Minerva_ standing, with the
cap of liberty at the end of a pike; the _sinister_, the French
constitution personified as a woman sitting on a lion, with one hand
holding a book, on which is written _Constitution Française, droits de
l'homme_, and with the other supporting a crown over the shield, which
crown is effaced by a dash with a pen.
Then follows:
_La nation, la loi, le roi_; this is also obliterated
with a pen, and instead is written:
_Liberté, Egalité_
_Au nom de la nation_.
À tous officiers, civils et militaires, chargés de surveiller et de
maintenir l'ordre public dans les differents departemens du Royaume, et
à tous autres qu'il appartiendra il est ordonné de laisser librement
passer _T---- anglais retournant en angleterre, porteur d'un certificat
de son ambassadeur_.[33] Sans donner ni souffrir qu'il lui soit donné
aucun empéchement, le present passe-port valable pour _quinze jours_
seulement.