"Congratulate me: I have been turned off." "I am much nettled," replied the lady, that you should be the first to enjoy this honour; but I hope that it will be conferred on my husband without delay." Her hopes were not disappointed; and her advice, when he brought her the news, was that he should be the first to let the Legislative Assembly know of his dismissal by sending it a copy of his letter to the King.
The Girondin Ministers now became the popular idols of the hour. There were many signs abroad that the Court wished to strike some decisive blow. The Moderates and the Constitutionalists seemed on the point of uniting with the Ultra-Royalists; and General Lafayette, from his camp, wrote a threatening letter to the Assembly, justifying the King's veto, and exhorting it to respect royalty. The immediate result of these ominous movements was the insurrection of the 20th of June, when the Palace of the Tuileries was invaded, as by enchantment, with a tumultuous crowd of sans culottes and fish-wives, and which saw the descendant of the Bourbons don the bonnet rouge. Cries of "Recall of the Ministers!" "Repeal of the Veto!" were heard at intervals; but, without committing himself to any promise, the King knew how to amuse the people by pinning a cockade to the red cap of liberty, and joining in the shouts of "Long live the Nation!" At last, admonished by the Mayor, the crowd dispersed peaceably enough, and this singular insurrection ended in the Royal apartments being thrown open to the populace to see on its way out!
