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Lamoignon de Malasherbes, a man 78 years of age, who was one of the ministers of Louis in the beginning of his reign, has offered to defend his cause, and begged the President im a letter to inform the accused of it.—"If Louis accepts me for his counsel," said he, "I am ready to devote myself in his defence."
A citizen of Troyes also proposed himself.
The Convention decreed, that the four commissioners who had already been to the Temple, should return to communicate to Louis the refusals and offers concerning his defence.
January 4, 1793.
The President said, "I announce to the Assembly that Louis and his defenders are ready to appear at the bar. I forbid the members and the spectators to shew any signs of censure or approbation." Louis then appeared at the bar, accompanied by Malasherbes. Tronchet, Deseze, the Mayor of Paris, and the commandant of the National Guard.
The President said, "Louis, the Convention has decreed, that you shall be definitively heard to-day."
Louis. "My counsel will read to you my defence."
M. Deseze then read for some hours the defence, of which the following is the substance, as exactly as we can recollect it. It began thus—
"Citizens Representatives of the Nation, the moment is now arrived in which Louis, accused in the name of the French people, and surrounded by the counsel which humanity and the law have given him is about to deliver his justification. Even the silence with which we are surrounded informs me that the day of justice has succeeded to the days of presumption and pre-judgment. The misfortunes of kings have something much more affecting and more sacred than those of other men; and he who once occupied the most brilliant throne in the universe, ought to excite the most powerful of interests. You have called him into the midst of you, and he is come, with calm dignity,
