The President of the Assembly, Jean Joseph…
October 1789 CE
A group of six women nominated by the crowd are escorted into the king's apartment, where they tell him of the crowd's privations.
The king responds sympathetically, and using all his charm impresses the women to the point that one of them faints at his feet.
After this brief but pleasant meeting, arrangements are made to disburse some food from the royal stores, with more promised, and some in the crowd feel that their goals have been satisfactorily met.
As rain once again begins to pelt Versailles, Maillard and a small cluster of market women troop triumphantly back to Paris.
Most of the crowd, however, remains unpacified.
They mill around the palace grounds with rumors abounding that the women's deputation has been duped—the queen will inevitably force the king to break any promises that had been made.
Well aware of the surrounding dangers, Louis discusses the situation with his advisors.
At about six o'clock in the evening, the king makes a belated effort to quell the rising tide of insurrection: he announces that he will accept the August decrees and the Declaration of the Rights of Man without qualification.
Adequate preparations to defend the palace are not made, however: the bulk of the royal guards, who have been deployed under arms in the main square for several hours facing a hostile crowd, is withdrawn to the far end of the park of Versailles.
This leaves only the usual night guard of sixty-one Gardes du Corps posted throughout the palace.
Late in the evening, Lafayette's national guardsmen approach up the Avenue de Paris.
Lafayette immediately leaves his troops and goes to see the king, grandly announcing himself with the declaration, "I have come to die at the feet of Your Majesty".
Outside, an uneasy night is spent in which his Parisian guardsmen mingle with the marchers, and the two groups sound each other out.
Many in the crowd persuasively denounce Lafayette as a traitor, complaining of his resistance to leaving Paris and the slowness of his march.
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