The king endeavoured, by the use of his "veto," to check this headlong career. An insurrection, in June 1792, was the consequence; the palace of the Tuileries was assailed aud entered by the mob, which treated the royal family with the greatest insolence, threatened their lives, and obliged the king to put on a red cap and show himself at the window to the crowds below. A second insurrection, better organised, with the avowed object of abolishing the kingly office, was supported by a party in the legislative assembly. The mob again attacked the Tuileries on the 10th of August, and after a desperate defence by the Swiss guards, entered it, and massacred all the inmates. The king and royal family had time to escape and take refuge in the hall of the legislative assembly. The assembly deposed the king, seut him and his family prisoners to the Temple, proclaimed a republic, and convoked a national convention to exercise the sovereignty in the name of the people. In September the massacres of the political prisoners began ; the cry of "aristocrat" became a sentence of death against any obnoxious person. On the 21st of September the national convention opened its session, and shortly after prepared to bring the king to triaL The principal heads of accusation were, his attempt to dissolve the states-general in 1789, his escape to Varennes, aud other acts previous to his accepting the constitution of 1791. Since his acceptance of it there was no charge that could be substantiated against him except the exercise of the prerogatives given to him by the constitution, such as the " veto," and changing his ministers.
The rest were mere insinuations and surmises of having bribed deputies, corresponded with the hostile powers, &c. The trial was opened in December. The Oirondins and the Jacobins united against Louis, and he was found guilty of "treason and conspiring against the nation." The sentence was pronounced on the 16th January 1793. Of 721 members present who voted in the convention, 366 voted for death unconditionally, 288 voted for imprisonment and banishment, and the rest voted for death, but with a respite, hoping thereby to save his life. The majority which sent Louis to the scaffold was only five.
On the 21st of January 1793 Louis XVI. was taken in a coach to the Place Louis XV. where the guillotine was fixed. He appeared silent and resigned, and engrossed by religious thoughts. Having ascended the scaffold, he attempted to address the people, but Berruyer, the commander of the national guards, ordered the drums to beat. Louis then gave up the attempt, took off his coat aud cravat, and laid his head on the block. He was beheaded at ten o'clock in the morning. His consort Marie Antoinette was tried, condemned, and beheaded in the following October. The character of that unfortunate princess has been rescued from unmerited obloquy and the malignity of her enemies by Madame Campan in her '1?16moires sur la Vie privee de Marie Antoinette,' London, 1823. Louis left one son, styled Louis XVII., and one daughter, who married her cousin the Duke of Angoublme.