There was a "scare" at Versailles on the 20th December.
The- Commissioner of Police had received information that a "plot" had been laid to kill or carry off the King, his Staff, and the Princes, and took very summary methods of prevention. As a .useful preliminary he arrested everybody, placing cavalry at the ends of all streets, and sending soldiers into all houses, who made- rigorous search for arms and strangers. Nothing is known of the result, but some eighty "bad characters" are believed to have been. marched off, and the officials are all put on the qui sire. Nothing speaks better for the French character than the absence of attempts of this kind, which, despite the strict watch maintained about the Prefecture, must still be possible. They prefer, amidst- all their misery, to fight fairly.
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