more than a figurehead: he was made to swear an oath to the constitution and it was decreed that he would be considered as abdicating, de facto, if he retracted the oath or if he headed an army for the purpose of making war upon the nation, or permitted any one to do so in his name. In case of such a de facto abdication, he would become a simple citizen, with no immunity from prosecution. Jacques Pierre Brissot drafted a petition, denying the competency of the Assembly, appealing to the sovereignty of the nation, insisting that in the eyes of the nation Louis XVI was deposed since his flight, and demanding that if the monarchy were to continue it should be under a different monarch. On 17 July an immense crowd gathered at the altar of the country in the Champ de Mars to sign the petition. The Assembly called for the municipal authorities to "preserve the public tranquility." Under Lafayette's command, the National Guard at first dispersed the crowd without bloodshed, but the crowd re-formed, with Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins giving fiery speeches. This time, when Lafayette and mayor Jean-Sylvain Bailly ordered the crowd to disperse, they were answered with a barrage of stones. Lafayette ordered his men to fire in the air; the crowd did not back down; Lafayette ordered his men to fire into the crowd. Reports on the number killed vary, but it may have been as many as fifty people. It has been debated upon, but many believe that the king caused this massacre. A note written in his handwriting communicated to Lafayette that if citizens arise, dispose of them. In the wake of the massacre, the authorities closed many of the patriotic clubs, as well as radical newspapers such as Jean-Paul Marat's L'Ami du Peuple. Danton fled to England; Desmoulins and Marat went into hiding. Renewed threat from abroad Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick William II of Prussia, and the king's brother Charles-Phillipe, comte d'Artois met at Pillnitz Castle in Dresden, where on 27 August 1791 they issued a declaration which considered the cause of Louis XVI as their own, demanded his total liberty and the dissolution of the Assembly, and promised an invasion of France on his behalf if its conditions were refused. If anything, the Declaration of Pilnitz further imperilled Louis. The French people were in no temper to