CHAPTER XXXII. [1] A certain set of writers in this country at one time made La Fayette a subject for almost unmixed eulogy, with such earnestness that it may be worth while to reproduce the opinion expressed of him by the greatest of his contemporaries-a man as acute in his penetration into character as he was stainless in honor-the late Duke of Wellington. In the summer of 1815, he told Sir John Malcolm that "he had used La Fayette like a dog, as he merited. The old rascal," said he, "had made a false report of his mission to the Emperor of Russia, and I possessed complete evidence of his having done so. I told him, the moment he entered, of this fact; I did not even state it in the most delicate manner. I told him he must be sensible he had made a false report. He made no answer." And the duke bowed him out of the room with unconcealed scorn.-Kaye's Life of Sir J. Malcolm, ii., p. 109.
[2] Lamartine calls the Cordeliers the Club of Coups-de-main, as he calls the Jacobins the Club of Radical Theories.-Histoire des Girondins, xvi., p. 4.
[3] Dr. Moore, ii., p. 372; Chambrier, ii., p. 142.
[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, May 16th, Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 60.
[5] Ibid., p. 140.
[6] A resolution, that is, to recognize the Constitution.
[7] Arneth, p. 188; Feuillet de Conches, ii, p. 186.
[8] The letter took several days to write, and was so interrupted that portions of it have three different dates affixed, August 16th, 21st, 26th. Mercy's letter, which incloses Burke's memorial, is dated the 20th, from London, so that the first portion of the queen's letter can not be regarded as an intentional answer to Burke's arguments, though it is so, as embodying all the reasons which influenced the queen.
[9] The manifesto which he left behind him when starting for Montmedy.
[10] The king.
[11] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 228; Arneth, p. 203.
[12] The Emperor Leopold died March 1st, 1792.
[13] The declaration of Pilnitz, drawn up by the emperor and the King of Prussia at a personal interview, August 21st, 1791, did not in express words denounce the new Constitution (which, in fact, they had not seen), but, after declaring "the situation of the King of France to be a matter of common interest to all European sovereigns," and expressing a hope that "the reality of that interest will be duly appreciated by the other powers whose assistance they invoke," they propose that those other powers "shall employ, in conjunction with their majesties, the most efficacious means, in order to enable the King of France to consolidate in the most perfect liberty the foundation of a monarchical government, conformable alike to the rights of sovereigns and the well-being of the French nation."- Alison, ch. ix., Section 90.
[14] Arneth, p. 208.
[15] Ibid, p. 210; Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 325.
[16] Letter, date December 3d, 1791. Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 278.
[17] Madame de Campan, ch xix.
[18] "Leurs touffes de cheveux noirs volaient dans la salle, eux seuls a cette epoque avaient quitte l'usage de poudrer les cheveux."-Note on the Passage by Madame de Campan, ch xix.
[19] This first Assembly, as having framed the Constitution, is often called the Constituent Assembly; the second, that which was about to meet, being distinguished as the Legislative Assembly.
CHAPTER XXXIII. [1] "Memoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p. 355. Brissot, Isnard, Vergniaud, Gaudet, and an infamous ecclesiastic, the Abbe Fauchet, are those whom he particularly mentions, adding: "Mais M. de Lessart trouva que c'etait les payer trop cher, et comme ils ne voulurent rien rabattre de leur demande, cette negociation n'eut aucune suite, et ne produisit d'autre effet que d'aigrir davantage ces cinq deputes contre ce ministre."
[2] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p.414, date October 4th: "Je pense qu'au fond le bon bourgeois et le bon peuple ont toujours ete bien pour nous."
[3] "Memoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p. 10-12. It furnishes a striking proof of the general accuracy of Dr. Moore's information, that he, in his "View" (ii., p. 439), gives the name account of this conversation, his work being published above twenty years before that of M. Bertrand de Moleville.
[4] "La reine lui repondit par un sourire de pitie, et lui demanda s'il etait fou.... C'est par la reine elle-meme que, le lendemain de cette etrange scene, je fus instruit de tous les details que je viens de rapporter."-BERTRAND DE MOLEVILLE, i., p. 126.
[5] She herself called him so on this occasion, and he belonged to the Jacobin Club; but he was also one of the Girondin party, of which, indeed, he was one of the founders, and it was as a Girondin that he was afterward pursued to death by Robespierre.
[6] Narrative of the Comte Valentin Esterhazy, Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 40.
[7] The queen spoke plainly to her confidants: "M. de La Fayette will only be the Mayor of Paris that he may the sooner become Mayor of the Palace. Petion is a Jacobin, a republican; but he is a fool, incapable of ever becoming the leader of a party. He would be a nullity as mayor, and, besides, the very interest which he knows we take in his nomination may bind him to the king."-Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins vi., p.22.
[8] "Elle [Madame d'Ossun, dame d'atours de la reine] m'a dit, il y a trois semaines, que le roi et la reine avaiet ete neuf jours sans un sou." Letter of the Prince de Nassau-Siegen to the Russian Empress Catherine, Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 316; of also Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
[9] Letter of the Princess to Madame de Bombelles, Feuillet de Conches, v., p.267.
[10] "N'est-il pas bien gentil, mon enfant?"-Memoires Particuliers, p. 235.
[11] See two most insolent letters from the Count de Provence and Count d'Artois to Louis XVI, Feuillet de Conches, v., pp. 260, 261.
[12] Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 291
CHAPTER XXXIV. [1] Letter to Madame de Polignac, March 17th, Feuillet de Conches, v., p. 337.
[2] The Monks of St. Bernard were known as Feuillants, from Feuillans, a village in Languedoc where their principal convent was situated.
[3] Lamartine, "Histoire des Girondins," xiii., p.18.
[4] The messenger was M. Goguelat: he took the name of M. Daumartin, and adhered to the cause of his sovereigns to the last moment of their lives.
[5] Letter of the Count de Fersen, who was at Brussels, to Gustavus (who, however, was dead before it could reach him), dated March 24th, 1792. In many respects the information De Fersen sends to his king tallies precisely with that sent by Breteuil to the emperor; he only adds a few circumstances which had not reached the baron.
[6] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French, who was himself driven from the throne by insurrection above half a century afterward.
[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xx.
[8] Ibid., ch. XIX.
[9] "Vie de Dumouriez," ii, p. 163, quoted by Marquis de Ferrieres, Feuillet de Conches, and several other writers.
[10] Even Lamartine condemns the letter, the greater part of which he inserts in his history as one in which "the threat is no less evident than the treachery."-Histoire des Girondins, xiii., p. 16.
CHAPTER XXXV. [1] "Gare la Lanterne," alluding to the use of the chains to which the street-lamps were suspended as gibbets.
[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
[3] Dumas, "Memoirs of his Own Time," i., p. 353.
CHAPTER XXXVI. [1] To be issued by the foreign powers.
[2] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 192, and Arneth, p. 265.
[3] The day is not mentioned. "Lettres de la Reine Marie Antoinette a la Landgravine Louise," etc. p. 47.
[4] The bearer was Prince George himself, but she does not venture to name him more explicitly.