for the French army, and
result in the re-establishment of the old regime. On the other hand,
there were good citizens, inclined to optimism and judging others by
themselves, who thought that when confronted with an enemy, all
intestine dissensions would vanish as by enchantment, and that the new
Constitution, hallowed by victory and glory, would ensure the country a
most brilliant destiny. Ministers were unanimous, and enthusiasm
universal. Even if he had so desired, Louis XVI. could no longer
resist it. On April 20, 1792, he went to the Assembly. The hall was
filled with a crowd which comprehended the importance and solemnity of
the act about to be accomplished.

According to Dumouriez, the King was very majestic: "I come," he said,
"in accordance with the terms of the Constitution, formally to propose
war against the King of Hungary and Bohemia." He afterwards paid the
greatest attention to the report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
and seemed, by the motions of his head and hands, to approve it in
every respect. He returned to the Tuileries amidst general
acclamations. War was unanimously decided on, and Dumouriez went to
the diplomatic committee in order to draw up the declaration. At ten
in the evening the decree was brought in and carried to the King, who
sanctioned it at once.

Thus commenced that gigantic war which France was to wage against all
Europe, and which ended, {130} twenty-three years later, in the
disaster of Waterloo. How many battles, what suffering, and what a
prodigious shedding of blood! And to attain what end? Simply the
point of departure; that is to say, in the political order, to
constitutional monarchy, and in territory, to the boundaries of 1792.
What! to have filled Europe with noise and renown; to have carried the
standards of France from east to west, from north to south; to have
camped victoriously in Brussels, Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, Cairo,
Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Moscow; to have enlarged the borders of valor,
heroism, and self-sacrifice in order to arrive, after so many efforts,
just at the spot where the strife began? Ah! how short-sighted is
human wisdom, how deceitful the previsions of mortal man, how sterile
the agitations of republics and monarchs! "Assuredly!" says Dumouriez,
"if the Emperor and the King of Prussia could have foreseen that France
was able to withstand all Europe, they would not have meddled with her
domestic quarrels; they would have t