have made it the nucleus of
resistance by grouping the Swiss regiments and the well-inclined
battalions of the National Guard around it. Unfortunately, there was
nothing warlike in Louis XVI. "Among the deplorable causes which
ruined him," says the Count de Vaublanc in his Memoirs, "must be
counted the wretched education which kept him apart from every sort of
military action. I remember that in the early days of the Consulate,
after a review held on the Place of the Tuileries by Bonaparte, when
talking about this to M. Suard, of the French Academy, I said that
Bonaparte walked as if he were always ready to defend himself sword in
hand. 'Ah, well!' responded M. Suard, naively, {140} 'we used to think
differently; we wanted the King to have nothing military about him, and
never to wear a uniform.'"

To this anecdote, M. de Vaublanc adds another. "We had in 1792," he
says, "a forcible proof of the despondency under which a royal soul,
spoiled by a detestable education, can labor. M. de Narbonne, the
Minister of War, with great difficulty induced the King to review three
excellent battalions of the Paris National Guard. He was on foot, in
silk breeches and white silk stockings, and wearing his hair in a black
bag. After the review a notary, named Chandon, I think, left the ranks
and said to the King: 'Sire, the National Guard would be greatly
honored to see Your Majesty in its uniform.' 'Sire,' said M. de
Narbonne, at once, 'have the goodness to promise to do so. At the head
of these three battalions of heroes you could destroy the Jacobins'
den.' After a minute's reflection, the King replied: 'I will inquire
of my Council whether the Constitution permits me to wear the uniform
of the National Guard.'" Louis XVI. allowed the last resources
accorded by fortune to slip away, and elements which in other hands
would have produced notable results, remained sterile in his.

The Constitutional Guard, which according to regulation should have
numbered eighteen hundred men, really amounted, says Dumouriez, to six
thousand fit for duty. The royalist element predominated in it. But a
certain number of "false {141} brethren" had found their way into the
ranks, who managed by the aid of bribery to spy upon their officers,
and made reports to the committee of public safety. Undoubtedly the
King's guards did not approve of all that was going on. But how could
devoted royalists and men accustomed to discipline be expecte