arranged to represent a funerary urn, and
that beneath, in conspicuous letters, ran the legend: "Behold what
remains of the French Lycurgus." Mirabeau had indeed displayed a
genius for politics, his scheme for a strong ministry, chosen from the
Assembly, standing in bold relief against the feebleness of Necker in
persuading Louis to accept the suspensive veto, and to choose his
cabinet without relation to the party in power. When the mad
dissipation of the statesman's youth demanded its penalty at the hour
so critical for France, the King and the moderates alike lost courage.
In June the worried and worn-out monarch determined that the game was
not worth the playing, and on the twenty-first he fled. Though he was
captured, and brought back to act the impossible role of a democratic
prince, the patriots who had wished to advance with experience and
tradition as guides were utterly discredited. All the world could see
how pusillanimous was the royalty they had wished to preserve, and the
masses made up their mind that, real or nominal, the institution was
not only useless, but dangerous. This feeling was strong in the Rhone
valley and the adjoining districts, which have ever been the home of
extreme radicalism. Sympathy with Corsica and the Corsicans had long
been active in southeastern France. Neither the island nor its people
were felt to be strange. When a society for the defense of the
constitution was formed in Valence, Buonaparte, though a Corsican, was
at first secretary, then president, of the association.

The "Friends of the Constitution" grew daily more numerous, more
powerful, and more radical in that city; and when the great solemnity
of swearing allegiance to the new order was to be celebrated, it was
chosen as a convenient and suitable place for a convention of
twenty-two similar associations from the neighboring districts. The
meeting took place on July third, 1791; the official administration of
the oath to the civil, military, judicial, and ecclesiastical
authorities occurred on the fourteenth. Before a vast altar erected on
the drill-ground, in the presence of all the dignitaries, with cannon
booming and the air resounding with shouts and patriotic songs, the
officials in groups, the people in mass, swore with uplifted hands to
sustain the constitution, to obey the National Assembly, and to die,
if need be, in defending French territory against invasion. Scenes as
impressive and dramatic as this occurre