d all over France. They
appealed powerfully to the imagination of the nation, and profoundly
influenced public opinion. "Until then," said Buonaparte, referring to
the solemnity, "I doubt not that if I had received orders to turn my
guns against the people, habit, prejudice, education, and the King's
name would have induced me to obey. With the taking of the national
oath it became otherwise; my instincts and my duty were thenceforth in
harmony."

But the position of liberal officers was still most trying. In the
streets and among the people they were in a congenial atmosphere;
behind the closed doors of the drawing-rooms, in the society of
ladies, and among their fellows in the mess, there were constraint and
suspicion. Out of doors all was exultation; in the houses of the
hitherto privileged classes all was sadness and uncertainty. But
everywhere, indoors or out, was spreading the fear of war, if not
civil at least foreign war, with the French emigrants as the allies of
the assailants. On this point Buonaparte was mistaken. As late as
July twenty-seventh, 1791, he wrote to Naudin, an intimate friend who
was chief of the military bureau at Auxonne: "Will there be war? No;
Europe is divided between sovereigns who rule over men and those who
rule over cattle and horses. The former understand the Revolution, and
are terrified; they would gladly make personal sacrifices to
annihilate it, but they dare not lift the mask for fear the fire
should break out in their own houses. See the history of England,
Holland, etc. Those who bear the rule over horses misunderstand and
cannot grasp the bearing of the constitution. They think this chaos of
incoherent ideas means an end of French power. You would suppose, to
listen to them, that our brave patriots were about to cut one
another's throats and with their blood purge the land of the crimes
committed against kings." The news contained in this letter is most
interesting. There are accounts of the zeal and spirit everywhere
shown by the democratic patriots, of a petition for the trial of the
King sent up from the recent meeting at Valence, and an assurance by
the writer that his regiment is "sure," except as to half the
officers. He adds in a postscript: "The southern blood courses in my
veins as swiftly as the Rhone. Pardon me if you feel distressed in
reading my scrawl."[25]

[Footnote 25: Buonaparte to Naudin, 27 July, 1791, in
Buchez et Roux, Histo