speaking about France: "The enemy has abandoned
Verdun and Longwy, and recrossed the river to return home, but our
people are not asleep." Lucien added a postscript explaining that he
had sent a pamphlet to his dear Costa, as to a friend, not as to a
co-worker, for that he had been unwilling to be. Both the brothers
seem already to have considered the possibility of abandoning Corsica.

No sooner had war been declared against Austria in April, than it
became evident that the powers whose territories bordered on those of
France had previously reached an agreement, and were about to form a
coalition in order to make the war general. The Austrian Netherlands,
what we now know as Belgium, were already saturated with the
revolutionary spirit. It was not probable that much annoyance would
come from that quarter. Spain, Prussia, and Holland would, however,
surely join the alliance; and if the Italian principalities, with the
kingdom of Sardinia, should take the same course, France would be in
dire straits. It was therefore suggested in the Assembly that a blow
should be struck at the house of Savoy, in order to awe both that and
the other courts of Italy into inactivity. The idea of an attack on
Sardinia for this purpose originated in Corsica, but among the friends
of Salicetti, and it was he who urged the scheme successfully. The
sister island was represented as eager to free itself from the control
of Savoy. In order to secure Paoli's influence not only in his own
island, but in Sardinia, where he was likewise well known and admired,
the ministers forced upon him the unwelcome appointment of
lieutenant-general in the regular army, and his friend Peraldi was
sent to prepare a fleet at Toulon.

The events of August tenth put an end for the time being to
constitutional government in France. The commissioners of the Paris
sections supplanted the municipal council, and Danton, climbing to
power as the representative "plain man," became momentarily the
presiding genius of the new Jacobin commune, which was soon able to
usurp the supreme control of France. A call was issued for the
election by manhood suffrage of a National Convention, and a committee
of surveillance was appointed with the bloodthirsty Marat as its
motive power. At the instigation of this committee large numbers of
royalists, constitutionalists, and others suspected of holding kindred
doctrines, were thrown into prison. The Assembly went through the form
of confi