Third Estate, offering himself as a representative of the Commons. In his
speeches to the citizens of Aix and Marseilles--for he canvassed both
towns--he inveighed against Necker and the Government with an eloquence
which electrified his audience, who had never before been addressed in the
language of independence. He was returned for both towns, and hastened to
Versailles, eager to avenge on the Nobles, the body which, as he felt, he
had a right to have represented, the affront which had driven him, against
his will, to seek the votes of a class with which he had scarcely a
feeling in common; for in the whole Assembly there was no man less of a
democrat in his heart, or prouder of his ancestry and aristocratic
privileges.

He differed from most of his colleagues, inasmuch as he, from the first,
had distinct views of the policy desirable for the nation, which he
conceived to be the establishment of a limited constitutional monarchy,
such as he had seen in England.[8] But no man in the whole Assembly was
more inconsistent, as he was ever changing his views, or at least his
conduct and language, at the dictates of interest or wounded pride;
sometimes, as it might seem, in the mere wantonness of genius, as if he
wished to show that he could lead the Assembly with equal ease to take a
course, or to retrace its steps--that it rested with him alone alike to do
or to undo. The only object from which he never departed was that of
making all parties feel and bow to his influence. And it is this very
inconsistency which so especially connects his career for the rest of his
life with the fortunes of the queen, since, while he misunderstood her
character, and feared her power with the king and ministers as likely to
be exerted in opposition to his own views, he was the most ferocious and
most foul of her enemies: when he saw that she was willing to accept his
aid, and when he therefore began to conceive a hope of making her useful
to himself in the prosecution of his designs, no man was louder in her
praise, nor, it must be admitted, more energetic or more judicious in the
advice which he gave her.

His language on the first occasion on which he made his voice heard in the
Assembly was eminently characteristic of him, so manifestly was it
directed to the attainment of his own object--that of making himself
necessary to the court, and obtaining either office or some pension which
might enable him to live, since his own resources had