all this enthusiasm is but a gleam of light, a cry of conscience
which weakness will soon stifle.[2]"

It is probably doing no injustice to Mirabeau to believe that the crimes
which had made the greatest impression on the queen were not the events
which affected him the most strongly. But he was not only a statesman in
intellect, but an aristocrat in every feeling of his heart. No man was
fonder of referring to his illustrious ancestors; or of claiming kindred
with men of old renown, such as the Admiral de Coligny, of whom he more
than once boasted in the Assembly as his cousin; and each blow dealt at
the consideration of the Nobles was an additional incentive to him to seek
to arrest the progress of a revolution which had already gone far beyond
his wishes or his expectations. And as he was always energetic in the
pursuit of his plans, he had, by some means or other, in spite of the
discouragement derived from the language and conduct of the Count de
Provence, contrived to get information of his willingness to enlist in the
Royalist party conveyed to the queen. The Count de la Marck, who was still
his chief confidant, was at Brussels at the beginning of the spring, when
he received a letter from Mercy, begging him to return without delay to
Paris. He lost no time in obeying the summons, when he learned, to his
great delight, though his pleasure was alloyed by some misgiving, that the
king and queen had resolved to avail themselves of Mirabeau's services,
and that he himself was selected as the intermediate agent in the
negotiation. La Marck's misgiving,[3] as he frankly told the embassador at
the outset, was caused by the fear that Mirabeau had done more harm than
he could repair; but he gladly undertook the commission, though its
difficulty was increased by a stipulation which showed at once the
weakness of the king, and the extraordinary difficulties which it placed
in the way of his friends. The count was especially warned to keep all
that was passing a secret from Necker. He was startled, as he well might
be, at such an injunction. But he did not think it became his position to
start a difficulty; and, as he was fully impressed with the importance of
not losing time, the negotiation proceeded rapidly. He introduced Mirabeau
to Mercy, and he himself was admitted to an interview with the queen, when
he learned that her greatest objections to accepting Mirabeau's services
were of a personal nature, founded partly on the