11]"

And before the end of the year, the royal cause had fresh difficulties
thrown in its way by the perverse and selfish wrongheadedness of the
emigrant princes, who were already evincing an inclination to pursue
objects of their own, and to disown all obedience to the king, on the plea
that he was no longer master of his policy or of his actions. They showed
such open disregard of his remonstrances that, in December, as Marie
Antoinette told the emperor, Louis had written both to the Count d'Artois
and to the King of Sardinia (in whose dominions the count was at the
time), that, if his brothers persisted in their designs, "he should be
compelled to disavow them peremptorily, and summon all his subjects who
were still faithful to him to return to their obedience. She hoped," she
said, "that that would make them pause. It seemed certain to her that no
one but those on the spot, no one but themselves, could judge what moments
and what circumstances were favorable for action, so as to put an end to
their own miseries and to those of France. And it will be then," she
concludes, "my dear brother, that I shall reckon on your friendship, and
that I shall address myself to you with the confidence with which I am
inspired by the feelings of your heart, which are well known to me, and by
the good-will which you have shown us on all occasions.[12]"

CHAPTER XXIX.

Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence of La
Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.

The last sentence of the letter just quoted points to a new hope which the
king and she had begun to entertain of obtaining aid from foreign princes.
As it can hardly have been suggested to them by any other advisers, we may
probably attribute the origination of the idea to the queen, who was
naturally inclined to rate the influence of the empire highly, and to rely
on her brother's zeal to assist her confidently. And Louis caught at it,
as the only means of extricating him from a religious difficulty which was
causing him great distress, and which appeared to him i