would be an
example too dangerous to other countries, if it were left unpunished.
Their cause is the cause of all kings, and not a simple political
difficulty.[13]"

The whole letter is a most remarkable one, and fully bears out the
eulogies which all who had an opportunity of judging pronounced on her
ability. But the most striking reflection which it suggests is with what
admirable sagacity the whole of the arrangements for the flight of the
royal family had been concerted, and with what judgment the agents had
been chosen, since, though the enterprise was not attempted till more than
four months after this letter was written, the secret was kept through the
whole of that time without the slightest hint of it having been given, or
the slightest suspicion of it having been conceived, by the most watchful
or the most malignant of the king's enemies.

Yet during the winter and early spring the conduct of the Jacobin party in
the Assembly, and of the Parisian mob whom they were keeping in a constant
state of excitement, increased in violence; while one occurrence which
took place was, in Mirabeau's opinion, especially calculated to prompt a
suspicion of the king's intentions. Louis had at, last, and with extreme
reluctance, sanctioned, the bill which required the clergy to take an oath
to comply with the new ecclesiastical arrangements, in the vain hope that
the framers of it would be content with their triumph, and would forbear
to enforce it by fixing any precise date for administering the oath. But,
at the end of January, Barnave obtained from the Assembly a decree that it
should be taken within twenty-four hours, under the penalty of deprivation
of all their preferments to all who should refuse it; the clerical members
of the Assembly were even threatened by the mob in the galleries with
instant death if they declined or even delayed to swear. And as very few
of any rank complied, the main body of the clergy was instantly stripped
of all their appointments and reduced to beggary, and a large proportion
of them fled at once from the kingdom. Those who took the oath, and who in
consequence were appointed to the offices thus vacated, were immediately
condemned and denounced by the pope; and the consequence was that a great
number of their flocks fled with their old priests, not being able to
reconcile to their consciences to stay and receive the sacrament and rites
of the Church from ministers under the ban of its head.