tter which she wrote to her brother the emperor at the end of
July, she founds the hopes for the future, which she expresses with a
degree of sanguineness which can hardly fail to be thought strange when
the events of June are remembered, on the conduct of the Assembly itself.
The letter is too long to quote at full length, but a few extracts from it
will help us in our task of forming a proper estimate of her character,
from the unreserved exposition which it contains of her feelings, both
past and present, with her views and hopes for the future, even while she
keenly appreciates the difficulties of the king's position; and from the
unabated eagerness for the welfare of France which it displays in every
reflection and suggestion. That she still considers the imperial alliance
of great importance to the welfare of both nations will surprise no one.
The suspension of the royal authority which the Assembly had decreed on
the 26th of June had been removed on the decision that the king was not to
be proceeded against. Yet her first sentence shows that she was still
subjected to cruel and lawless tyranny, which even hindered her
correspondence with her own relations. A queen might have expected to be
able to write in security to another sovereign; a sister to a brother; but
La Fayette and those in authority regarded the rights of neither royalty
nor kindred.

"A friend, my dear brother, has undertaken to convey this letter to you,
for I myself have no means of giving you news of my health. I will not
enter into details of what preceded our departure. You have already known
all the reasons for it. During the events which befell us on our journey,
and in the situation in which we were immediately after our return to
Paris, I was profoundly distressed. After I recovered from the first shock
of the agitation which they produced, I set myself to work to reflect on
what I had seen; and I have endeavored to form a clear idea of what, in
the actual state of affairs, the king's interests are, and what the
conduct is which they prescribe to me. My ideas have been formed by a
combination of motives which I will proceed to explain to you.

"...The situation of affairs here has greatly changed since our journey.
The National Assembly was divided into a multitude of parties. Far from
order being re-established, every day seemed to diminish the power of the
law. The king, deprived of all authority, did not even see any possibility
of reco