ible to foresee what
they might do, and the number of victims who might be sacrificed.... It is
impossible, when one sees what is going on here, to calculate what might
be the effects of their despair. I only see, in the events which might
arise out of such an attempt, but very doubtful prospects of success, and
the certainty of great miseries for every one....

"If the Revolution should be terminated in the manner of which I have
spoken, then it will be important that the king shall acquire, in a solid
manner, the confidence and consideration which alone can give a real
strength to the royal authority. No means are so well calculated to
procure them for him as the influence which we might have over one of your
resolutions[6] which would contribute to insure peace to France, and to
dispel disquietude, which are so much the more grievous for the whole
world, that they are among the principal obstacles to the re-establishment
of public tranquillity. The share which in that way we should have in the
termination of these troubles would win over to us all men of moderate
temper, while the others, especially the chiefs of the Revolution, would
attach themselves to us because of the sincere and efficacious inclination
which we should have shown to conduct matters to the end, which they all
wish for. Your own interests seem to me also to have a place in this
system of conduct. The National Assembly, before separating, will desire,
in concert with the king, to determine the alliances to which France is to
continue attached; and the power of Europe which shall be the first to
recognize the Constitution, after it has been accepted by the king, will
undoubtedly be the one with which the Assembly will be inclined to form
the closest alliance; and to these general views I might add the means
which I myself have to dispose men's minds to maintain this alliance--
means which will be extremely strengthened, if you share my view of the
present circumstances.

"I can not doubt that the chiefs of the Revolution, who have supported the
king in the last crisis, will be desirous to assure to him the
consideration and respect necessary to the exercise of his authority, and
that they will see in a close alliance of France with that power with
which he is connected by ties of blood, a means of combining his dignity
with the interests of the nation, and in that way of consolidating and
strengthening a Constitution of which they all agree that the