and that the sight of their happiness will speedily make him
forget the cruel and bitter griefs which they have inflicted on him and on
his family.

"But if we take this line we must adhere to it; and, above all things, we
must avoid any step which can create distrust, and we must move on, so to
say, always with the law in our hand. I promise you that this is the best
way to give them an early disgust at the Constitution. The mischief is,
that for this we shall want an able and a trustworthy ministry.... Several
people urge us to reject the act, and the king's brothers press upon him
every day that it is indispensable to do so, and affirm that we shall be
supported. By whom?" And she proceeds to examine the situation and policy
of Spain, of the empire of England, and of Prussia, to prove that from
none of them is there any hope of active aid, while to trust to the
emigrants would be the worst expedient of all, because "we should then
fall into a new slavery worse than the first, since, while we should
appear to be in some degree indebted to them, we should not be able to
extricate ourselves from their toils. They already prove this when they
refuse to listen to the persons who are in our confidence, on the pretext
that they do not trust them, while they seek to force us to give ourselves
up to M. de Calonne, who, I fear, in all that he does is guided by nothing
but his own ambition, his private enmities, and his habitual levity,
thinking every thing he wishes not only possible, but already done.

"... One circumstance worthy of remark is that in all these discussions on
the Constitution the people take no interest, and concern themselves
solely about their own affairs, limiting their wishes to having a
Constitution and getting rid of the aristocrats... As to our acceptance of
the Constitution, it is impossible for any thinking being to avoid seeing
that we are not free. But it is essential that we should not awaken a
suspicion of our feelings in the monsters who surround us. Let me know
where the emperor's forces are and what is their present position. In
every case the foreign powers can alone save us. The army is lost. There
is no money. There is no bond, no curb which can restrain the populace,
which is everywhere armed. Even the chiefs of the Revolution, when they
wish to speak of order, are not listened to. This is the deplorable
condition in which we are placed. Add that we have not a single friend--
that every on