usband's danger. In
each case her decision was that of a brave and devoted wife, not perhaps
in both instances judicious; for when Prussia did mingle in the contest,
as it did in the first week in July, it evidently increased the perils of
Louis, if indeed they were capable of aggravation, by giving the Jacobins
a plea for raising the cry "that the country was in danger." But in the
second case, in her refusal to flee, and to leave her husband by himself
to confront the existing and impending dangers, she judged rightly and
worthily of herself; and the only circumstance that has prevented her from
receiving the credit due for her refusal to avail herself of Prince
George's offer is that throughout the whole period of the Revolution her
acts of disinterestedness and heroism are so incessant that single deeds
of the kind are lost in the contemplation of her entire career during this
long period of trial.

It was the peculiar ill-fortune of Louis that more than once the very
efforts made by people who desired to assist him increased his perils. The
events of the 20th of June had shocked and alarmed even La Fayette. From
the beginning of the Revolution he had vacillated between a desire for a
republic and for a limited monarchy on something like the English pattern,
without being able to decide which to prefer. He had shown himself willing
to court a base popularity with the mob by heaping uncalled-for insults on
the king and queen. But though he had coquetted with the ultra-
revolutionists, and allowed them to make a tool of him, he had not nerve
for the villainies which it was now clear that they meditated. He had no
taste for bloodshed; and, though gifted with but little acuteness, he saw
that the success of the Jacobins and Girondins would lead neither to a
republic nor to a limited monarchy, but to anarchy; and he had discernment
enough to dread that. He therefore now sincerely desired to save the
king's life, and even what remained of his authority, especially if he
could so order matters that their preservation should be seen to be his
own work. He was conscious also that he could reckon on many allies in any
effort which he might make for the prevention of further outrages. The
more respectable portion of the Parisians viewed the recent outrages with
disgust, sharpened by personal alarm. The dominion of Santerre and his
gangs of destitute desperadoes was manifestly fraught with destruction to
themselves as well as to