ence, and whose dismission had been determined on in the
morning, was the same night entreated both by the King and Queen to
stay. On the next meeting of the Assembly a large portion of the clergy
again repaired to their place of sitting; and four days after, forty
members of the _noblesse_ joined them, with the Duke of Orleans at their
head. The conduct of this nobleman, all through the Revolution, was in
my opinion uncalled for, indecent, and profligate, and his fate not
unmerited. Persons situated as he was cannot take a decided part one way
or the other, without doing violence either to the dictates of reason
and justice or to all their natural sentiments, unless they are
characters of that heroic stamp as to be raised above suspicion or
temptation: the only way for all others is to stand aloof from a
struggle in which they have no alternative but to commit a parricide on
their country or their friends, and to await the issue in silence and at
a distance.

The people should not ask the aid of their lordly taskmasters to shake
off their chains; nor can they ever expect to have it cordial and
entire. No confidence can be placed in those excesses of public
principle which are founded on the sacrifice of every private affection
and of habitual self-esteem! The Court, soon after this reenforcement to
the popular party, came forward of its own accord to request the
attendance of the dissentient orders, which took place on June 27th; and
after some petty ebullitions of jealousy and contests for precedence,
the Assembly became general, and all distinctions were lost.

The King's secret advisers were, however, by no means reconciled to this
new triumph over ancient privilege and existing authority, and meditated
a reprisal by removing the Assembly farther from Paris, and there
dissolving, if it could not overawe them. For this purpose the troops
were collected from all parts; Versailles, where the Assembly sat, was
like a camp; Paris looked as if it were in a state of siege. These
extensive military preparations, the trains of artillery arriving every
hour from the frontier, with the presence of the foreign regiments,
occasioned great suspicion and alarm; and on the motion of Mirabeau, the
Assembly sent an address to the King, respectfully urging him to remove
the troops from the neighborhood of the capital; but this he declined
doing, hinting at the same time that they might retire, if they chose,
to Noyon or Soissons, thu