nd. Then, unfortunately for the king,
Mirabeau died in the April of 1791. The king thenceforth resolved on
escape. The Royal Family made their ill-starred flight to Varennes; to
be brought back to Paris as prisoners. The constitutional party in the
Legislative Assembly, at first dominant, soon became subordinate to the
more violent Girondists, with their extreme wing of _Jacobins_ under
Robespierre and of _Cordeliers_ under Danton, Marat, Camille
Desmoulins, and Fabre d'Eglantine. The Proscription of all emigrants
quickly followed--and the name of Vigee Le Brun was written upon the
lists. The queen's enmity to Lafayette baulked, and completed the ruin
of, the Royalist hopes. He retired into exile, and sadly left the
Royal cause to its fate. On the 20th of April 1792 France entered upon
her supreme struggle with Europe by declaring war. On the night of the
9th of August the dread tocsin sounded the note of doom to the Royal
cause--herald to the bloodshed of the 10th of August. Three days
afterwards the king and the Royal Family were prisoners in the Temple.
There followed the terrible September massacres.

The National Convention met for the first time on the 21st of September
1792; decreed the first year of the Republic; abolished royalty and
titles of courtesy; decreed _citoyen_ and _citoyenne_ in their place,
and _tu_ and _toi_ for _vous_. It also proved the enmity of the two
wings of the now all-powerful Girondist party--the Girondists proper as
against the _Jacobins_ or _Montagnards_. The conflict began with the
fierce quarrel as to whether the king could be tried.

It was with sorrow at her heart that the exiled artist left Italy and
journeyed into Austria. Having spent three years in Italy, roaming
from town to town, and being received with honour wherever she went,
she turned her footsteps to Vienna, where she remained from 1792 to
1795, her thirty-seventh to her fortieth years, again to be idolised,
and painting hard the while. "To paint and to live are the same word
to me," she was wont to say.

=====================================================================

PLATE VIII.--PEACE BRINGING BACK PLENTY

(In the Louvre)

It was shortly after her return from this journey into Flanders that
Joseph Vernet decided to put down her name for election to the Royal
Academy. Her portrait of herself created such a sensation that her
election became assured. She had to paint the usual formal _table