ted. That idea was consistently rejected, and,
stranger still, the idea of disestablishment and separation was almost
unperceived. A whole generation later, under the influence of American
and Irish examples, a school of Liberals arose among French Catholics
who were as distinct from the Gallicans as from the Ultramontanes, and
possessed the solution for the perpetual rivalry of Church and State.
For us, the great fact is that the Revolution produced nothing of the
sort, and went to ruin by its failure in dealing with the problem.

XII

THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES

The direct consequence of the ecclesiastical laws was the flight of
the king. From the time of his removal to Paris, in October 1789, men
began to study the means by which he might be rescued, and his
ministers were ready with the necessary passports. During the summer
of 1790, which he spent at St. Cloud, various plans were proposed, and
constantly rejected. The queen was opposed to them, for she said:
"What can the king do, away from Paris, without insight, or spirit, or
ascendancy? Say no more about it." But a change came over them on
August 24, when the Civil Constitution was sanctioned. As soon as it
was voted in July, Mirabeau informed Lewis that he undertook to convey
him, publicly, to Rouen, or Beauvais, or Compiegne, where he would be
out of reach, and could dissolve the Assembly and proclaim a better
system of constitutional laws. Civil war would inevitably follow; but
Mirabeau believed that civil war would lead to the restoration of
authority, if the king put himself in the hands of the Marquis de
Bouille, the general commanding at Metz. Bouille had acquired a high
reputation by his success against the English in the West Indies, and
he increased it at this moment by the energy with which he suppressed
a mutiny in the garrison of Nancy. _For_ the service thereby rendered
to the State and the cause of order, he received, under pressure from
Mirabeau, the thanks of the Assembly. The king begged him to nurse his
popularity as he was reserved for greater things. This is the first
intimation of the secret; and it is confirmed by the Princess
Elizabeth, within a week of the sanction given to the Civil
Constitution. But although, in that month of September, Lewis began to
meditate departure from Paris, and accepted the general proposed to
him, he did not adopt the rest of the scheme which would have made him
dependent on Mirabeau. At that moment his