ituation produced
by the king's flight could not last; their radical opponents had time
on their side, and they had logic.

Lewis, after his degradation, was an impossible king. And the
republicans had a future majority in reserve, whenever the excluded
class was restored to the right of voting which it had enjoyed in 1789
before equality was a fundamental law, and which the Rights of Man
enabled them to claim. And now the incident of Varennes supplied the
enemies of the throne with a new argument. The wretched incompetence
of Lewis had become evident to all, and to the queen herself. She did
not hesitate to take his place, and when people spoke of the Court, it
was the queen they meant. The flight, and the policy that led to it,
and that was renewed by the failure, was the policy of relying on
foreign aid, especially that of the emperor. The queen was the
connecting link, and the chief negotiator. And the object she pursued
was to constrain the French people, by means of the emperor's
influence on the Powers, either by the humiliating parade of power at
a congress, or by invasion. That is what she was believed to be
contriving, and the sense of national independence was added to the
motive of political liberty to make the Court unpopular. People
denounced the Austrian cabal, and the queen as its centre. It was
believed that she wished to govern not only through the royal
authority restored, but through the royal authority restored by
foreign oppressors. The Revolution was confronted with Europe. It had
begun its work by insurrection, and it had to complete its work by
war. The beginning of European complications was the flight to
Varennes.

Early in September the Constitution was presented to Lewis XVI. The
gates were thrown open. The guards who were his gaolers were
withdrawn. He was ostensibly a free man. If he decided to accept, his
acceptance would be voluntary. The Emperor, Kaunitz, Malesherbes,
advised him to accept. Malouet preferred, as usual, a judicious middle
course. Burke was for refusal. He said that assent meant destruction,
and he thought afterwards that he was right, for the king assented and
was destroyed. Burke was not listened to. He had become the adviser of
Coblenz, and great as his claims were upon the gratitude of both king
and queen, he was counted in the ranks of their enemies. Mercy, who
transmitted his letter, still extant in the archives of France, begged
that it might not influence the d