not to be doubted, and therefore the Key comes to the right place."

Early in May, 1791 (the exact date is not given), Lafayette writes
Washington: "I send you the rather indifferent translation of Mr. Paine
as a kind of preservative and to keep me near you." This was a hasty
translation of "Rights of Man," Part I., by F. Soules, presently
superseded by that of Lanthenas.

The first convert of Paine to pure republicanism in France was Achille
Duchatelet, son of the Duke, and grandson of the authoress,--the friend
of Voltaire. It was he and Paine who, after the flight of Louis XVI.,
placarded Paris with the Proclamation of a Republic, given as the first
chapter of this volume. An account of this incident is here quoted from
Etienne Dumont's "Recollections of Mirabeau":

"The celebrated Paine was at this time in Paris, and intimate in
Condorcet's family. Thinking that he had effected the American
Revolution, he fancied himself called upon to bring about one in France.
Duchatelet called on me, and after a little preface placed in my hand an
English manuscript--a Proclamation to the French People. It was nothing
less than an anti-royalist Manifesto, and summoned the nation to
seize the opportunity and establish a Republic. Paine was its author.
Duchatelet had adopted and was resolved to sign, placard the walls of
Paris with it, and take the consequences. He had come to request me to
translate and develop it. I began discussing the strange proposal,
and pointed out the danger of raising a republican standard without
concurrence of the National Assembly, and nothing being as yet known
of the king's intentions, resources, alliances, and possibilities of
support by the army, and in the provinces. I asked if he had consulted
any of the most influential leaders,--Sieves, Lafayette, etc. He had
not: he and Paine had acted alone. An American and an impulsive nobleman
had put themselves forward to change the whole governmental system
of France. Resisting his entreaties, I refused to translate the
Proclamation. Next day the republican Proclamation appeared on the walls
in every part of Paris, and was denounced to the Assembly. The idea of
a Republic had previously presented itself to no one: this first
intimation filled with consternation the Right and the moderates of the
Left. Malouet, Cazales, and others proposed prosecution of the author,
but Chapelier, and a numerous party, fearing to add fuel to the fire
instead of extinguis