e me little pleasure to detail. The causes have been hid,
_caliginosa nocta_, in a fog almost as thick as that of yesterday,
and I have been among the guessers only, and not always among those
who were luckiest in their guesses. I bless God, that we had the
wit to keep ourselves out of the glorious enterprize of the
combined armies, and that we were not tempted by the hope of
sharing the spoils in the division of France, nor by the prospect
of crushing all democratical principles all over the world at one
blow. But having so sturdily resisted all solicitation to join in
these plans, we have been punished for our obstinacy by having been
kept in profound ignorance of the details by which they were to be
executed, and even of the course of events, as far as that could be
done, which occurred during the progress of the enterprize. Now
that it has failed, we must expect these deep politicians to return
to the charge, and to beg us to help them out of the pit into which
they wanted to help us. But they have as yet been in no hurry to
begin this pleasant communication, and most assuredly we are in no
disposition to urge them on faster. You have here, therefore, the
explanation of the total impossibility in which I find myself to
explain all the inexplicable events of the last two months
otherwise than by conjecture. It is but lately that I have thought
I had even grounds enough to guess by. But you shall hear my guess.
The Austrians and Prussians thought they were marching to certain
victory. The emigrants, who had given them this idea, confirmed
them in it till the facts undeceived them. The Duke of Brunswick,
who joins to great personal valour great indecision of mind, and
great soreness for his reputation, hesitated to take the only means
that could have insured success--a sudden and hazarded attack. The
more he delayed, the more difficult his position grew. He then
attempted to buy a man, who, under other circumstances, would have
been very purchasable; failed in this; lost time; excited distrust
and jealousy among his allies; dispirited his own troops; and ended
his enterprize by a disgraceful retreat, which coffee-house
politicians are, as usual, willing to attribute to all sorts of
causes except the natural and obvious one. The subsequent successes