were in the ascendency and had restored order. There were
fierce contentions in the National Convention, but, on the whole, its
attitude was one to inspire confidence. The English, who saw in the
arrest of the king, and in the popular feeling against him, just such a
crisis as their nation had passed through once or twice, were not
deterred from visiting the country by its unsettled state. The French
prejudice against England, it is true, was strong. Lafayette had some
time before publicly expressed his belief that she was secretly
conspiring against the peace of France. But his imputation had been
vigorously denied, and nominally the two governments were friendly.
English citizens had no reason to suppose they would not be safe in
Paris, and those among them whose opinions brought them _en rapport_ with
the French Republicans felt doubly secure. Consequently Mary's departure
for that capital, alone and unprotected, did not seem so hazardous then
as it does now that the true condition of affairs is better understood.

She knew in Paris a Madame Filiettaz, daughter of the Madame Bregantz at
whose school in Putney Eliza and Everina had been teachers, and to her
house she went, by invitation. Monsieur and Madame Filiettaz were absent,
and she was for some little time its sole occupant save the servants. The
object of her visit was twofold. She wished to study French, for though
she could read and translate this language fluently, from want of
practice she could neither speak nor understand it when it was spoken;
and she also desired to watch for herself the development of the cause of
freedom. Their love of liberty had made the French, as a nation,
peculiarly attractive to her. She had long since openly avowed her
sympathy by her indignant reply to Burke's outcry against them. It was
now a great satisfaction to be where she could follow day by day the
progress of their struggle. She had excellent opportunities not only to
see what was on the surface of society, which is all visitors to a
strange land can usually do, but to study the actual forces at work in
the movement. Thomas Paine was then in Paris. He was a member of the
National Convention, and was on terms of intimacy with Condorcet,
Brissot, Madame Roland, and other Republican leaders. Mary had known him
well in London. She now renewed the acquaintance, and was always welcomed
to his house near the Rue de Richelieu. Later, when, worn out by his
numerous visitors, he