the
States-General. Indeed, there is but one rational solution, and I must
disregard my instructions in an endeavor to bring it about."

"I would advise you to resign your seat!" said Mr. Morris, bluntly. "You
have been elected by an order in whose principles you no longer
believe. Should you continue their representative your conscience will
be continually at war with your duty. Should you break away from your
constituency you will offer an example of insubordination and
lawlessness which may have the most deplorable results."

"I cannot agree with you, Mr. Morris," broke in Mr. Jefferson, warmly.
"In the desperate pass to which affairs are already come in this nation,
desperate remedies must be employed. Shall Monsieur de Lafayette deprive
the tiers etat of his enthusiasm, his earnest convictions, his talents,
when, by an act of courage, entirely in accord with his conscience, he
can become one of them and can lead them to victory and to that fusion
with the other orders which is so vital to the usefulness, nay, to the
very life of the States-General?"

"In my opinion there is less need that Monsieur de Lafayette should lead
the tiers etat--they will travel fast enough, I think," says Mr. Morris,
dryly--"than that he should stick to his own order, strengthening in
every way in his power this conservative element, which is the safeguard
of the nation. This annihilation of the distinctions of orders which you
speak of seems to me to be the last thing to be desired. Should the
nobles abandon their order and give over their privileges, what will act
as a check on the demands and encroachments of the commons? How far such
ultra-democratic tendencies may be right respecting mankind in general
is, I think, extremely problematical. With respect to this nation I am
sure it is wrong. I am frank but I am sincere when I say that I believe
you, Monsieur de Lafayette, and you, Monsieur d'Azay, to be too
republican for the genius of this country."

"Or, Monsieur Morris, trop aristocrate," said the Marquis, with a bitter
smile on his disturbed countenance, for his vanity, which was becoming
inordinate, could not brook unfriendly criticism.

"'Tis strange," said the Vicomte d'Azay, "to hear an American arguing
against those principles which have won for him so lately his freedom
and his glory! As for me, I think with Mr. Jefferson and the Marquis,
and, thinking so, I have sided with the people, which is, after all, the
nation."