that town a station for the French marine. He was
fifty years old when the Revolution of 1789 broke out. At once he saw
in it an opportunity for success and glory. Full of confidence in his
own superiority, he merely awaited the hour when events should second
his ambition. He said to himself that the emigration, by making a void
in the upper ranks of the army, was going to leave him free scope, and
that he would be commander-in-chief of the French troops under the new
regime. To attain this end he decided to serve the King, the Assembly,
and the factions; to assume all parts and all masks, and to be in turn,
and simultaneously if need were, the courtier of Louis XVI. and the
favorite of the Jacobins.

As has been very well said by M. Frederic Masson {98} in an excellent
book, as novel as it is interesting, _Le Departement des affaires
etrangeres sous la Revolution_, Dumouriez had been accustomed to make
his way everywhere, to eat at all tables, and listen at all doors. One
of the agents of Count d'Artois brought him into relations with
Mirabeau. He was protected by the minister Montmorin. He drew up
plans of campaign for Narbonne. He used the intimate "thou" to
Laporte, the King's confidant and intendant of the civil list. He made
use of women also. Separated from his lawful wife, he lived in marital
relations with a sister of Rivarol, the Baroness de Beauvert, a
charming person who had much intercourse with aristocratic society, who
speculated in arms, and who was pensioned by the Duke of Orleans, as
appears from a letter of Latouche de Treville, the prince's chancellor,
dated April 17, 1789. Dumouriez, who had expensive tastes, sought at
the same time for gold and honors. Either by means of the court or the
Revolution, he desired to gain a great fortune and much glory, to
become a statesman, a minister, commander-in-chief, and realize his
great military plan, the conquest of the natural frontiers of France.
He said to himself: He who wills the end wills the means, and managed
as adroitly with parties as with soldiers. At Niort, where he was in
command at the beginning of the Revolution, he made himself remarkable
by his enthusiasm for the new ideas, and became president of the club
and honorary citizen of the town. He contracted an intimacy with
Gensonne, {99} whom the Assembly had sent into the departments of the
west to observe their spirit. In January, 1792, the emigration of
general officers had be