reated the _emigres_ not with
confidence, but compassion; they would have responded frankly and
without trickery to the minister's negotiation; the Revolution would
have been accomplished without cruelties; Europe would have remained at
peace, and France would be happy." What sadness underlies all history,
and what disproportion there is between man's sacrifices and their
results! The Revolution was achieved. All necessary liberties had
been conquered. Privileges {131} existed no longer. Animated by
excellent intentions, Louis XVI. would have been the best of
constitutional sovereigns, had his subjects possessed wisdom. Why this
long misunderstanding between him and his people? Why, on one side,
the insensate attitude of the _emigres_, whose task seemed to be to
justify the revolutionists; and why, on the other, those savage
passions which seemed trying to justify the wrathful recriminations of
Coblentz? Why that untimely intervention of Austria which irritated
French national sentiment and gave a political pretext to inexcusable
violence, cruelty, and crime? Inextricable confusion of false
situations! Multitudes asked themselves in what direction right and
duty lay. A large contingent of the French nobility heartily desired
the success of foreign armies. At Coblentz a gathering of twenty-two
thousand gentlemen hastened to the side of the seven Bourbon princes:
the Comte de Provence, the Comte d'Artois, the Duc de Berry, the Duc
d'Angouleme, the Prince de Conde, the Duc de Bourbon, and the Duc
d'Enghien.

As M. de Lamartine has said: "Infidelity to the country called itself
fidelity to the King. Desertion called itself honor. Fealty to the
throne was the religion of the French nobility. To them the
sovereignty of the people seemed an insolent dogma against which it was
necessary to draw the sword under penalty of sharing the crime. There
was real devotion in the act by which these men, young and {132} old,
abandoned their rank in the army, and the ties of country and family,
and rushed into a foreign land to defend the white flag as common
soldiers.... Their country symbolized duty for the patriots; to the
_emigres_, duty meant the throne. One of these parties deceived itself
concerning its duty, but both of them believed they were performing it."

As to the unfortunate Louis XVI., he suffered cruelly. It was like
death to him to declare war against his nephew, and at certain moments
he felt that th