need be
expected.... Never did {134} a prince merit better the eternal rewards
promised by religion to the true Christian; and yet his example should
forever teach kings that their conduct must be totally different from
his. Lacking the courage which acts, the most virtuous king cannot
achieve his own safety." Why did not Louis XVI. go amongst his
soldiers? Victory would have given him a sceptre and a crown. While
he still retained his sword, why did he leave it in the scabbard? Why
did he not remember that it might launch thunderbolts?

On the contrary, Louis XVI. hesitates, fumbles, temporizes. Count de
Vaublanc says again: "This wretched time proves thoroughly that finesse
is the most detestable means of conducting great affairs. Nothing but
finesse was opposed to the impetuous attacks of the Jacobins. All was
dissimulation; conversations, writings, measures; authority acted only
by crooked ways. With a thousand means of safety, people were lost
because they pushed prudence to excess, and extreme prudence always
degenerates into despicable means. I was in every great crisis of the
Revolution, and I have always seen the same faults produce the same
misfortunes. It is the same thing in revolution as in war; no matter
how prudent a general may be, he must take some risk. Otherwise it
would be impossible to gain a single battle."

Ah! how true and how striking is that great saying of Bossuet: "When
God wills to overthrow empires, all is feeble and irregular in their
designs." {135} Undecided and fickle, Louis XVI. does not even know
whether to desire the success or the failure of the Austrian army. He
has no plan, no steadiness of purpose. The secret mission he gives to
Mallet du Pan is a fresh proof of the irresolution of his character and
his policy. What is it he asks? To have the Powers declare that they
are making war against an anti-social faction, and not the French
nation; that they are undertaking the defence of legitimate governments
and of peoples against anarchy; that they will treat only with the
King; that they shall demand perfect liberty for him; that they convoke
a congress to which the _emigres_ may be admitted as complainants, and
where the general scheme of claims and reclamations shall be negotiated
under the auspices and the guarantee of the great courts of Europe.
Hesitating between Austria and his own kingdom, the unhappy monarch
attempts to continue that equivocal system, that