in favor of order. But the
court does not desire the general's aid, and takes what measures it can
to defeat this project. Petion, whom it had preferred to Lafayette as
mayor of Paris, countermands the review an hour before daybreak.

Perhaps Louis XVI. might have succeeded in overcoming his repugnance to
Lafayette and submitted to be rescued by him. But the Queen absolutely
refused to trust the man whom she considered her evil genius. She had
seen him rise like a spectre at every hapless hour. He had brought her
back to Paris a prisoner on the 6th of October. He had been her
jailer. His apparition amid the glare of torches in the Court of the
Carrousel had frozen her with terror when she was flying from her
prison, the Tuileries, to begin the fatal journey to Varennes. His
aides-de-camp had pursued her. He was responsible for her arrest; he
was present at her humiliating and sorrowful return; the sight of his
face, the sound of his voice, made her tremble; she could not hear his
name without a shudder. In vain Madame Elisabeth exclaimed: "Let us
forget the past and throw ourselves into the arms of the only man who
can save the King and his family!" Marie Antoinette's pride revolted
at the thought of owing anything to her former persecutor. Moreover,
in his latest confidential communications with her, Mirabeau had said:
"Madame, be on your guard against Lafayette; if ever he commands the
army, he would like to keep {237} the King in his tent." In the
Queen's opinion, to rely on Lafayette would be to accept him as regent
of the palace under a sluggard King. Protector for protector, she
preferred Danton. Danton, who, subsidized from the civil list, accepts
money without knowing whether he will fairly earn it; Danton, who,
while awaiting events, had made the cynical remark that he would "save
the King or kill him." Strange that the orator of the faubourgs
inspired the daughter of Caesars with less repugnance than the
gentleman, the marquis. "They propose M. de Lafayette as a resource,"
she said to Madame Campan; "but it would be better to perish than owe
our safety to the man who has done us most harm."

However, Lafayette was not yet discouraged. He wished to save the
royal family in spite of themselves. He assembled several officers of
the National Guard at his house. He represented to them the dangers
into which the apathy of each plunged the affairs of all; he showed the
urgent necessity of combin