sovereignty of
the people is not bound by the treaties of tyrants."[2358] As to the
gatherings of the emigres, the Emperor having yielded on this point,
he will yield on the others.[2359] Let him formally renounce all
combinations against France.

"I want war on the 10th of February," says Brissot, "unless we have
received his renunciation."

No explanations; it is satisfaction we want; "to require satisfaction is
to put the Emperor at our mercy."[2360] The Assembly, so eager to start
the quarrel, usurps the King's right to take the first step and formally
declares war, fixing the date.[2361]--The die is now cast.

"They want war," says the Emperor, "and they shall have it."

Austria immediately forms an alliance with Prussia, threatened, like
herself, with revolutionary propaganda.[2362] By sounding the alarm
belles the Jacobins, masters of the Assembly, have succeeded in bringing
about that "monstrous alliance," and, from day to day, this alarm sounds
the louder. One year more, thanks to this policy, and France will have
all Europe for an enemy and as its only friend, the Regency of Algiers,
whose internal system of government is about the same as her own.

IV.--Secret motives of the leaders.

Their control compromised by peace.--Discontent of the rich
and cultivated class.--Formation and increase of the party
of order.--The King and this party reconciled.

Behind their carmagnoles[2363] we can detect a design which they will
avow later on.

"We were always obstructed by the Constitution," Brissot is to say, "and
nothing but war could destroy the Constitution."[2364]

Diplomatic wrongs, consequently, of which they make parade, are simply
pretexts; if they urge war it is for the purpose of overthrowing the
legal order of things which annoys them; their real object is the
conquests of power, a second internal revolution, the application of
their system and a final state of equality.--Concealed behind them is
the most politic and absolute of theorists, a man "whose great art is
the attainment of his ends without showing himself, the preparation of
others for far-sighted views of which they have no suspicion, and that
of speaking but little in public and acting in secret."[2365] This
man is Sieyes, "the leader of everything without seeming to lead
anything."[2366] As infatuated as Rousseau with his own speculations,
but as unscrupulous and as clear-sighted as Macchiavelli in the
selection