omposed of two entirely distinct parties--the
politicians and the combatants. The politicians, who crowded round the
Comte de Provence and the Comte d'Artois, and poured forth idle
invectives against the truths of philosophy and the principles of
democracy. They wrote books and supported papers, in which the French
Revolution was represented to the foreign sovereigns as an infernal
conspiracy of a few scoundrels against kings, and even against heaven.
They formed the councils of an imaginary government--they sought to
obtain missions--they formed plans--renewed intrigues--visited every
court--stirred up the sovereigns and their ministers against
France--disputed the favour of the French princes--devoured their
subsidies--and transported to this foreign soil the ambitions, the
rivalries, and the cupidity of a court.

The military men had brought nothing but the bravery, the _insouciance_,
the recklessness, and the polish of their nation and profession.
Coblentz became the camp of illusion and devotion. This handful of brave
men deemed themselves a nation; and prepared, by accustoming themselves
to the manoeuvres and fatigues of war, to conquer in a few days a
whole monarchy. The emigrants of every country and every age have
presented this spectacle; for emigration, like the desert, has its
mirage. The emigrants believe that they have borne away their country on
the soles of their shoes, to employ the language of Danton, but they
carry away nought but its shadow, accumulate nothing but its anger, and
find nothing but its pity.

XIV.

Amongst the first _emigres_, three factions corresponded to these
different parties in the emigration itself.

The Comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII., was a philosophic
prince--a politician and a diplomatist somewhat inclined towards
innovation; an enemy of the nobility, of the priesthood; favourable to
the aristocracy; and who would have pardoned the Revolution, if the
Revolution itself would have pardoned royalty. His early infirmities
closing the career of arms to him, he became addicted to politics--he
cultivated his mind--he studied history--he wrote well, and foreseeing
the approaching downfall, he predicted the probable death of Louis
XVI.--he believed in the vicissitudes of the Revolution, and prepared
himself to become the pacificator of his country, and the conciliator of
the throne and liberty. His heart possessed all the qualities and all
the faults of a woman--he n