etimes to
excite and sometimes to control the agitations of opinion.

He had by this marriage two sons, whom his death left orphans in their
cradle, and who succeeded to his small inheritance at Arcis-sur-Aube.
These two sons of Danton, alarmed at the effects of their name, retired
to their family domain, and cultivated it with their own hands, and in
an honest and industrious obscurity limited to themselves all their
father's notoriety. Like the son of Cromwell, they preferred the shade
and silence the more, as their name had a too sinister reputation, and
too wide an extension in the world. They remained unmarried, that the
name might die with them.

At this moment Danton, whose ambitious instincts revealed the close
return to fortune of the Girondists, sought to attach himself to this
rising party, and give them the weight of his worth and importance.
Madame Roland flattered him, but with fear and repugnance, as a woman
would pat a lion.

XII.

Whilst the Girondists were exciting the anger of the people against the
king, hostilities were beginning in Belgium, in consequence of reverses,
which were attributed to treasons of the court: these were produced by
three causes; the hesitation of the generals, who did not understand how
to impart to their troops that ardour which impels the masses, and bears
down resistance; the disorganisation of the armies, which emigration had
deprived of their ancient officers, and who had no confidence in the
new; and finally, the want of discipline, that element of revolutions,
which clubs and Jacobinism had spread amongst the troops. An army that
discusses is like a hand which would think.

La Fayette, instead of advancing at once on Namur according to
Dumouriez's plan, lost a good deal of precious time in assembling and
organising at Givet, and the camp of Ransenne. Instead of giving the
other generals in line with him, the example and the signal of invasion
and victory, by at once occupying Namur, he moved about the country with
10,000 men, leaving the remainder of his forces encamped in France, and
fell back at the first news of the checks sustained by the detachments
of Biron and Theobald Dillon. These checks, though partial and slight,
were disgraceful for our troops. It was the astonishment of an army
unaccustomed to war, and fearful of entering the lists, but which, like
a soldier at his first campaign, would soon grow used to battles.

The Duc de Lauzun commanded under