it would be imputed to him as a crime, and then who
could say where the national fury would stop? Forfeiture, captivity,
death, might be the consequence of the slightest accident, or least
indiscretion. He was about to suspend by a slender thread his throne,
his liberty, his life, and the lives a thousand times more dear to
him--those of his wife, his two children, and his sister.

His tormenting reflections were long and terrible, lasting for eight
months, during which time he had no confidants but the queen, Madame
Elizabeth, a few faithful servants within the palace, and the Marquis de
Bouille without.

III.

The Marquis de Bouille, cousin of M. de La Fayette, was of a character
totally different to that of the hero of Paris. Severe and stern
soldier, attached to the monarchy by principle, to the king by an almost
religious devotion, his respect for his sovereign's orders had alone
prevented him from emigrating; he was one of the few general officers
popular amongst the soldiers who had remained faithful to their duty
amidst the storms and tempests of the last two years, and who, without
openly declaring for or against these innovations, had yet striven to
preserve that force which outlives, and not unfrequently supplies, the
deficiency of all others,--the force of discipline. He had served with
great distinction in America, in the colonies in India, and the
authority of his character and name had not as yet lost their influence
over the soldiery; the heroic repression of the famous outbreak amongst
the troops at Nancy in the preceding August had greatly contributed to
strengthen this authority; and he alone of all the French generals had
re-obtained the supreme command, and had crushed insubordination. The
Assembly, alarmed in the midst of its triumphs by the seditions amongst
the troops, had passed a vote of thanks to him as the saviour of his
country. La Fayette, who commanded the citizens, feared only this rival
who commanded regiments, he therefore watched and flattered M. de
Bouille. He constantly proposed to him a coalition of their forces, of
which they would be the commanders-in-chief, and by thus acting in
concert secure at once the revolution and the monarchy. M. de Bouille,
who doubted the loyalty of La Fayette, replied with a cold and sarcastic
civility, that but ill concealed his suspicions. These two characters
were incompatible,--the one was the representative of modern patriotism,
the other of