ancient honour: they could not harmonise.

The Marquis de Bouille commanded the troops of Loraine, Alsace,
Franche-Comte, and Champagne, and his government extended from
Switzerland to the Sambre. He had no less than ninety battalions of
foot, and a hundred and four squadrons of cavalry under his orders. Out
of this number the general could only rely upon twenty battalions of
German troops and a few cavalry regiments; the remainder were in favour
of the Revolution: and the influence of the clubs had spread amongst
them the spirit of insubordination and hatred for the king; the
regiments obeyed the municipalities rather than their generals.

IV.

Since the month of February, 1791, the king, who had the most entire
confidence in M. de Bouille, had written to this general that he wished
him to make overtures to Mirabeau, and through the intervention of the
Count de Lamarck, a foreign nobleman, the intimate and confidential
friend of Mirabeau. "Although these persons are not over estimable,"
said the king in his letter, "and although I have paid Mirabeau very
dearly, I yet think he has it in his power to serve me. Hear all he has
to say, without putting yourself too much in his hands." The Count de
Lamarck arrived soon after at Metz. He mentioned to M. de Bouille the
object of his mission, confessed to him that the king had recently given
Mirabeau 600,000f. (24,000_l._), and that he also allowed him 50,000f. a
month. He then revealed to him the plan of his counter-revolutionary
conspiracy, the first act of which was to be an address to Paris and the
Departments demanding the liberty of the king. Every thing in this
scheme depended upon the rhetoric of Mirabeau. Carried away by his own
eloquence, the salaried orator was ignorant that words, though
all-powerful to excite, are yet impotent to appease; they urge nations
forward, but nothing but the bayonet can arrest them. M. de Bouille, a
veteran soldier, smiled at these chimerical projects of the citizen
orator; but he did not, however, discourage him in his plans, and
promised him his assistance: he wrote to the king to repay largely the
desertion of Mirabeau; "A clever scoundrel," said he, "who perhaps has
it in his power to repair through cupidity the mischief he has done
through revenge;" and to mistrust La Fayette, "A chimerical enthusiast,
intoxicated with popularity, who might become the chief of a party, but
never the support of a monarchy."

After the death of