l guard, more than to the irreverence of
the Assembly. La Fayette guarded, in the person of the king, the
dynasty, its proper head, and the constitution--a hostage against the
republic and royalty at the same time. _Maire du palais_, he intimidated
by the presence of a weak and degraded monarch, the discouraged
royalists and the restrained republicans. Louis XVI. was his pledge.

Barnave and the Lameths had within the Assembly the attitude of La
Fayette without. They required the king, in order to defend themselves
from their enemies. So long as there was a man (Mirabeau) between the
throne and themselves, they had played with the republic and sapped the
throne in order to crush a rival. But Mirabeau dead and the throne
shaken, they felt themselves weak against the very impulse they had
given. They sustained, therefore, this wreck of monarchy in order to be
sustained in their turn. Founders of the Jacobins, they trembled before
their own handiwork:--they took refuge in the constitution which they
themselves had dilapidated, and passed from the character of
destructives to that of statesmen. But for the first part there is only
violence needed; for the second genius is required. Barnave had talent
only. He had something more, however--he had a heart, and he was a good
man. The first excesses of his language were in him but the excitements
of the tribune; he was desirous of tasting the popular applause, and it
was showered upon him beyond his real merit. Hereafter it was not with
Mirabeau he was about to measure his strength; it was with the
Revolution in all its force. Jealousy took from him the pedestal which
it had lent, and he was about to appear as he really was.

III.

But a sentiment more noble than that of his personal safety impelled
Barnave to side with the monarchical party. His heart had passed before
his ambition to the side of weakness, beauty, and misfortune. Nothing is
more dangerous than for a sensitive man to know those against whom he
contends. Hatred against the cause shrinks before the feeling for the
persons. We become partial unwittingly. Sensibility disarms the
understanding, and we soften instead of reasoning, whilst the
sensitiveness of a commiserating man soon usurps the place of his
opinion.

It was thus that Barnave's mind was worked upon, after the return from
Varennes. The interest he had conceived for the queen had converted this
young republican into a royalist. Barnave had only prev