sonment, and hoped to degrade royalty for ever by
degrading the king. The republic saw its hour for the first moment, and
trembled to allow it to escape. All these hands at once urged men's
minds towards a decisive movement. Articles in the journals provoked
motions, motions petitions, and petitions riots. The altar of the
country in the Champ-de-Mars, which remained erected for a new
federation, was the place which was already pointed out for the
assemblies of the people. It was the _Mons Aventinus_, whither it was to
retire, and whence it was to dictate to a timid and corrupt senate.

"No more king,--let us be republicans," wrote Brissot in the _Patriote_.
"Such is the cry at the Palais Royal, and it does not gain ground fast
enough; it would seem as though it were blasphemy. This repugnance for
assuming the name of the condition in which the state _actually is_ is
very extraordinary in the eyes of philosophy." "No king! no protector!
no regent! Let us have done with man-eaters of every sort and kind,"
re-echoed the _Bouche de Fer_. "Let the eighty-three departments enter
into a federation, and declare that they will no longer endure tyrants,
monarchs, or protectors. Their shade is as fatal to the people as that
of the Bohonupas is deadly to all that lives. If we nominate a regent we
shall soon fight for the choice of a master. Let us only contend for
liberty."

Provoked by this reference to the regency, which appeared to point to
him, the Duc d'Orleans wrote to the journals that he was ready to serve
his country by land or by sea; but in respect to any question of
regency, he from that moment renounced, and for ever, any pretensions to
that title which the constitution might give him. "After having made so
many sacrifices to the cause of the people," he said, "I am no longer in
a condition to quit my position as a simple citizen. Ambition in me
would be an inexcusable inconsistency."

Already discredited by all parties, this prince, henceforth incapable of
serving the throne, was equally incapable of serving the republic.
Odious to the royalists, put aside by the demagogues, suspected by the
constitutionalists, there only remained to him the stoical attitude in
which he took refuge. He had abdicated his rank, abdicated his own
faction; he had abdicated the favour of the people. His life was all
that remained to him.

At the same moment Camille Desmoulins was thus satirically
apostrophising La Fayette, the first i