ided him in his plans; he
had only to contend against the fatality which urges men and things to
their _denouement_. The Girondists, and Brissot especially, overwhelmed
him with accusations, inasmuch as he was the man who could most retard
their triumph. By sacrificing him they could sacrifice a whole system:
their press and their harangues pointed him out to the fury of the
people;--the partisans of war marked him down as their victim. He was no
traitor--but with them to negotiate was to betray. The king, who knew he
was irreproachable and confided all his plans to him, refused to
sacrifice him to his enemies, and thus accumulated resentments against
the minister. As to M. de Molleville, he was a secret enemy of the
constitution. He advised the king to play the hypocrite, acting in the
letter, and thus to destroy the spirit, of the law,--advancing by
subterranean ways to a violent catastrophe,--when, according to him the
monarchical cause must come out victorious. Confiding in the power of
intrigue more than in the influence of opinion, seeking everywhere
traitors to the popular cause, paying spies, bargaining for consciences,
believing in no one's incorruptibility, keeping up secret intelligence
with the most violent demagogues, paying in hard money for the most
incendiary propositions under the idea of making the Revolution
unpopular from its very excesses, and filling the tribunes of the
Assembly with his agents in order to choke down with their hootings, or
render effective by their applause, the discourses of certain orators,
and thus to feign in the tribunes a false people and a false opinion;
men of small means in great matters presuming that it is possible to
deceive a nation as if it were an individual. The king, to whom he was
devoted, liked him as the depositary of his troubles, the confidant of
his relations with foreign powers, and the skilful mediator of his
negotiation with all parties. M. de Molleville thus kept himself in
well-managed balance between his favour with the king, and his
intrigues with the revolutionary party He spoke the language of the
constitution well--he had the secret of many consciences bought and paid
for.

It was between these two men that the king, in order to comply with
popular opinion, called M. de Narbonne to the ministry of war. Madame de
Staeel and the constitutional party sought the aid of the Girondists.
Condorcet, was the mediator between the two parties. Madame de
Cond