er the
dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. He redeemed by sincere devotion
to the monarchy the blows he had previously dealt upon it. He had
measured with an eye of judgment, the rapid declivity down which the
love of popular favour had impelled him. Like Mirabeau, he wished to
pause when it was too late. Henceforth, remaining on the brink of
events, he was besieged with terror and remorse. If his intrepid heart
did not tremble for himself, the sympathy he experienced for the queen
and royal family urged him to give the king advice which had but one
fault,--it was impossible now to follow it.

These consultations, held at Adrien Duport's, the friend of Barnave and
the oracle of the party, only served to embarrass the mind of the king
with another element of hesitation. La Fayette and his friends also
added their imperious counsel. La Fayette could not believe that he was
supplanted. The national guard, which yet remained attached to him,
still credited his omnipotence,--all these men and all these parties
lent M. de Narbonne secret support. A courtier in the eyes of the court,
an aristocrat in the eyes of the nobility, a soldier in the eyes of the
army, one of the people in the eyes of the people, irresistible in the
eyes of the women, he was the minister of public hope. The Girondists
alone had an _arriere-pensee_ in their apparent favour towards him. They
elevated him to make his fall the more conspicuous: M. de Narbonne was
to them but the hand which prepared the way for their advent.

IV.

Scarcely had he taken his place in the cabinet, than this young minister
displayed all the activity, frankness, and grace of his character in the
discussion of affairs, and his intercourse with the Assembly. He
employed the system of confidence, and surprised the Assembly by his
_abandon_, and these austere and suspicious men, who had hitherto seen
nothing but deceit in the language of ministers, now yielded to the
charm of his speeches. He addressed them, not in the official and cold
language of diplomacy, but in the open and cordial tone of a patriot. He
brought the dignity of his office to the tribune; he generously assumed
all responsibility, and he professed the most cherished principles of
the people with a sincerity that precluded the possibility of suspicion.
He openly disclosed his projects, and the energy of his mind
communicated itself to those men who were the most difficult to be won
over. The nation too saw