rtments of a prince of
the blood. Literature, concealed from without these meetings as the
madness of the first Brutus concealed his vengeance. The duke was not,
perhaps, a conspirator, but henceforth there was an Orleans party.
Sieyes, the mystic oracle of the Revolution, who seemed to carry it on
his pensive front, and brood over it in silence; the Duc de Lauzun,
passing from the confidence of Trianon to the consultations of the
Palais Royal; Laclos, a young officer of artillery, author of an obscene
romance, capable at need of elevating romantic intrigue to a political
conspiracy; Sillery, soured against his order, at enmity with the court,
an ambitious malcontent, awaiting nothing but what the future might
bring forth; and others more obscure, but not less active, and serving
as unknown guides for descending from the _salons_ of a prince into the
depths of the people: some the head, others the arms, of the duke's
ambition, attended these meetings. Perhaps they might be ignorant of the
aim, but they placed themselves on the declivity, and allowed Fortune to
do as she pleased. Fortune was a revolution. The wonderful, that marvel
of the masses, which is to the imagination what calculation is to
reason, was not wanting to the Orleans party. Prophecies, those popular
presentiments of destiny, domestic prodigies, admitted by the interested
credulity of numerous clients of this house, announced the throne
shortly to one of these princes. These rumours were rife amongst the
people, from themselves, or the skilful insinuations of the partisans of
the house of Orleans. In the convocation of States-General, the duke had
not hesitated to pronounce in favour of the most popular reforms. The
instructions which he had drawn up for the electors of his dominions
were the work of the abbe Sieyes. The prince himself intrigued for the
name and style of _Citoyen_. Elected deputy of the noblesse of Paris at
Crespy and at Villars-Cotterets, he selected Crespy, because the
electors of this bailiwick were the more patriotic. At the procession of
the States-General he left his own place vacant amongst the princes, and
walked in the midst of the deputies. This abdication of his dignity near
the throne to assume the dignity of a citizen, procured him the
applauses of the nation.

VI.

Public favour towards him was such that had he been a Duc de Guise, and
Louis XVI. a Henry III., the States-General would have finished, as did
those of Bloi