g
seclusion in which his youth had been passed, repressed the feelings of
his heart, and gave to his language and his intercourse with men a
stiffness and embarrassment which destroyed his better qualities of
decided and calm courage; he frequently spoke to Dumouriez of his death
as an event probable and doomed, the prospect of which did not affect
his serenity nor preclude him from doing his duty to the last as a
father and a king.

"Sire," said Dumouriez to him, with the chivalric sympathy which
compassion adds to respect, and with that aspect in which the heart says
more than language; "you have overcome your prejudices against myself;
you have commanded me by M. de Laporte to accept the post he had
refused." "Yes," replied the king. "Well, I come now to devote myself
wholly to your service, to your protection. But the part of a minister
is no longer what it was in former days: without ceasing to be the
servant of the king, I am the man of the nation. I will speak to you
always in the language of liberty and the constitution. Allow me then,
in order to serve you better, that in public and in the council I appear
in my character as a constitutionalist, and that I avoid every thing
that may at all reveal my personal attachment towards you. In this
respect I must break through all etiquette, and avoid attending the
court. In the council, I shall oppose your views, and shall propose as
our representatives in foreign courts men devoted to the nation. When
your repugnance to my choice shall be invincible and on good grounds, I
shall comply; if this repugnance shall tend to compromise the safety of
the country and yourself, I shall beg you to allow me to resign, and
nominate my successor. Think of the terrible dangers which beset your
throne--it must be consolidated by the confidence of the nation in your
sincere attachment to the Revolution. It is a conquest which it depends
on you to make. I have prepared four despatches to ambassadors in this
sense. In these I have used language to which they are unused from
courts, the language of an offended and resolute nation. I shall read
them this morning before the council: if you approve my labour, I shall
continue to speak thus, and act in accordance with my language; if not,
my carriage is ready, and, unable to serve you in the council, I shall
depart whither my tastes and studies for thirty years call me, to serve
my country in the field."

The king, astonished and much move