had attacked this sign as long as
it appeared to them the livery of Robespierre, began to excuse it as
soon as Robespierre repulsed it. Brissot himself, in his report of what
passed at this sitting, regrets this symbol, because, "adopted by the
most indignant portion of the people, it humiliated the rich, and became
the terror of the aristocracy." The breach between these two men became
wider every day, and there was not sufficient space in the Jacobins, the
Assembly, and the supreme power for these rival ambitions, which strove
for the dictatorship of opinion.

The nomination of the ministers, which was entirely under the influence
of Girondists, the councils held at Madame Roland's, the presence of
Brissot, of Guadet, of Vergniaud at the deliberations of the ministers,
the appointment of all their friends to the government offices, served
as themes for the clamours of the _exaltes_ of the Jacobins. These
Jacobins were termed Montagnards, from the high benches occupied in the
Assembly by the friends of Robespierre and Danton. "Remember," they
said, "the almost prophetic sagacity of Robespierre, when, in answer to
Brissot, who attacked the former minister De Lessart, he made this
allusion to the Girondist leader, which has been so speedily
justified,--'For me, who do not aim at the ministry either for myself or
my friends.'" On their side the Girondist journals heaped opprobrium on
this handful of calumniators and petty tyrants, who resembled Catiline
in crimes if not in courage; thus war commenced by sarcasm.

The king, however, when the ministry was completed, wrote the Assembly a
letter, more resembling an abdication into the hands of opinion than the
constitutional act of a free power. Was this humiliating resignation an
affectation of slavery, or a sign of restraint and degradation made from
the throne to the armed powers, in order that they might comprehend that
he was no longer free, and only see in him the crowned automaton of the
Jacobins? The letter was in these terms:

"Profoundly touched by the disorders that afflict the French nation, and
by the duty imposed on me by the constitution of watching over the
maintenance of order and public tranquillity, I have not ceased to
employ every means that it places at my disposal to execute the laws. I
had selected as my prime agents men recommended by the purity of their
principles and their opinions. They have quitted the ministry; and I
have felt it my duty to rep