w
respecting the education of the prince royal, and let him be brought up
in the spirit of the constitution. Finally, let him withdraw from M. de
La Fayette the command of the army. If the king shall adopt these
determinations, and persist in them with firmness, the constitution is
saved!"

This letter, conveyed to the king by Thierri, had not been sought by
him. He was annoyed at the many plans of succour sent to him. "What do
these men mean?" he inquired of Boze; "Have I not done all that they
advise? Have I not chosen patriots for ministers? Have I not rejected
succour from without? Have I not repudiated my brothers, and hindered,
as far as in me lies, the coalition, and armed the frontiers? Have I not
been, since my acceptance of the constitution, more faithful than the
malcontents themselves to my oath?"

The Girondist leaders, still undecided between the republic and the
monarchy, thus felt the pulse of power--sometimes of the Assembly,
sometimes of the king; ready to seize it wherever they should find it;
but discovering it on the side of the king, they judged that there was
more certainty in sapping than in consolidating the throne, and they
inclined more than ever to a factious policy.

XVIII.

Still, half-masters of the council through Roland, Claviere, and Servan,
who had succeeded De Grave, they bore to a certain extent the
responsibility of these three ministers. The Jacobins began to require
from them an account of the acts of a ministry which was in their hands,
and bore their name. Dumouriez, placed between the king and the
Girondists, saw daily the increasing want of confidence between his
colleagues and himself; they suspected his probity equally with his
patriotism. He had profited by his popularity and ascendency over the
Jacobins to demand of the Assembly a sum of 6,000,000 (240,000_l._) of
secret service money on his accession to the ministry. The apparent
destination of this money was to bribe foreign cabinets, and to detach
venal powers from the coalition, and to foment revolutionary symptoms in
Belgium. Dumouriez alone knew the channels by which this money was to
flow. His exhausted personal fortune, his costly tastes, his attachment
to a seductive woman, Madame de Beauvert, sister to Rivarol; his
intimacy with men of unprincipled character and irregular
habits,--reports of extortion charged on his ministry, and falling, if
not on him on those he trusted, tarnished his character in the ey