he wavering mind
of her husband. Too brave to be easily frightened, she refused at
first the proffered aid of Mirabeau; and when, too late, she bent her
pride to ask for it, she acted with her eyes open, without confidence
or hope. For the surging forces of the day, for the idea that might
have saved her, the idea of a government uniting the best properties
of a monarchy with the best properties of a republic, she had neither
sympathy nor understanding. Yet she was not wedded to the maxims that
had made the greatness of her race, and the enmity of the princes and
the _emigres_ saved her from the passions of the old _regime_. Conde
spoke of her as a democrat; and she would have been glad to exchange
the institutions of 1791 for something like the British constitution
as it existed in those Tory days. She perished through her insincerity
more than through the traditional desire for power. When the king was
beheaded, the Prince Bishop of Bamberg and Wuerzburg, reputed the most
sagacious and enlightened among the prelates of the empire, was heard
to say, "It ought to have been the queen." We who see farther may
allow the retribution that befell her follies and her errors to arrest
our judgment.

Marie Antoinette's negotiation with Mirabeau, and the memorable
endeavour of Mirabeau to restore the constitutional throne, is the
central feature in the period now before us.

By the compulsory removal to Paris the democracy became preponderant.
They were strengthened by the support of organized anarchy outside,
and by the disappearance of their chief opponents within. Mounier was
the first to go. The outrage at Versailles had occurred while he
presided, and he resigned his seat with indignation. He attempted to
rouse his own province against the Assembly, which had betrayed its
mandate, and renounced its constituents; but Dauphine, the home and
basis of his influence, rejected him, and he went into exile. His
example was followed by Lally Tollendal and a large number of moderate
men, who despaired of their country, and who, by declining further
responsibility, helped to precipitate the mischief they foresaw.

The constitutional cause, already opposed by Conservatives, was now
deserted by the Liberals. Malouet remained at his post. He had been
less prominent and less eager than Mounier, and he was not so easily
discouraged. The Left were now able to carry out in every department
of the State their interpretation of the Rights of