eed, November 29, that in all
cases where it seemed good to the authorities, they might be deprived
of their pensions and sent away. The great insurrection of the West
was caused by this policy. It was religious rather than political, and
was appeased by the return of the priests.

The head of the war party in the Assembly was Brissot, who was reputed
to know foreign countries, and who promised certain success, as no
really formidable Power was ready to take the field. Meantime he
endeavoured to isolate Austria, and Segur was sent to Berlin,
Talleyrand to London, to surround France with her natural allies.
Brissot's text was the weakness and division of other countries; the
first man who divined the prodigious resources and invincible energy
of France was the declamatory Provencal Isnard. He spoke on November
29, and this was his prophetic argument: the French people exhibited
the highest qualities in war when they were treated as slaves by
despotic masters; there was no fear that they had degenerated in
becoming free men; only let them fight for principle, not for State
policy, and the force that was in them would transform the world.
Herault de Sechelles divulged the political motive of the war party.
He said a foreign conflict would be desirable for internal reasons. It
would lead to measures of precaution stronger than peace time would
admit, and changes otherwise impossible would then be justified by the
plea of public safety. It is the first shadow cast by the coming reign
of terror. But neither Girondin violence nor _emigre_ intrigue was the
cause that plunged France into the war that was to be the most
dreadful of all wars. The true cause was the determination of Marie
Antoinette not to submit to the new Constitution. At first she wished
that France should be intimidated by a congress of the united Powers.
She warned her friends abroad not to be taken in by the mockery of her
understanding with the Feuillant statesmen; and when Leopold treated
the accepted Constitution seriously, as a release from his
engagements, she accused him of betraying her. On September 8, just
before accepting, Lewis, in confidence, wrote that he meant to
tolerate no authority in France besides his own, and that he desired
to recover it by foreign aid.

The idea of an armed Congress persisted until the end of November. But
during the week from the 3rd to the 10th of December the king and
queen wrote to the Powers, desiring them not to