he was only a stadtholder. Kellermann promised that peace
might be obtained if he was sent back to the Tuileries. It was all too
late. The Prince, in whose behalf the allies invaded France, was now a
hostage in the power of their enemies; all that they could obtain was
a pledge not to carry the revolution into foreign countries. Their
position grew more dangerous every day, and Dumouriez grew stronger.

At the end of September Frederic William abandoned Lewis to his fate.
He had contributed to his dethronement by entering France, and he
contributed to his execution by leaving it. He did not feel that he
had deserved so prodigious a humiliation. If the Austrians had joined
as they promised with 100,000 men, the march upon the capital would
have been conceivable with energetic commanders. And the king could
justly say that he had favoured spirited schemes, and had been baffled
by the faltering commander-in-chief. He attempted, by throwing out
hints of neutrality, to escape without further loss. Dumouriez
calculated that every attack would weld the allies more closely
together, and refrained from molesting them. Early in October they
evacuated the conquered province, and retreated to the Rhine, pursued
by a few random shots, while Dumouriez hastened to Paris, to be hailed
as the saviour of his country.

* * * * *

The invasion of 1792 roused a crouching lion; and the French, after
their easy and victorious defence, went over to the attack. Whilst the
invaders were standing still, too weak to advance and too proud to
withdraw, the conquest of Europe began. The king of Sardinia, as the
father-in-law of the Comte d'Artois, had thrown himself into the
counter-revolutionary policy, and the scheme for attacking Lyons. Of
all European monarchs, since the murder of Gustavus, he was the most
hostile. An army under Montesquieu occupied Savoy and Nice without
resistance, and the people readily adopted the new system. A week
later Custine seized the left bank of the Rhine, where diminutive
secular and ecclesiastical territories, without cohesion, were an easy
prey. The Declaration of Rights, said Gouverneur Morris, proved quite
as effectual as the trumpets of Joshua. Mentz fell, October 21, and
Custine occupied Frankfort and replenished his military chest. This
excursion into the middle of the Empire was not authorised by State
policy. The idea was already taking shape that the safety of France
requir