“A friend, my dear brother, has undertaken to convey this letter to you, for I myself have no means of giving you news of my health.  I will not enter into details of what preceded our departure.  You have already known all the reasons for it.  During the events which befell us on our journey, and in the situation in which we were immediately after our return to Paris, I was profoundly distressed.  After I recovered from the first shock of the agitation which they produced, I set myself to work to reflect on what I had seen; and I have endeavored to form a clear idea of what, in the actual state of affairs, the king’s interests are, and what the conduct is which they prescribe to me.  My ideas have been formed by a combination of motives which I will proceed to explain to you.

“...The situation of affairs here has greatly changed since our journey.  The National Assembly was divided into a multitude of parties.  Far from order being re-established, every day seemed to diminish the power of the law.  The king, deprived of all authority, did not even see any possibility of recovering it on the completion of the Constitution through the influence of the Assembly, since that body itself was every day losing more the respect of the people.  In short, it was impossible to see any end to disorder.

“To-day, circumstances present much more hope.  The men who have the greatest influence in affairs are united together, and have openly declared for the preservation of the monarchy and the king, and for the re-establishment of order.  Since their union, the efforts of the seditious have been defeated by a great superiority of strength.  The Assembly has acquired a consistency and an authority in every part of the kingdom, which it seems disposed to use to establish the observance of the laws and to put an end to the Revolution.  At this moment the most moderate men, who have never ceased to be opposed to revolutionary acts, are uniting, because they see in union the only prospect of enjoying in safety what the Revolution has left them, and of putting an end to the troubles of which they dread the continuance.  In short, every thing seems at this moment to contribute to put an end to the agitations and commotions to which France has been given over for the last two years.  This termination of them, however, natural and possible as it is, will not give the Government the degree of force and authority which I regard as necessary; but it will preserve us from greater misfortunes; it will place us in a situation of greater tranquillity, and, when men’s minds have recovered from their present intoxication, perhaps they will see the usefulness of giving the royal authority a greater range.