You seem not to comprehend why I include vanity among the causes of emigration, and yet I assure you it has had no small share in many of them.  The gentry of the provinces, by thus imitating the higher noblesse, imagine they have formed a kind of a common cause, which may hereafter tend to equalize the difference of ranks, and associate them with those they have been accustomed to look up to as their superiors.  It is a kind of ton among the women, particularly to talk of their emigrated relations, with an accent more expressive of pride than regret, and which seems to lay claim to distinction rather than pity.

I must now leave you to contemplate the boasted misfortunes of these belles, that I may join the card party which forms their alleviation.—­ Adieu.

June 24, 1792.

You have doubtless learned from the public papers the late outrage of the Jacobins, in order to force the King to consent to the formation of an army at Paris, and to sign the decree for banishing the nonjuring Clergy.  The newspapers will describe to you the procession of the Sans-Culottes, the indecency of their banners, and the disorders which were the result—­ but it is impossible for either them or me to convey an idea of the general indignation excited by these atrocities.  Every well-meaning person is grieved for the present, and apprehensive for the future:  and I am not without hope, that this open avowal of the designs of the Jacobins, will unite the Constitutionalists and Aristocrates, and that they will join their efforts in defence of the Crown, as the only means of saving both from being overwhelmed by a faction, who are now become too daring to be despised.  Many of the municipalities and departments are preparing to address they King, on the fortitude he displayed in this hour of insult and peril.—­I know not why, but the people have been taught to entertain a mean opinion of his personal courage; and the late violence will at least have the good effect of undeceiving them.  It is certain, that he behaved on this occasion with the utmost coolness; and the Garde Nationale, whose hand he placed on his heart, attested that it had no unusual palpitation.

That the King should be unwilling to sanction the raising an army under the immediate auspice of the avowed enemies of himself, and of the constitution he has sworn to protect, cannot be much wondered at; and those who know the Catholic religion, and consider that this Prince is devout, and that he has reason to suspect the fidelity of all who approach him, will wonder still less that he refuses to banish a class of men, whose influence is extensive, and whose interest it is to preserve their attachment to him.