By post, by diligence, on saddle or sole; they are gone:  towards the four winds!  Not a few over the marches, to rank at Coblentz.  Thither wended Maury, among others; but in the end towards Rome,—­to be clothed there in red Cardinal plush; in falsehood as in a garment; pet son (her last-born?) of the Scarlet Woman.  Talleyrand-Perigord, excommunicated Constitutional Bishop, will make his way to London; to be Ambassador, spite of the Self-denying Law; brisk young Marquis Chauvelin acting as Ambassador’s-Cloak.  In London too, one finds Petion the virtuous; harangued and haranguing, pledging the wine-cup with Constitutional Reform Clubs, in solemn tavern-dinner.  Incorruptible Robespierre retires for a little to native Arras:  seven short weeks of quiet; the last appointed him in this world.  Public Accuser in the Paris Department, acknowledged highpriest of the Jacobins; the glass of incorruptible thin Patriotism, for his narrow emphasis is loved of all the narrow,—­this man seems to be rising, somewhither?  He sells his small heritage at Arras; accompanied by a Brother and a Sister, he returns, scheming out with resolute timidity a small sure destiny for himself and them, to his old lodging, at the Cabinet-maker’s, in the Rue St. Honore:—­O resolute-tremulous incorruptible seagreen man, towards what a destiny!

Lafayette, for his part, will lay down the command.  He retires Cincinnatus-like to his hearth and farm; but soon leaves them again.  Our National Guard, however, shall henceforth have no one Commandant; but all Colonels shall command in succession, month about.  Other Deputies we have met, or Dame de Stael has met, ‘sauntering in a thoughtful manner;’ perhaps uncertain what to do.  Some, as Barnave, the Lameths, and their Duport, will continue here in Paris:  watching the new biennial Legislative, Parliament the First; teaching it to walk, if so might be; and the Court to lead it.

Thus these:  sauntering in a thoughtful manner; travelling by post or diligence,—­whither Fate beckons.  Giant Mirabeau slumbers in the Pantheon of Great Men:  and France? and Europe?—­The brass-lunged Hawkers sing “Grand Acceptation, Monarchic Constitution” through these gay crowds:  the Morrow, grandson of Yesterday, must be what it can, as To-day its father is.  Our new biennial Legislative begins to constitute itself on the first of October, 1791.

Chapter 2.5.II.

The Book of the Law.

If the august Constituent Assembly itself, fixing the regards of the Universe, could, at the present distance of time and place, gain comparatively small attention from us, how much less can this poor Legislative!  It has its Right Side and its Left; the less Patriotic and the more, for Aristocrats exist not here or now:  it spouts and speaks:  listens to Reports, reads Bills and Laws; works in its vocation, for a season:  but the history of France, one finds, is seldom or