and superfine airs of these Girondin “men of statesmanship,” with their pedantries, plausibilities, pusillanimities:  “these two years,” says he, “you have been whining about attacks, and plots, and danger from Paris; and you have not a scratch to shew for yourselves.” (Moniteur, Seance du 20 Mai 1793.)—­Danton gruffly rebukes him, from time to time:  a Maximum of Patriotism, whom one can neither own nor disown!

But the second sore-place of the Mountain is this anomalous Monseigneur Equality Prince d’Orleans.  Behold these men, says the Gironde; with a whilom Bourbon Prince among them:  they are creatures of the d’Orleans Faction; they will have Philippe made King; one King no sooner guillotined than another made in his stead!  Girondins have moved, Buzot moved long ago, from principle and also from jesuitism, that the whole race of Bourbons should be marched forth from the soil of France; this Prince Egalite to bring up the rear.  Motions which might produce some effect on the public;—­which the Mountain, ill at ease, knows not what to do with.

And poor Orleans Egalite himself, for one begins to pity even him, what does he do with them?  The disowned of all parties, the rejected and foolishly be-drifted hither and hither, to what corner of Nature can he now drift with advantage?  Feasible hope remains not for him:  unfeasible hope, in pallid doubtful glimmers, there may still come, bewildering, not cheering or illuminating,—­from the Dumouriez quarter; and how, if not the timewasted Orleans Egalite, then perhaps the young unworn Chartres Egalite might rise to be a kind of King?  Sheltered, if shelter it be, in the clefts of the Mountain, poor Egalite will wait:  one refuge in Jacobinism, one in Dumouriez and Counter-Revolution, are there not two chances?  However, the look of him, Dame Genlis says, is grown gloomy; sad to see.  Sillery also, the Genlis’s Husband, who hovers about the Mountain, not on it, is in a bad way.  Dame Genlis has come to Raincy, out of England and Bury St. Edmunds, in these days; being summoned by Egalite, with her young charge, Mademoiselle Egalite, that so Mademoiselle might not be counted among Emigrants and hardly dealt with.  But it proves a ravelled business:  Genlis and charge find that they must retire to the Netherlands; must wait on the Frontiers for a week or two; till Monseigneur, by Jacobin help, get it wound up.  ’Next morning,’ says Dame Genlis, ’Monseigneur, gloomier than ever, gave me his arm, to lead me to the carriage.  I was greatly troubled; Mademoiselle burst into tears; her Father was pale and trembling.  After I had got seated, he stood immovable at the carriage-door, with his eyes fixed on me; his mournful and painful look seemed to implore pity;—­“Adieu, Madame!” said he.  The altered sound of his voice completely overcame me; not able to utter a word, I held out my hand; he grasped it close; then turning, and advancing sharply towards the postillions, he gave them a sign, and we rolled away.’ (Genlis, Memoires (London, 1825), iv. 118.)