of command of the ministers, of gold:  what they needed was court favour to serve as the sails of their ambition; and, wanting these sails, they use the oars of the people.  Let us prove to Lameth and Barnave that they will not be re-elected, that they cannot fill any important place before four years have passed away.  They will be indignant, and return to our party.  I saw Alexandre and Theodore Lameth the evening of the day on which Robespierre’s motion of the non-re-eligibility was carried.  The Lameths were then patriots, but the next day they were no longer the same.  ’It is impossible to submit to this,’ said they,—­’in concert with Duport—­we must quit France.’  What! shall those who have been the architects of the constitution undergo the mortification of witnessing the downfall of the edifice they have reared, by this approaching system of legislation?  We shall be condemned to hear from the galleries of the Assembly, some fool in the tribune attack our wisest enactments, which we are denied the power of defending.  Would to Heaven! that they would quit France.  Is it not enough to cause us to despise both the Assembly and the people of Paris, when we see that the clue of this is, that the supreme control was on the point of eluding the grasp of Lameth and La Fayette, and that Duport and Barnave would not be again elected.”

Petion, alarmed at these symptoms of discord, addressed the tribune of the Jacobins in conciliatory terms—­“You are lost” said he, “should the members of the Assembly quit your party, and betake themselves en masse to the Feuillants.  The empire of public opinion is deserting you; and these countless affiliated societies, imbued with your spirit, will sever the bonds of fraternity, and unite them to you.  Forestall the designs of your enemies.  Publish an address to the affiliated societies, and reassure them of your constitutional intentions; tell them that you have been belied to them, and that you are no promoters of faction.  Tell them that far from wishing to disturb public tranquillity, your sole design is to avert those troubles entailed on you by the king’s departure.  Tell them that we submit to the rapid and imposing influence of opinion, and that respect for the Assembly, fidelity to the constitution, devotion to the cause of your country and of liberty, form your principles.”  This address, dictated by the hypocrisy of fear, was adopted and sent to all the societies in the kingdom.  This measure was followed by a remodelling of the Jacobins; the primitive nucleus alone was suffered to remain, which re-organised the rest by the ballot over which Petion presided.

On their side the Feuillants wrote to the patriotic societies of the provinces, and for a brief space there was an interregnum of the factions; but the societies of the provinces speedily declared en masse, and with an almost unanimous and revolutionary enthusiasm, in favour of the Jacobins.