or revenge; but remember that Dumouriez must conspire in his heart against those who have wounded him.  When such daring remonstrances have been made to such a man, and uselessly made, it is necessary to strike the blow if we would not be struck ourselves.”  She felt truly, and spoke sagaciously.  Dumouriez, whose rapid glance had seen behind the Girondists a party stronger and bolder than their own, began from this time to connect himself with the leaders of the Jacobins.  He thought, and with reason, that party hatred would be more potent than patriotism, and that by flattering the rivalry of Robespierre and Danton against Brissot, Petion, and Roland, he should find in the Jacobins themselves a support for the government.  He liked the king, pitied the queen, and all his prejudices were in favour of the monarchy.  He would have been as proud to restore the throne as to save the republic.  Skilful in handling men, every instrument was good that was available; to get rid of the Girondists, who, by oppressing the king menaced himself, and to go and seek further off and lower than these rhetoricians, that popularity which was necessary to him when opposed to them, was a master-stroke of genius:  he tried it, and succeeded.  From this epoch may be dated his connection with Camille Desmoulins and Danton.

Danton and Dumouriez came to an understanding the sooner, because in their vices, like their good qualities, they closely resembled each other.  Danton, like Dumouriez, only wanted the impulse of the Revolution.  Principles were trifles with him; what suited his energy and his ambition was that tumultuous turmoil which cast down and elevated men, from the throne to nothing, from nothing to fortune and power.  The intoxication of movement was to Danton, as to Dumouriez, the continual need of their disposition:  the Revolution was to them a battle field, whose whirl charmed and promoted them.

Yet any other revolution would have suited them as well; despotism or liberty, king or people.  There are men whose atmosphere is the whirlwind of events—­who only breathe easily in a storm of agitation.  Moreover, if Dumouriez had the vices or levities of courts, Danton had the vices and licentiousness of the mob.  These vices, how different soever in form, are the same at bottom; they understand each other, they are a point of contact between the weaknesses of the great and the corruption of the small.  Dumouriez understood Danton at the first glance, and Danton allowed himself to be approached and tamed by Dumouriez.  Their connection, often suspected of bribery on the one hand, and venality on the other, subsisted secretly or publicly until the exile of Dumouriez and the death of Danton.  Camille Desmoulins, freed of Danton and Robespierre, attached himself also to Dumouriez, and brought his name constantly forward in his pamphlets.  The Orleans party, who held on with the Jacobins by Sillery, Laclos, and Madame de Genlis, also sought the friendship of the new minister.  As to Robespierre, whose policy was perpetual reserve with all parties, he affected neither liking nor dislike towards Dumouriez, but was secretly delighted at seeing him become a rival to his enemies.  At least he never accused him.  It is difficult long to hate the enemy of those whom we hate.