with rage, censured the tardiness of his minister.  He was present every day at the conferences held at the bedside of the veteran Prince de Kaunitz and the Prussian and Russian envoys charged by their sovereigns to foment the war.  The king of Prussia demanded to have the whole direction of the war in his hands, and he proposed the sudden invasion of the French territory as the most efficacious means of preventing the effusion of blood, by striking terror into the Revolution, and causing a counter-revolution, with the hope of which the emigres flattered him, to break out in France.  An interview to concert the measures of Austria and Prussia, was fixed between the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince de Hohenlohe, general of the emperor’s army.  For form’s sake, however, conferences were still carried on at Vienna between M. de Noailles, the French ambassador, and Count Philippe de Cobentzel, vice-chancellor of the court.  These conferences, in which the liberty of the people and the absolute sovereignty of monarchs continually strove to conciliate two irreconcileable principles, ended invariably in mutual reproaches.  A speech of M. de Cobentzel broke off all negotiations, and this speech, made public at Paris, caused the final declaration of war.  Dumouriez proposed it at the council, and induced the king, as if by the hand of fatality, himself to propose the war to his people.  “The people,” said he, “will credit your attachment when they behold you embrace their cause, and combat kings in its defence.”

The king, surrounded by his ministers, appeared unexpectedly at the Assembly on the 20th of April, at the conclusion of the council.  A solemn silence reigned in the Assembly, for every one felt that the decisive word was now about to be pronounced—­and they were not deceived.  After a full report of the negotiations with the house of Austria had been read by Dumouriez, the king added in a low but firm voice, “You have just heard the report which has been made to my council; these conclusions have been unanimously adopted, and I myself have taken the same resolution.  I have exhausted every means of maintaining peace, and I now come, in conformity with the terms of the constitution, to propose to you, formally, war with the king of Hungary and Bohemia.”

The king, after this speech, quitted the Assembly amidst cries and gestures of enthusiasm, which burst forth in the salle and the tribunes:  the people followed their example.  France felt certain of herself when she was the first to attack all Europe armed against her.  It seemed to all good citizens that domestic troubles would cease before this mighty external excitement of a people who defend their frontiers.  That the cause of liberty would be judged in a few hours on the field of battle, and that the constitution needed only a victory, in order to render the nation free at home, and triumphant abroad.  The king himself re-entered his palace relieved from the cruel