“Though the Archbishop of Sens was so much hated and despised, much may be said in apology for his disasters.  His unpopularity, and the Queen’s support of him against the people, was certainly a vital blow to the monarchy.  There is no doubt of his having been a poor substitute for the great men who had so gloriously beaten the political paths of administration, particularly the Comte de Vergennes and Necker.  But at that time, when France was threatened by its great convulsion, where is the genius which might not have committed itself?  And here is a man coming to rule amidst revolutionary feelings, with no knowledge whatever of revolutionary principles—­a pilot steering into one harbour by the chart of another.  I am by no means a vindicator of the Archbishop’s obstinacy in offering himself a candidate for a situation entirely foreign to the occupations, habits, and studies of his whole life; but his intentions may have been good enough, and we must not charge the physician with murder who has only mistaken the disease, and, though wrong in his judgment, has been zealous and conscientious; nor must we blame the comedians for the faults of the comedy.  The errors were not so much in the men who did not succeed as in the manners of the times.

“The part which the Queen was now openly compelled to bear, in the management of public affairs, increased the public feeling against her from dislike to hatred.  Her Majesty was unhappy, not only from the necessity which called her out of the sphere to which she thought her sex ought to be confined, but from the divisions which existed in the Royal Family upon points in which their common safety required a common scheme of action.  Her favourite brother-in-law, D’Artois, had espoused the side of D’ORLEANS, and the popular party seemed to prevail against her, even with the King.

“The various parliamentary assemblies, which had swept on their course, under various denominations, in rapid and stormy succession, were now followed by one which, like Aaron’s rod, was to swallow up the rest.  Its approach was regarded by the Queen with ominous reluctance.  At length, however, the moment for the meeting of the States General at Versailles arrived.  Necker was once more in favour, and a sort of forlorn hope of better times dawned upon the perplexed monarch, in his anticipations from this assembly.

“The night before the procession of the instalment of the States General was to take place, it being my duty to attend Her Majesty, I received an anonymous letter, cautioning me not to be seen that day by her side.  I immediately went to the King’s apartments and showed him the letter.  His Majesty humanely enjoined me to abide by its counsels.  I told him I hoped he would for once permit me to exercise my own discretion; for if my royal Sovereign were in danger, it was then that her attendants should be most eager to rally round her, in order to watch over her safety and encourage her fortitude.