This, my dear Sir, was not the triumph of France. I must believe that, as a nation, it over|whelmed you with shame and horror. I must be|lieve that the National Assembly find themselves in a state of the greatest humiliation, in not being able to punish the authors of this triumph, or the actors in it; and that they are in a situation in which any enquiry they may make upon the sub|ject, must be destitute even of the appearance of liberty or impartiality. The apology of that As|sembly is found in their situation; but when we approve what they must bear, it is in us the dege|nerate choice of a vitiated mind.
With a compelled appearance of deliberation, they vote under the dominion of a stern necessity. They sit in the heart, as it were, of a foreign re|public: they have their residence in a city whose constitution has emanated neither from the char|ter of their king, nor from their legislative power. There they are surrounded by an army not raised either by the authority of their crown, or by their command; and which, if they should order to dis|solve itself, would instantly dissolve them. There they sit, after a gang of assassins had driven away all the men of moderate minds and moderating authority amongst them, and left them as a sort of dregs and refuse, under the apparent lead of those in whom they do not so much as pretend to have any confidence. There they sit, in mockery of legislation, repeating in resolutions the words of those whom they detest and despise. Captives themselves, they compel a captive king to issue as royal edicts, at third hand, the polluted non|sense
