The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
people at large, and lose possession of the superior and the-tumult having ended without anything taking
power as a necessary consequence. Aristocrats, the place in his favour, the Duke of Orleans was made
only class which was sincerely united to the king's a scape-goat, and the only one, to atone:for the
person, would, hey might safely predict, dread and whole insurrection. Under the title of an Embassy
distrust the constitutionalists, while with the demo- to England, he was honourably exiled from his nacrats, so very much the more numerous party, the tive country. Mirabeau spoke of him in terms of
king's name, instead of a tower of strength, as the the utmost contumely, as being base-minded as a
poet has termed it, must be a stumbling-block and a lackey, and totally unworthy the trouble which had
rock of offence. They foresaw, finally, either that been taken on his account. His other adherents
the king must remain the mere pass ve tool of the gradually and successively dropped away, in -proconstitutionalists, acting unresistingly under their portion as the wealth, credit, and character of this
order,-in which case the office would be soon re. besotted prince rendered him:incapable of maingarded as an idle and expen ve bauble, without any taining his gratuities; and they sailed hencefiorth
force or dignity of free-will, and fit only to be flung under their own -flag, in the storms he had fitted
aside as an unnecessary incumbrance In the repub- them to navigate. These were men who -had relican forms,-or, in the event of the king attempting, solved to use the revolutionary axe for cutting out
either by force or escape, to throw off the yoke of their own private fortunes, and, little interesting
the constitutionalists, he would equally furnish arms themselves about the political principles which dito the pure democrats against his person and office, vided the other parties of the state, they kept firm
as the source of danger to the popular cause. Some hold of all the subordinate machinery despised by
of the republican chiefs had probably expected a the others in the abstraction of metaphysical specumore sudden termination to the reign of Louis from lation, but which gave them the exclusive command
an insurrection so threatening; at least these leaders of the physical force of the mob of Paris —-Paris, the
had been the first to hail and to encourage the fe- metropolis of France, and the prison-house of her
male insurgents, on their arrival at Versailles.* But monarch.
though the issue of that insurrection may have fallen
short of their hopes, it could not but be highly ac- CHAPTER VI.
ceptable to them so far as it went.
The party of Orleans had hitherto wrapt in its La Fayette resolves to enforce order.-A baker is tnurdusky folds many of those names, which were after- dered by the rabble-One of his murderers executed.wards destined to hold dreadful rank in the revolu- Decree imposing martial law in case of iusnrrection.tionary history. The prince whose name they adopted Democrats supported by the audience in the gallery of
is supposed to have been animated partly by a strong the assembly.-Introduclion of the doctrines of equality
and embittered spirit of personal hatred against the -They are in their exaggerated sense inconsistent with
queen, and partly, as we have already said, by an hMaman nature and the progress of society-The assembly
ambitious desire to supplant his kinsman. He placed, abolish titles of nobility, armorialbearings, andphrases
ofcourtesy.-Reasoning on these innovations.-Disorder
according -to general report, his-treasures, and nall f finance.- Necker'becomes'unpopalar..-Seizure of
which his credit could add to them, at the disposal -church-lands.-Issue ofassignats.-Necker leaves France
of men, abounding in those energetic talents which ins unpopularity.-New religious institutlon.-Oath imcarry their owners forward in times of public con- posed on the clergy-Resisted by the greater part of the
fusion, but devoid alike of fortune, character, and order-Bad effects of the innovation.-General view of
principle; who undertook to serve their patron by the operations of the Constituent Assemibly.-Enthusiasm
enlisting in his cause the obscure and subordinate of the peoplefor theirnewprivileges.-Lntited priuileges
agents, by whom mobs were levied, and assassins of the crown. -King is obliged to dissemble-His negotiations witA Mfirabeau —With Bouill.-Attack on thle
subsidized. It is said, that the days of the 5th and paace o ithe kiraenre -Wnted by oa F-yette.-Royaists
6th of October were organized by the secret agents palace of the king-Prevented by La Fayette.-Royalists
6th of October were organized by the secret agents expelled from the palace of the Tuileries.-Escape of
of Orleans, and for his advantage; that, had the en- Louis. —He is captured at Varennes-Brought back to
terprise succeeded, the king would have been de- Paris.-Riot in the Champ de Mars-Put down by miposed, and the Duke of Orleans proclaimed lieute- litaryforce.-Louis accepts the contstitution.
nant-general of the kingdom, while his revenge
would probably have been satiated with the queen's LA F A-YE'rrE followed up his victory over the
assassination. He is stated to have skulked in dis- Duke of Orleans by some bold and successful at.
guise about the outskirts of the scene when the tacks upon the revolutionary right of insurrection,
tumult was at the highest, but never to have had through which the people of late had taken on them.
couragre to present himself boldly to the people, selves the office of judges at once and executioners.
either to create a sensation by surprise, or to avail This had hitherto been thought one of the sacred
himself of that which his satellites had already ex- privileges of the Revolution; but, determined to:set,cited in his favour.t His resolution having thus bounds to its farther progress, La Fayette resolved
failed him at the point where it was most necessary, to restore the dominion of the law over the will of
the rabble.
Barnave, as well as Mirabeau, the republican as well A large mob, in virtue of the approbation, the
as the orleanist, was heard to exclaim,-":Courage, brave indulgence at least, with which similar frolics had
Parisians-liberty for ever —fear nothing-Mwe are for you!" been hitherto treated, had seized upon and hanged
— Mdmoires dui Marquis de Ferrieres, Livre 4e (vol. I, an unhappy baker, who fell under their resentment
p. 307): 3 vols. 8ro, Paris, 1822. as a public enemy, because he sold bread dear when
t See the proceedings before the -Chtelet. he could only purchase grain at an enormous price.