Party  motives  and  popular  animosities  combined  against
this  unfortunate  prince.  Those  who,  two  months  before,
would  have  repelled  the  idea  of  exposing  him  to  any  other
punishment  than  that  of  dethronement,  were  stupified;  so
quickly  does  man  lose  in  moments  of  crisis  the  right  to  defend
his  opinions!  The  discovery  of  the  iron  chest  especially
increased  the  fanaticism  of  the  multitude,  and  the  weakness
of  the  king's  defenders.  After  the  10th  of  August,  there  were
found  in  the  offices  of  the  civil  list  documents  which  proved  the
secret  correspondence  of  Louis  XVI.  with  the  discontented
princes,  with  the  emigration,  and  with  Europe.  In  a  report,
drawn  up  at  the  command  of  the  legislative  assembly,  he
was  accused  of  intending  to  betray  the  state  and  overthrow
the  revolution.  He  was  accused  of  having  written,  on  the
16th  April,  1791,  to  the  bishop  of  Clermont,  that  if  he  re-
gained his  power  he  would  restore  the  former  government,
and  the  clergy  to  the  state  in  which  they  previously  were;
of  having  afterwards  proposed  war,   merely  to  hasten  the

n  2


IfO

ow  HISTORY    OF

approach  of  his  deliverers;  of  having  been  in  correspondence
with  men  who  wrote  to  him — "  War  will  compel  all  the
powers  to  combine  against  the  seditious  and  abandoned  men
who  tyrannize  over  France,  in  order  that  their  punishment  may
speedily  serve  as  an  example  to  all  who  shall  be  induced  to
trouble  the  peace  of  empires.  You  may  rely  on  a  hundred  and
fifty  thousand  men,  Prussians,  Austrians,  and  Imperialists,
and  on  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  emigrants;"  of  having  been
on  terms  with  his  brothers,  whom  his  public  measures  had
discountenanced;  and,  lastly,  of  having  constantly  opposed
the  revolution.
