"When France, in wrath, her giant limbs upreared,
And, with that oath which smote air, earth, and sea,
Stamped her strong foot, and said she would be free,
Bear witness for me how I hoped and feared."
In consequence of this ode, and his avowed attachment to the principles of the Revolution, he became so obnoxious to his superiors that he was constrained to leave the college abruptly, without a degree.—Cyclopædia of English Literature, Article S.T. Coleridge.
[267] M. Thiers, in the impetuosity of his narrative, is not always accurate in details. He gives the 20th of April as the date of Mirabeau's death. Mignet assigns it to the 2d of March. Nearly all other authorities agree upon the 2d of April. It is indeed wonderful that upon such a subject there should be such a diversity of statement. The event at the time was deemed so momentous, that the Jacobin Club voted that the anniversary of his death should, through all future time, be celebrated with funereal pomp.
[268] Mirabeau claims, and his friends claim for him, and probably with justice, that he wished to be the mediator between the Revolution and the monarchy—to save royalty and liberty, believing that, under the circumstances, royalty was essential to liberty. But the folly of the court thwarted every endeavor. They would not accede to any measure of justice and moderation. The court wished only to make him unpopular. Mirabeau saw his position, from which no struggles could extricate him, and he died of disappointment and grief. Had he not then died, he would, in a few months, have inevitably perished upon the scaffold. See Mémoires de Mirabeau, vol. viii.
[269] Bertrand de Moleville.
[270] Mignet, p. 101. Villiaumé, p. 91.
[271] Fox and others of the most illustrious of the English commoners had in the parliament expressed their sympathy for the French patriots. A very strenuous effort was made to unite the Whig party in opposition to liberty in France. A meeting was held at Burlington House. Mr. Burke was the organ of the aristocracy. The animated discussion was continued from ten o'clock at night until three in the morning. But the differences of opinion were found irreconcilable, and only resulted in the permanent alienation of Fox and Burke.—See Lectures on the French Revolution, by Prof. Wm. Smyth, vol. i., p. 84.
[272] "The princes," writes M. Fromont, "conceived the plan of forming legions of all the loyal subjects of the king. Desiring to be at the head of those Royalists whom I had commanded in 1789, I wrote to Count d'Artois, begging his royal highness to grant me the commission of colonel, worded so that every Royalist who would raise a legion might hope for a like favor. The members of his council thought it so strange that a commoner should aspire to a military commission, that one of them said to me angrily, 'Why did you not ask for a bishopric?'"—Recueil de divers Ecrits relatifs à la Revolution, p. 62.
[273] "What grieves us, moreover, among other things, in this journey to Varennes, and lessens the idea we would like to entertain of the king's goodness of heart, is the indifference with which he sacrificed, by his departure, and abandoned to death men who were sincerely attached to him. By the force of circumstances La Fayette found himself to be the involuntary guardian of the king, and responsible to the nation for his person. He had shown in various ways, and sometimes even in compromising the Revolution, that he desired, beyond every thing else, the restoration of the kingly power, as the guarantee of order and tranquillity. There was every reason to suppose that, at the startling news of the king's departure, La Fayette would be torn to pieces.
"La Fayette, receiving warnings from several quarters, would believe nobody but the king himself. He went to him and asked him whether there was any truth in the reports. Louis XVI. gave such a decided, simple answer, and in such a good-natured manner, that La Fayette went away completely satisfied, and it was merely to calm the anxiety of the public that he doubled his guard."—Michelet, p. 573.