The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay, vol 3
The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay, vol 3
Book Excerpt
nthusiasm: "Cromwell Grandison," Mirabeau
nicknamed him. Devoted to the Constitution, Lafayette was no
friend to the extreme party, to the jacobins, with their Danton,
their Robespierre. He had striven for liberty, but for liberty
and monarchy combined; and the two things were fast becoming
irreconcilable. And now, in July 1792, distrusted alike by the
Court and the people, Lafayette sits sad at Sedan, in the midst
of his army. War has already commenced, with a desultory and
unsuccessful attack by the French upon the Austrian Netherlands.
But the real struggle is now approaching. Heralded by an insolent
proclamation, the Duke of Brunswick is marching from Coblenz with
more than a hundred thousand Prussians, Austrians, and emigrants
; and General Lafayette, alas ! appears more bent upon denouncing
jacobinism than upon defending the frontier.
The country is indeed in danger. With open hostility advancing from without, doubt and suspicion fermenting within, Paris at last rises in good earnest, August 10
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