The Countess De Charny - Volume II Read Online Free PDF Page A

are paralysing the government by
     
    32 LA COMTESSE DE CHARNY.
    continuai changes in your cabinet? Does the Constitution empower you to choose your ministers for our weal or for our woe? Does it make you commander-in-chief of our armies for our glory or our shame? Does it give you a large civil list, and so many valuable prerogatives, — among them the right of veto, — in order that you may em-ploy these advantages to the detriment of the Constitution and the kingdom?
    “‘You have not kept the oath you took to support the Constitution. The Constitution may be overthrown, but you shall not profit by your perjury. You have uttered no protest against the victories which have been achieved over liberty in your name, nor have you ever repudiated them, either directly or indirectly; but you shall not profit by these unworthy triumphs. Henceforth you are naught to this Constitution which you have so basely violated, or to the people whom you have so shamefully betrayed.’
    ‘“As a close connection -is apparent between many of these facts which I have recalled to your mind, and certain acts of the king’s; as it is certain that the false friends who surround him are in league with those conspirators at Coblentz who were striving to lure the king on to his ruin in order to place the crown upon the head of one of their own chief conspirators; as it is needful for his personal safety as well as for the safety of the kingdom that his conduct should be above suspicion, — I suggest an address in which he be reminded of the truths I have just mentioned, and of the fact that the state of neutralit}- which he maintains between this country and Coblentz is nothing more nor less than treason towards France.
    “I demand, moreover, that you declare the country in danger. You will see all citizens rallying to her support at this cry of alarm. The land will be covered with soldiers who will repeat the deeds of valour that covered the nations of antiquity with glory.
    “For what are we waiting? For the military government some persons desire to establish? The Court is
     
    VERGNIAUD SPEAKS. 33
    suspected of treasonable projects. There is much talk of military movements and of martial law. The imagination is becoming familiar with the idea of bloodshed. The palace of the king of the French is being transformed into a fortress.
    ” But where are our enemies? Upon whom are these cannon and bayonets pointed?
    ” The friends of the Constitution have been driven out of the cabinet, though the firm hand of a true pati’iot is sadly needed upon the reins of government. Discord is rife and fanaticism rampant on ever}^ side. The con-nivance of our own government increases the audacity of our foreign foes, and at the same time cools the sympathy of nations who are secretly praying for the triumph of liberty. The enemy’s cohorts are becoming larger and larger, while intrigue and perfidy are busily weaving treasonable plots in the very midst of us. The Assembly passes rigorous but sorely needed edicts to circumvent these conspirators, but the king’s hand rends these edicts in twain.
    “It is high time to summon the French people to the defence of their native land, and show them the terrible abyss that is opening before them.
    “Imitate the Spartans at Thermopylae, or those venerable Roman senators who calmly awaited upon their own thresholds the death to which their ferocious conquerors had condemned them. A few such sacrifices only are needed to raise up countless avengers; for the day your blood reddens the soil, tyranny — with its arrogance, its palaces, and its champions — will vanish for ever before the irresistible power of the nation and the just wrath of an outraged people.”
    An ever-increasing power was apparent in this impassioned discourse. Rising higher and higher, it beat the air more and more violently with its wings, like some huge bird, until it created a positive hurricane.
    The effect was similar to that of a