The arbitrator who controlled them was no more.
V.
Before we depict the state of these parties, let us throw a rapid glance over the commencement of the Revolution, the progress it had made, and the principal leaders who were about to attempt directing it in the way they desired to see it advance.
It was hardly two years since opinion had opened the breaches against the monarchy, yet it had already accomplished immense results.

The weak and vacillating spirit of the government had convoked the Assembly of Notables, whilst public spirit had placed its grasp on power and convoked the States General.

The States General being established, the nation had felt its omnipotence, and from this feeling to a legal insurrection there was but a word; that word Mirabeau had uttered.

The National Assembly had constituted itself in front of, and higher than, the throne itself.

The prodigious popularity of M.Necker was exhausted by concessions, and utterly vanished when he no longer had any of the spoils of monarchy to cast before the people.