Louis XVI.

was in their eyes a prisoner king, whom Europe would come and deliver from his thraldom.

With them, patriotism and honour were at Coblentz.

Overcome by numbers, without skilful leaders who understood how to gain immortal names by timely retreats; with no strength to contend against the spirit of the age and refusing to move with it, the _cote droit_ could only call for vengeance, its political power was now confined to an imprecation.
The left side lost at one blow its leader and controller; in Mirabeau the national man had ceased to exist, and only the men of party remained, and they were Barnave and the two Lameths.

These men humbled, rebuked, before the ascendency of Mirabeau, had attempted, long before his death, to balance the sovereignty of his genius by the exaggeration of their doctrines and harangues.