In vain did the department of Paris, composed of men who respected the conscience of others, such as M.de Talleyrand, M.de la Rochefoucauld, and M.de Beaumetz, present to the king a petition in which the true principles of liberty protested against the revolutionary inquisition: counter-petitions poured in from the departments.
V.
Camille Desmoulins, the Voltaire of the clubs, lent to the petition of the citizens of Paris that insolent raillery, which made the success of his talent.
"Worthy representatives," ran the petition[13], "applauses are the civil list of the people, therefore do not reject ours.

To collect the homages of good citizens, and the insults of the bad, is, to a National Assembly, to have combined all suffrages.

The king has put his _veto_ to your decree against the emigrants, a decree equally worthy of the majesty of the Roman people and the clemency of the French people.

We do not complain of this act of the king, because we remember the maxim of the great politician Machiavel, which we beg of you to meditate upon profoundly--_It is against nature to fall voluntarily from such a height_.

Penetrated with this truth, we do not then require from the king an impossible love for the constitution, nor do we find fault that he is opposed to your best decisions.