If the devotion of the patriots to the Revolution was sublime as hope, that of the emigrant nobles was generous as despair.

In civil wars we should ever judge each party by its own ideas, for civil wars are almost invariably the expression of two duties in opposition to each other.

The duty of the patriots was their country; of the _emigres_, the throne: one of the two parties was deceived as to its duty, but each believed it fulfilled it.
XIII.
The emigration was composed of two entirely distinct parties--the politicians and the combatants.

The politicians, who crowded round the Comte de Provence and the Comte d'Artois, and poured forth idle invectives against the truths of philosophy and the principles of democracy.

They wrote books and supported papers, in which the French Revolution was represented to the foreign sovereigns as an infernal conspiracy of a few scoundrels against kings, and even against heaven.
They formed the councils of an imaginary government--they sought to obtain missions--they formed plans--renewed intrigues--visited every court--stirred up the sovereigns and their ministers against France--disputed the favour of the French princes--devoured their subsidies--and transported to this foreign soil the ambitions, the rivalries, and the cupidity of a court.
The military men had brought nothing but the bravery, the _insouciance_, the recklessness, and the polish of their nation and profession.
Coblentz became the camp of illusion and devotion.