If we nominate a regent we shall soon fight for the choice of a master.

Let us only contend for liberty." Provoked by this reference to the regency, which appeared to point to him, the Duc d'Orleans wrote to the journals that he was ready to serve his country by land or by sea; but in respect to any question of regency, he from that moment renounced, and for ever, any pretensions to that title which the constitution might give him.

"After having made so many sacrifices to the cause of the people," he said, "I am no longer in a condition to quit my position as a simple citizen.

Ambition in me would be an inexcusable inconsistency." Already discredited by all parties, this prince, henceforth incapable of serving the throne, was equally incapable of serving the republic.
Odious to the royalists, put aside by the demagogues, suspected by the constitutionalists, there only remained to him the stoical attitude in which he took refuge.

He had abdicated his rank, abdicated his own faction; he had abdicated the favour of the people.