Intimidated, discouraged, repentant, they had neither the spirit to yield to the impulse of the people nor the power to resist it.

Barnave had recovered his virtue in his sensibility; but virtue which comes late is like the experience which follows the act, and only enables us to measure the extent of our errors.

In revolutions there is no repentance--there is only expiation.
Barnave, who might have saved the monarchy, had he only united with Mirabeau, was just commencing his expiatory sentence.

Robespierre was to Barnave what Barnave had been to Mirabeau; but Robespierre, more powerful than Barnave, instead of acting on the impulse of a passion as fluctuating as jealousy, acted under the influence of a fixed idea, and an unalterable theory.

Robespierre had the whole people at his back.
IX.
From the opening of the sittings Barnave attempted to consolidate around the constitution the opinions so fiercely shaken by Robespierre and his friends.