The king, the nobility, and the priests could not understand a revolution that threatened to destroy the noblesse, the clergy, and the throne.

A contest became unavoidable; they had not space for the struggle in France, and they took their stand on a foreign soil.
XV.
Whilst the army of the princes thus increased in strength at Coblentz, the counter-revolutionary diplomacy was on the eve of the first great result it had been enabled to obtain in the actual state of Europe.

The conferences of Pilnitz had opened, and the Count de Provence had sent the baron Roll from Coblentz to the king of Prussia, to demand in the name of Louis XVI.

the assistance of his troops to aid in the re-establishment of order in France.

The king of Prussia, before deciding, wished to learn the state of France from a man whose military talents and devoted attachment to the monarchy had gained him the confidence of the foreign courts,--the Marquis de Bouille.