The omnipotence of opinion had convinced him of the vanity of all the plans submitted to him for crushing it.

The momentary tranquillity of spirits after so many shocks, the reception he had met with in the Assembly, the Champ-de-Mars, in the theatre,--the freedom and honours restored to him in his palace, had persuaded him that, if the constitution had some fanatics, royalty had no implacable enemies in his kingdom.

He believed the constitution easy of execution in many of its provisions, and impracticable in others.

The government which they imposed on him seemed to him as a philosophical experiment which they desired to make with their king.

He only forgot one thing, and that is, the experiments of a people are catastrophes.