The king _could_ reign no longer, the nation _would not_.

Thus faction reigned, and the Revolution perished; not because it had gone too far, but because it had not been sufficiently bold.

So true is it that the timidity of nations is not less disastrous than the weakness of kings; and that a people who knows not how to seize and guard all that which pertains to it, falls at once into tyranny and anarchy.

The Assembly dared to do every thing save to reign: the reign of the Revolution was nought but a republic: and the Assembly left this name to factions, and this form to terror.

Such was its fault--it expiated it: and the expiation is not yet ended for France..