We shall have War, then; and on what terms! With an Executive 'pretending,' really with less and less deceptiveness now, 'to be dead;' casting even a wishful eye towards the enemy: on such terms we shall have War.
       Public Functionary in vigorous action there is none; if it be not Rivarol with his Staff of Genius and Two hundred and eighty Applauders. The Public Service lies waste: the very tax-gatherer has forgotten his cunning: in this and the other Provincial Board of Management (Directoire de Departmente) it is found advisable to retain what Taxes you can gather, to pay your own inevitable expenditures. Our Revenue is Assignats; emission on emission of Paper-money. And the Army; our Three grand Armies, of Rochambeau, of Luckner, of Lafayette? Lean, disconsolate hover these Three grand Armies, watching the Frontiers there; three Flights of long-necked Cranes in moulting time;--wretched, disobedient, disorganised; who never saw fire; the old Generals and Officers gone across the Rhine. War- minister Narbonne, he of the rose-coloured Reports, solicits recruitments, equipments, money, always money; threatens, since he can get none,- to 'take his sword,' which belongs to himself, and go serve his country with that. (Moniteur, Seance du 23 Janvier, 1792; Biographie des Ministres para Narbonne.)
       The question of questions is: What shall be done? Shall we, with a desperate defiance which Fortune sometimes favours, draw the sword at once, in the face of this in-rushing world of Emigration and Obscurantism; or wait, and temporise and diplomatise, till, if possible, our resources mature themselves a little? And yet again are our resources growing towards maturity; or growing the other way? Dubious: the ablest Patriots are divided; Brissot and his Brissotins, or Girondins, in the Legislative, cry aloud for the former defiant plan; Robespierre, in the Jacobins, pleads as loud for the latter dilatory one: with responses, even with mutual reprimands; distracting the Mother of Patriotism. Consider also what agitated Breakfasts there may be at Madame d'Udon's in the Place Vendome! The alarm of all men is great. Help, ye Patriots; and O at least agree; for the hour presses. Frost was not yet gone, when in that 'tolerably handsome apartment of the Castle of Niort,' there arrived a Letter: General Dumouriez must to Paris. It is War-minister Narbonne that writes; the General shall give counsel about many things. (Dumouriez, ii. c. 6.) In the month of February 1792, Brissotin friends welcome their Dumouriez Polymetis,--comparable really to an antique Ulysses in modern costume; quick, elastic, shifty, insuppressible, a 'many-counselled man.'
       Let the Reader fancy this fair France with a whole Cimmerian Europe girdling her, rolling in on her; black, to burst in red thunder of War; fair France herself hand-shackled and foot-shackled in the weltering complexities of this Social Clothing, or Constitution, which they have made for her; a France that, in such Constitution, cannot march! And Hunger too; and plotting Aristocrats, and excommunicating Dissident Priests: 'The man Lebrun by name' urging his black wiski, visible to the eye: and, still more terrible in his invisibility, Engineer Goguelat, with Queen's cipher, riding and running!
       The excommunicatory Priests give new trouble in the Maine and Loire; La Vendee, nor Cathelineau the wool-dealer, has not ceased grumbling and rumbling. Nay behold Jales itself once more: how often does that real- imaginary Camp of the Fiend require to be extinguished! For near two years now, it has waned faint and again waxed bright, in the bewildered soul of Patriotism: actually, if Patriotism knew it, one of the most surprising products of Nature working with Art. Royalist Seigneurs, under this or the other pretext, assemble the simple people of these Cevennes Mountains; men not unused to revolt, and with heart for fighting, could their poor heads be got persuaded. The Royalist Seigneur harangues; harping mainly on the religious string: "True Priests maltreated, false Priests intruded, Protestants (once dragooned) now triumphing, things sacred given to the dogs;" and so produces, from the pious Mountaineer throat, rough growlings. "Shall we not testify, then, ye brave hearts of the Cevennes; march to the rescue? Holy Religion; duty to God and King?" "Si fait, si fait, Just so, just so," answer the brave hearts always: "Mais il y a de bien bonnes choses dans la Revolution, But there are many good things in the Revolution too!"--And so the matter, cajole as we may, will only turn on its axis, not stir from the spot, and remains theatrical merely. (Dampmartin, i. 201.)
       Nevertheless deepen your cajolery, harp quick and quicker, ye Royalist Seigneurs; with a dead-lift effort you may bring it to that. In the month of June next, this Camp of Jales will step forth as a theatricality suddenly become real; Two thousand strong, and with the boast that it is Seventy thousand: most strange to see; with flags flying, bayonets fixed; with Proclamation, and d'Artois Commission of civil war! Let some Rebecqui, or other the like hot-clear Patriot; let some 'Lieutenant-Colonel Aubry,' if Rebecqui is busy elsewhere, raise instantaneous National Guards, and disperse and dissolve it; and blow the Old Castle asunder, (Moniteur, Seance du 15 Juillet 1792.) that so, if possible, we hear of it no more!
       In the Months of February and March, it is recorded, the terror, especially of rural France, had risen even to the transcendental pitch: not far from madness. In Town and Hamlet is rumour; of war, massacre: that Austrians, Aristocrats, above all, that The Brigands are close by. Men quit their houses and huts; rush fugitive, shrieking, with wife and child, they know not whither. Such a terror, the eye-witnesses say, never fell on a Nation; nor shall again fall, even in Reigns of Terror expressly so-called. The Countries of the Loire, all the Central and South-East regions, start up distracted, 'simultaneously as by an electric shock;'--for indeed grain too gets scarcer and scarcer. 'The people barricade the entrances of Towns, pile stones in the upper stories, the women prepare boiling water; from moment to moment, expecting the attack. In the Country, the alarm-bell rings incessant: troops of peasants, gathered by it, scour the highways, seeking an imaginary enemy. They are armed mostly with scythes stuck in wood; and, arriving in wild troops at the barricaded Towns, are themselves sometimes taken for Brigands.' (Newspapers, &c. (in Hist. Parl. xiii. 325).)
       So rushes old France: old France is rushing down. What the end will be is known to no mortal; that the end is near all mortals may know.

book 1.i. death of louis xv
   Chapter 1.1.I. Louis the Well-Beloved
   Chapter 1.1.II. Realised Ideals
   Chapter 1.1.III. Viaticum
   Chapter 1.1.IV. Louis the Unforgotten
book 1.ii. the paper age
   Chapter 1.2.I. Astraea Redux
   Chapter 1.2.II. Petition in Hieroglyphs
   Chapter 1.2.III. Questionable
   Chapter 1.2.IV. Maurepas
   Chapter 1.2.V. Astraea Redux without Cash
   Chapter 1.2.VI. Windbags
   Chapter 1.2.VII. Contrat Social
   Chapter 1.2.VIII. Printed Paper
book 1.iii. the parlement of paris
   Chapter 1.3.I. Dishonoured Bills
   Chapter 1.3.II. Controller Calonne
   Chapter 1.3.III. The Notables
   Chapter 1.3.IV. Lomenie's Edicts
   Chapter 1.3.V. Lomenie's Thunderbolts
   Chapter 1.3.VI. Lomenie's Plots
   Chapter 1.3.VII. Internecine
   Chapter 1.3.VIII. Lomenie's Death-throes
book 1.iii. the parlement of pari
   Chapter 1.3.IX. Burial with Bonfire
book 1.iv. states-general
   Chapter 1.4.I. The Notables Again
   Chapter 1.4.II. The Election
   Chapter 1.4.III. Grown Electric
   Chapter 1.4.IV. The Procession
book 1.v. the third estate
   Chapter 1.5.I. Inertia
   Chapter 1.5.II. Mercury de Breze
   Chapter 1.5.III. Broglie the War-God
   Chapter 1.5.IV. To Arms!
   Chapter 1.5.V. Give us Arms
   Chapter 1.5.VI. Storm and Victory
   Chapter 1.5.VII. Not a Revolt
   Chapter 1.5.VIII. Conquering your King
   Chapter 1.5.IX. The Lanterne
book 1.vi. consolidation
   Chapter 1.6.I. Make the Constitution
   Chapter 1.6.II. The Constituent Assembly
   Chapter 1.6.III. The General Overturn
   Chapter 1.6.IV. In Queue
   Chapter 1.6.V. The Fourth Estate
book 1.vii. the insurrection of women
   Chapter 1.7.I. Patrollotism
   Chapter 1.7.II. O Richard, O my King
   Chapter 1.7.III. Black Cockades
   Chapter 1.7.IV. The Menads
   Chapter 1.7.V. Usher Maillard
   Chapter 1.7.VI. To Versailles
   Chapter 1.7.VII. At Versailles
   Chapter 1.7.VIII. The Equal Diet
   Chapter 1.7.IX. Lafayette
   Chapter 1.7.X. The Grand Entries
   Chapter 1.7.XI. From Versailles
book 2.i. the feast of pikes
   Chapter 2.1.I. In the Tuileries
   Chapter 2.1.II. In the Salle de Manege
   Chapter 2.1.III. The Muster
   Chapter 2.1.IV. Journalism
   Chapter 2.1.V. Clubbism
   Chapter 2.1.VI. Je le jure
   Chapter 2.1.VII. Prodigies
   Chapter 2.1.VIII. Solemn League and Covenant
   Chapter 2.1.IX. Symbolic
   Chapter 2.1.X. Mankind
   Chapter 2.1.XI. As in the Age of Gold
   Chapter 2.1.XII. Sound and Smoke
book 2.ii. nanci
   Chapter 2.2.I. Bouille
   Chapter 2.2.II. Arrears and Aristocrats
   Chapter 2.2.III. Bouille at Metz
   Chapter 2.2.IV. Arrears at Nanci
   Chapter 2.2.V. Inspector Malseigne
   Chapter 2.2.VI. Bouille at Nanci
book 2.iii. the tuileries
   Chapter 2.3.I. Epimenides
   Chapter 2.3.II. The Wakeful
   Chapter 2.3.III. Sword in Hand
   Chapter 2.3.IV. To fly or not to fly
   Chapter 2.3.V. The Day of Poniards
   Chapter 2.3.VI. Mirabeau
   Chapter 2.3.VII. Death of Mirabeau
book 2.iv. varennes
   Chapter 2.4.I. Easter at Saint-Cloud
   Chapter 2.4.II. Easter at Paris
   Chapter 2.4.III. Count Fersen
   Chapter 2.4.IV. Attitude
   Chapter 2.4.V. The New Berline
   Chapter 2.4.VI. Old-Dragoon Drouet
   Chapter 2.4.VII. The Night of Spurs
   Chapter 2.4.VIII. The Return
   Chapter 2.4.IX. Sharp Shot
book 2.v. parliament first
   Chapter 2.5.I. Grande Acceptation
   Chapter 2.5.II. The Book of the Law
   Chapter 2.5.III. Avignon
   Chapter 2.5.IV. No Sugar
   Chapter 2.5.V. Kings and Emigrants
   Chapter 2.5.VI. Brigands and Jales
   Chapter 2.5.VII. Constitution will not march
   Chapter 2.5.VIII. The Jacobins
   Chapter 2.5.IX. Minister Roland
   Chapter 2.5.X. Petion-National-Pique
   Chapter 2.5.XI. The Hereditary Representative
   Chapter 2.5.XII. Procession of the Black Breeches
book 2.vi. the marseillese
   Chapter 2.6.I. Executive that does not act
   Chapter 2.6.II. Let us march
   Chapter 2.6.III. Some Consolation to Mankind
   Chapter 2.6.IV. Subterranean
   Chapter 2.6.V. At Dinner
   Chapter 2.6.VI. The Steeples at Midnight
   Chapter 2.6.VII. The Swiss
   Chapter 2.6.VIII. Constitution burst in Pieces
book 3.i. september
   Chapter 3.1.I. The Improvised Commune
   Chapter 3.1.II. Danton
   Chapter 3.1.III. Dumouriez
   Chapter 3.1.IV. September in Paris
   Chapter 3.1.V. A Trilogy
   Chapter 3.1.VI. The Circular
   Chapter 3.1.VII. September in Argonne
   Chapter 3.1.VIII. Exeunt
book 3.ii. regicide
   Chapter 3.2.I. The Deliberative
   Chapter 3.2.II. The Executive
   Chapter 3.2.III. Discrowned
   Chapter 3.2.IV. The Loser pays
   Chapter 3.2.V. Stretching of Formulas
   Chapter 3.2.VI. At the Bar
   Chapter 3.2.VII. The Three Votings
   Chapter 3.2.VIII. Place de la Revolution
book 3.iii. the girondins
   Chapter 3.3.I. Cause and Effect
   Chapter 3.3.II. Culottic and Sansculottic
   Chapter 3.3.III. Growing shrill
   Chapter 3.3.IV. Fatherland in Danger
   Chapter 3.3.V. Sansculottism Accoutred
   Chapter 3.3.VI. The Traitor
   Chapter 3.3.VII. In Fight
   Chapter 3.3.VIII. In Death-Grips
   Chapter 3.3.IX. Extinct
book 3.iv. terror
   Chapter 3.4.I. Charlotte Corday
   Chapter 3.4.II. In Civil War
   Chapter 3.4.III. Retreat of the Eleven
   Chapter 3.4.IV. O Nature
   Chapter 3.4.V. Sword of Sharpness
   Chapter 3.4.VI. Risen against Tyrants
   Chapter 3.4.VII. Marie-Antoinette
   Chapter 3.4.VIII. The Twenty-two
book 3.v. terror the order of the day
   Chapter 3.5.I. Rushing down
   Chapter 3.5.II. Death
   Chapter 3.5.III. Destruction
   Chapter 3.5.IV. Carmagnole complete
   Chapter 3.5.V. Like a Thunder-Cloud
   Chapter 3.5.VI. Do thy Duty
   Chapter 3.5.VII. Flame-Picture
book 3.vi. thermidor
   Chapter 3.6.I. The Gods are athirst
   Chapter 3.6.II. Danton, No weakness
   Chapter 3.6.III. The Tumbrils
   Chapter 3.6.IV. Mumbo-Jumbo
   Chapter 3.6.V. The Prisons
   Chapter 3.6.VI. To finish the Terror
   Chapter 3.6.VII. Go down to
book 3.vii. vendemiaire
   Chapter 3.7.I. Decadent
   Chapter 3.7.II. La Cabarus
   Chapter 3.7.III. Quiberon
   Chapter 3.7.IV. Lion not dead
   Chapter 3.7.V. Lion sprawling its last
   Chapter 3.7.VI. Grilled Herrings
   Chapter 3.7.VII. The Whiff of Grapeshot