combinations.

"It does not belong to me, Sire, to give greater importance to my opinions
and actions, than what is due to the individual conduct of a simple
citizen. But the expression of my thoughts was always a right, and on this
occasion becomes a duty; and though I should have performed it sooner, if,
instead of being in a camp, I had remained in that retirement from which I
was forced by the dangers of my country: yet I do not think that any public
employment or private consideration exempts me from exercising this duty of
a citizen, this right of a freeman.

"Persist, Sire, supported by the authority delegated to you by the national
will, in the noble resolution of defending constitutional principles
against all their enemies. Let this resolution, maintained by all the
actions of your private life, as well as by a firm and complete exercise of
the royal power; become the pledge of the harmony, which, particularly, at
this critical juncture, cannot fail to be established between the _elected_
representatives of the people and their _hereditary_ representative. It is
in this resolution, Sire, that glory and safety will be found for the
country and for yourself. With this you will find the friends of liberty,
all _good_ Frenchmen ranged around your throne, to defend it against the
plots of rebels and the enterprizes of the factious; and I, Sire, who in
their honorable hatred have found the reward of my persevering opposition;
I will always deserve it, by my zeal in the cause to which my whole life
has been devoted, and by my fidelity to the oath I have taken to the
nation, to the law and to the King. Such, Sire, are the unalterable
sentiments I present to your Majesty, with my respect.

"LAFAYETTE"