providential; the Orthodox took a different view of it.

After the fall of Robespierre, in Thermidor, seventy-three members of
the Convention, who had survived the Reign of Terror, resumed their
seats. But Paine was not released. Monroe had superseded Morris in
August, but had no instructions from his government. Indeed, as Paine
had accepted citizenship in France, and had publicly acted as a French
citizen, it was considered, even by his friends, that he had no claim
to the protection of the United States. Paine, as was natural, thought
differently. He wrote to Monroe, explaining that French citizenship was
a mere compliment paid to his reputation; and in any view of the case,
it had been taken away from him by a decree of the Convention. His seat
in that body did not affect his American _status_, because a convention
to make a constitution is not a government, but extrinsic and
antecedent to a government. The government once established, he would
never have accepted a situation under it. Monroe assured him that he
considered him an American citizen, and that "to the welfare of Thomas
Paine Americans are not nor can they be indifferent,"--with which fine
phrase Paine was obliged to be satisfied until November. On the fourth
of that month he was released. The authorities of Thermidor disliked
the Federalist government, and Paine was probably kept in prison some
additional months on account of Monroe's application for his discharge.

He left the Luxembourg, after eleven months of incarceration, with
unshaken confidence in his own greatness and in the truth of his
principles,--but in appearance and in character another man, with only
the tatters of his former self hanging about him. A certain elegance of
manner and of dress, which had distinguished him, was gone. He drank
deep, and was noisy. His fondness for talking of himself had grown to
such excess as to destroy the conversational talents which all his