lay at first between the assembly and the court, then between the
constitutionalists and the aristocrats, and latterly among the
constitutionalists themselves, was now about to commence between the
constitutionalists and the republicans. In times of revolution such is the
inevitable course of events. The partisans of the order newly established
then met and renounced differences of opinion which were detrimental to
their cause, even while the assembly was all powerful, but which had
become highly perilous, now that the emigration party threatened it on the
one hand, and the multitude on the other. Mirabeau was no more. The
Centre, on which this powerful man had relied, and which constituted the
least ambitious portion of the assembly, the most attached to principles,
might by joining the Lameths, re-establish Louis XVI. and constitutional
monarchy, and present a formidable opposition to the popular ebullition.

This alliance took place; the Lameth party came to an understanding with
Andre and the principal members of the Centre, made overtures to the
court, and opened the club of the Feuillants in opposition to that of the
Jacobins. But the latter could not want leaders; under Mirabeau, they had
contended against Mounier; under the Lameths against Mirabeau; under
Petion and Robespierre, they contended against the Lameths. The party
which desired a second revolution had constantly supported the most
extreme actors in the revolution already accomplished, because this was
bringing within its reach the struggle and the victory. At this period,
from subordinate it had become independent; it no longer fought for others
and for opinions not its own, but for itself, and under its own banner.
The court, by its multiplied faults, its imprudent machinations, and,
lastly, by the flight of the monarch, had given it a sort of authority to
avow its object; and the Lameths, by forsaking it, had left it to its true
leaders.