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appear to be, mere mobs, but instigated by the aristocrats ; and 

 if permitted to rise to such a height as to entangle the Paris 

 militia, will prove the part only of a conspiracy against the new 

 government. That they have reason to be alert is undoubted ; 

 for though there should actually be no plots in existence, yet 

 there is so great a temptation to them, and such a probability of 

 their being formed, that supineness would probably create them. 

 I have met with the lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of horse 

 who is come from his quarters, and who asserts that his whole 

 regiment, officers and men, are now at the king's devotion, and 

 would march wherever he called and would execute whatever he 

 ordered, not contrary to their ancient feelings; but that they 

 would not have been inclined to be so obedient before he was 

 brought to Paris; and from the conversation he has had with 

 the officers of other regiments, he believes that the same spirit 

 pervades their corps also. If any serious plans have been laid 

 for a counter-revolution, or for carrying off the king, and their 

 execution has been, or shall be prevented, posterity will be much 

 more likely to ha\"e information of it than this age. Certainlv 

 the eyes of all the sovereigns, and of all the great nobility in 

 Europe, are on the French Revolution; they look with amaze- 

 ment and even with terror upon a situation which may possibly 

 be hereafter their own case; and they must expect, with anxiety, 

 that some attempts will be made to reverse an example that will 

 not want copies whenever the period is favourable to make them. 

 Dine at the Palais Royal with a select party; politicians they 

 must be if they are Frenchmen. The question was discussed, 

 Are the plots and conspiracies of which we hear so much at 

 present real, or are they invented by the leaders of the revolution 

 to keep up the spirits of the militia in order to enable themselves 

 to secure the government on its new foundation irreversibly? 



i4//z. Plots ! plots ! — the Marquis La Fayette, last night, took 

 two hundred prisoners in the Champs Elysees, out of eleven 

 hundred that were collected. They had powder and ball, but 

 no muskets. Who? and what are they? is the question; but 

 an answer is not so easily to be had. Brigands, according to 

 some accounts, that have collected in Paris for no good purpose; 

 people from Versailles by others; Germans by a third; but every 

 one would make you believe they are an appendix to a plot laid 

 for a counter-revolution. Reports are so various and contra- 

 dictory that no dependence is to be placed on them; nor credit 

 given to one-tenth of what is asserted. It is singular, and has 

 been much commented on, that La Fayette would not trust his 



