lo Charles Kuhhnann 



is, permitted to take an actual part in executing ideas and advice 

 hitherto merely addressed to the court, and there quietly buried, 

 for the most part.^* To this plan Montmorin was prepared to 

 lend himself and on December 5, 1790 (mark the date), held a 

 long conference with Mirabeau in which he succeeded, to all 

 appearances, in making his peace with the latter. He told him 

 among many other things that his alliance with Lafayette had 

 become intolerable. He assured him that Lafayette was ambitious 

 not so much of real power as of the appearance of possessing it, 

 that as a matter of fact he no longer exercised any influence in 

 the ministry and that, since he had exhausted his fortune, he could 

 no longer buy support — could not even retain his aides — should 

 he, Alontmorin, abandon him altogether. Although Lafayette 

 cared only for himself and had betrayed all parties with whom he 

 had had dealings, Montmorin did not wish to injure him nor see 

 him displaced as commander of the national guards, at least not 

 until a suitable successor could be found. He closed by inviting 

 Mirabeau to draw up a plan of campaign in the interest of the 

 royal authority ; in short, asked him to take the very place he had 

 so long coveted as next best to that of leading minister.^^ 



According to Mirabeau's views, this changed the whole situation 

 as regards the attitude to be assumed toward Lafayette. The sole 

 condition which made his rival formidable no longer existed. 

 When, on the following evening Robespierre came forward with 

 a plan which promised finally to oust Lafayette from his command 

 of the guards Mirabeau naturally did not feel like aiding in the 

 attempt as he had usually done. Montmorin had even permitted 

 him to see that the government was embarrassed over the question 

 of finding a successor and it seemed to be his duty to forestall a 

 too hasty retirement of the present commander. In a note to the 

 court on January 17, 1791, he himself expressed anxiety at the 



"Bacourt, I, 165-66. In his thirty-sixth note to the court Mirabeau 

 himself insisted upon the necessity of a ministry with which he could act 

 in the execution of his plans to increase the king's authority. Bacourt, 

 II, 264. 



"Forty-seventh note to the court, Dec. 6, 1790. Bacourt, II, 386-95. 



