70 Carl Christophelsmeier 



our own use of it, that is, as including- every individual of the 

 whole nation. We can therefore, at present, better appreciate 

 his truly wonderful effort in behalf of his title than did most of 

 his colleagues. We do not mean to say that no egotistic 

 motives prompted Mirabeau in his action. Well might a man 

 aspire, under such circumstances, to give a name to such an 

 assembly, and also to overcome a rival like Sieves and a com- 

 bination such as the Breton deputies and their friends. How- 

 ever, Mirabeau's heart was in the cause. His personality was 

 much broader and richer than that of Sieves, who withdrew 

 from the scene of action as soon as his ambition wa~s checked and 

 his person perhaps in some danger. The deputies hissed and 

 shouted with rage at the speaker, but "in the midst of this agi- 

 tated and uproarious assembly, M. de Mirabeau continued his 

 discourse; he was no longer heard. When he had finished, he 

 raised his voice, shouting, 'If this part of my discourse is repre- 

 hensible, I am willing to take the blame and suffer the conse- 

 quences. I leave it on the desk, signed by my own hand.' "* It 

 appears that shortly afterwards he withdrew the manuscript and 

 then left the hall.- We must not say that he departed just be- 

 cause he was angry with the assembly. He wrote, perhaps the 

 same day, to a friend that he was bathed in perspiration during 

 his speeches, because of fever. "I have spoken three times, while 

 suffering from a chill." 3 In his next Lettrc a ses commettauts. 

 Mirabeau partly excused himself : "The word peuple, often re- 

 peated, has been taken for an appeal to the conscience of the 

 deputies, as if it had been necessary to call them back to popular 

 sentiments. It is not astonishing that those among them who 

 understood him in this strange way were offended. But it is 

 singular that anybody could deceive himself for the moment and 

 suppose in the speaker a thought which was so far from his heart, 

 and w T hich could enter there less than ever on the day on which 

 was discussed with so much zeal the honor of the assembly and 

 the welfare of the nation. Convinced that it would suffice to read 



1 Journal des etats-generaux, I, 119. 

 8 La revolution francaise, XVI, 538. 

 s Lcttres de Mirabeau ait major dc Mauvillon, 467. 



70 



