54 Julia Crcivitt Stoddard 



ing at the head of the government, in case Louis XVI. should 

 not be able to maintain himself, a prince naturally fitted for the 

 position by the political opinions which he held and by his place 

 in public esteem; but this thought, conceived about the time of 

 the July insurrection, far from taking root in his mind, disap- 

 peared as the character of the prince became better known ; allied 

 to the friends of the Duke of Orleans, he must also have had a 

 passing intercourse with the Duke of Orleans himself, and have 

 knocked at this door, if we may so express it, as he had knocked 

 successively at all the doors that might open a career for his 

 impatient ambition ; but he has never been either the recipient 

 of the real secrets of the prince and his associates, or engaged 

 to them by a formal compact." 1 



What was the part of Lafayette in the October insurrection? 

 Was it, as Stephens says, to "pose as the savior of the monar- 

 chy ?" Did he bring the king to Paris "merely to increase his 

 own honor and glory?" As a patriot Lafayette had the success 

 of the revolution at heart. Great danger threatened the cause 

 of liberty. Lafayette shared the general alarm over the arrival 

 of the regiment of Flanders and the boldness of the aristocratic 

 reaction shown in the banquet of the body-guard. He was, 

 moreover, irritated at the "mysterious and irregular use" made 

 of his letter to Saint-Priest. 2 He had refused Montmorin's offer 

 of conciliation with the reply: 3 "If the king fears a riot let him 

 come to Paris. He will be safe there in the midst of the national 

 guard." 4 Lafayette was not without ambition. It is true, per- 

 haps, that he desired "a direct and habitual influence over the 

 decisions of the king." 5 Nor was he invulnerable to "the deli- 

 cious sensation of the smile of multitudes." 



But I have found no evidence that Lafayette was in any way 

 responsible for the movement of the national guard on the 5th 



iLom^nie, Les Mirabeau, IV, 507, 508. 

 2 Revue histnrique, LXVIII, 264. 

 'Ibid., LXVIII, 287. 



* Lafayette, Memoires, TI, 298. 



* Revue historique LXIX, 49, quotation from Necker. 

 c Lom£nie, Les Mirabeau, V, 28. 



320' 



