On the Conflict of Parties in the Jacobin Clnb 19 



hostile journals, Le Lcndcmaui and Le Feuillc du jour, often the 

 only record we possess before the official journal just mentioned 

 was published. 



The Jacobin leaders were driven from the club because they 

 were no longer in sympathy with it. They had been true, in out- 

 ward form at least, to the published principles of the society, 

 whereas the radicals who had succeeded them in the favor of its 

 members had come to regard the assembly as reactionary and 

 not to be trusted. But it was not until the flight of the king that 

 the society assumed an attitude that forced the deputies to with- 

 draw from it in order not to appear in a false light. The con- 

 stitution was monarchical and almost all the deputies were 

 m.onarchists. The Jacobins also were avowed monarchists, al- 

 though they had long ceased to show monarchical sentiments in 

 their discussions. Many had expressed their bitterness against 

 the ministers and all the other servants of the king, but either 

 through policy or an irrational sentiment excused the king him- 

 self. The king was eternally the dupe of his counsellors. The 

 flight of the king to Varennes was more, however, than most of 

 the Jacobins were able to excuse upon this theory, and the ques- 

 tion as to what should be done with the king was openly brought 

 to discussion. 



But the deputies who had informally withdrawn made one 

 more effort to regain control of the society, making the flight of 

 the king the occasion for the attempt. This attempt was fore- 

 seen by the man, perhaps, most interested, Robespierre, who suc- 

 cessfully defeated it. The Jacobins had met at noon on the 21st 

 of June, 1 79 1, in extraordinary session, with all excitement stu- 

 diously suppressed," as it was in the whole of Paris. For once the 

 agitators now in possession intended to aid in preventing dis- 

 turbances, and sent out some of its members to preach peace and 

 calm in the public places.^ The entrance of Robespierre, fresh 

 from the National Assembly, changed the entire tone of the 

 meeting, which now became intensely dramatic. Robespierre 

 represented France as in the greatest danger, not because the 

 king had fled to return at the head of a foreign army, but be- 



1 Aulard, II, 532. 



247 



