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¬this perfidious alliance, the treasures which had been set aside for the extinguishment of her public debt were devoted to the prosecution of this expensive contest; and on its successful termination, the Capetian soldiers, after having been sharers in the triumphs of freedom, were recalled by their self-devoted country into her own bosom — she found a nest of serpents — Her finances were exhausted by her profligate ex- ertions, her people were discontented, and the ordinary machinery of her government being unequal to the supply of the deficiencies in her revenue, she was driven in a most inauspicious moment to resort to an ancient constitution, which had been long trampled upon and set aside, but she had neither the skill to wield a weapon, the use of which had been long for- gotten, nor the honesty to stand fairly by the popular assembly, whose assistance she had in- voked. — It is not for me to become the historian of Capetia, above all to an inhabitant of another world, who can take no interest in her affairs; it is enough to say, that her government fell to ¬f 4 the ¬
