of hiding from me, although I had been introduced to them as an out-and-out Royalist, if not their plans, at least their ideas, which were of the Republican order. I was none the less struck with their madness. The eloquence of Vergniaud made itself felt even in the course of ordinary conversation, and it seemed to me destined to become the most formidable weapon of the party whose cause he was embracing."
VI.
THE ADVANCE OF THE STORM.
One of the curious things brought out in these Memoirs, is the strength of the hold the King and Queen had on many sections of the population, even at the moment when they were steadily advancing to their doom. Taine has proved pretty conclusively that the Jacobins, at the moment when they captured supreme power in the State, were in a minority; Pasquier's testimony tends to confirm this.
Here, for instance, is a scene in which the Queen figured:
"During these last months, I saw the unfortunate Queen at a performance of Italian opera, greeted with the cheers of a society audience which was eager to give her such small consolation. I saw this audience go wild when Madame Dugazon sang with Mermier the 'Evènements
