"Far be it from me, madame, to offer you so cruel an insult; your soul is great and noble, and the heroism you have displayed in so many circumstances, has for ever attached me to you." She was appeased in a moment, and laid her hand on Dumouriez's arm, in token of reconciliation.
The minister profited by this return to serenity and confidence to give Marie Antoinette advice, of which the emotion of his features and voice sufficiently attested the sincerity.

"Trust me, madame, I have no motive for deceiving you; I abhor anarchy and its crimes equally with yourself.
But I have experience; I live in the centre of the different parties, and I take part in opinion.

I am connected with the people, and I am better placed than your majesty for judging the extent and the direction of events.

This is not, as you deem it, a popular movement; but the almost unanimous insurrection of a great nation against an old and decaying order of things.

Mighty factions feed the flame, and in every one of them are scoundrels or madmen.