Page:An adventure (1911).pdf/138

 sistent with republicanism and, though worsted in it, the events of the last three years probably justified it in her own mind.

She inherited a belief in a strong rule, beneficent as her own kindly nature required, but one that could fight its battles and make full use of such opportunities as hereditary kingship possessed. Again and again she had felt that the King's action was worse than nothing. Marie Antoinette would have sternly punished the crime of killing the King's officials; she would have upheld the sovereign office as long as there were those who prized it. The country could never have reached the present point of rebellion if the taking of the Bastille, for instance, had not been condoned and the murders and outrages connected with it had not been allowed to pass without adequate punishment. Why were the troops dismissed so soon after, and the nobles allowed to emigrate? It may have been right for the monarch to urge upon some of them the danger in which they stood