Page:An adventure (1911).pdf/141

 had ennobled and enriched her friends; his patience and magnanimity were saintly; but how often had she raged against his theory that the King's duty was to set an example of lofty forbearance and forgiveness of every injury even when done to him as representing the law, justice, and power of the whole French peoples. She had instinctively felt that had she been in the King's place she would have found her way through the past crises without either descending from her throne or doing wrong to the most Christian charity. She knew that she was kind-hearted, and had always loved to be the benefactress of others: yes, she too could forgive royally when forgiveness was due from her in her own person, but not when it required injustice to others.

But Marie Antoinette was too clear-sighted to impute all the blame of this downfall to the King's mistakes. No double his feeble idea had been to behave as though the democrats only were the nation, forgetting the contrary view of those who had either banished themselves or who were perforce silent unless he