Page:Coubertin - France since 1814, 1900.djvu/66

 Fayette in his Mémoires (vol. v.), declares, with an incomparable naïveté, that he had no other end but to bring about the meeting of a constituante which in all probability would have upheld the Constitutional Monarchy. So it would seem that all this apparatus of destruction aimed at the maintenance of what already existed !

The political situation was still further complicated by the absence of any middle party capable of lessening the friction between Left and Right. The germs of such a party existed in the section that was beginning to be known as the doctrinaires, but the very name shows in what respect it would be incapable of playing with any plasticity an independent role. If a desire for vengeance against the Revolution animated the ultras, if an unquenchable thirst for popularity urged the leaders of the Liberal side to depart from their role and hurl about imprudent language, the doctrinaires were a prey to the most formidable vanity. They had the very highest possible opinion of themselves, and professed to act according to the most superior principles, whereas they were too frequently governed by the suggestions of their amour-propre.