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152 devotion, Louis XVI.'s policy consisted mainly in putting a stop to all active measures of government. Thus he cunningly evaded sanctioning two decrees of the utmost importance to the State: one against the recalcitrant priests, now fomenting civil war in the provinces; the other—war having been declared against Austria—that of the formation of a federate camp of twenty thousand men to protect Paris, on the one hand exposed to the foreign foe by its proximity to the frontier, and on the other, to the foe within, in that suspicious guard of picked men which had gradually been formed in the Tuileries.

The idea of this camp had originated with Madame Roland. Convinced of the King's duplicity and its attendant dangers, she had persuaded Roland that a patriotic Ministry should either make an effort to save the country or retire from office. With more than her usual promptitude, she wrote off a letter destined to be sent to Louis XVI. in the name of the Council. None of the Ministers being prepared to take so bold a step, Roland sent it in his own name. A lesson and an exhortation in one, it implored the Sovereign not to rouse the suspicion of the nation by constantly betraying his suspicion of it, but to secure his country's love by adopting in all sincerity the measures fitted to ensure the welfare and safety of the State. The Declaration of Rights, he was told, had become a politicial [sic] Gospel, and the French Constitution a religion, for which the people were prepared to perish.

The only effect of this letter was to bring about the fall of the Ministers, with the exception of Dumouriez, who had secret leanings to the Court. Servan was the first to get his dismissal. Entering Madame Roland's room with a radiant face, he said,