Page:Voices of Revolt - Volume 1.djvu/90

 86 enough to convince them that all the leaders of the armies would at once pass over to their side. To justify this enterprise in the eyes of their subjects themselves, they had to be relieved of the responsibility of declaring war on us, and therefore war was declared on them from Paris. You know with what monstrous levity war was declared; you know that you were then without arms, that our forts had no munitions, that our army was in the hands of traitors, and that they nevertheless talked of carrying the tricolor up to the ends of the earth. These orators and gossips who were our leaders at the time were insulting the tyrants only in order to do their bidding. …

The true friends of the Republic had different intentions. Before bursting the chains of the universe they wished first to consolidate liberty in their own country. Before undertaking to wage war on foreign tyrants, they wished first to annihilate the tyrants at home, who were daily betraying them. They did not wish to march against other kings while they were led by a king themselves. …

Those who planned at the end of the year 1791 to overthrow all the thrones of the world, are the same as those who in August 1792 wish to ward off with all their might the blow against their own King. The chariot of the Revolution was advancing over stony soil. They wished it to travel on a smooth and easy road and therefore they guided it into dangerous