Never was so gross and so cruel a
breach of the public faith, not with an enemy, but with a friend.
Dumouriez has dropped very singular hints. Custine has spoken out more
broadly. These accounts have never been contradicted. They tend to make
an eternal rupture between the powers. The French have given out, that
the Duke of Brunswick endeavored to negotiate some name and place for
the captive king, amongst the murderers and proscribers of those who
have lost their all for his cause. Even this has not been denied.
It is singular, and, indeed, a thing, under all its circumstances,
inconceivable, that everything should by the Emperor be abandoned to the
king of Prussia. That monarch was considered as principal. In the nature
of things, as well as in his position with regard to the war, he was
only an ally, and a new ally, with crossing interests in many
particulars, and of a policy rather uncertain. At best, and supposing
him to act with the greatest fidelity, the Emperor and the Empire to him
must be but secondary objects. Countries out of Germany must affect him
in a still more remote manner.
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