But the Minister did not deliver it until too late. His regret is a matter of record. The party of assassination began mobilizing its brigands by the walls of Paris.
On the 17th day of July there was a brilliant dinner party at the embassy. The foreign ambassadors were there, and the Comte de Montmorin. The old diary says:
"In the evening M. de Montmorin takes me into the garden to communicate the situation of things and ask my opinion. I tell him that I think the King should quit Paris. He thinks otherwise, and fosters a thousand empty hopes and vain expectations."
And at this point the American took a hand in the game. The King's situation was more desperate than any situation in melodrama. In this dilemma he turned to Gouverneur Morris.
Among the obscure characters drawn into the councils of state by the mad political whirlwind was a M. Terrier de Monciel, whose associations were largely revolutionary. But
