Royalists Who Supported the Jacobins

The next morning, Joseph went to work as usual. On the way, he wondered how Lafayette would react. Would she simply inform him that his job had been canceled due to the changing situation? Or perhaps even put a seal on his office door?

However, when Joseph arrived at his destination, he realized that he might have been worrying unnecessarily. His post remained the same, and all the matters to be dealt with were still there for him to handle.

At lunchtime, Carnot from next door walked in.

"Joseph," Carnot said, "I heard about last night. You did a great job!"

"Lazar, I..." Before Joseph could say anything more, he heard Carnot continue, his face beaming:

"You know, Joseph, I used to think you would be a good logistics organizer, an excellent staff officer, but certainly not a good commander. Because although you are sharp and meticulous, and can come up with many good ideas, you lack courage and decisiveness at crucial moments. Your brother Napoleon, on the other hand, is very decisive and a natural commander..."

"What nonsense! He can come up with many good ideas, but lacks the courage and can't make decisions? Isn't this saying I'm 'all bark and no bite, good at scheming but indecisive'? Who is Prime Minister Cao mocking again?" Joseph was thinking this when he heard Carnot continue:

"But judging from your decision yesterday, my view was completely wrong. You are a man of principle and decisiveness! You are usually cautious and meticulous, but brave and resolute in critical moments! Joseph, you have the potential to become a great commander."

"But I still don't know how to face His Excellency Lafayette," Joseph said somewhat nervously.

"I haven't seen the general yet today either. But I think the general is a reasonable person," Carnot said. "Why are you so worried today? Why did you say those things yesterday?"

"Given yesterday's circumstances, I had to do it. Even if the general has any ill feelings towards me because of it, I still had to do it," Joseph said. "But General Lafayette is a very good man, and I have always respected him. I don't want to lose his friendship."

Joseph knew that Lafayette valued Carnot highly, so he also tried to use Carnot to see if he could ease the tension between himself and Lafayette.

Carnot laughed heartily and said, "If General Lafayette were someone who puts the interests of France before his own, he wouldn't be holding a grudge against you for what happened yesterday. And frankly, his actions yesterday were indeed ungentlemanly. If he puts personal grudges before the interests of France, then what's the point of having such a friend? Alright, don't overthink it. We do things honestly and uprightly; as long as we can live with our conscience, that's enough. Why worry so much?"

"That's typical Carnot- style answer; this guy doesn't bother explaining these things. Expecting him to act as an intermediary to communicate with Lafayette is probably unrealistic," Joseph thought.

Just then, a messenger entered and said to Carnot and Joseph, "The general needs you two to come over."

Joseph, feeling uneasy, followed the messenger with Carnot to see Lafayette. Carnot smiled at Joseph and said, "Don't worry, I'll support you."

When Joseph met Lafayette, Joseph felt a little guilty, but Lafayette didn't mention the previous day at all. He just asked about the progress of some projects as usual.

After finishing their work-related discussions, Joseph and Carnot said goodbye and left together. Once outside, Carnot said to Joseph:

"See, I told you the general wouldn't care about this."

Joseph just smiled when he heard this, but thought to himself, "How could Carnot be so naive? The fact that Lafayette didn't mention it shows that he really cares about it."

Of course, if Lafayette were to bring up the matter herself and comfort Joseph, telling him not to worry about it, Joseph would probably think that Lafayette had ulterior motives.

"'Can a lowly man serve a ruler? Before he obtains the position, he worries about obtaining it; after obtaining it, he worries about losing it.' Confucius's words seem to describe me perfectly. But they are so true; no wonder he is the Master. If Carnot knew what I was thinking, he would probably say the same thing about me. But at least one thing is guaranteed: Lafayette won't do anything to me anytime soon." Joseph thought to himself.

For a while afterward, things were relatively calm, and Lafayette and his friends seemed to have the situation under control. The king swore an oath to the constitution, and Lafayette, with a group that had split from the Jacobin Club, established another club, the Feuillant Club. He formed an alliance with the "Black Party" who supported the king, as well as those respectable people who could afford to pay election deposits, and seemed to have firmly grasped control of the situation.

The remaining democrats, the remnants of the dissolved Cortelée Club, and the marginalized leftists in the government and parliament all flocked to Robespierre's Jacobin Club. Almost simultaneously with the right wing's grand coalition, the left wing quietly formed its own grand coalition.

Now that Lafayette and his friends had gained the upper hand, they naturally wanted to consolidate their position. So, with the help of Duport, Barnave, and the Lameth brothers, they attempted to use their current dominant position in Parliament to amend the constitution, grant the king more power, restore certain rights of the nobility, establish a Senate to win over the "Black Party," increase election guarantees to ensure that those elected in the future would be "respectable people," and allow members of Parliament to be re-elected and to concurrently serve as ministers, ensuring their own people would receive long-term benefits.

Although the Feuillants, the Black Party, and those inclined towards them constituted a majority in Parliament, enough to pass such a resolution, none of the proposals passed in the vote. This was because the opposition came not only from the Jacobin and a segment of the "decent" who favored the republic, but also from the entire Black Party.

It is said that King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette both agreed that Lafayette was a more formidable enemy than the Jacobin. This was understandable, as the Jacobin held little power at the time. Their leader was merely a commoner (in the eyes of the court, commoners were considered ignorant fools), so what trouble could they possibly cause? The Duke of Orleans, who had been allied with them, was no longer as powerful as before. He had been away from France for over a crucial year, and by the time he returned, his former influence had largely dissipated. Moreover, that playboy was a typical incompetent fool. If he were truly capable, he wouldn't have been driven out of the country by Lafayette, nor would he have allowed a commoner to become chairman. He's also surnamed Bourbon? How could he be surnamed Bourbon? Does he even deserve the surname Bourbon?

The King and Queen held this view, Count of Artois (King Louis XVI's brother) likely played a significant role in it. The Count of Artois was one of the first high-ranking nobles to flee abroad, and among them, one of the most resolute in his counter-revolutionary stance. In a sense, he was one of the very people Mirabeau had warned the King and Queen to be wary of—the one closest to them by blood, yet the one most eager to exploit them. But now, the King and Queen had no one left to rely on, and moreover, they had never truly trusted Mirabeau.

Indeed, the Feuillants offered many privileges to the king and nobles, but in the eyes of the Black Party, those things were rightfully theirs. The Feuillants were merely returning a small portion of what they had taken from them. Like the mob, the Feuillants were no different—they were all damned rebels. Since they were both rebels, it was best to let the two factions fight each other. If they sided with the stronger side and crushed the other faction, it wouldn't be a good thing for restoring a bright and just France.

In addition, there was another reason that firmly led the Black Party to stand on the Jacobin' side: Austria's attitude.

Since the king's failed escape, the royal couple and their Royalist Party have placed their hopes on military intervention from Europe countries, especially the Queen's brother, the Austria Emperor. They believe that the France army is now severely divided, and if Europe countries unite, they can easily defeat the French Army and bring France back to "normal."

However, the Austria emperor was not particularly enthusiastic about going to war with France, and the reason for his lack of enthusiasm was that Catherine II Great of Russia was very keen on armed intervention in France.

Europe royal families are all related; if you search through their genealogies, you can find a distant or close kinship between any king and the king of another country. Even Catherine Great and Louis XVI could likely be found to be related if you really wanted to. However, Her Majesty the Queen's enthusiasm for armed intervention in the France Revolution was not actually aimed at France, but at Poland.

By this time, the glory days of Poland's dominance over Turkey were long gone. Thanks to its bizarre system of electing a king and the aristocracy's veto power, Poland had gradually weakened, transforming from a powerful lion dominating Eastern Europe into a vulnerable lamb. However, this lamb was surrounded by wolves, their infighting allowing it to barely survive. Russia, meanwhile, was one of those wolves eyeing this lamb. If Europe were to go to war over intervention in France, given France's size, the conflict would be far from over. The countries bordering France would be drawn to the conflict, allowing Russia to act with impunity in Eastern Europe.

This scheme could not be hidden from Austria Emperor Leopold II, so he did not want to start a war. He even felt that if a constitutional monarchy could be established, the situation in France would be perfectly acceptable. He did not want to fight a war with France to the point of mutual destruction, only to find that Poland had been partitioned by the Russia and Prussia, leaving him with nothing.

Therefore, in order to break out of war, the Royalist Party must not allow constitutional monarchy to succeed.