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The author of the last book published on the Revolution, M. Madelin, has well summarised their opinion in the following words: ``As early as 1793 a party by no means numerous had seized upon France, the Revolution, and the Republic.
M. Madelin is equally dubious in the book he has recently published: ``I have never felt sufficient authority to form, even in my inmost conscience, a categorical judgment on so complex a phenomenon as the French Revolution. To-day I find it even more difficult to form a brief judgement. Causes, facts, and consequences seem to me to be still extremely debatable subjects.
``The majority of the Jacobins, writes M. Madelin ``were greatly enriched, and like Chabot, Bazire, Merlin, Barras, Boursault, Tallien, Barrere, &c., possessed chateaux and estates.
I, The Youth of Mirabeau, was published in 1908; the most recent and convenient French treatment is by Louis Barthou ; a standard German work is Alfred Stern, Das Leben Mirabeaus, 2 vols. ; and for a real insight into Mirabeau's character and policies, reference should be made to his Correspondance avec le comte de la Marck, 3 vols. . Hilaire Belloc has written very readable and suggestive English biographies of Danton , Robespierre , and Marie Antoinette . Perhaps the best brief appreciation of Danton is that by Louis Madelin ; J. F. E. Robinet has written a valuable Danton , and likewise a Condorcet . The elaborate Histoire de Robespierre et du coup d'etat du 9 thermidor by Ernest Hamel, 3 vols.
He spoke so calmly and with such an air of astonishment that we all felt inclined to laugh. Madelin had already given proof of his courage, he had even been mentioned in orders for his valour, but we had never seen him so placidly good-humoured under fire as on this occasion.
Presently there arrived the two officers whose duty it was to take me to Verdun, Captain Henri Bourdeaux, a man of letters known to all Frenchmen; Captain Madelin, an historian, already documented in the history of the war making under his own eyes.
He must have recognised the little group formed by the Major, my comrades, and myself in the middle of the road, for he made straight for us. When he got to within twenty paces of us we recognised to our joy Sergeant Madelin, a non-commissioned officer of our second squadron, the squadron that had stayed in the trenches with the Colonel and the machine-gun section.
"They had marched under a torrid sky," says Louis Madelin, "on scorching roads, parched and suffocated with dust. In reality they moved with their hearts rather than with their legs.
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