Their
armies were ill-organized and ill-disciplined. Provisions were scarce,
arms were inferior, and fortified places in poor repair. Lafayette had
greater ambition than ability.
[Sidenote: Early French Reverses]
[Sidenote: Equivocal Position of the Royal Family]
The war opened, therefore, with a series of French reverses. An
attempted invasion of the Austrian Netherlands ended in dismal failure.
On the eastern frontier the allied armies under the duke of Brunswick
experienced little difficulty in opening up a line of march to Paris.
Intense grew the excitement in the French capital. The reverses gave
color to the suspicion that the royal family were betraying military
plans to the enemy. A big demonstration took place on 20 June: a crowd
of market women, artisans, coal heavers, and hod carriers pushed
through the royal residence, jostling and threatening the king and
queen: no violence was done but the temper of the Parisian proletariat
was quite evident. But Louis and Marie Antoinette simply would not
learn their lesson.
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