Napoleon said at St. Helena:--"The National Assembly never committed so great an error as in bringing back the King from Varennes. A fugitive and powerless, he was hastening to the frontier, and in a few hours would have been out of the French territory. What should they have done in these circumstances? Clearly facilitated his escape, and declared the throne vacant by his desertion. They would thus have avoided the infamy of a regicide government, and attained their great object of republican institutions." CHAPTER VII. _Legislative Assembly--Its Composition--Constitutionalists--Girondists or Brissotins--Jacobins--Views and Sentiments of Foreign Nations--England--Views of the Tories and Whigs--Anacharsis Clootz--Austria--Prussia--Russia--Sweden--Emigration of the French Princes and Clergy--Increasing Unpopularity of Louis from this Cause--Death of the Emperor Leopold, and its Effects--France declares War--Views and Interests of the different Parties in France at this Period--Decree against Monsieur--Louis interposes his Veto--Decree against the Priests who should refuse the Constitutional Oath--Louis again interposes his Veto--Consequences of these Refusals--Fall of De Lessart--Ministers now chosen from the Brissotins--All Parties favourable to War._ The first, or Constituent Assembly, in destroying almost all which existed as law in France, when they were summoned together as States-General, had preserved, at least in form, the name and power of a monarch. The Legislative Assembly, which succeeded them, seemed preparing to destroy the symbol of royalty which their predecessors had left standing, though surrounded by republican enactments.