But for the present we must follow its course from the moment of its apparent extinction in 1786. This course can be traced not only through the "German Union," which is believed to have been a reorganization of the original Illuminati, but through the secret societies of France. Illuminism in reality is less an Order than a principle, and a principle which can work better under cover of something else. Weishaupt himself had laid down the precept that the work of Illuminism could best be conducted "under other names and other occupations," and henceforth we shall always find it carried on by this skilful system of camouflage. The first cover adopted was the lodge of the "Amis Réunis" in Paris, with which, as we have already seen, the Illuminati had established relations. But now in 1787 a definite alliance was effected by the aforementioned Illuminati, Bode and Busche, who in response to an invitation from the secret committee of the lodge arrived in Paris in February of this year. Here they found the old Illuminatus Mirabeau--who with Talleyrand had been largely instrumental in summoning these German Brothers--and, according to Gustave Bord,[610] two important members of the Stricte Observance, the Marquis de Chefdebien d'Armisson (_Eques a Capite Galeato_) and an Austrian, the Comte Leopold de Kollowrath-Krakowski (_Eques ab Aquila Fulgente_) who also belonged to Weishaupt's Order of Illuminati in which he bore the pseudonym of Numenius. It is important here to recognize the peculiar part played by the Lodge of the _Amis Réunis_. Whilst the _Loge des Neuf Soeurs_ was largely composed of middle-class revolutionaries such as Brissot, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Champfort, and the _Loge de la Candeur_ of aristocratic revolutionaries--Lafayette as well as the Orléanistes, the Marquis de Sillery, the Duc d'Aiguillon, the Marquis de Custine, and the Lameths--_the Loge du Contrat Social_ was mainly composed of honest visionaries who entertained no revolutionary projects but, according to Barruel, were strongly Royalist. The rôle of the "Amis Réunis" was to collect together the subversives from all other lodges--Philalèthes, Rose-Croix, members of the _Loge des Neuf Sours_ and of the _Loge de la Candeur_ and of the most secret committees of the Grand Orient, as well as deputies from the _Illuminés_ in the provinces. Here, then, at the lodge in the Rue de la Sordière, under the direction of Savalette de Langes, were to be found the disciples of Weishaupt, of Swedenborg, and of Saint-Martin, as well as the practical makers of revolution--the agitators and demagogues of 1789.