He was desired to proceed
peacefully, but his powers were almost absolute, as is shown by the
orders he carried - orders enjoining all to render him assistance
and warning those who might hinder him that they would do so at
their peril.
He accepted the task, and he was one of the five plenipotentiaries
despatched on the same errand in that spring of 1792. It kept him
absent from Paris for four months and might have kept him longer
but that at the beginning of August he was recalled. More imminent
than any trouble in Brittany was the trouble brewing in Paris itself;
when the political sky was blacker than it had been since '89.
Paris realized that the hour was rapidly approaching which would
see the climax of the long struggle between Equality and Privilege.
And it was towards a city so disposed that Andre-Louis came speeding
from the West, to find there also the climax of his own disturbed
career.
Mlle. de Kercadiou, too, was in Paris in those days of early August,
on a visit to her uncle's cousin and dearest friend, Mme.
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