I can assure the Marquis de Chasteler that it is my unalterable determination never to set foot on any territory which acknowledges obedience to His Majesty the King of Bohemia and Hungary.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have mortally opposed the English king; I have stormed and taken the towns and castles which he unjustly claimed as his own.
I would rather not be a king than to forfeit my liberty.
I am astonished but not discouraged by my enormous responsibility. Devoted both from affection and duty to the cause of the people, I shall combat with equal ardor aristocracy, despotism, and faction.
I am faithfully devoted to the Republic but will not serve it at the expense of my conscience and my honor.
I have no desire to go in for tyranny or to play the part of King Charles. I hate tyranny in any field of human activity.
My honour was not yielded, but conquered merely.
That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.
I shall not remind you, Citizen-Directors, of all I have done for the triumph of liberty, the prosperity of St. Domingo, the glory of the French Republic; nor will I protest to you my attachment to our mother country, to my duties; my respect to the constitution, to the laws of the Republic, and my submission to the government.
If the king refuses the constitution, I shall oppose him; if he accepts it, I shall defend him; and the day on which he gave himself up as my prisoner secured me more fully to his service than if he had promised me half his kingdom.