says "Investigate" says "Revolt." All revolt
is either the cloak that hides a prince, or the swaddling-clothes of a
new mastery. The house of Bourbon, the younger sons of the Valois, were
at work beneath the surface of the Reformation.

At the moment when the little boat floated beneath the arch of the pont
au Change the question was strangely complicated by the ambitions of the
Guises, who were rivalling the Bourbons. Thus the Crown, represented by
Catherine de' Medici, was able to sustain the struggle for thirty years
by pitting the one house against the other house; whereas later, the
Crown, instead of standing between various jealous ambitions, found
itself without a barrier, face to face with the people: Richelieu and
Louis XIV. had broken down the barrier of the Nobility; Louis XV. had
broken down that of the Parliaments. Alone before the people, as Louis
XVI. was, a king must inevitably succumb.

Christophe Lecamus was a fine representative of the ardent and devoted
portion of the people. His wan face had the sharp hectic tones which
distinguish certain fair complexions; his hair was yellow, of a coppery
shade; his gray-blue eyes were sparkling. In them alone was his fine
soul visible; for his ill-proportioned face did not atone for its
triangular shape by the noble mien of an elevated mind, and his low
forehead indicated only extreme energy. Life seemed to centre in his
chest, which was rather hollow. More nervous than sanguine, Cristophe's
bodily appearance was thin and threadlike, but wiry. His pointed noise
expressed the shrewdness of the people, and his countenance revealed an
intelligence capable of conducting itself well on a single point of the
circumference, without having the faculty of seeing all around it. His
eyes, the arching brows of which, scarcely covered with a whitish down,
projected like an awning, were strongly circled by a pale-blue band, the
skin being white and shining at the spring of the nose,--a sign which
almost always denotes excessive enthusiasm. Christophe was of the
people,--the people who devote themselves, who fight for their
devotions, who let themselves be inveigled and betrayed; intelligent
enough to comprehend and serve an idea, too upright to turn it to his
own account, too noble to sell himself.

Contrasting with this son of Lecamus, Chaudieu, the ardent minister,
with brown hair thinned by vigils, a yellow skin, an eloquent mouth, a
militant brow, with flaming brown eyes