is pretensions to the estates of his ancestors. The Jesuits had
been disgraced and banished, but the much litigated Odone property had
not been restored to him; on the contrary, the buildings had been
converted into school-houses, and the revenues turned into various
channels. Years had passed, and it was evident that his suit was
hopeless. How could substantial advantage be secured from the King?

His friends, General Marbeuf in particular, were of the opinion that
he could profit to a certain extent at least by securing for his
children an education at the expense of the state. While it is likely
that from the first Joseph was destined for the priesthood, yet there
was provision for ecclesiastical training under royal patronage as
well as for secular, and a transfer from the latter to the former was
easier than the reverse. Both were to be placed at the college of
Autun for a preliminary course, whatever their eventual destination
might be. The necessary steps were soon taken, and in 1776 the formal
supplication for the two eldest boys was forwarded to Paris.
Immediately the proof of four noble descents was demanded. The
movement of letters was slow, that of officials even slower, and the
delays in securing copies and authentications of the various documents
were long and vexatious.

Meantime Choiseul had been disgraced, and on May tenth, 1774, the old
King had died; Louis XVI now reigned. The inertia which marked the
brilliant decadence of the Bourbon monarchy was finally overcome. The
new social forces were partly emancipated. Facts were examined, and
their significance considered. Bankruptcy was no longer a threatening
phantom, but a menacing reality of the most serious nature.
Retrenchment and reform were the order of the day. Necker was trying
his promising schemes. There was, among them, one for a body
consisting of delegates from each of the three estates,--nobles,
ecclesiastics, and burgesses,--to assist in deciding that troublesome
question, the regulation of imposts. The Swiss financier hoped to
destroy in this way the sullen, defiant influence of the royal
intendants. In Corsica the governor and the intendant both thought
themselves too shrewd to be trapped, and secured the appointment from
each of the Corsican estates of men who were believed by them to be
their humble servants. The needy suitor, Charles de Buonaparte, was to
be the delegate at Versailles of the nobility. They thought they knew
this man