the different places acted as postilions; and, in the towns, the
inhabitants took off the horses to drag the carriage themselves. It was
I that enjoyed for him; I was carried away by delight, and must not
feel ungrateful for those happy days, however sad were the ones that
followed." "O, nothing can equal the emotion that a woman feels when she
has the happiness of hearing the name of one beloved repeated by a
whole people. All those faces, which appear for the time animated by
the same sentiment as one's self; those innumerable voices, which echo to
the heart the name that rises in the air, and which appear to return
from heaven after having received the homage of earth; the inconceivable
electricity which men communicate to each other when they share the
same emotions; all those mysteries of nature and social feeling are added
to the greatest mystery of all--love--filial or maternal--but still love;
and the soul sinks under emotions stronger than itself. When I came to
myself, I felt that I had reached the extreme boundary of happiness."

The triumph was of short duration: striving to act a middle part,
Necker incurred the distrust of both parties. His want of capacity,
also, to rule the tempest, was most evident; his propositions were
weak and inconsistent; but his daughter saw not this: the loss of the
confidence of the king and of the favor of the people, was attributed
by her to their ingratitude and perversity; in her eyes, her father
was still the greatest of men. His resignation and departure from
France was to her a subject of mortification, however. As he passed on
his way to Switzerland, the same people who, the year before, had
swelled the acclamations of triumph and joy, now met him with
reproaches and revilings. At one place he was detained as a prisoner,
and only released in pursuance of a decree of the National Assembly.

His daughter remained at Paris. Although excluded theoretically from
the exercise of any political power, there is no country where the
women take so active a part in politics as in France. Madame de Stael
was not a woman to forego the exercise of rights which custom had
given her sex: accordingly we find her deeply involved in all the
political intrigues of the day, and her drawing-room the scene of the
most important political discussions.

During the dreadful days of August, 1792, she exerted herself to the
utmost to save the lives of her friends; fearlessly traversing the
streets