n, not by pamphlets
or inflammatory speeches, but by an argument far more forcible than
either. Conjointly with his friend, the Count Choiseul Gouffier, he
equipped a privateer, which he called the Holy Cause, and which left the
harbor of Brest in the month of May, 1779. The Duc de Castries, then
Minister of Marine, furnished the guns. This single fact would almost
serve to paint the time. A vessel of war armed and equipped by the
_agent general du clerge de France_, aided by a _savant_ of the _haute
noblesse_, and countenanced by one of the ministers, exhibits at once
the utter confusion of ideas which must have existed just then. I have
heard that the privateer, which, placed under command of a runaway scion
of nobility, was to have carried death and destruction among the English
merchant-ships trading from the West Indies, never more made its
appearance on the French coast. Be this as it may, I know that the
prince does not like to talk of this little episode in his life; and the
other day, when questioned rather closely on the subject, he answered,
'_Laissons cela, c'est un de mes peches de jeunesse._'" (P. 232.)

The temper of mind indicated by this passage was itself one of the
forerunners of the Revolution, for at that time France had become
delirious on the subject of the American struggle; and her soldiers and
nobles who were aiding the revolted provincialists, were busily employed
in gathering the fruits of that harvest of republicanism which they were
so soon to transport to their own country, where they were destined to
produce extraordinary results. At the time this event happened,
Talleyrand was twenty-five years of age, and in holy orders; and we are
to presume that the Anglo-mania, which overtook his countrymen ten years
later, and was the rage in '89, had not yet set in. The anecdote is
curious, but it strikes us as being illustrative rather of the character
of the age and people than of the individual man, for whom in his
natural mood, it was _trop prononce_.

As the Revolution advanced Talleyrand's safety was endangered, and like
most French patriots, ancient and modern, that was a thing which he
looked carefully to. Some papers were found, after the sack of the
Tuilleries, which compromised him; and in '92 he fled to the United
States of America, taking up his abode in the city of New York. He was
accompanied in his flight by a friend of the name of Beaumetz, and in
concert with whom he resolved to