nted there are four fresh
additions, and "with the utmost punctuality" all the young men of high
rank join the king's retinue two or three times a week. Not only the
eight or ten scenes which compose each of these days, but again the
short intervals between the scenes are besieged and carried. People
watch for him, walk by his side and speak with him on his way from his
cabinet to the chapel, between his apartment and his carriage, between
his carriage and his apartment, between his cabinet and his dining room.
And still more, his life behind the scenes belongs to the public. If he
is indisposed and broth is brought to him, if he is ill and medicine
is handed to him, "a servant immediately summons the 'grande entree.'"
Verily, the king resembles an oak stifled by the innumerable creepers
which, from top to bottom, cling to its trunk. Under a regime of this
stamp there is a want of air; some opening has to be found; Louis XV
availed himself of the chase and of suppers; Louis XVI of the chase
and of lock-making. And I have not mentioned the infinite detail
of etiquette, the extraordinary ceremonial of the state dinner, the
fifteen, twenty and thirty beings busy around the king's plates and
glasses, the sacramental utterances of the occasion, the procession of
the retinue, the arrival of "la nef" "l'essai des plats," all as if in
a Byzantine or Chinese court.[2146] On Sundays the entire public, the
public in general, is admitted, and this is called the "grand couvert,"
as complex and as solemn as a high mass. Accordingly to eat, to
drink, to get up, to go to bed, is to a descendant of Louis XIV,
to officiate.[2147] Frederick II, on hearing an explanation of this
etiquette, declared that if he were king of France his first edict would
be to appoint another king to hold court in his place. In effect, if
there are idlers to salute there must be an idler to be saluted. Only
one way was possible by which the monarch could have been set free, and
that was to have recast and transformed the French nobles, according
to the Prussian system, into a hard-working regiment of serviceable
functionaries. But, so long as the court remains what it is, that is to
say, a pompous parade and a drawing room decoration, the king himself
must likewise remain a showy decoration, of little or no use.

V. Royal Distractions.

Diversions of the royal family and of the court.--Louis XV.
--Louis XVI.

In short, what is the occupation