n which an accident, some tumult in
the street, had interrupted.[2323] Clear-sighted in society, they are
obtuse in politics. They examine everything by the artificial light of
candles; they are disturbed and bewildered in the powerful light of open
day. The eyelid has grown stiff through age. The organ so long bent on
the petty details of one refined life no longer takes in the popular
life of the masses, and, in the new sphere into which it is suddenly
plunged, its refinement becomes the source of its blindness.

Nevertheless action is necessary, for danger is seizing them by the
throat. But the danger is of an ignoble species, while their education
has provided them with no arms suitable for warding it off. They have
learned how to fence, but not how to box. They are still the sons of
those at Fontenoy, who, instead of being the first to fire, courteously
raised their hats and addressed their English antagonists, "No,
gentlemen, fire yourselves." Being the slaves of good-breeding they
are not free in their movements. Numerous acts, and those the most
important, those of a sudden, vigorous and rude stamp, are opposed to
the respect a well-bred man entertains for others, or at least to the
respect which he owes to himself. They do not consider these allowable
among themselves; they do not dream of their being allowed, and, the
higher their position the more their rank fetters them. When the royal
family sets out for Varennes the accumulated delays by which they are
lost are the result of etiquette. Madame de Touzel insists on her place
in the carriage to which she is entitled as governess of the Children of
France. The king, on arriving, is desirous of conferring the marshal's
baton on M. de Bouille, and after running to and fro to obtain a baton
he is obliged to borrow that of the Duc de Choiseul. The queen cannot
dispense with a traveling dressing-case and one has to be made large
enough to contain every imaginable implement from a warming-pan to a
silver porridge-dish, with other dishes besides; and, as if there were
no shifts to be had in Brussels, there had to be a complete outfit in
this line for herself and her children.[2324]--A fervent devotion,
even humanness, the frivolity of the small literary spirit, graceful
urbanity, profound ignorance,[2325] the lack or rigidity of the
comprehension and determination are still greater with the princes
than with the nobles.--All are impotent against the wild and roaring