scene of daily outbreaks. As the Chateau de Chamondrin was situated
between these two cities, its inmates could not fail to be aware of
these dissensions.

Conventions were held in most of the large towns, and the situation of
the country was discussed with much heat and bitterness. The nobility
and clergy, who trembled for their threatened privileges, and the
people, who had suffered so long and so uncomplainingly, took part in
these discussions; and their utterances betrayed great intolerance on
the one side and excessive irritation on the other. The discontent had
reached a class which, up to that date, had been allowed no voice in the
management of affairs; but now, the peasants, oppressed by taxes as
exorbitant as they were unjust, began to cast angry and envious glances
at the nobility. The hovel was menacing the castle; and France seemed to
be on the watch for some great event.

In the midst of this general perturbation, the king, anxious and
undecided, was running from one adviser to another, listening to all
kinds of counsel, consenting to all sorts of intrigues and making a
thousand resolutions without possessing the requisite firmness to carry
any good one into execution.

The Marquis de Chamondrin was a witness to some of these facts. The
letters of his son revealed others. He was extremely anxious in regard
to the future, and more than once Dolores and his wife saw his brow
overcast and his eyes gloomy.

A letter received from Philip early in May, 1788, increased his
disquietude. It was written on the day following the arrest of
Espremenil. Philip had witnessed the disturbance; had seen the people
applaud the officers of the municipal government, and insult the
representatives of royal authority. He described the scene in his letter
to his father. The Marquis, at the solicitation of Dolores, read her
Philip's letter and made her the confidante of his fears. She understood
now why Philip's return had been postponed. After this, she took a deep
interest in the progress of events not so much on account of their
gravity, which she did not comprehend as clearly as her adopted parents,
but because Philip was a witness of them, and because his return
depended upon a peaceful solution of the difficulty. She could not
foresee that an event, as sorrowful as it was unexpected, would soon
recall him to Chamondrin.

CHAPTER IV.

PERTAINING TO LOVE MATTERS.

A fortnight later, Philip, who was stationed a