rtune with
resignation.

For having undone all the work of Cardinal Richelieu, for having changed
the old enmity between France and Austria into friendship, for delivering
Italy from the horrors of war which befell her whenever these countries
had a bone to pick, although he was the first cardinal made by a pope who
had had plenty of opportunities for discovering his character, merely
because, on being asked, he had given it as his opinion that the Prince
de Soubise was not a fit person to command the French armies, this great
ecclesiastic was driven into exile. The moment the Pompadour heard of
this opinion of his, she decreed his banishment--a sentence which was
unpopular with all classes of society; but they consoled themselves with
epigrams, and the new cardinal was soon forgotten. Such is the character
of the French people; it cares neither for its own misfortunes nor for
those of others, if only it can extract laughter from them.

In my time epigrammatists and poetasters who assailed ministers or even
the king's mistresses were sent to the Bastille, but the wits still
persisted in being amusing, and there were some who considered a jest
incomplete that was not followed by a prosecution. A man whose name I
have forgotten--a great lover of notoriety--appropriated the following
verses by the younger Crebellon and went to the Bastille rather than
disown them.

"All the world's upside down!
Jupiter has donned the gown--the King.
Venus mounts the council stair--the Pompadour.
Plutus trifles with the fair--M. de Boulogne.
Mercury in mail is drest--Marechal de Richelieu.
Mighty Mars has turned a priest--the Duc de Clermont, abbe of
St. Germain-des-pres."

Crebillon, who was not the sort of man to conceal his writings, told the
Duc de Choiseul that he had written some verses exactly like these, but
that it was possible the prisoner had been inspired with precisely the
same ideas. This jest was applauded, and the author of "The Sofa" was let
alone.

Cardinal de Bernis passed ten years in exile, 'procul negotiis', but he
was not happy, as he told me himself when I knew him in Rome fifteen
years afterwards. It is said that it is better to be a minister than a
king--an opinion which seems ridiculous when it is analyzed. The
question is, which is the better, independence or its contrary. The axiom
may possibly be verified in a despotic government under an absurd, weak,
or careless king who serves as