less agents, with an intrepid assurance which, down to the last,
confounded and baffled all official inquisitors, until, in each separate
case, the scent had got cold. Therefore, he sympathized not at all with
any of these, his subalterns, when they, in their own proper matters,
allowed themselves a less guarded style of movement."

On one occasion, Condorcet's imprudence extorts a whole series of
passionate remonstrants from him and his probable complaints--but the
burden is always the same--"Tolerate the whispers of age! How often
shall I have to tell you all that no one but a fool will publish such
things unless he has 200,000 bayonets at his back? Each Encyclopaedist
was apt to forget that, though he corresponded familiarly with
Frederick, he was not a King of Prussia; and, by-and-by, not one of them
more frequently made this mistake than Condorcet--for that gentleman's
saintlike tranquillity of demeanor, though it might indicate a naturally
languid pulse, covered copious elements of vital passion. The slow wheel
could not resist the long attrition of controversy; and when it once
blazed, the flame was all the fiercer for its unseen nursing. 'You
mistake Condorcet,' said D'Alembert, 'he is a volcano covered with
snow.'"

When Turgot became Minister of Marine, he gave Condorcet a post as
Inspector of Canals; from this he was subsequently promoted to the
Inspector of the Mint. When Turgot was replaced by Necker, Condorcet
resigned his office.

In 1782 he was elected one of the forty of the Academy of Sciences,
beating the Astronomer, Bailly, by _one_ vote. In the next year,
D'Alembert, his faithful friend, died, leaving him the whole of his
wealth; his uncle, the bishop, likewise died in the same year, from
whom he would receive a fresh accession of property. Shortly after this,
time, Condorcet married Madame de Grouchy--also celebrated as a lady of
great beauty, good fortune, and an educated Atheist. The marriage was
a happy one. The only offspring was a girl, who married General Arthur
O'Connor, uncle to the late Feargus O'Connor, an Irish refugee who was
connected with Emmett's rebellion.

During the excitement of the American War of Independence, Condorcet
took an active part in urging the French Government to bestow assistance
in arms and money, upon the United States; after the war was concluded,
he corresponded with Thomas Paine, who gradually converted him to the
extreme Republican views the "illustrious n