plus grand desir
Est de montrer tout mon courage.

But what arrested my attention, more than anything else which occurred in
this circle on that evening, was a printed paper mysteriously handed
about, and of which, thanks to the civility of a Counsellor of State, I
at last got a sight. It was a list of those persons, of different
countries, whom the Emperor of the French has fixed upon, to replace all
the ancient dynasties of Europe within twenty years to come. From the
names of these individuals, some of whom are known to me, I could
perceive that Bonaparte had more difficulty to select proper Emperors,
Kings, and Electors, than he would have had, some years ago, to choose
directors or consuls. Our inconsistency is, however, evident even here;
I did not read a name that is not found in the annals of Jacobinism and
republicanism. We have, at the same time, taken care not to forget
ourselves in this new distribution of supremacy. France is to furnish
the stock of the new dynasties for Austria, England, Spain, Denmark, and
Sweden. What would you think, were you to awake one morning the subject
of King Arthur O'Connor the First? You would, I dare say, be even more
surprised than I am in being the subject of Napoleon Bonaparte the First.
You know, I suppose, that O'Connor is a general of division, and a
commander of the Legion of Honour,--the bosom friend of Talleyrand, and
courting, at this moment, a young lady, a relation of our Empress, whose
portion may one day be an Empire. But I am told that, notwithstanding
Talleyrand's recommendations, and the approbation of Her Majesty, the
lady prefers a colonel, her own countryman, to the Irish general. Should,
however, our Emperor announce his determination, she would be obliged to
marry as he commands, were he even to give her his groom, or his horse,
for a spouse.

You can form no idea how wretched and despised all the Irish rebels are
here. O'Connor alone is an exception; and this he owes to Talleyrand, to
General Valence, and to Madame de Genlis; but even he is looked on with a
sneer, and, if he ever was respected in England, must endure with
poignancy the contempt to which he is frequently exposed in France. When
I was in your country I often heard it said that the Irish were generally
considered as a debased and perfidious people, extremely addicted to
profligacy and drunkenness, and, when once drunk, more cruelly ferocious
than even our Jacobins. I thought it then, and I