eral should be
conveyed unseen to an apartment in the Chateau, while I did him and
his "_braves camarades_" the honour of sharing their supper. I gave
the most willing consent; a ride of thirty miles had given me the
appetite of a hunter.

I was now introduced to a new scene. The room was filled with muskets
and knapsacks piled against the walls, and three-fourths of those who
sat down were private soldiers; yet there was scarcely a man who did
not wear some knightly decoration, and I heard the noblest names of
France everywhere round me. Thus extremes meet: the Faubourg St
Germains had taken the equality of the new order of things, and the
very first attempt to retain an exclusive rank had brought all to the
same level. But it was a generous, a graceful, and a gallant level.
All was good-humour under their privations, and the fearful chances
which awaited them were evidently regarded with a feeling which had
all the force of physical courage without its roughness. I was much
struck, too, with the remarkable appearance of the military figures
round me. Contrary to our general notions of the foreign noblesse
those exhibited some of the finest-looking men whom I had ever seen.
This was perhaps, in a considerable degree, owing to the military
life. In countries where the nobility are destitute of public
employment, they naturally degenerate--become the victims of the
diseases of indolence and profligacy, transmit their decrepitude to
their descendants, and bequeath dwarfishness and deformity to their
name. But in France, the young noble was destined for soldiership from
his cradle. His education partook of the manly preparations for the
soldier's career. The discipline of the service, even in peace, taught
him some superiority to the effeminate habits of opulence; and a sense
of the actual claims of talents, integrity, and determination, gave
them all an importance which, whatever might be the follies of an
individual, from time to time, powerfully shaped the general character
of the nobles. In England, the efforts for political power, and the
distinctions of political fame, preserve our nobility from relaxing
into the slavery of indulgence. The continual ascent of accomplished
minds from the humbler ranks, at once reinforces their ability and
excites their emulation; and if England may proudly boast of men of
intellectual vigour, worthy of rising to the highest rank from the
humblest condition, she may, with not less jus