de the reproof actually a
severity.

From the tone of his Majesty's observations on our nobility, and the
security such an order necessarily creates, I thought I could mark a
degree of regret at the extinction of the class in France. How natural
such a feeling! For how, after all, can a monarchy long subsist with
such a long interval between the crown and the people? The gradations
of rank are the best guarantees against any assault on its privileges;
a House of Lords is the best floating breakwater against the storms of a
people in revolt.

With a marked condescension, his Majesty inquired after my health and
the object of my journey; and when I mentioned Naples, hastily remarked,
"Ah, well! I can promise you a very agreeable house to pass your
evenings in: we are going to send Favancourt there as envoy, and Madame
la Comtesse is your countrywoman. This, however, is a secret which even
Favancourt himself is ignorant of."

I am not casuist enough to say if this intimation of the King is binding
on me as to secrecy; but, possibly, I need not risk the point, as I
shall not be likely to see Favancourt or Madame de Favancourt before I
start to-morrow.

I am already impatient for the hour to go; I want to be away--afar--from
the gorgeous glitter of this splendid capital. Something nigh to
misanthropy creeps over me at the sight of pleasures in which I am no
more to take a part, and I would not that a feeling thus ungenerous
should be my travelling companion. I do not experience the inordinate
love of life which, we are told, ever accompanies my malady. If I have
a wish to live, it is to frame a different kind of existence from what I
have hitherto followed, and I believe most sick people's love of life is
the desire of dwelling longer amid the pursuits they have followed. And
now for the map, to see how I may trace a route, and see--shame that I
must say so!--fewest of my countrymen. Well, then, from Strasbourg to
Fribourg, and through the Hohlen-Thal.

So far, so good! This is all new to me. Thence to Munich, or direct to
Inspruck, as I may decide later on. This, at least, avoids Switzerland,
and all its radicalism and roguery, not to speak of the "Perkinses," who
are "out" by this time, touring it to Lausanne and Chamouni.

What a tremendous noise a carriage makes coming through these
_portes-cocheres!_ Truly, the luxury is heavily paid for by all the
inhabitants of a house. Is that a tap at my door?

*****

A f