eaux); under our Seven Princes of the Blood, Monsieur,
D'Artois, Penthievre, and the rest; among whom let not our new Duke
d'Orleans (for, since 1785, he is Chartres no longer) be forgotten.
Never yet made Admiral, and now turning the corner of his fortieth year,
with spoiled blood and prospects; half-weary of a world which is more
than half-weary of him, Monseigneur's future is most questionable. Not
in illumination and insight, not even in conflagration; but, as was
said, 'in dull smoke and ashes of outburnt sensualities,' does he
live and digest. Sumptuosity and sordidness; revenge, life-weariness,
ambition, darkness, putrescence; and, say, in sterling money, three
hundred thousand a year,--were this poor Prince once to burst loose from
his Court-moorings, to what regions, with what phenomena, might he not
sail and drift! Happily as yet he 'affects to hunt daily;' sits there,
since he must sit, presiding that Bureau of his, with dull moon-visage,
dull glassy eyes, as if it were a mere tedium to him.

We observe finally, that Count Mirabeau has actually arrived. He
descends from Berlin, on the scene of action; glares into it with
flashing sun-glance; discerns that it will do nothing for him. He had
hoped these Notables might need a Secretary. They do need one; but
have fixed on Dupont de Nemours; a man of smaller fame, but then of
better;--who indeed, as his friends often hear, labours under this
complaint, surely not a universal one, of having 'five kings to
correspond with.' (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau (Paris, 1832), p. 20.)
The pen of a Mirabeau cannot become an official one; nevertheless
it remains a pen. In defect of Secretaryship, he sets to denouncing
Stock-brokerage (Denonciation de l'Agiotage); testifying, as his wont
is, by loud bruit, that he is present and busy;--till, warned by friend
Talleyrand, and even by Calonne himself underhand, that 'a seventeenth
Lettre-de-Cachet may be launched against him,' he timefully flits over
the marches.

And now, in stately royal apartments, as Pictures of that time still
represent them, our hundred and forty-four Notables sit organised; ready
to hear and consider. Controller Calonne is dreadfully behindhand with
his speeches, his preparatives; however, the man's 'facility of work' is
known to us. For freshness of style, lucidity, ingenuity, largeness
of view, that opening Harangue of his was unsurpassable:--had not the
subject-matter been so appalling. A Deficit, co