ome attention on the
part of both historian and reader. We will then enter into some details
concerning Messieurs Malicorne and Manicamp. Malicorne, we know, had
made the journey to Orleans in search of the _brevet_ destined for
Mademoiselle de Montalais, the arrival of which had produced such a
strong feeling at the castle of Blois. At that moment, M. de Manicamp
was at Orleans. A singular person was this M. de Manicamp; a very
intelligent young fellow, always poor, always needy, although he dipped
his hand freely into the purse of M. le Comte de Guiche, one of the best
furnished purses of the period. M. le Comte de Guiche had had, as
the companion of his boyhood, this De Manicamp, a poor gentleman,
vassal-born, of the house of Gramont. M. de Manicamp, with his tact
and talent had created himself a revenue in the opulent family of the
celebrated marechal. From his infancy he had, with calculation beyond
his age, lent his mane and complaisance to the follies of the Comte de
Guiche. If his noble companion had stolen some fruit destined for
Madame la Marechale, if he had broken a mirror, or put out a dog's eye,
Manicamp declared himself guilty of the crime committed, and received
the punishment, which was not made the milder for falling on the
innocent. But this was the way this system of abnegation was paid
for: instead of wearing such mean habiliments as his paternal fortunes
entitled him to, he was able to appear brilliant, superb, like a young
noble of fifty thousand livres a year. It was not that he was mean in
character or humble in spirit; no, he was a philosopher, or rather he
had the indifference, the apathy, the obstinacy which banish from man
every sentiment of the supernatural. His sole ambition was to spend
money. But, in this respect, the worthy M. de Manicamp was a gulf. Three
or four times every year he drained the Comte de Guiche, and when the
Comte de Guiche was thoroughly drained, when he had turned out his
pockets and his purse before him, when he declared that it would be at
least a fortnight before paternal munificence would refill those pockets
and that purse, Manicamp lost all his energy, he went to bed, remained
there, ate nothing and sold his handsome clothes, under the pretense
that, remaining in bed, he did not want them. During this prostration
of mind and strength, the purse of the Comte de Guiche was getting full
again, and when once filled, overflowed into that of De Manicamp, who
bought new