,
near Nemours, on March 9, 1749, and died at Paris on April 2,
1791. His father was a most eccentric and tyrannical
representative of the French aristocracy, and Honore, a
younger son, inherited something of his violent temperament,
but was endowed with real genius. Entering the army, young
Mirabeau soon displayed an erratic disposition by eloping with
the young wife of an aged nobleman. He fled to Holland, but
was captured and imprisoned. Being at length liberated, he
turned to literature and politics, and soon gained celebrity
in both. His magnificent oratorical powers brought him rapidly
to the front in the period immediately anterior to the
outbreak of the Revolution. Mirabeau's "Memoirs, by Himself,
his Father, his Uncle, and his Adopted Son," published in
eight volumes in 1834, contain no original writings by
Mirabeau himself, except in the shape of extracts from his
speeches, letters, and pamphlets. The following epitome has
been prepared from the French text.

_I.--"The Hurricane"_

The Marquis of Mirabeau, father of Honore Gabriel, the subject of these
memoirs, was endowed with a mind of great power, rendered fruitful by
the best education. He had, however, become independent at too early an
age, and this had brought into play his natural inordinate vanity.

Honore Gabriel, since so famous under the name of the Count of Mirabeau,
was the fifth child of the marquis. Destined to be the most turbulent
and active of youths, as well as the most eloquent of men and the
greatest orator of his day, Gabriel was born with one foot twisted and
his tongue tied, in addition to which his size and strength were
extraordinary, and already two molars were formed in his jaw. At the age
of three the boy nearly lost his life from small-pox, and was thus
disfigured greatly for life; while the other children were, like the
parents, gifted with wonderful beauty.

Young Gabriel was a most precocious child, and he received an excellent
education. At the age of seven he was confirmed by a cardinal, but his
childhood was difficult of control, and chastisement from his father and
tutor was continual. His inquisitiveness was irrepressible. He relates
that at the family supper after his confirmation, "they explained to me
that God could not make contradictions--for instance, a stick with only
one end. I asked whether a stick which had but one end