he would at once have counselled force, and, throwing the
weight of the royal cause upon the loyalty of the army, have risked the
issue without a fear. Around Marie Antoinette were, therefore, grouped
those who took the highest ground in the cause of monarchy, and who
resisted almost the bare thought of what savoured of compromise or
concession.

Among those who were conspicuous for adherence to these opinions,
was the Marquise de Bauffremont. To high rank, a large fortune, no
inconsiderable share of court favour, she added a passion for everything
like political intrigue. She was one of a school--of which some
disciples have been seen in our own day--who deem that there are
questions of statecraft too fine and too delicate for the rough handling
of men, and where the finer touch of woman is essentially needed. So far
as matters of policy are moulded by the tempers of those who treat
them, and so far as it is of moment to appreciate finer traits
of character--to trace their origin, their leanings and their
sympathies--there is no doubt that the quicker and more subtle instincts
of a woman have an immense advantage over the less painstaking and less
minute habits of a manly mind. If the Marquise did not inaugurate this
school, she gave a great development to its principles, and, assuredly,
she practised her art at a period when its resources were to be
submitted to the severest of all tests. Her spacious 'hotel' in the
Place Louis Quinze was the centre of all those who assumed to be
the last bulwark of the monarchy, and there might be found the
Rochejaquelins, the Noailles, the Tavannes, the Valmys, and a host of
others not less distinguished, while the ministers and envoys of various
foreign courts resorted to these salons as the most authentic source of
news to be transmitted to their governments. Partly from predilection,
partly from that policy which affected to despise popular dictation,
these receptions were conducted with considerable display and
ostentation, and all that costly luxury and expense could impart lent
its aid to give them an air of almost princely state. For a while there
was a pretence of treating the passing events as incidents too slight
and too vulgar for notice, but after a time this affectation gave way to
another scarcely less absurd: of alluding to them in a tone of scoff
and derision, ridiculing those who were their chief actors, and actually
making them subjects of witty pasquinade and cari