t or retire. And so Belleisle
stalks across the OEil-de-Boeuf in that important manner, visibly to
Geusau; and is the shining object in Paris, and much the topic there at
present.

A few weeks hence, he is farther--a little out of the common turn, but
not beyond his military merits or capabilities--made Marechal de France;
[_Fastes de Louis XV.,_ i. 356 (12th February, 1741).] by way of giving
him a new splendor in the German Political World, and assisting in his
operations there, which depend much upon the laws of vision. French
epigrams circulate in consequence, and there are witty criticisms;
to which Belleisle, such a dusky world of Possibility lying ahead, is
grandly indifferent. Marechal de France;--and Geusau hears (what is a
fact) that there are to be "thirty young French Lords in his suite;" his
very "Livery," or mere plush retinue, "to consist of 110 persons;"
such an outfit for magnificence as was never seen before. And in this
equipment, "early in March" (exact day not given), magnificence of
outside corresponding to grandiosity of faculty and idea, Belleisle, we
shall find, does practically set off towards Germany;--like a kind of
French Belus, or God of the Sun; capable to dazzle weak German Courts,
by optical machinery, and to set much rotten thatch on fire!--

"There are curious daguerrotype glimpses of old Paris to be found in
that Notebook of Geusau's", says another Excerpt; "which come strangely
home to us, like reality at first-hand;--and a rather unexpected Paris
it is, to most readers; many things then alive there, which are now deep
underground. Much Jansenist Theology afloat; grand French Ladies
piously eager to convert a young Protestant Nobleman like Reuss; sublime
Dorcases, who do not rouge, or dress high, but eschew the evil world,
and are thrifty for the Poor's sake, redeeming the time. There is
a Cardinal de Polignac, venerable sage and ex-political person, of
astonishing erudition, collector of Antiques (with whom we dined); there
is the Chevalier Ramsay, theological Scotch Jacobite, late Tutor of the
young Turenne. So many shining persons, now fallen indistinct again.
And then, besides gossip, which is of mild quality and in fair
proportion,--what talk, casuistic and other, about the Moral Duties,
the still feasible Pieties, the Constitution Unigenitus! All this alive,
resonant at dinner-tables of Conservative stamp; the Miracles of Abbe
Paris much a topic there:--and not a whisper of In