ried out,
"Nonsense! it is not visible from here."

When he made that speech it is clear that Mirabeau was not exerting
himself to secure confidence at Court; and for some weeks in spring
the negotiation hung fire. At length, La Marck convinced the queen
that his friend had been falsely accused of the crime of October, and
the king proposed that he should be asked to write down his views. He
peremptorily rejected La Marck's advice that the Ministers should be
admitted to the secret. He avowed to Mercy that he intended soon to
change them for men who could co-operate with Mirabeau; but he was
resolved not to place himself at once irrevocably in the power of a
man in whom he had no confidence, and who was only the subject of an
experiment. Consequently, Mirabeau's first object of attack was the
Ministry, and the king's forces were divided. The position was a false
one from end to end; but this hostility to Necker served to disguise
the reality. On the 10th of May, 1790, he drew up a paper which La
Marck carried to the queen, and which at once had the effect of making
the Court zealous to complete the bargain. La Marck asked Mirabeau
what were his conditions. He replied that he would be happy on L1000 a
year, if his debts could be paid; but he feared that they were too
heavy for him to expect it. On inquiry, it turned out that they were a
little over L8000. Lewis XVI. offered to clear them off, to give him
L3000 a year while the Assembly lasted, and a million francs down
whenever it came to an end.

In this way both parties were secure. Mirabeau could not play false,
without losing, not only his income, but an eventual sum of L40,000.
The king could not cast him off without wasting the considerable sum
paid to his creditors. The Archbishop of Toulouse undertook the
delicate task of dealing with them; and meeting his debtor constantly,
a strange intimacy arose between the two men.

Mirabeau, wild with the joy of his deliverance, forgot all prudence
and precaution. He took a town house and a country house; he bought
books and pictures, carriages and horses, and gave dinner-parties at
which six servants waited on his guests. After a few months he wanted
money, and more was given without question. The Government proposed at
last to buy him an annuity, with one-fourth of the capital which was
to fall due at the dissolution; but the intention was not carried out.
The entire sum that Mirabeau received, up to his death, from th