eal fighting," they said; "and besides, it will be as well to
capture Gerolstein; we can then extend to our neighbours the blessing of
liberty on the same day that we snatch it for ourselves; and the
republic will be all the stronger to resist, if the kings of Europe
should band themselves together to reduce it." I know not which of the
two I should admire the more: the simplicity of the multitude or the
audacity of the adventurer. But such are the subtleties, such the
quibbling reasons, with which he blinds and leads this people. How long
a course so tortuous can be pursued with safety I am incapable of
guessing; not long, one would suppose; and yet this singular man has
been treading the mazes for five years, and his favour at court and his
popularity among the lodges still endure unbroken.

I have the privilege of slightly knowing him. Heavily and somewhat
clumsily built, of a vast, disjointed, rambling frame, he can still pull
himself together, and figure, not without admiration, in the saloon or
the ball-room. His hue and temperament are plentifully bilious; he has a
saturnine eye; his cheek is of a dark blue where he has been shaven.
Essentially he is to be numbered among the man-haters, a convinced
contemner of his fellows. Yet he is himself of a most commonplace
ambition and greedy of applause. In talk, he is remarkable for a thirst
of information, loving rather to hear than to communicate; for sound and
studious views; and, judging by the extreme short-sightedness of common
politicians, for a remarkable prevision of events. All this, however,
without grace, pleasantry, or charm, heavily set forth, with a dull
countenance. In our numerous conversations, although he has always heard
me with deference, I have been conscious throughout of a sort of
ponderous finessing hard to tolerate. He produces none of the effect of
a gentleman; devoid not merely of pleasantry, but of all attention or
communicative warmth of bearing. No gentleman, besides, would so parade
his amours with the Princess; still less repay the Prince for his
long-suffering with the studied insolence of demeanour and the
fabrication of insulting nicknames, such as Prince Featherhead, which
run from ear to ear and create a laugh throughout the country.
Gondremark has thus some of the clumsier characters of the self-made
man, combined with an inordinate, almost a besotted, pride of intellect
and birth. Heavy, bilious, selfish, inornate, he sits upon this