is
D'Antraigues, the young Languedocian gentleman,--and indeed many a
peer more or less noteworthy.

There are Liancourt and La Rochefoucault, the liberal Anglo-maniac
Dukes. There is a filially pious Lally; a couple of liberal
Lameths. Above all, there is a Lafayette; whose name shall be
Cromwell-Grandison, and fill the world. Many a "formula" has this
Lafayette, too, made away with; yet not _all_ formulas. He sticks by
the Washington-formula; and by that he will stick;--and hang by it, as
by sure bower-anchor hangs and swings the tight war-ship, which, after
all changes of wildest weather and water, is found still hanging.
Happy for him, be it glorious or not! Alone of all Frenchmen he has a
theory of the world, and right mind to conform thereto; he can become
a hero and perfect character, were it but the hero of one idea. Note
further our old parlementary friend, Crispin-Catiline d'Espremenil. He
is returned from the Mediterranean islands, a red-hot royalist,
repentant to the finger-ends;--unsettled-looking; whose light,
dusky-glowing at best, now flickers foul in the socket; whom the
National Assembly will by and by, to save time, "regard as in a state
of distraction." Note lastly that globular _Younger_ Mirabeau,
indignant that his elder Brother is among the Commons; it is
_Viscomte_ Mirabeau; named oftener Mirabeau _Tonneau_ (Barrel
Mirabeau), on account of his rotundity, and the quantities of strong
liquor he contains.

There, then, walks our French noblesse. All in the old pomp of
chivalry; and yet, alas, how changed from the old position; drifted
far down from their native latitude, like Arctic icebergs got into the
Equatorial sea, and fast thawing there! Once these Chivalry _Duces_
(Dukes, as they are still named) did actually _lead_ the world,--were
it only toward battle-spoil, where lay the world's best wages then;
moreover, being the ablest leaders going, they had their lion's share,
these _Duces_, which none could grudge them. But now, when so many
Looms, improved Plow-shares, Steam-Engines, and Bills of Exchange have
been invented; and for battle-brawling itself, men hire
Drill-Sergeants at eighteen pence a day,--what mean these gold-mantled
Chivalry Figures, walking there in "black-velvet cloaks," in
high-plumed "hats of a feudal cut"? Reeds shaken in the wind!

The clergy have got up; with _Cahiers_ for abolishing pluralities,
enforcing residence of bishops, better payment of tithes. The
Dignitarie