t the age
of twenty, the possessor of two hundred francs. He had studied the
law, working in an attorney's office, where he had risen to be superior
clerk. He had taken his doctor's degree in law, had mastered the old and
modern codes, and could hold his own with the most famous pleaders. He
had studied the law of nations, and was familiar with European treaties
and international practice. He had studied men and things in five
capitals--London, Berlin, Vienna, Petersburg, and Constantinople.

No man was better informed than he as to the rules of the Chamber. For
five years he had been reporter of the debates for a daily paper. He
spoke extempore and admirably, and could go on for a long time in that
deep, appealing voice which had struck us to the soul. Indeed, he proved
by the narrative of his life that he was a great orator, a concise
orator, serious and yet full of piercing eloquence; he resembled Berryer
in his fervor and in the impetus which commands the sympathy of the
masses, and was like Thiers in refinement and skill; but he would
have been less diffuse, less in difficulties for a conclusion. He had
intended to rise rapidly to power without burdening himself first with
the doctrines necessary to begin with, for a man in opposition, but an
incubus later to the statesman.

Marcas had learned everything that a real statesman should know; indeed,
his amazement was considerable when he had occasion to discern the utter
ignorance of men who have risen to the administration of public affairs
in France. Though in him it was vocation that had led to study, nature
had been generous and bestowed all that cannot be acquired--keen
perceptions, self-command, a nimble wit, rapid judgment, decisiveness,
and, what is the genius of these men, fertility in resource.

By the time when Marcas thought himself duly equipped, France was torn
by intestine divisions arising from the triumph of the House of Orleans
over the elder branch of the Bourbons.

The field of political warfare is evidently changed. Civil war
henceforth cannot last for long, and will not be fought out in the
provinces. In France such struggles will be of brief duration and at
the seat of government; and the battle will be the close of the moral
contest which will have been brought to an issue by superior minds. This
state of things will continue so long as France has her present singular
form of government, which has no analogy with that of any other country;