ly bread, but he had neither linen, clothes, nor shoes. He did not
make himself out any better than he was; his dreams had been of luxury
as well as of power. He did not admit that this was the real Marcas; he
abandoned this person, indeed, to the caprices of life. What he lived by
was the breath of ambition; he dreamed of revenge while blaming himself
for yielding to so shallow a feeling. The true statesman ought, above
all things, to be superior to vulgar passions; like the man of science.
It was in these days of dire necessity that Marcas seemed to us so
great--nay, so terrible; there was something awful in the gaze which saw
another world than that which strikes the eye of ordinary men. To us he
was a subject of contemplation and astonishment; for the young--which of
us has not known it?--the young have a keen craving to admire; they love
to attach themselves, and are naturally inclined to submit to the men
they feel to be superior, as they are to devote themselves to a great
cause.

Our surprise was chiefly roused by his indifference in matters of
sentiment; women had no place in his life. When we spoke of this matter,
a perennial theme of conversation among Frenchmen, he simply remarked:

"Gowns cost too much."

He saw the look that passed between Juste and me, and went on:

"Yes, far too much. The woman you buy--and she is the least
expensive--takes a great deal of money. The woman who gives herself
takes all your time! Woman extinguishes every energy, every ambition.
Napoleon reduced her to what she should be. From that point of view, he
really was great. He did not indulge such ruinous fancies of Louis XIV.
and Louis XV.; at the same time he could love in secret."

We discovered that, like Pitt, who made England is wife, Marcas bore
France in his heart; he idolized his country; he had not a thought that
was not for his native land. His fury at feeling that he had in his
hands the remedy for the evils which so deeply saddened him, and could
not apply it, ate into his soul, and this rage was increased by the
inferiority of France at that time, as compared with Russia and England.
France a third-rate power! This cry came up again and again in his
conversation. The intestinal disorders of his country had entered into
his soul. All the contests between the Court and the Chamber, showing,
as they did, incessant change and constant vacillation, which must
injure the prosperity of the country, he scoffed at as back