tired to rest; the others were carried to
bed;--and the next evening a similar scene was renewed."--(Vol. i. pp.
22-24.)

It may be conceived what an effect manners such as these pervading the
head of a court, already sufficiently inclined to excitement and
gratification, must have had upon the general tone of morals among the
higher ranks. M. de Tocqueville portrays it in strong colours, but not
stronger we believe than the truth:--

"The disorders of its head spread to all the branches of the royal
family. There was not a princess who had not her lover--not a prince who
had not his mistresses. This system soon descended from the palace to
the hotels of the nobles. Conjugal fidelity was considered as a
prejudice, fit only to be the subject of ridicule. Adultery became the
fashion, intemperance a path to distinction--the seduction of women was
deemed the great object of life, and conquests in that line were sought
as the highest glory; minds absorbed in the frivolous pursuits of a man
_a bonnes fortunes_, became incapable of attention to serious affairs.
When a young woman appeared in the world, no inquiries were made as to
the union which prevailed in her establishment, the sole point was what
lover they were to give her. The men with pretensions in that line, the
corrupted women, entered into a league to plunge her into crime; and in
that abominable lottery, they fixed beforehand on the person to whom she
was to fall. The example of the Duchess de Berri obtained many
imitators. Sometimes devotion was mingled with debauchery, as if a
feeble struggle was still kept up between the recollections of the past
and the seductions of the present. Women of gallantry, ambitious
debauchees, passed from their orgies to the cloister; and the abstinence
of penitence furnished some respite to the pleasure of the world and the
agitations of politics. Such was the society of the great world, under
the regency. The impulse given to vice during that period, continued
through that which followed it. Neither the good example given by Louis
XV., during the first years of his youth, nor the grave habits of
Cardinal de Fleury, could avail as a barrier to the inundation. It only
abated something of its audacity; more veiled, it excited less public
scandal."--(Vol. i. p. 31.)

It is impossible that in any country, but most of all in a monarchical
and in aristocratic one, such manners can exist in the higher ranks,
without inducing a total de