Long-robes there may
be more than one patriotic Malesherbes, whose rule is conscience and the
public good; there are clearly more than one hotheaded D'Espremenil, to
whose confused thought any loud reputation of the Brutus sort may seem
glorious. The Lepelletiers, Lamoignons have titles and wealth; yet, at
Court, are only styled 'Noblesse of the Robe.' There are Duports of deep
scheme; Freteaus, Sabatiers, of incontinent tongue: all nursed more or
less on the milk of the Contrat Social. Nay, for the whole Body, is not
this patriotic opposition also a fighting for oneself? Awake, Parlement
of Paris, renew thy long warfare! Was not the Parlement Maupeou
abolished with ignominy? Not now hast thou to dread a Louis XIV., with
the crack of his whip, and his Olympian looks; not now a Richelieu and
Bastilles: no, the whole Nation is behind thee. Thou too (O heavens!)
mayest become a Political Power; and with the shakings of thy horse-hair
wig shake principalities and dynasties, like a very Jove with his
ambrosial curls!

Light old M. de Maurepas, since the end of 1781, has been fixed in the
frost of death: "Never more," said the good Louis, "shall I hear his
step overhead;" his light jestings and gyratings are at an end. No more
can the importunate reality be hidden by pleasant wit, and today's evil
be deftly rolled over upon tomorrow. The morrow itself has arrived; and
now nothing but a solid phlegmatic M. de Vergennes sits there, in dull
matter of fact, like some dull punctual Clerk (which he originally was);
admits what cannot be denied, let the remedy come whence it will. In
him is no remedy; only clerklike 'despatch of business' according to
routine. The poor King, grown older yet hardly more experienced, must
himself, with such no-faculty as he has, begin governing; wherein also
his Queen will give help. Bright Queen, with her quick clear glances
and impulses; clear, and even noble; but all too superficial,
vehement-shallow, for that work! To govern France were such a
problem; and now it has grown well-nigh too hard to govern even the
Oeil-de-Boeuf. For if a distressed People has its cry, so likewise,
and more audibly, has a bereaved Court. To the Oeil-de-Boeuf it remains
inconceivable how, in a France of such resources, the Horn of Plenty
should run dry: did it not use to flow? Nevertheless Necker, with his
revenue of parsimony, has 'suppressed above six hundred places,' before
the Courtiers could oust him; parsimonious