hat familiarity breeds contempt. Is this
the man who carried cities by storm and won great battles? Verily, he
seems to have forgotten the high rank he so well knew how to
sustain. Do you not recognize in him the hero, who, ever equable and
consistent, never having to stand on tiptoe to seem taller than he is,
nor to stoop to be courteous and obliging, found himself by nature
all that a man ought to be toward his fellow, like a majestic and
bountiful stream, which peacefully bears into the cities the abundance
it has spread in the fields that it has watered, which gives to all
and never rises above its normal height, nor becomes swollen except
when violent opposition is offered to the gentle slope by which it
continues on its tranquil course. Such, indeed, has also been the
gentleness and such the might of the Prince de Conde. Have you a
secret of importance? Confide it boldly to the safe-keeping of this
noble heart; he will reward your confidence by making your affair his
own. To this prince nothing is more inviolable than the sacred rights
of friendship. When a favor is asked of him he acts as tho he himself
were under obligation; and never has a joy keener and truer been
witnessed than he felt at being able to give pleasure to another.

It was a grand spectacle to see during the same period, and in the
same campaigns, these two men, who in the common opinion of all Europe
could be favorably compared to the greatest captains of past ages,
sometimes at the head of different bodies of troops; sometimes united
more indeed by the concord of their thoughts than by the orders which
the subaltern received from his superior; sometimes at the head of
opposing forces, and each redoubling his customary activity and
vigilance, as tho God, who, according to the Scriptures, often in His
wisdom makes a sport of the universe, had desired to show mortals the
wonders in all their forms that He could work with men. Behold the
encampments, the splendid marches, the audacity, the precautions, the
perils, the resources of these brave men! Has there ever been beheld
in two men virtues such as these in characters so different, not to
say diametrically opposite? The one appears to be guided by deep
reflection, the other by sudden illumination; the latter as a
consequence, tho more impetuous, yet never acting with undue
precipitation; the former, colder of manner, tho never slow, is bolder
of action than of speech, and even while having the ou