The king then invited him to sup with us, and I am sure that during
the whole repast I was the hardest morsel he had to digest.

Some days afterwards I made acquaintance with a person much more
important than the little duke, and destined to play a great part
in the history of France. I mean M. de Maupeou, the late chancellor,
who, in his disgrace, would not resign his charge. M. de Maupeou
possessed one of those firm and superior minds, which, in spite
of all obstacles, change the face of empires. Ardent, yet cool;
bold, but reflective; the clamors of the populace did not astonish,
nor did any obstacles arrest him. He went on in the direct path
which his will chalked out. Quitting the magistracy, he became its
most implacable enemy, and after a deadly combat he came off
conqueror. He felt that the moment had arrived for freeing royalty
from the chains which it had imposed on itself. It was necessary,
he has said to me a hundred times, for the kings of France in past
ages to have a popular power on which they could rely for the
overturning of the feudal power. This power they found in the
high magistracy; but since the reign of Louis XIII the mission
of the parliaments had finished, the nobility was reduced, and
they became no less formidable than the enemy whom they had
aided in subduing.

"Before fifty years," pursued M. de Maupeou, "kings will be
nothing in France, and parliaments will be everything."

Talented, a good speaker, even eloquent, M. de Maupeou possessed
qualities which made the greatest enterprises successful. He was
convinced that all men have their price, and that it is only to
find out the sum at which they are purchasable.* As brave personally