might easily have procured all the information I gave him without
spending a penny. Any intelligent young naval officer would have done it
just as well, and would have acquitted himself with zeal and discretion,
to gain the good opinion of the ministers. But all the French ministers
are the same. They lavished money which came out of other people's
pockets to enrich their creatures, and they were absolute; the
downtrodden people counted for nothing, and of this course the
indebtedness of the state and the confusion of the finances were the
inevitable results. It is quite true that the Revolution was a necessity,
but it should have been marked with patriotism and right feeling, not
with blood. However, the nobility and clergy were not men of sufficient
generosity to make the necessary sacrifices to the king, the state, and
to themselves.

Silvia was much amused at my adventures at Aire and Amiens, and her
charming daughter shewed much pity for the bad night I had passed in the
guard-room. I told her that the hardship would have been much less if I
had had a wife beside me. She replied that a wife, if a good one, would
have been only too happy to alleviate my troubles by sharing in them, but
her mother observed that a woman of parts, after seeing to the safety of
my baggage and my coach, would have busied herself in taking the
necessary steps for setting me at liberty, and I supported this opinion
as best indicating the real duty of a good wife.




CHAPTER III

The Count de la Tour D'Auvergne and Madame D'Urfe--Camille--My Passion