Then the King replied with the utmost politeness, thanking M. le
President for the advice he had been good enough to give him.
"Flatterers and courtiers," he said, "have indeed done much mischief,
and, sad to say, the race is not yet extinct, for nowadays there are
courtiers who are far more dangerous than the flatterers of princes and
of kings--those courtiers and flatterers of the people, who to buy a
vain and contemptible popularity suggest to them dreams which are
unrealizable and which bring them to misfortune," &c. On this head my
father bestowed a well-directed hiding on the president, which was
constantly interrupted by a running fire of applause, so that the worthy
gentleman ended by not knowing which way to look. Amongst other
eminently French qualities, my father possessed the gift of repartee to
the highest degree. He always knew how to use it, though with a
politeness and good nature which softened whatever might be too sharp
about its sting. This time the blow went home. Our journey, thus begun,
was continued amid constantly increasing cordiality and success. It was
a somewhat tiring manner of life. We went by short stages, from one
reception to another. Everywhere the National Guard and the troops were
under arms. When they were in considerable numbers, we mounted horses,
either lent or requisitioned beforehand. In the evening, wherever we
slept, there would be a great banquet, and generally a ball as well. It
was the duty of us young folk to lead the dancing--a pleasant task
enough, if we could have chosen our partners among the pretty women whom
I was beginning to notice, in spite of my being only fourteen, and of
whom there were many, especially at Grandville and St. Lo. But our
partners were given to us officially, and were chosen from the families
of the authorities. We exerted ourselves to be pleasant in spite of
that. I do not know whether I was succeeding too much or too little at a
ball one night, but I saw the husband's head suddenly appear between my