I THINK it was the second day after this "feast of reason" that Lord
Bolingbroke deemed it advisable to retire to Lyons till his plans of
conduct were ripened into decision. We took an affectionate leave of
each other; but before we parted, and after he had discussed his own
projects of ambition, we talked a little upon mine. Although I was a
Catholic and a pupil of Montreuil, although I had fled from England and
had nothing to expect from the House of Hanover, I was by no means
favourably disposed towards the Chevalier and his cause. I wonder if
this avowal will seem odd to Englishmen of the next century! To
Englishmen of the present one, a Roman Catholic and a lover of
priestcraft and tyranny are two words for the same thing; as if we could
not murmur at tithes and taxes, insecurity of property or arbitrary
legislation, just as sourly as any other Christian community. No! I
never loved the cause of the Stuarts,--unfortunate, and therefore
interesting, as the Stuarts were; by a very stupid and yet uneffaceable
confusion of ideas, I confounded it with the cause of Montreuil, and I
hated the latter enough to dislike the former: I fancy all party
principles are formed much in the same manner. I frankly told
Bolingbroke my disinclination to the Chevalier.

"Between ourselves be it spoken," said he, "there is but little to
induce a wise man in /your/ circumstances to join James the Third. I
would advise you rather to take advantage of your father's reputation at
the French court, and enter into the same service he did. Things wear a
dark face in England for you, and a bright one everywhere else."

"I have already," said I, "in my own mind, perceived and weighed the
advantages of entering into the service of Louis. But he is old: he
cannot live long. People now pay court to parties, not to the king.
Which party, think you, is the best,--that of Madame de Maintenon?"