loves the same couch for the rest which it affords; but the wide
interval between is that of exertion, of labour, and of labour among
men. The woe which makes our /hearts/ less social, often makes our
/habits/ more so. The thoughts, which in calm would have shunned the
world, are driven upon it by the tempest, even as the birds which
forsake the habitable land can, so long as the wind sleeps and the
thunder rests within its cloud, become the constant and solitary
brooders over the waste sea: but the moment the storm awakes and the
blast pursues them, they fly, by an overpowering instinct, to some
wandering bark, some vestige of human and social life; and exchange,
even for danger from the hands of men, the desert of an angry Heaven and
the solitude of a storm.

I heard no more either of Madame de Maintenon or the King. Meanwhile,
my flight and friendship with Lord Bolingbroke had given me a
consequence in the eyes of the exiled Prince which I should not
otherwise have enjoyed; and I was honoured by very flattering overtures
to enter actively into his service. I have before said that I felt no
enthusiasm in his cause, and I was far from feeling it for his person.
My ambition rather directed its hope towards a career in the service of
France. France was the country of my birth, and the country of my
father's fame. There no withering remembrances awaited me; no private
regrets were associated with its scenes, and no public penalties with
its political institutions. And although I had not yet received any
token of Louis's remembrance, in the ordinary routine of court favours
expectation as yet would have been premature; besides, his royal
fidelity to his word was proverbial; and, sooner or later, I indulged
the hope to profit by the sort of promise he had insinuated to me. I
declined, therefore, with all due respect, the offers of the Chevalier,
and continued to live the life of idleness and expectation, until Lord