/now/ be contented with despotism or all mankind would be /free/! Oh!
when kings have only to be good, to be kept forever in our hearts and
souls as the gods and benefactors of the earth, by what monstrous
fatality have they been so blind to their fame? When we remember the
millions, the generations, they can degrade, destroy, elevate, or save,
we might almost think (even if the other riddles of the present
existence did not require a future existence to solve them), we might
almost think a hereafter /necessary/, were it but for the sole purpose
of requiting the virtues of princes,--or their SINS!*


* Upon his death-bed Peter is reported to have said, "God, I dare trust,
will look mercifully upon my faults in consideration of the good I have
done my country." These are worthy to be the last words of a king!
Rarely has there been a monarch who more required the forgiveness of the
Creator; yet seldom perhaps has there been a human being who more
deserved it.--ED.



CHAPTER V.

RETURN TO PARIS.--INTERVIEW WITH BOLINGBROKE.--A GALLANT
ADVENTURE.--AFFAIR WITH DUBOIS.--PUBLIC LIFE IS A DRAMA, IN WHICH
PRIVATE VICES GENERALLY PLAY THE PART OF THE SCENE-SHIFTERS.

IT is a strange feeling we experience on entering a great city by
night,--a strange mixture of social and solitary impressions. I say by
night, because at that time we are most inclined to feel; and the mind,
less distracted than in the day by external objects, dwells the more