struggle to clutch the favour he has lost. Give the wisest of us a 'fixed- Jeanne de Saint-Remi, a brisk little nondescript Scion-of-Royalty: Her parentage and hungry prospects. Her singularly undecipherable charac- ter. Conscience not essential to every character named human. A Spark of vehement Life, not developed into Will of any kind, only into Desires of many kinds: Glibness, shiftiness and untamability. (p. 31). — Kittenness, not yet hardened into cathood. Marries M. de Lamotte, and dubs him Count. Hard shifts for a living. Visits his Eminence Prince Louis de Rohan; his monomaniac folly now under Cagliostro's management. The glance of hungry genius. (35). CHAP. VI. Will the Two Fixed-ideas meet? The poor Countess de Lamotte's watergruel rations; and desperate tackings and manoeuvrings within wind of Court. Eminence Rohan ar- rives thitherward, driven by his fixed-idea. Idle gossiping and tattling concerning Boehmer and his Necklace. In some moment of inspiration, a question rises on our brave Lamotte: If not a great Divine Idea, then a great Diabolic one. How Thought rules the world! (p. 38). A Female Dramatist worth thinking of. Could Madame de Lamotte have written a Hamlet? Poor Eminence Rohan in a Prospero's-grotto of Cagliostro magic; led on by our sprightly Countess's soft-warbling deceitful blan- CHAP. VII. Marie-Antoinette. The Countess plays upon the credulity of his Eminence: Strange mes- sages for and from the innocent, unconscious Queen. Frankhearted Marie-Antoinette; beautiful Highborn, so foully hurled low! The 'Sanc- tuary of Sorrow' for all the wretched: That wild-yelling World, and all its madness, will one day lie dumb behind thee! (p. 42). CHAP. VIII. The Two Fixed-ideas will unite. Further dexterities of the glib-tongued Lamotte: How she managed with Cagliostro. Boehmer is made to hear (by accident) of her new- found favour with the Queen; and believes it. Drowning men catch at straws, and hungry blacklegs stick at nothing. (p. 46). - Can her Majesty be persuaded to buy the Necklace? Will her Majesty deign to accept a present so worthy of her? - Walk warily, Countess de Lamotte, with CHAP. IX. Park of Versailles. Ineffable expectancy stirs-up his Eminence's soul: This night the Queen herself will meet thee!' Sleep rules this Hemisphere of the World; - rather curious to consider. Darkness and magical delusions: The Countess's successful dramaturgy. Ixion de Rohan, and the foul Centaurs he begat. (p. 50). CHAP. X. Behind the Scenes. The Lamotte all-conquering talent for intrigue. The Demoiselle d'Oliva; unfortunate Queen's Similitude, and unconscious tool of skilfur knavery. (p. 53). CHAP. XI. The Necklace is sold. A pause: The two fixed-ideas have felt each other, and are rapidly coalescing. His Eminence will buy the Necklace, on her Majesty's account. O Dame de Lamotte! I? Who saw me in it?' (p. 56)..Rohan and Boehmer in earnest business conference: A forged Royal approval: Secrecy as of Death. (59). CHAP. XII. The Necklace vanishes. The bargain concluded; his Eminence the proud possessor of the Diamond Necklace. Again the scene changes; and he has forwarded it →→ whither he little dreams. (p. 61). Countess de LaThrough that long CHAP. XIII. Scene Third: by Dame de Lamotte. Cagliostro, with his greasy prophetic bulldog face. motte and his Eminence in the Versailles Gallery. Gallery, what Figures have passed, and vanished! The Queen now passes; and graciously looks this way, according to her habit: Dame de Lamotte looks on, and dextrously pilfers the royal glances. Eminence de Rohan's helpless, bottomless, beatific folly. (p. 63). CHAP. XIV. The Necklace cannot be paid. The Countess's Dramaturgic labours terminate. How strangely in life the Play goes on, even when the Mover has left it! No Act of man can ever die. His Eminence finds himself no nearer his expected goal: Unspeakable perturbations of soul and body. (p. 65). — Blacklegs in full feather: Rascaldom has no strong-box. Dame de Lamotte gaily stands the brunt of the threatening Earthquake: The farthest in the world from a brave woman. (67). Gloomy weather-symptoms for his Eminence: A thunder-clap (per Countess de Lamotte); and mud-explosion beyond parallel. (70). CHAP. XV. Scene Fourth: by Destiny. Assumption-day at Versailles; -a thing they call worshipping God to enact: All Noble France, waiting only the signal to begin worshipping. Eminence de Rohan chief-actor in the imposing scene. Arrestment in the King's name: There will be no Assumption-service this day. The Bastille opens its iron bosom to all the actors in the Diamond-drama. (p. 71). CHAP. XVI. Missa est. The extraordinary Necklace Trial,' an astonishment and scandal to the whole world. Prophetic Discourse by Count Arch-Quack Cagliostro: - Universal Empire of Scoundrelism: Truth wedded to Sham gives birth to Respectability. The old Christian whim, of some sacred covenant with an actual, living and ruling God. Scoundrel Worship and Philosophy: Deep significance of the Gallows. Hideous fate of Dame de Lamotte. Unfortunate foully-slandered Queen: Her eyes red with their first tears of pure bitterness. The Empire of Imposture in flames. This strange, many-tinted Business, like a little cloud from which wise men boded Earthquakes. (p. 72). MIRABEAU. The Life of an Original Man, the highest fact our world witnesses: Such a Man a problem, not only to others, but to himself. Woe to him who has no court of appeal against the world's judgment! (p. 85). In such matter the world cannot be right, till after it has learnt the lesson the New Man brings. The world's wealth and creative strength consists solely in its Original Men, and what they do for it. Before we can have Morality and critical canons, we must have Heroes and their heroic performances. (87).— He were a sanguine seeker who should look to the French Revolution for creators or exemplars of morality. A greater work never done in the world's history by men so small. Effervescence, and heroic desperation: Mahomet Robespierre's scraggiest of prophetic discourses: Exaggerated commonplace, and triviality run rabid. A vain, cramped, atrabiliar Formula of a man, for nearly two years Autocrat of France. (89). — And yet the French Revolution did disclose three original men. Napoleon Bonaparte in a fair way of being rightly appreciated: His gospel, The tools to him that can handle them,' our ultimate Political Evangel. Trimmers, moderates, plausible persons; hateful to God, and to the Enemies of God. If Bonaparte were the armed Soldier of Democracy,' then was Danton the Enfant Perdu, and unenlisted Titan of Democracy: An Earthborn, yet honestly born of Earth: Wild, all-daring Mirabeau of the Sansculottes: ' What to him were whole shoals of immaculate Pharisees and Respectabilities? Let my name be blighted, then; so the Cause be glorious, and have victory!' Once cleared, why should not this name too have significance for men? (91). — Mirabeau, by far the best-gifted of this questionable trio: Of him too it is interesting to notice the progressive dawning, out of darkness into light. Difference between an Original Man and a parliamentary mill. Insufficiency of Mirabeau's Biographers. Dumont's Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, not without faithfulness and picturesque clearness; the great Mirabeau being a thing set in motion mainly by him! Lucas Montigny's biographical work, a monstrous heap of shot-rubbish, containing and hiding much valuable matter. By one means and another some sketch of Mirabeau himself may be brought to light. (94). — His Father a crabbed, sulphurous, choleric old - Friend of Men. The Mirabeaus cast-out of Florence at the time Dante was a boy: A notable kindred; as the kindred and fathers of most notable men are. A family totally exempt from blockheads, but a little liable to blackguards. One of them vowed to chain two mountains together; and did it. They get firm footing in Marseilles as trading nobles: Talent for choosing wives. Uncouth courtiership at Versailles Eil-de-Boeuf. Jean Antoine, afterwards named Silverstock: Haughtier, juster, more choleric man need not be sought-for. Battle of Casano: The Mirabeau family narrowly escapes extinction. World-wide influence of the veriest trifles: Inscrutability of genetic history. (100). — In the whole kindred, no stranger figure than the Friend of Men,' Mirabeau's father: Strong, tough as an oak-root, and as gnarled and unwedgeable. Really a most notable, questionable, hateable, lovable old Marquis. A Pedant, but under most interesting new circumstances. Nobility in France based no longer on heroic nobleness of conduct and effort; but on sycophancy, formality, adroitness: How shall the proudest of the Mirabeaus fall prostrate before a Pompadour? Literary powers, characteristics and shortcomings: Not through the press is there any progress towards premiership. The world a mad imbroglio, which no Friend of Men can set right. Domestic rebellions and tribulations: Lawsuits between man and wife: Fifty-four Lettres de Cachet, for the use of a single Marquis. Blessed old Marquis, or else accursed; there is stuff in thee; and stuff is stuff, were it never so crabbed! His Brother, Baili de Mirabeau, and their frank brotherly love. (108). Gabriel Honoré Mirabeau, born 9th March 1749: A very Hercules; as if in this man-child Destiny had swept together all the wildnesses and strengths of his lineage. Mirabeau, Goethe, Burns: Could the well-born of the world be always rightly bred, and rightly welcomed, what a world it might be! Mirabeau's rough, vehement, genial childhood: His father's pedantic interference: No lion's-whelp or young Mirabeau will go like clockwork. What a task the poor paternal Marquis had: His troubled notions about his own offspring. Young Mirabeau sent to boarding-school in disgrace: Gains the goodwill of all who come near him. Sent to the Army: The people of Saintes grew to like him amazingly Quarrels with his Colonel: Archer's daughter, and the tongue of the Old Serpent: Lettre de Cachet and the Isle of Rhé. Happily there is fighting in Corsica, and young Mirabeau gets leave to join it. His good uncle pronounces him the best fellow on earth if well dealt with. Restored to his father's favour. Visits Paris, and gains golden opinions. His father's notable criticisms: In the name of all the gods what prodigy is this I have hatched? A Swallower of all Formulas: And has not France formulas enough to swallow, and make away with? (116). Neither in the rural Man-of-business department is he found wanting. Demon of the Impossible. Letter to his Uncle. Unfortunate Marriage: A young Alexander, with a very poor outlook. Tries to make a fitting home for his young Wife. Jewdebts, and another Lettre de Cachet. In Manosque, too, a man can live and read, and write an Essay on Despotism. Fresh entanglements: His Wife's theoretic flirtations: His generous efforts to make the twisted straight. A sudden quarrel beyond the limits of the royal Letter: Grim confinement in the Castle of If, at the grim old Marquis's order. O thou poor Mirabean, thou art getting really into war with Formulas, - terriblest of all wars! A stolen visit from his Brother, the Younger Mirabeau. The old Marquis's ear deaf as that of Destiny. Poor Mirabeau; and poor shallow-hearted Wife: The ill-assorted pair will never meet again. (129). — Mirabeau allowed to walk in Pontarlier on parole. Old President Monnier, aged seventy-five; and his lovely, sad-heroic young wife. Mirabeau feels their danger, and implores his own wife to come to him: She declines the invitation. Temptation, and jealous entanglements: An explosion: Sophie Monnier, sharply dealt with, avows and justifies her love for Mirabeau. Lettres de Cachet, and Convent-walls: They both fly. The tough old Marquis gives chase: They reach Holland, broken in character, though not yet in heart. Who might be the first and greatest sinner in this bad business? Dear brethren of Mankind, endeavour to clear your minds of Cant!' Mirabeau cited before the Parlement of Besançon, and beheaded in Paper Effigy. Garret-life in Holland: The wild man and beautiful sadheroic woman lived their romance of reality as well as might be expected. After eight months of hard toils and trembling joys begirt with terror, they are discovered and brought back. Mirabeau fast-locked in the Castle of Vincennes for forty-two months: His wretched Sophie in some milder Convent confinement: Their Correspondence. A last, untoward meeting: Poor Sophie's melancholy end. Mirabeau again at liberty, storms before the Besançon Parlement; and the Paper Effigy has its head stuck on again. The tough old Marquis summons his children about him, and frankly declares himself invalided: They must now strive to govern themselves! Mirabeau's Demosthenic fire and pathos: But he cannot get his wife's property. (139). — Mirabeau's life for the next five years creeps troublous, obscure: The world's esteem, its codes and formulas, gone quite against him. In spite of the world, a living strong man, who will not tumble prostrate. His wandering, questionable mode of life: Incontinence, enormous, entirely indefensible: In audacity, in recklessness, not likely to be wanting. Mirabeau as a writer and speaker: Instead of tropes and declamatory fervid feeling, a totally unornamented force and massiveness, - conviction striving to convince: The primary character, sincerity and insight. Nicknames that are worth whole treatises. (150). - Convocation of the States-General. Need we ask whether Mirabeau bestirs himself now? One strong dead-lift pull, thou Titan, and perhaps thou carriest it! How Mirabeau wrestled and strove, under such auspices: His flinging-up of the handful of dust. Voluntary guard of a hundred men: Explosions of rejoicing musketry: Chosen deputy for two places. For this Mirabeau, too, the career at last opens: Forty long stern years; and now, Hyperionlike, he has scaled the mountain-tops: What a scene, and new kingdom, lies before him! O Son of Adam! Son of Lucifer! the thing thou wantest is equilibrium, — rest or peace. (155), Mirabeau in the procession of Deputies. with his own force, the existence of the Madame de Staël's account of Seen visibly to have saved, as Constituent Assembly: Alone of |