As
to the others, greedy of the benefits of the court, they come to
their estates only to save money, to regulate their accounts with
their managers, and the people, receiving no mark of their
interest, acknowledge no obligation to them."
"You are perfectly right," replied the Dauphiness, "that is not
the way with the English aristocracy."
"She saw with pain," adds M. de Puymaigre, "the marriages for
money made by certain men of the court, but not when they allied
themselves with an honorable plebeian family; her indignation was
justly shown toward those who took their wives in families whose
coveted riches came from an impure source."
The extraordinary catastrophes that had fallen on the daughter of
Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had been a great experience for
her, and she was not surprised at the recantations of the
courtiers. The Hundred Days had, perhaps, suggested even more
reflections to her than her captivity in the Temple or her early
exile. She could not forget how, in 1815, she had been abandoned
by officers who, but the day before, had offered her such
protestations and such vows. In the midst of present prosperity
she had a sort of instinct of future adversity. Something told her
that she was not done with sorrow, and that the cup of bitterness
was not drained to the dregs. While every one about her
contemplated the future with serene confidence, she reflected on
the extreme mobility of the French character, and still distrusted
inconstant fortune.
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