Letters of Two Brides

"The King stands for us all. To die for the King is to die for

oneself, for one's family, which, like the kingdom, cannot die. All

animals have certain instincts; the instinct of man is for family

life. A country is strong which consists of wealthy families, every

member of whom is interested in defending a common treasure; it is

weak when composed of scattered individuals, to whom it matters little

whether they obey seven or one, a Russian or a Corsican, so long as

each keeps his own plot of land, blind, in their wretched egotism, to

the fact that the day is coming when this too will be torn from them.

"Terrible calamities are in store for us, in case our party fails.

Nothing will be left but penal or fiscal laws--your money or your

life. The most generous nation on the earth will have ceased to obey

the call of noble instincts. Wounds past curing will have been

fostered and aggravated, an all pervading jealousy being the first.

Then the upper classes will be submerged; equality of desire will be

taken for equality of strength; true distinction, even when proved and

recognized, will be threatened by the advancing tide of middle-class

prejudice.

It was possible to choose one man out of a thousand, but,

amongst three millions, discrimination becomes impossible, when all

are moved by the same ambitions and attired in the same livery of

mediocrity. No foresight will warn this victorious horde of that other

terrible horde, soon to be arrayed against them in the peasant

proprietors; in other words, twenty million acres of land, alive,

stirring, arguing, deaf to reason, insatiable of appetite, obstructing

progress, masters in their brute force----"

"But," said I, interrupting my father, "what can I do to help the

State. I feel no vocation for playing Joan of Arc in the interests of

the family, or for finding a martyr's block in the convent."

"You are a little hussy," cried my father. "If I speak sensibly to

you, you are full of jokes; when I jest, you talk like an

ambassadress." "Love lives on contrasts," was my reply.

And he laughed till the tears stood in his eyes.

"You will reflect on what I have told you; you will do justice to the

large and confiding spirit in which I have broached the matter, and

possibly events may assist my plans. I know that, so far as you are

concerned, they are injurious and unfair, and this is the reason why I

appeal for your sanction of them less to your heart and your

imagination than to your reason. I have found more judgment and

commonsense in you than in any one I know----"