At the opening of
those doors, what a sight it must be to behold the plenipotentiaries of
royal impotence, in the precedency which they will intrigue to obtain,
and which will be granted to them according to the seniority of their
degradation, sneaking into the Regicide presence, and, with the relics
of the smile which they had dressed up for the levee of their masters
still flickering on their curled lips, presenting the faded remains of
their courtly graces, to meet the scornful, ferocious, sardonic grin of
a bloody ruffian, who, whilst he is receiving their homage, is measuring
them with his eye, and fitting to their size the slider of his
guillotine! These ambassadors may easily return as good courtiers as
they went; but can they ever return from that degrading residence loyal
and faithful subjects, or with any true affection to their master, or
true attachment to the constitution, religion, or laws of their country?
There is great danger that they, who enter smiling into this Trophonian
cave, will come out of it sad and serious conspirators, and such will
continue as long as they live. They will become true conductors of
contagion to every country which has had the misfortune to send them to
the source of that electricity. At best, they will become totally
indifferent to good and evil, to one institution or another. This
species of indifference is but too generally distinguishable in those
who have been much employed in foreign courts, but in the present case
the evil must be aggravated without measure: for they go from their
country, not with the pride of the old character, but in a state of the
lowest degradation; and what must happen in their place of residence can
have no effect in raising them to the level of true dignity or of chaste
self-estimation, either as men or as representatives of crowned heads.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271