THE POPE AND VOLTAIRE.

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It was no wonder that those who travelled from France to Italy came back more pious than they went; for even the Protestant Englishman before quoted, when he beheld Pius VI. giving the Benediction to the people from the balcony of St. Peter's, confesses :-" Had I not in my early youth received impressions highly unfavourable to the chief actor in this magnificent interlude, I should have been in danger of doing homage to him."

But efforts at this time in France to revive enthusiasm for the pope were generally failures. News from North America was more welcome to France, in 1781, than was intelligence from Rome. Even Paris workmen in the Faubourg St. Laurent, through which the grand procession had lately passed, boldly discussed not only American independence and Necker's "Account Rendered," but also the Bible. As to pious traditions, Voltaire had taught even these men to rail at them. Voltaire's pamphlets were reproduced, by stealth, in various forms. Voltaire's thoughts, contracting impurity in the downward channels through which they flowed, were now in some sort the thoughts of the labouring classes. And yet Voltaire himself, in his later years, had confessed to a fear of a

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LEADERS OF FRENCH OPINION.

people who had not the fear of God. From Ferney, Voltaire had written to the Marquis d'Argens at Berlin :

66

you

My dear Marquis, if you, crowned with flowers, a goblet of Aï in your hand, and seated at the feet of your mistress, tell me that believe not in God, what care I? But if you, a poor, hungry man, with a loaded gun in your hand, met me at night in a wood, and then told me that you believed not in God, I should not know how to find legs fast enough to carry me away from you."

But Voltaire proved the truth of an old French proverb—“He who plays with fire becomes an incendiary."

A few years before Voltaire's death, a caricature had appeared in Paris which represented Voltaire and Rousseau about to fight each other. Voltaire has his sword drawn, but Rousseau has doubled his fists.

"M. Rousseau," says Voltaire, "why don't you use the arms of a gentleman?"

"Because," says Rousseau, "I prefer to use the arms of nature.".

It is curious to observe that Rousseau and Voltaire had now changed places as leaders of opinion

in France; each, by a strange perversion, occupying the one originally assigned to the other by birth, by education, and by social position. During the American war, Rousseau's-the Genevese republican's-works were more read by the upper classes; and Voltaire's-the courtier's -opinions gained ground amongst the lower classes. Voltaire has therefore been called "The

great Demolisher." "At Court," says the young Count de Ségur, "we applauded the republican maxims of Brutus-in short, we talked of independence in camps, of democracy at the houses of nobles, of philosophy at balls, and of morality in boudoirs." The people had lost their faith in the priesthood. The people had learned to doubt and to dispute. "Philosophy" had robbed the people of the consolations of religion, and had given to them, instead of the holy mysteries of the ancient faith of France, Voltaire's Essays; Diderot's "Code of Nature;" and Rousseau's "Social Contract."

"Religion," as says a French author, "had taught the people to look beyond the tomb for "The Rights of Man,' and for Equality. Divine hope in a future existence had been a compensa

tion to the workman and to the mechanic for all the daily miseries of a life of toil; and when this hope was no longer theirs, they looked in this world for another equality. Fatal impieties which only excite a smile in enervated gentlemen, cause the people to grind their teeth with rage."

The people of France, at this period of the American rebellion, began to talk every day more loudly of "Liberty and of Equality," and to demand a better place for themselves under the sun which shines equally on all men. Women of the lower classes now began to join in this demand for equality. Unlike the women of Italy, the women of France said not of the Pope: "Quanto e bello!" The voice from the convent was hushed in proportion as the voice from the fish-market grew vociferous. The sight of nuns became rare. It is well known that when Queen Marie Antoinette was about to take her little daughter to the convent of St. Denis, there to visit nun Louise (whom Pope Clement XIV, had blest), her Majesty had a doll dressed as a Carmelite, that the child might be accustomed beforehand to the garb in which her aunt would receive her.

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CHAPTER V.

Landing of the French at Jersey-Belleisle's Bureau-M. le Baron de Rullecourt and the Lieut. Governor of Jersey-Elizabeth Castle-French troops attacked— Death of De Rullecourt-Gibraltar-France in IndiaHyder Ali-Fears of the Dutch-Joli de FleuriCalonne-Antecedents of Calonne-The Abbé de Vermond-Death of the Queen Empress, Maria TheresaThe King in the Queen's Cabinet-Marie Antoinette's reverence for her mother-Count de Kaunitz-Original Contemporary sketch of a Viennese Diplomatist of the eighteenth century-Portrait of Maria Theresa-Character of Maria Theresa-M. le Duc de Lauzun-Yorktown-Lord Cornwallis circumvented-Secret letter from Paris to America intercepted by the English-The siege of York-town described by one who was present-The day of capitulation-Lord Cornwallis and President Laurens-Lord North's despair-Marie Antoinette's joy. IN 1778 the Duc de Lauzun had reported to the Cabinet of Versailles that, with three thousand men and great secrecy, an expedition against the islands