Men are affected by the tale to this very day. For a
century and three-quarters have not all the books that speak of
Versailles, or Louis Quatorze, told the story?
"Don't hurry yourself, my cousin!" O admirable king and Christian! what a
pitch of condescension is here, that the greatest king of all the world
should go for to say anything so kind, and really tell a tottering old
gentleman, worn out with gout, age, and wounds, not to walk too fast!
What a proper fund of slavishness is there in the composition of mankind,
that histories like these, should be found to interest and awe them. Till
the world's end, most likely, this story will have its place in the
history-books, and unborn generations will read it, and tenderly be moved
by it.
I am sure that Magnanimity went to bed that night, pleased and happy,
intimately convinced that he had done an action of sublime virtue, and had
easy slumbers and sweet dreams--especially if he had taken a light supper,
and not too vehemently attacked his "en cas de nuit." ...
The king his successor has not left, at Versailles, half so much occasion
for moralizing; perhaps the neigbhboring Parc aux Cerfs would afford
better illustrations of his reign.
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