Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/77

 SAINT-AMANT 6l a cordial joy-inspirer. Having duly thanked Des Noyers for his good offices, he proceeds to recount his various enjoyments, a theme of which he never tires. He was not the man to be ashamed of his pleasures, or to demurely conceal them ; on the con- trary, he riots in their celebration as heartily as he rioted in the pleasures themselves. Then comes an abrupt transition. He remarks — Is always sure of approbation." And to prove this he shows the real and manifold absurdity of the fashion then prevailing in France. The elaborate description of costume is a master- piece of graphic satire, full of the most piquant details. Having commenced his " Moses Saved," which he terms the Idyll heroic, he set out for Warsaw to show it to the Queen of Poland, to whom it was to be dedicated but, as he tells the Queen in the letter of dedication, he was arrested at St. Omer. " Doubt- less, had I not said at once that I had the honour to be one of your gentlemen of the chamber, and had 1 not been shielded by such beautiful and power- ful arms, I should not have been able to parry the stroke of misfortune. I ran risk of my life, and the ' Moses Saved ' would have been Moses lost." He goes on to tell how he tried to refashion and complete the work en voyage : " But I found that the muses of the Seine are so delicate that they could not accom- pany me in this long journey; that the fatigues of travel affrighted them, and that absolutely I must retire to some solitary retreat in the country where these
 * ' Whatever's the custom in any nation