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136, and that he had leased chairs in our parish church. He took pains to add that he would ever remember the generosity of my grandfather and father who had often given him a louis by way of a New Year's gift. He was a fervent disciple of the new philosophy, and his memory was stuffed with passages from the works of Voltaire and Jean Jacques. Thus, on passing a certain château which was being demolished, he remarked, 'No château ever falls but one sees twenty cottages arise in its stead.'

"On our passing through the village of Sarcelles, he gave me a curious example of the regeneration of morals towards which he and his compeers daily worked so zealously. On my pointing out to him a country residence of somewhat finer appearance and better kept than those we had seen so far, for everything in those days presented an appearance of decay and neglect, he replied, 'I should well think so. It is the house of our friend Livry. We often visit him. He still possesses, it is true, an annual income of fifty thousand livres, but he is a first-class fellow. We have just married him to the Citoyenne Saulnier, with whom he had so long cohabited. (She was première danseuse at the Opéra.) "Come now," we said to him, "it is time that this disgraceful state of affairs should cease. To the winds with family prejudice! The ci-devant marquis must marry the dancer." So he married