Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/411

 The Eve of the French Revolution 373 promise to those who would embrace their cause a rank appropriate to their services. The American troops already included in their ranks sev- eral European volunteers whom the love of glory and inde- pendence had attracted. . . . The first three Frenchmen of distinguished rank at court who offered the aid of their serv- ice to the Americans were the marquis of Lafayette, the viscount of Noailles, and myself. IV. The People of France Of all the descriptions that we have of the general condition of the French people upon the eve of the Rev- olution, the most important and interesting is Arthur Young's account of his travels in France during the years 1787, 1788, and 1789. Young was an honest and observant English gentleman farmer, whose aim was to ascertain "the cultivation, wealth, resources, and national prosperity " of France, which were, as he foresaw, to be fundamentally changed by the Revolution then under way. His book, first published in 1792, met with imme- diate success, and still fascinates even the casual reader. In 1787 Arthur Young visited Paris and Versailles, then traveled southward as far as the Pyrenees. Of Versailles and the capital he says : Again to Versailles. In viewing the king's apartment, which he had not left a quarter of an hour, with those slight traits of disorder that showed he lived in it, it was amus- ing to see the blackguard figures that were walking uncon- trolled about the palace, and even in his bedchamber; men whose rags betrayed them to be in the last stage of poverty, and I was the only person that stared and wondered how the devil they got there. It is impossible not to like this careless indifference and freedom from suspicion. One loves the master of the house, who would not be hurt or offended 384. Ex- tracts from Arthur Young's travels. Impressions of Versailles and its gardens.