544 VICTOR DUCANGE. 



career. Let us not be too hasty in deciding his destiny in bounding his 

 career in checking his progress. An imprudent marriage influences a whole 

 life. Immense destinies are awaiting France : the fortune of the crowned 

 Hero may be more strongly reflected on us hereafter than at present ; and 

 why may not our Gustavus," rich by my titles, my office, my fortune, and his 

 expectations, raise his ambition above the daughter of an insignificant Mar- 

 quis, without an estate, lowly connected, and without firmness at Court ? 

 Do not precipitate matters. Victory is on the point of carrying our eagles 

 beyond the Neva. Russia has declared war against us. We shall have a 

 throne more to dispose of. Let us await the issue of this great event." 



Meantime the French army had entered the capital of the north ; 

 and from the Imperial towers of the palace of Peter the Great an or- 

 dinance arrives at Paris, upon the Emperor's favourite system effusion, 

 which comprehends within its scope the respective scions of the houses 

 of the Marquis of Kerneseck and the Baron Jean Phol. Accordingly 

 Fouche, who was as well skilled in matrimonial diplomacy as in 

 other state intrigues, acquaints the parties with the wishes of the 

 Emperor, and all the preliminaries being adjusted, the marriage is on 

 the point of taking place, when, besides the serious obstacle of the 

 bride's being almost driven to distraction by the fatal power of her 

 Capucin aunt, Andoche, in working on her religious scruples, the 

 Marquis interdicts the union, as a rumour prevails that the Emperor 

 is frozen to death in Russia, and that the Bourbons are on their way 

 to Paris. 



Buonaparte, however, returns to the Thuilleries ; and the Marquis 

 flies thither to swear that France was still faithful to him : he meets 

 Jean Phol, and they give each other the cut direct. France has to pro- 

 duce another army to supply the place of that which has perished ; 

 Gustavus sets out with the newly enrolled corps; and after a series of 

 hard fighting, is left for dead upon the field of Leipsic. The cap- 

 ture of Paris follows close upon this event. The Marquis was right. 

 Jean Phol was wrong. The former retains his chamberlain's key ; 

 the latter, after voting for the dethronement of the man of destiny, 

 writes over his establishment " Royal Manufactory." 



Gustavus, who was supposed to have perished, is preserved almost 

 miraculously; and after enduring many calamities, returns just at 

 the moment when his bride has ceased to exist. The account of his 

 death, maliciously imparted to her by the furious zealot Andoche, had 

 so far aggravated the malady to which she had long been a victim, 

 that she had sunk under it ; and her lover performs the last duty of 

 depositing her in the tomb. 



We are sensible that, in this short sketch, we have but faintly de- 

 lineated the spirit that runs through and animates the work of Victor 

 Ducange. To convey a just and accurate idea of the vehemence and 

 address with which his satire is brought to bear on the Feudalism and 

 Jesuitism, against which the whole force of his attack is levelled, 

 would require much wider bounds than those to which we are neces- 

 sarily restricted. 



