The Merry Past 



them all in his seraglio, as he loved them all with the 

 same affection. After a trial of three hours, he was 

 found guilty of bigamy, and condemned to be punished 

 with a fortnight's imprisonment, and to regard Anna 

 Varois, whom he had married nine years ago, as his 

 only wife. To this he refused to assent, saying, 

 that instead of punishment he deserved a reward, 

 and that many persons had been made members of 

 the Legion of Honour for less patriotic deeds than 

 his, and that he intended to petition the First Consul 

 for obtaining permission to choose his own wife 

 among his own wives. 



a • • • • 



When all Europe was shaken by the storm of the 

 Revolution the question of female emancipation began 

 to be discussed in France ; some even advocated that 

 woman should receive the same educational advan- 

 tages as men and be accorded equal political rights. 



Female education is now an accomplished fact, or 

 rather admirable facilities exist for women to compete 

 in learning with men, though it is not altogether 

 certain that a vast expenditure of money, time, and 

 effort has produced anything more than discontent 

 amongst beings whose finest qualities would seem to be 

 instinctive. The so-called "reformers" who favour 

 the absolute equality of woman with man generally 

 know little of a sex which hardly understands itself. 



The men of less strenuous days, many of whom 

 lived but for women, knew that they defy all calcula- 

 tion, and that as the eighteenth-century poet said, 

 " Woman's at best a contradiction still." 



288 



