156 Humboldt's Letters. 



Pray, dear Excellency, receive my affectionate and 

 respectful homage. BRESSON. 



P. S. I had just finished this note when yours of 

 this morning reached me. I shall keep it all my life, as 

 well for its being a true historical monument, as for the 

 precious title of friend which you deign to give me. 

 It is true, alas ! we shall see, if God grants us life, a 

 great many things ; but may it be His will that we shall 

 never see again events like those which have already 

 swept over our country, by sapping the power of the 

 King. Yet the Coalition works in this direction with 

 all its might. It is a fit of madness which reminds me 

 of 1791. These plotters are Girondists in embryo, 

 whom we would have loved ; and they will be the first 

 to be buried under the ruins of the edifice which they 

 are undermining. 



Does it, then, require a great effort of reasoning 

 to perceive that the King is the cementer of all things, 

 that he keeps us out of chaos, and that upon his living 

 or dying the state of affairs wholly depends ? Let us 

 ask conscientiously, does our danger to-day come from 

 him ? Shall an order of things, acquired with so much 

 trouble, established with so much labor shall it be 

 sacrificed to the renown of a few men, or to the vain 

 theories inapplicable to France, serviceable at the best 

 only in England, where they are consecrated by age, 



