MiTciheaii an Ojyponent of Absolutism 9 



of a certain Madame de Pailly, a very beautiful and talented 

 woman, he discovered that there was absolutely no affinity 

 between himself and the mother of his children. In a word he 

 detested her. It was at about this time that Mirabeau was 

 born. 1 



He had a huge head, came into the world with a twisted 

 foot, several teeth already cut and— strangest of all — the future 

 orator w-as tongue-tied. In infancy, he was attacked by small- 

 pox and the application by his mother of homemade ointment 

 left his face covered with disfiguring scars. He undoubtedly 

 was what his father declared him to be, "as ugly as Satan." 

 The Marquis entertained the most cordial dislike for his son, 

 due in but small part to his ugliness. For the young Mirabeau 

 resembled his mother in many ways and the father began to 

 dislike the child for the mother's sake. His treatment of the 

 boy and the bitter expressions with which his letters to the 

 Bailli overflow can be explained in no other, way. 



He endeavored to overcome all the evil tendencies that he 

 saw or imagined that he saw in the child by a sternly repressive 

 system of education. Young Mirabeau, who learned with mar- 

 velous rapidity and despite his ugliness won the hearts of all 

 with whom he came in contact, was transferred from one 

 instructor to another, each sterner than his predecessor, until 

 he found himself in a military school in Paris and deprived of 

 his family name.^ After remaining here for some time, he was 

 enrolled in a French regiment and placed under a colonel 

 notorious for the harshness of his discipline. Gambling debts 

 and a love affair that aroused the jealousy of his colonel, 

 induced Mirabeau to fly to Paris. The Marquis whose patience 

 was at length exhausted, talked of shipping the boy off to the 



1 At Bignon, March 9, 1749. ^ 



^ He was known by the name Pierre Buffiere, the latter part being taken 

 from the name of a country seat belonging to his mother. 



53 



