Madame de Polignac, and openly protected by the Queen of France. So much for the city.
As to the court, it may well be asked what spirit of insanity had seized all the admirers and votaries of constitutional system and revolutionary ideas, and in fact all these reformers à talons rouges[1] to make them so desirous of a new order of things, and so hungry for any change from the existing order of affairs. Some of them were led astray by a false ambition, and each thought himself, no doubt, called upon to play the part of a second Washington. Such, I imagine, was the case of the two L——'s, the nephews of the Marechal de R——, both of them in favour with the Queen, who had bestowed upon each a regiment. These Court revolutionists, anxious to ingratiate themselves with the mob, displayed the blackest ingratitude, and their mountebank endeavours to obtain popularity and pose as philanthropists,
- ↑ The courtiers. It was a mark of nobility to wear shoes with red heels, ed.
