On the 29th of August in the same year she writes at great length of the indignation and fury produced in Paris by the announcement of the Quadruple Alliance.  She is immensely impressed by the fact that “people gathered in the streets and discussed the question in the open air.”  “Ireland, Poland, and Italy are to rise to the cry of Liberty.”  But she goes on to say, “Small causes produce great effects.  Much of this warlike disposition has arisen from the fact of Thiers having bought a magnificent horse to ride beside the King at the late review.”  She proceeds to ridicule the minister in a tone very naturally suggested by the personal appearance of the little great man under such circumstances, which no doubt furnished Paris with much fun.  But she goes on to suggest that the personal vanity which made the prospect of such a public appearance alluring to him was reinforced by “certain other secondary but still important considerations of a different nature, looking to the results which might follow from the exhibition of a war policy.  This desirable end being attained beyond even the most sanguine hopes, the martial fever seems on the decline.”

Now all this gossip may be accepted as evidencing the tone prevailing in the very inmost circles of the citizen king’s friends and surroundings, and as such is curious.

Writing on the 8th of October in the same year, after speaking at great length of Madame Laffarge, and of the extraordinary interest her trial excited, dividing all Paris into Laffargists and anti-Laffargists, and almost superseding war as a general topic of conversation, she passes to the then burning subject of the fortification of Paris, and writes as follows—­curiously enough, considering the date of her letter:—­

“Louis Philippe, whose favourite hobby it has ever been, from the idea that it makes him master of Paris, lays the first stone to-day.  Some people consider it the first stone of the mausoleum of his dynasty.  I sincerely hope not; for everything that can be called lady or gentleman runs a good chance of forming part of the funeral pile.  The political madness which has taken possession of the public mind is fearful.  Foreign or civil war!  Such is the alternative.  Thiers, who governs the masses, flatters them by promises of war and conquest.  The Marsellaise, so lately a sign of rebellion, is sung openly in the theatres; the soldiers under arms sing it in chorus.  The Guarde Nationale urges the King to declare war.  He has resisted it with all his power, but has now, they say, given way, and has given Thiers carte blanche.  He is in fact entirely under his control.  The Chambers are not consulted.  Thiers is our absolute sovereign.  We call ourselves a free people.  We have beheaded one monarch, exiled three generations of kings merely to have a dictator, ’mal ne, mal fait, et mal eleve.’  There has been a rumour of a change of ministry, but no one believes it.  The overthrow of Thiers would be the signal for a revolution, and the fortifications are not yet completed to master it.  May not all these armaments be the precursors of some coup d’etat?  A general gloom is over all around us.  All the faces are long; all the conversations are sad!”