“I think not.  And yet we are dealing with agencies of which we know nothing but the tremendous force.  We are breathing a new atmosphere, which may at first excite only to kill.—­We have let out the waters of a new river-head, which continues pouring from hour to hour, with a fulness sufficient to terrify us already, and threatening to swell over the ancient landmarks of the soil.—­It is even now a torrent—­what can prevent it from being a lake? what hand of man can prevent that lake from being an ocean? or what power of human council can say to that ocean in its rage—­Thus far shalt thou go?”

“But the great institutions of France, will they not form a barrier?  Is not their ancient firmness proof against the loose and desultory assaults of a populace like that of Paris?”

“I shall answer by an image which occurred to me on my late tour of inspection to the ports in the west.  At Cherbourg, millions of francs have been spent in attempting to make a harbour.  When I was there one stormy day, the ocean rose, and the first thing swept away was the great caisson which formed the principal defence against the tide,—­its wrecks were carried up the harbour, heaped against the piers, which they swept away; hurled against the fortifications, which they broke down; and finally working ten times more damage than if the affair had been left to the surges alone.  The thought struck me at the moment, that this caisson was the emblem of a government assailed by an irresistible force.  The firmer the foundations, and the loftier the superstructure, the surer it was to be ultimately carried away, and to carry away with it all that the mere popular outburst would have spared.—­The massiveness of the obstacle increased the spread of the ruin.  Few Asiatic kingdoms would be overthrown with less effort, and perish with less public injury, than the monarchy of the Bourbons, if it is to fall.  Yet, your monarchy is firmer.  It is less a vast building than a mighty tree, not fixed on foundations which can never widen, but growing from roots which continually extend.  But, if that tree perish, it will not be thrown down, but torn up; it will not leave a space clear to receive a new work of man, but a pit, which no successor can fill for a thousand years.”

“But the insurrection; I fear the attack on the palace.”

“It will not take place.  Your information shall be forwarded to the court; where, however, I doubt whether it will be received with much credence.  The Austrian declaration of war has put the flatterers of royalty into such spirits, that if the tocsin were sounding at this instant, they would not believe in the danger.  We have been unfortunately forced to send the chief part of the garrison of Paris towards the frontier.  But we have three battalions of the Swiss guard within call at Courbevoie, and they can be ready on the first emergency.  Rely upon it, all will go well.”

With this assurance I was forced to be content; but I relied much more upon Mordecai and his Jewish intelligence.  A despatch to London gave a minute of this conversation before I laid my head on my pillow; and I flung myself down, not without a glance at the tall roofs of the Tuileries, and a reflection on how much the man escapes whose forehead has no wrinkle from the diadem.