head of a detachment of volunteers, he seized on the Chateau de Corte, the last asylum and home of Paoli.  He retained for himself the library of this unfortunate patriot.  The choice of these books, and the notes with which they were covered in Paoli’s hand, revealed one of those characters which seek their fellows in the finest models of antiquity.  Dumouriez was worthy of this spoil, since he appreciated it above gold.  The great Frederic called Paoli the first captain of Europe:  Voltaire declared him the conqueror and lawgiver of his country.  The French blushed at conquering him—­fortune at forsaking him.  If he did not emancipate his country, he deserved that his struggle should be immortalised.  Too great a citizen for so small a people, he did not bear a reputation in proportion to his country, but to his virtues.  Corsica remains in the ranks of conquered provinces; but Paoli must always be in the ranks of great men.

V.

After his return to Paris, Dumouriez passed a year in the society of the literary men and women of light fame who gave to the society of the period the spirit and the tone of a constant orgy.  Forming an attachment with an old acquaintance of Madame Du Barry, he knew this parvenue courtezan, whom libertinism had elevated nearly to the throne.  Devoted to the Duc de Choiseul, the enemy of this mistress of the king, and retaining that remnant of virtue which amongst the French is called honour, he did not prostitute his uniform to the court, and blushed to see the old monarch, at the reviews of Fontainebleau, walk on foot with his hat off before his army, beside a carriage in which this woman displayed her beauty and her empire.  Madame Du Barry took offence at the forgetfulness of the young officer, and divined the cause of his absence.  Dumouriez was sent to Poland on the same errand that had before despatched him to Portugal.  His mission, half diplomatic, half military, was, in consequence of a secret idea of the king, approved by his confidant, the Count de Broglie, and by Favier, the count’s adviser.

It was at the moment when Poland, menaced and half-occupied by the Russians, devoured by Prussia, forsaken by Austria, was attempting some ill-considered movements, in order to repair its scattered limbs, and to dispute, at least, in fragments, its nationality with its oppressors—­the last sigh of liberty which moved the corpse of a people.  The king, who feared to come into collision with the Empress of Russia, Catherine, to give excuses to the hostilities of Frederic and umbrage to the court of Vienna, was still desirous of extending to expiring Poland the hand of France; but concealing that hand, and reserving to himself the power even to cut it off, if it became necessary.  Dumouriez was the intermediary selected for this part; the secret minister of France, amongst the Polish confederates; a general, if necessary—­but a general adventurer and disowned—­to rally and direct their efforts.