But, to reach that height, the reputation you have, I am told, acquired in art is not a sufficient recommendation.  It is my wish that you should enter political life; and in that career, under the present institutions of France, there are not two ways of becoming a man of distinction:  you must begin by being made a deputy.  I know that you are not yet of the legal age, and also that you do not possess the property qualification.  But, in another year you will be thirty years old, and that is just the necessary time required by law to be a land-owner before becoming a candidate for election.

To-morrow, therefore, you can present yourself to Mongenod Bros., bankers, rue de la Victoire.  A sum of two hundred and fifty thousand francs will be paid to you; this you must immediately employ in the purchase of real estate, applying part of the surplus to obtain an interest in some newspaper which, when the right time comes, will support your candidacy, and the rest in another expense I shall presently explain to you.

Your political aptitude is guaranteed to me by the person who, with a disinterested zeal for which I shall ever be grateful, has watched over you since you were abandoned.  For some time past he has secretly followed you and listened to you, and he is certain that you will make yourself a dignified position in the Chamber.  Your opinions of ardent yet moderate liberalism please me; without being aware of it, you have very cleverly played into my game.  I cannot as yet tell you the place of your probable election.  The secret power which is preparing for that event is all the more certain to succeed because its plans are pursued quietly and for the present in the shade.  But success will be greatly assisted by the execution of a work which I shall now propose to you, requesting you to accept its apparent strangeness without surprise or comment.

For the time being you must continue to be a sculptor, and with the talents of which you have already given proofs, I wish you to make a statue of Saint-Ursula.  That is a subject which does not lack either interest or poesy.  Saint-Ursula, virgin and martyr, was, as is generally believed, a daughter of prince of Great Britain.  Becoming the abbess of a convent of unmarried women, who were called with popular naivete the Eleven Thousand Virgins, she was martyred by the Huns in the fifth century; later, she was patroness of the order of the Ursulines, to which she gave its name, and she was also patroness of the famous house of Sorbonne.  An able artist like yourself could, it seems to me, make much of these details.

Without knowing the locality of which you will be made the representative, it is expedient that you should from the present moment, make known your political opinions and your intention of becoming a candidate for election.  But I cannot too strongly insist on your keeping secret the communication now