But, among the arrows shot at him from every side, would no one be found poisoned?  Would not one reach some spot in his heart where the wound would be incurable?  What is the worth of a life exposed to the attacks of envious hatred or furious conviction?  The Christians yielded only the fragments of their flesh to the beasts of the amphitheatres; the man in power gives up his peace, his affections, his honor, to the cruel bites of the pen.

While I was musing upon these dangers of greatness, the usher entered hastily.  Important news had been received:  the minister is just summoned to the council; he will not be able to take his sisters to St. Cloud.

I saw, through the windows, the young ladies, who were waiting at the door, sorrowfully go upstairs again, while their brother went off to the council.  The carriage, which should have gone filled with so much family happiness, is just out of sight, carrying only the cares of a statesman in it.

The usher came back discontented and disappointed.  The more or less of liberty which he is allowed to enjoy, is his barometer of the political atmosphere.  If he gets leave, all goes well; if he is kept at his post, the country is in danger.  His opinion on public affairs is but a calculation of his own interest.  My friend is almost a statesman.

I had some conversation with him, and he told me several curious particulars of public life.

The new minister has old friends whose opinions he opposes, though he still retains his personal regard for them.  Though separated from them by the colors he fights under, they remain united by old associations; but the exigencies of party forbid him to meet them.  If their intercourse continued, it would awaken suspicion; people would imagine that some dishonorable bargain was going on; his friends would be held to be traitors desirous to sell themselves, and he the corrupt minister prepared to buy them.  He has, therefore, been obliged to break off friendships of twenty years’ standing, and to sacrifice attachments which had become a second nature.

Sometimes, however, the minister still gives way to his old feelings; he receives or visits his friends privately; he shuts himself up with them, and talks of the times when they could be open friends.  By dint of precautions they have hitherto succeeded in concealing this blot of friendship against policy; but sooner or later the newspapers will be informed of it, and will denounce him to the country as an object of distrust.

For whether hatred be honest or dishonest, it never shrinks from any accusation.  Sometimes it even proceeds to crime.  The usher assured me that several warnings had been given the minister which had made him fear the vengeance of an assassin, and that he no longer ventured out on foot.

Then, from one thing to another, I learned what temptations came in to mislead or overcome his judgment; how he found himself fatally led into obliquities which he could not but deplore.  Misled by passion, over-persuaded by entreaties, or compelled for reputation’s sake, he has many times held the balance with an unsteady hand.  How sad the condition of him who is in authority!  Not only are the miseries of power imposed upon him, but its vices also, which, not content with torturing, succeed in corrupting him.