As to foreign politics, or the remodelling of the map of Europe, it was, properly speaking, only sport and recreation to the “beards.”  It added interest to the game, that was all.  Is it not agreeable, when you are preparing a discard, at the decisive moment, with one hundred at piquet, which gives you ‘quinte’ or ‘quatorze’, to deliver unhappy Poland; and when one has the satisfaction to score a king and take every trick, what does it cost to let the Russians enter Constantinople?

Nevertheless, some of the most solemn “beards” of the Cafe de Seville attached themselves to international questions, to the great problem of European equilibrium.  One of the most profound of these diplomats—­who probably had nothing to buy suspenders with, for his shirt always hung out between his waistcoat and trousers—­was persuaded that an indemnity of two million francs would suffice to obtain from the Pope the transfer of Rome to the Italians; and another Metternich on a small scale assumed for his specialty the business of offering a serious affront to England and threatening her, if she did not listen to his advice, with a loss in a short time of her Indian Empire and other colonial possessions.

Thus the “beards,” absorbed by such grave speculations, did not trouble themselves about the vanity called literature, and did not care a pin for Amedee Violette’s book.  Among the long-haired ones, however, we repeat, the emotion was great.  They were furious, they were agitated, and bristled up; the first enthusiasm over Amedee Violette’s verses could not be lasting and had been only a mere flash.  The young man saw these Merovingians as they really were toward a man who succeeded, that is, severe almost to cruelty.  What! the first edition of Poems from Nature was exhausted and Massif had another in press!  What! the bourgeoisie, far from being “astonished” at this book, declared themselves delighted with it, bought it, read it, and perhaps had it rebound!  They spoke favorably of it in all the bourgeois journals, that is to say, in those that had subscribers!  Did they not say that Violette, incited by Jocquelet, was working at a grand comedy in verse, and that the Theatre-Francais had made very flattering offers to the poet?  But then, if he pleased the bourgeoisie so much he was—­oh, horror!—­a bourgeois himself.  That was obvious.  How blind they had been not to see it sooner!  When Amedee had read his verses not long since at Sillery’s, by what aberration had they confounded this platitude with simplicity, this whining with sincere emotion, these stage tricks with art?  Ah! you may rest assured, they never will be caught again!