Only--for there is an only--the principles which I openly avow, he keeps locked up in his snuff-box--and trust him for not forgetting to open it at the opportune moment.

He has suffered cruelly for his opinions, in the sense of having so often been obliged to conceal them.

He concealed them, first, under the consulate, when he returned from exile.

He dissimulated them even more courageously under the Empire--for he played the part of a kind of chamberlain to Bonaparte, this dear marquis.

But, chut! do not remind him of that proof of heroism; he has deplored it bitterly since the battle of Lutzen." This was the tone in which M.de Sairmeuse was accustomed to speak of his best friends.
"The history of his fortune," he continued, "is the history of his marriages--I say _marriages_, because he has married a number of times, and always advantageously.