Their favour had alone raised him--numerous foes still surrounded him--it was on the people alone that he could depend.
The wiser and more celebrated tyrants were characterized by an extreme modesty of deportment--they assumed no extraordinary pomp, no lofty titles--they left untouched, or rendered yet more popular, the outward forms and institutions of the government--they were not exacting in taxation--they affected to link themselves with the lowest orders, and their ascendency was usually productive of immediate benefit to the working classes, whom they employed in new fortifications or new public buildings; dazzling the citizens by a splendour that seemed less the ostentation of an individual than the prosperity of a state.
But the aristocracy still remained their enemies, and it was against them, not against the people, that they directed their acute sagacities and unsparing energies.

Every more politic tyrant was a Louis the Eleventh, weakening the nobles, creating a middle class.

He effected his former object by violent and unscrupulous means.

He swept away by death or banishment all who opposed his authority or excited his fears.

He thus left nothing between the state and a democracy but himself; himself removed, democracy ensued naturally and of course.