He had hoped these Notables might need a Secretary.

They do need one; but have fixed on Dupont de Nemours; a man of smaller fame, but then of better;--who indeed, as his friends often hear, labours under this complaint, surely not a universal one, of having 'five kings to correspond with.' (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau (Paris, 1832), p.

20.) The pen of a Mirabeau cannot become an official one; nevertheless it remains a pen.

In defect of Secretaryship, he sets to denouncing Stock-brokerage (Denonciation de l'Agiotage); testifying, as his wont is, by loud bruit, that he is present and busy;--till, warned by friend Talleyrand, and even by Calonne himself underhand, that 'a seventeenth Lettre-de-Cachet may be launched against him,' he timefully flits over the marches.
And now, in stately royal apartments, as Pictures of that time still represent them, our hundred and forty-four Notables sit organised; ready to hear and consider.

Controller Calonne is dreadfully behindhand with his speeches, his preparatives; however, the man's 'facility of work' is known to us.