They were two revolutionary spirits; but from their difference of situations and countries, the one was destined to create, and the other to oppose, a revolution.
Be this as it may, Mirabeau was seduced by the sovereign, whom he was sent to seduce.
"This prince's countenance," he writes in his secret correspondence, "betokens depth and finesse.

He speaks with eloquence and precision: he is prodigiously well-informed, industrious, and clear-sighted: he has a vast correspondence, which he owes to his merit alone: he is even economical of his amours.

His mistress, Madame de Hartfeld, is the most sensible woman of his court.

A real Alcibiades, he loves pleasure, but never allows it to intrude on business.

When acting as the Prussian general, no one so early, so active, so precisely exact as he.