She found patrons for him; surrounded him with a _prestige_; created a name for him, marked him out a course.

She made him the living type of her politics.

To disdain the court, gain over the people, command the army, intimidate Europe, carry away the Assembly by his eloquence, to struggle for liberty, to save the nation, and become, by his popularity alone, the arbiter between the throne and the people, to reconcile them by a constitution, at once liberal and monarchical; such was the perspective that she opened for herself and M.
de Narbonne.
She but awakened his ambition, yet he believed himself capable of the destinies which she dreamed of for him.

The drama of the constitution was concentrated in these two minds, and their conspiracy was for some time the entire policy of Europe.
Madame de Staeel, M.de Narbonne, and the constitutional party were for war; but theirs was to be a partial and not a desperate war which, shaking nationality to its foundations, would carry away the throne and throw France into a Republic.

They contrived by their influence to renew all the personal staff of the diplomacy, exclusively devoted to the emigrants or the king.