1Next day I laid up for myself a course of study—physical and intellectual. In the morning I read and studied my books; during the day I worked at my carpentry; towards evening I indulged in shooting, in gymnastics, and sports of that nature; and at night I again returned to my books. I improved every day.

2About a week after the events of the last chapter, M. Drouet, and two friends came to my uncle’s.

3M. Drouet and his friends shook me by the hand. He asked me how I was getting on, and I told him all, regretting at the same time that I had no money to buy books, or get instruction in Latin.

4“No money!” said Jean Baptiste. “Who hinders you from making it?”

5“Making it?” I answered. “But how?”

6“With your plane, of course.”

7“But, Monsieur Drouet, I have no customers.”

8“I will find them for you.”

9“Where?”

10“To begin with, the postmaster of St. Menehould, Jean Baptiste Drouet by name. The fact is, I require a quantity of carpentry work done in my house, and you must undertake it.”

11“I am not good enough workman for that, Monsieur Drouet.”

12“But if I find you good enough?”

13“Then I would not like to take your money.”

14“Nonsense! I must get somebody to do it, so that is settled. Now, about the Latin. I will find you a teacher—Monsieur Fortin, the Curé of Islettes.”

15“How will I pay him?”

16“I don’t think that he would take your money.”

17“But I take yours, Monsieur Drouet.”

18“Ah, that is different. Government does not pay me to make wash-hand-stands, but it does pay Abbé Fortin to instruct his flock morally and intellectually.”

19“I should like to offer him something.”

20“Exactly—not as a right, but as a graceful act of courtesy; and as I know the Father Fortin does not despise the good things of this life, you can shoot him a hare occasionally, or knock him up a cupboard, to keep his preserves in.”

21“A thousand thanks, Monsieur Jean!”

22“Listen! I have it in my mind’s eye that you will be a soldier—at all events, the education necessary for an officer will not be thrown away. For six francs a month, Bertrand, of Islettes, the old soldier, will teach you fencing; and, for a trifle more, Mathieu, the land surveyor, at Clermont, will show you how to draw a plan. As for horsemanship, I will give you the run of my stable; so, there you are, with your life-time all mapped out. Now, let us to the forest.”

23At dinner that day, the conversation turned upon politics, and particularly on the unpopularity of Marie Antoinette, the Queen. All this was Greek to me, till M. Jean Baptiste explained the situation of affairs.

24Marie Antoinette, it appeared, daughter of the Austrian, Marie Therèse, and ancient enemy of France, had been accepted by the French people as a harbinger of union and of peace. Very different, however, had been her influence.

25In a word, Marie Therèse hoped that Louis XVI would some day aid her to get back the provinces wrested from her by Prussia.

26Until 1778, Marie Antoinette did not meddle with affairs of state. Up to that time, Turgot was the ruling spirit; but, at last, he had to succumb to that famous De Calone, who used to reply thus to the demands of the Queen: “Madame, if it is possible, it is already done; if it is impossible, it will be done.”

27Misrule went on. The King, despite his impoverished treasury, bought St. Cloud; the Queen, whilst her people were starving, purchased Rambouillet, and lavished millions of francs which were not her own upon her immediate favorites. Scandal arose; and when scandal gets into everybody’s mouth, it is worse than truth.

28M. de Calone resigned. He could not make both ends meet.

29The next Prime Minister was Brienne, a Queen’s favorite; and, when he fell, Paris was illuminated from the Bastille to the Cour de la Reine.

30M. de Necker reigned in his stead. He was a Genevese banker, and a financier of the first force; but even he failed to see a way out of the royal bankruptcy; and it was whispered that he was going to ask the nation what it thought of matters—France was to speak.

31This was the great news at my uncle’s dinner-table that day, and our three guests were very merry over it, and pledged fidelity to each other however these events might turn out.

32And they kept their word.