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best to gain general confidence ; and to sacrifice all hisnarrow and peculiar opinions to an elevated,unprejudicedview of humanity. The reply of the prince, thankinghim for his counsels, and assuring him of his resolutionto act upon them, is highly worthy of a man of honourand virtue.
The effect of the war was to spread famine and misery 1709.throughout France : 1709 was a year marked by suffer- -® tat *ing and want; the army in Flanders was destitute ofdepots for food. Fenelon set the example of furnishingthe soldiery with bread. Some narrowminded menaround him remonstrated, saying that the king hadtreated him so ill, that he did not deserve that he shouldcome forward to assist his subjects. Fenelon , animatedby that simple sense of justice that characterised him,replied, “ The king owes me nothing ; and in the evilsthat overwhelm the people, I ought, as a Frenchman anda bishop, to give back to the state what I have receivedfrom it.” His palace was open to the officers who neededassistance and shelter; and after the battle of Malplaquet,that, as well as his neighbouring seminary, was filled withthe wounded. His generosity went so far as to hire housesto receive others, when his own apartments were full.
His prudence and order afforded him the means of meet-ing these calls on his liberality, which he did not confineto the upper classes. Whole villages weie emptied by theapproach of the armies, and the inhabitants took refugein the fortified towns : to watch over these sufferers—toconsole them, and prevent the disorders usually incidentto such an addition to the population, was another task,which he cheerfully fulfilled, going about among them,and soothing them with his gentleness and kindness.
When the dauphin, father of the duke of Burgundy, 1711.died,—men, supple in their servility, began to consider ^® tat *that, on the event of his pupil’s accession to the throne, 60 ‘Fenelon would become powerful; and the nobles andofficers began to pay him court, when passing throughCambray : Fenelon received them with the same sim-plicity with which he regarded their absence. He was