MIRABEAU. 211

young man of ambition and talents, to the enjoyment ofliberty and of the privileges of his birth.

Mirabeau painted his feelings eloquently in a letter tohis uncle, dated from the fortress of Joux, 22d of Au-gust, 177 5 . “ Ought I,” he writes, “ to be for ever

excluded from a career in which my conduct and endea-vours, aided by your counsels, might give me the meansof one day becoming useful and known. Times are mend-ing, and ambition is permitted. Do you believe that theemulation that animates me ought to remain sterile, andthat, at the age of twenty-six, your nephew is incapableof any good ? Do not believe it; deliver me; deign todeliver me: save me from the frightful agitation inwhich I live, and which may destroy the effects pro-duced on me by reflection and adversity. Believe me,that there are men whom it is necessary to occupy, andthat I am of that number. The activity which accom-plishes all things, and without which nothing is achieved,becomes turbulent, and may become dangerous, if leftwithout object or employment.” His father was insen-sible to these representations, and, although the pretenceof his continued imprisonment was, that he shouldregain by degrees the paternal favour, the marquis’sletters prove that it was his heartfelt wish to drive hisson to extremities ; and he too fatally succeeded.

Mirabeau had hitherto wasted his ardent nature onvulgar amours • he had never felt real love. Had hebeen allowed to follow an active career, it is probablethat love, in an absorbing and despotic form, had nevergoverned him. Driven into solitude, separated from allthe ties of nature, friendless and persecuted, his heartin an unfortunate hour beoame inflamed by a passionthat sealed his ruin. The fortress of Joux is situatedin the neighbourhood of Pontarlier ; the only family ofnote resident in thait town was that of De Monnier.Madame de Monnier belonged to a family of the nameof Ruffey, distinguislhed for a piety carried to bigotry,and a parental severity, that caused them to devote severalchildren to a monastic life. Sophie was married at eigh-

p 2