224 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

no one has a right to interfere in ray affairs against myw.ll, my consent, my opinion ; and with this firm con-viction I declare, that I will consent to no accommodationuntil former proceedings are reversed; and I will signnothing in which my simple and entire acquittal, thatof madame de Monnier, the restitution of her dowery,an annuity for her, and the payment of my own ex-penses, are not comprised.”' His memoirs and defenceare eloquent and resolute, and in them first shone forththat brilliant genius which afterwards ruled France .

At length an accommodation on his own terms, withthe exception of the pecuniary condition that regardedhimself, was completed. Mirabeau left his prison onthe 14th of August, 1782. He left it, indeed, a beggarand in debt; his father denied him every assistance,and refused, in opprobrious terms, to become his surety.His courage sank under these misfortunes; he wrote tohis sister, “ I am free, but to what use shall I put myliberty ? Disowned by my father ; forgotten, hated per-haps by my mother, for having desired to serve her •avoided by my uncle ; watched for by my creditors, notone of whom has been paid, though I have been de-prived of the means of subsistence under the pretenceof satisfying them ; menaced by my wife, or those whogovern her ; destitute of every thing — income, career,credit — O ! that it pleased God that my enemies werenot as cowardly as they are malicious, and a thrust of asword would end all!”

To please his family and obtain an income, Mira-beau next entered into a law-suit to force his wife tobecome reconciled with him. This was an unworthyact. In the pleadings, where he stood forth as his ownadvocate, he exerted an overwhelming eloquence, thatsilenced his adversaries, and drew an immense audienceof gentry belonging to Provence to the hall where thetrial was carried on. He however failed, and a decreeof separation was passed in the law courts of Provence ,and confirmed in Paris. * By this time the marquis

* The subsequent life of Madame de Mirabeau was singular. For some