MIKABEAU.

225

had become as inveterate as ever against his son :he did not imprison him, but he kept the royal order,permitting him to assign him his place of residence,hanging over his head, so to be able to remove him fromhis own vicinity if he became troublesome.

Mirabeau felt the necessity of forming a career forhimself, and earning a subsistence. He failed in hisfirst attempts in Paris , and, as a last resource, turnedhis eyes towards England. His visit to London , how- 1784 .ever, was full of mortification and disappointment. He ^Etat.found no path open by which a French author could 35.maintain himself. His letters are full of bitterness atthis period; his father refused him the slightest pro-vision, and, he says, used all his address to cause himto die of hunger, since he could not hope to make himrob on the highway. It is difficult for those who livein the sunshine of life, as well as for those who arebrought up to earn their bread in a profession, or bytrade, to understand the degree of exasperation engen-dered in the hear, of a rich man’s son, reduced topenury by the injuitice of his parent. He finds it im-possible to make mtney of his talents, and indignities,unknown to the nerest labourer, swarm around him.

It is much if he cat earn a bare and precarious subsist-ence, eaten into by previous debts, and dependent on theselfishness and caprice of others. Mirabeau tasted of thedregs of poverty ; lis natural inaptitude to calculation

years she continued undei her father’s guidance, and, at his wish, to live alife of pleasure ; theatricas and every sort of dissipation being the order ofthe day. A reconciliatim was set on foot, and had nearly been accom-plished between her and h?r husband at the period of his death. She emi-grated with her father dufing the revolution, and suffered a good deal ofpoverty. She subsequent!’ married a count de Rocca, and visited Paris , toendeavour to recover sorm portion of her property. Her husband died soonafter, and she resumed the iame of Mirabeau,of which she became proud, re-viving the recollections of past times, surrounding herself with every objectthat could remind her of tie husband of her youth. She lived in intimacywith his sister, madameduSaillant, and extended her kind ness to the youngman whom Mirabeau had idopted. Though frivolous, she had hever beenill conducted, and her fauls, being those of timidity, are chiefly to be attri-buted to her father, who,loving ease and pleasure, and glad to have hisdaughter with him, prevmted her by every means in his power from ful-filling her duties towards ier husband. She passed her last years in thehotel de Mirabeau, and did ira the year 1800, in the same room where herliu6band had expired.

VOL. II. Q