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.""Such studies please you? I have shaken off the influence they once had on my own imagination.""You have not shaken it off," returned the stranger, bravely; "it is on you still,--on you at this hour; itbeats in your heart; it kindles in your reason; it will speak in your tongue!" And then, with a yet lower voice, the stranger continued to address him, to remind him of certainceremonies and doctrines,-- to explain and enforce them by references to the actual experience andhistory of his listener, which Cazotte thrilled to find so familiar to a stranger.Gradually the old man's pleasing and benevolent countenance grew overcast, and he turned, fromtime to time, searching, curious, uneasy glances towards his companion.The charming Duchesse de G-- archly pointed out to the lively guests the abstracted air andclouded brow of the poet; and Condorcet, who liked no one else to be remarked, when he himselfwas present, said to Cazotte, "Well, and what do YOU predict of the Revolution,--how, at least, willit affect us?"At that question Cazotte started; his cheeks grew pale, large drops stood on his forehead; his lipswrithed; his gay companions gazed on him in surprise."Speak!" whispered the stranger, laying his hand gently upon the arm of the old wit.At that word Cazotte's face grew locked and rigid, his eyes dwelt vacantly on space, and in a low,hollow voice, he thus answered(The following prophecy (not unfamiliar, perhaps, to some of my readers), with some slightvariations, and at greater length, in the text of the authority I am about to cite, is to be found in LaHarpe's posthumous works.The MS.is said to exist still in La Harpe's handwriting, and the story isgiven on M.Petitot's authority, volume i.page 62.It is not for me to enquire if there be doubts of itsfoundation on fact.--Ed.),--"You ask how it will affect yourselves,--you, its most learned, and its least selfish agents.I willanswer: you, Marquis de Condorcet, will die in prison, but not by the hand of the executioner.In thepeaceful happiness of that day, the philosopher will carry about with him not the elixir but thepoison.""My poor Cazotte," said Condorcet, with his gentle smile, "what have prisons, executioners, andpoison to do with an age of liberty and brotherhood?""It is in the names of Liberty and Brotherhood that the prisons will reek, and the headsman beglutted.""You are thinking of priestcraft, not philosophy, Cazotte," said Champfort.(Champfort, one of those men of letters who, though misled by the first fair show of the Revolution,refused to follow the baser men of action into its horrible excesses, lived to express the murderousphilanthropy of its agents by the best bon mot of the time.Seeing written on the walls, "Fraternite oula Mort," he observed that the sentiment should be translated thus, "Sois mon frere, ou je tetue." ("Be my brother, or I kill thee.")) "And what of me?""You will open your own veins to escape the fraternity of Cain.Be comforted; the last drops will notfollow the razor.For you, venerable Malesherbes; for you, Aimar Nicolai; for you, learned Bailly,--Isee them dress the scaffold! And all the while, O great philosophers, your murderers will have noword but philosophy on their lips!"The hush was complete and universal when the pupil of Voltaire-- the prince of the academicsceptics, hot La Harpe--cried with a sarcastic laugh, "Do not flatter me, O prophet, by exemptionfrom the fate of my companions.Shall _I_ have no part to play in this drama of your fantasies."At this question, Cazotte's countenance lost its unnatural expression of awe and sternness; thesardonic humour most common to it came back and played in his brightening eyes. "Yes, La Harpe, the most wonderful part of all! YOU will become--a Christian!"This was too much for the audience that a moment before seemed grave and thoughtful, and theyburst into an immoderate fit of laughter, while Cazotte, as if exhausted by his predictions, sank backin his chair, and breathed hard and heavily."Nay, said Madame de G--, "you who have predicted such grave things concerning us, mustprophesy something also about yourself."A convulsive tremor shook the involuntary prophet,--it passed, and left his countenance elevated byan expression of resignation and calm."Madame," said he, after a long pause, "during the siege ofJerusalem, we are told by its historian that a man, for seven successive days, went round theramparts, exclaiming, 'Woe to thee, Jerusalem,--woe to myself!'""Well, Cazotte, well?""And on the seventh day, while he thus spoke, a stone from the machines of the Romans dashedhim into atoms!"With these words, Cazotte rose; and the guests, awed in spite of themselves, shortly afterwardsbroke up and retired.CHAPTER 1.VII.Qui donc t'a donne la mission s'annoncer au peuple que ladivinite n'existe pas? Quel avantage trouves-tu a persuader al'homme qu'une force aveugle preside a ses destinees et frappe auhasard le crime et la vertu?--Robespierre, "Discours," Mai 7,1794
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