for the purpose of commencing the grand masquerade of Europe. This
infanta of Spain was ordered to Paris for the purpose of exhibiting
to the French the spectacle of a prince of the ancient dynasty
humbled before the first consul; more humbled by his gifts than he
ever could have been by his persecution. Bonaparte tried upon this
royal lamb the experiment of making a king wait in his antechamber:
he allowed himself to be applauded at the theatre, upon the
recitation of this verse:

"J'ai fait des rois, madame, et n'ai pas voulu l'etre:"

(I have made kings, madam, and have not wished to be one:) promising
himself to be more than a king, when the opportunity should offer.
Every day Some fresh blunder of this poor king of Etruria was the
subject of conversation: he was taken to the Museum, to the Cabinet
of Natural History, and some of his questions about quadrupeds and
fishes, which a well educated child of twelve years old would have
been ashamed to put, were quoted as proofs of intelligence. In the
evening, he was conducted to entertainments, where the female opera
dancers came and mixed with the ladies of the new court; the little
monarch, in spite of his devotion, preferred dancing with them, and
in return sent them next day presents of elegant and good books for
their instruction. This period of transition from revolutionary
habits to monarchical pretensions in France, was a most singular
one; as there was as little independence in the one, as dignity in
the other, their absurdities harmonised perfectly together; each of
them in their own way formed a group round the parti-coloured
potentate, who at the same time employed the forcible means of both
regimes.