Excerpt from Beaumarchais: An Historical NovelWhat approaching noise is that? The Duke d'orleans, or the Prince de Conti, the Duchess de Grammont, or perhaps Monseigneur the Dauphin, is driving by, accompanied by running footmen outriders, some of them Moors, and a dozen lifeguards, bring up the rear, gazed at by J ansenists and Molin ists, surly Brittany peasants, and fish women' from the Halle, musicians in braided jackets, and fantastic charla tans in ¿owing cloaks! They all smile, as if life were a perpetual round of pleasure. Each form of folly or of wis dom has its own mask and costume, demeanor and gesture, color and cut. One supposes the other peculiar be cause he thinks of himself, each is amused at the expense of all, loves himself most, and thinks Paris is the universe. The distinction of rank, the arbitrariness of the laws, the grim Bas tile, as well as the stern halls. Of justice, do not trouble the people individually. Every one believes that certainly pris ons do not concern him. All were omerry in the former Paris, because it was a privilege to talk of their discon tent, now all are sad, because of their tedious contentment.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.