“Would not the simple utterance of this haughty device form an argument against the accusation of ‘versatility of opinion,’ of ‘change of masters’? The parallel might be carried further still, down to the famous Cardinal de Perigord, friend and confidant of Petrarch, he who is called in Italian history the pope-maker, who in the twelfth century was the nominator of four different pontiffs, and then dethroned the Emperor Louis V. to crown in his stead Charles IV. He, too, was the most able diplomatist of his time, and was deputed to London to negotiate the ransom of the French King John. He succeeded in reducing the ransom, and in obtaining a truce, by the influence of his ‘_langue mielleuse et dorée_,’ as says the quaint old chronicler of the time. “Henri de Chalais might have saved his life had he but spoken the one word of supplication to his master. ‘The king has said that he will pardon you if you will but sue,’ said his good old confessor the night before his execution. ‘What prevents you, then, Monseigneur, from asking?’ “‘The blood of the Talleyrands!’ said the prince, and, turning to the wall, spoke no more that night. “You see they have ever been a taciturn and haughty race, faithful to the battle-cry of their fierce forefathers. ‘_Ré que Diou_’ must have been graven on their hearts, as well as painted on their banner. Did it never occur to the hard mind of the emperor, that Talleyrand might be insensible to insult from _contempt_ of the aggressor? But come, I am wasting time in theory, and you, I am well aware, prefer facts and example.