The king was now so execrated that he dared not pass through Paris in going from his palace at Versailles to Compiègne. Fearing insult and a revolt of the people if he were seen in the metropolis, he had a road constructed which would enable him to avoid Paris. As beautiful female children were often seized to replenish his seraglio at the _Parc aux Cerfs_, the people received the impression that he indulged in baths of children's blood, that he might rejuvenate his exhausted frame. The king had become an object of horror.[21] Such was the state of affairs when the guilty king was attacked by the small-pox, and died at Versailles in 1774, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and the fifty-ninth of his reign. Such in brief was the career of Louis XV. His reign was the consummation of all iniquity, and rendered the Revolution inevitable. The story of his life, revolting as it is, must be told; for it is essential to the understanding of the results which ensued. The whirlwind which was reaped was but the legitimate harvest of the wind which was sown. Truly does De Tocqueville say, "The Revolution will ever remain in darkness to those who do not look beyond it. It can only be comprehended by the light of the ages which preceded it. Without a clear view of society in the olden time, of its laws, its faults, its prejudices, its sufferings, its greatness, it is impossible to understand the conduct of the French during the sixty years which have followed its fall." FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 16: Galignani's Paris Guide.] [Footnote 17: History of French Revolution, by E.E. Crowe, vol. ii., p. 150.--_Enc. Am._] [Footnote 18: The Duke of St. Simon, who was one of the council of the regency, in his admirable memoirs, gives the following sketch of Dubois: "Dubois was a little, thin, meagre man, with a polecat visage. All the vices, falsehood, avarice, licentiousness, ambition, and the meanest flattery contended in him for the mastery. He lied to such a degree as to deny his own actions when taken in the fact. In spite of his debauchery he was very industrious. His wealth was immense, and his revenue amounted to millions."] [Footnote 19: Women of France, p. 91.] [Footnote 20: Women of France, p. 170.] [Footnote 21: Historical View of the French Revolution, by J. Michelet, vol. i., p. 46.] CHAPTER IV. DESPOTISM AND ITS FRUITS. Assumptions of the Aristocracy.--Molière.--Decay of the Nobility.--Decline of the Feudal System.--Difference between France and the United States.--Mortification of Men of Letters.--Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau.--Corruption of the Church.--Diderot.--The Encyclopedists.--Testimony of De Tocqueville.--Frederic II. of Prussia.--Two Classes of Opponents of Christianity.--Enormity of Taxation.--Misery of the People.--"Good old Times of the Monarchy!"