center, while at the center the King, their hereditary general, a captive in the hands of the people, commands them to be resigned and to do nothing.[3305] Moreover, like other Frenchmen, they have been brought up in the philosophy of the eighteenth century. "Liberty is so precious," wrote the Duc de Brissac,[3306] "that it may well be purchased with some suffering; a destroyed feudalism will not prevent the good and the true from being respected and loved."--They persist in this illusion for a long time and remain optimists. As they feel kindly towards the people, they cannot comprehend that the people should entertain other sentiments toward them; they firmly believe that the troubles are transient. Immediately on the proclamation of the Constitution they return in crowds from Spain, Belgium, and Germany; at Troyes there are not enough post-horses for many days to supply the emigrants who are coming back.[3307] Thus they accept not only the abolition of feudalism with civil equality, but also political equality and numerical sovereignty. Some consideration for them, some outward signs of respect, a few bows, would, in all probability, have rallied them sincerely to democratic institutions. They would soon consent to be confounded with the crowd, to submit to the common level, and to live as private individuals. Had they been treated like the bourgeois or the peasant, their neighbors, had their property and persons been respected, they might have accepted the new régime without any bitterness of feeling. That the leading emigrant nobles and those forming a part of the old court carry on intrigues at Coblentz or at Turin is natural, since they have lost everything: authority, places, pensions, sinecures, pleasures, and the rest. But, to the gentry and inferior nobles of the provinces, chevaliers of Saint-Louis, subaltern officers and resident proprietors, the loss is insignificant. The law has suppressed one-half of their seignorial dues; but by virtue of the same law their lands are no longer burdened with tithes. Popular elections will not provide them with places, but they did not enjoy them under the arbitrary ministerial rule. Little does it matter to them that power, whether ministerial or popular, has changed hands: they are not accustomed to its favors, and will pursue their ordinary avocations--the chase, promenading, reading, visiting, and conversing--provided they, like the first-comer, the grocer at the corner, or their farm-servant, find protection, safety, and security on the public road and in their dwellings.[3308] II.--Workings of the popular imagination with respect to them. The monomania of suspicion.--The nobles distrusted and treated as enemies.--Situation of a gentleman on his domain.--M. de. Bussy