"You shall now," she writes[278]," have news about our States for your pains of being a Breton. M. de Chaulnes made his entry on Sunday evening, with all the noise that Vitré could afford: on Monday morning he sent me a letter, which I answered by going to dine with him. They dine at two tables in the same room; there are fourteen covers at each table; Monsieur presides at one, and Madame at the other. The good cheer is excessive, whole dishes of roast meat are carried away uncut; and the pyramids of fruit are so tall, that the doorways have to be made higher. Our forefathers did not foresee this kind of machines, seeing that they did not even understand that a door ought to be higher than themselves.... After dinner, Messieurs de Lomaria and Coëtlogon danced some marvelous jigs with two Breton ladies, and minuets with an air which our courtiers cannot approach: they execute Gipsy and Lower Breton steps with charming daintiness and precision.... Night and day there reign such play, good cheer, and freedom as will attract all the world. I had never seen the States before; it is a pretty thing enough. I doubt if there is a province whose assembly has so grand an air as this; it must be very full, I fancy, for there is not one of the members at the war nor at Court; except the little cornet[279], who perhaps may return here one day like the rest.... A multitude of presents, pensions, repairs of highways and towns, fifteen or twenty large tables, a continual round of dancing and gaming, plays three times a week, and a great deal of show and splendor: there you have the States. I have forgot three or four hundred pipes of wine which are drank out here." The Bretons find it difficult to forgive Madame de Sévigné for her raillery. I am less severe; but I do not like to hear her say, "You speak very pleasantly of our miseries; we are no longer so _roué_[280]: _one_ in eight days only, to keep justice going. 'Tis true that a hanging now comes refreshingly to me." This is carrying the agreeable language of the Court to excess: Barère[281] spoke with the same grace of the guillotine. In 1793, the drownings at Nantes were called "republican marriages:" the popular despotism reproduced the amenities of style of the royal despotism.