Monseigneur had one truly noble idea of general public
business, which was, to let everything go on its own way; of
particular public business, Monseigneur had the other truly noble
idea that it must all go his waytend to his own power and pocket.
Of his pleasures, general and particular, Monseigneur had the
other truly noble idea, that the world was made for them. The text
of his order (altered from the original by only a pronoun, which is
not much) ran: “The earth and the fullness thereof are mine, saith
Monseigneur.”
Yet, Monseigneur had slowly found that vulgar
embarrassments crept into his affairs, both private and public; and
he had, as to both classes of affairs, allied himself perforce with a
Farmer-General. As to finances public, because Monseigneur
could not make anything at all of them, and must consequently let
them out to somebody who could; as to finances private, because
Farmer-Generals were rich, and Monseigneur, after generations of
great luxury and expense, was growing poor. Hence Monseigneur
had taken his sister from a convent, while there was yet time to
ward off the impending veil, the cheapest garment she could wear,
and had bestowed her as a prize upon a very rich Farmer-General,
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poor in family. Which Farmer-General, carrying an appropriate
cane with a golden apple