"Alas, madame, I speak of the one suspended over your head."
"Therefore, it is your opinion that we are wrong to accept De Narbonne as Minister of War?"
"You would do better to take at once his successor, Dumouriez."
"A soldier of fortune?"
"Ha! the worst word is spoken; and it is unfair any way."
"Was not Dumouriez a private soldier?"
"I am well aware that Dumouriez is not of that court nobility to which everything is sacrificed. Of the rustic nobility, unable to obtain a rank, he enlisted as a common soldier. At twenty years he fought five or six troopers, though hacked badly, and despite this proof of courage, he languished in the ranks."
"He sharpened his wits by serving Louis XV. as spy."
"Why do you call that spying in him which you rate diplomacy in others? I know that he carried on correspondence with the king without the knowledge of the ministers; but what noble of the court does not do the same?"
"But, doctor, this man whom you recommend is essentially a most immoral one," exclaimed the queen, betraying her deep knowledge of politics by the details into which she went. "He has no principles—no idea of honor. The Duke of Choiseul told me that he laid before him two plans about Corsica—one to set her free, the other to subdue her."