“They will have a number of very learned consultations, and then they will do nothing at all, and the Austrians will send their goods wherever they please.”
“But the Government is such a wise one.”
“Or rather has the reputation of wisdom.”
“Then you think it lives on its reputation?”
“Yes; like all your mouldy institutions, they continue to be simply because they have been. Old Governments are like those ancient dykes which are rotten at the base, and only stay in position by their weight and bulk.”
The consul was in the right. He wrote to his chief the same day, and in the course of the next week he heard that their excellencies had received information of the matter some time ago by extraordinary channels.
For the present his duties would be confined to sending in any additional information on the same subject.
“I told you so,” said the consul; “now, what do you think of the wisdom of our sages?”
“I think Bedlam of Charenton were their best lodging.”
In three weeks the consul received orders to give me another grant of a hundred ducats, and to allow me ten sequins a month, to encourage me to deserve well of the State.