The arch-enchanted wand! Itself a nothing,
But taking sorcery from the master hand
To paralyze the Cæsars and to strike
The loud earth breathless. Take away the sword:
States can be saved without it.”
When Julie, appealing to him for aid which he cannot promise, expostulatingly asks,—
“Art thou not Richelieu?”—
he answers in a manner whose attitude, look, and tone instantly carry the imagination and sympathy of the soul-stricken auditors from the individual instance before them to the solemn pathos and mystery of the destiny of all mankind in this world:
“Yesterday I was:
To-day, a very weak old man: to-morrow,