Tales and Novels, vol 7 | Page 6

snuff-box, to show Mr.
Percy a beautiful miniature on its lid.
It was exquisitely painted. M. de Tourville offered it to Caroline to
copy, and Mrs. Percy urged her to make the attempt.
"It is the celebrated Euphrosyne," said he, "who from the stage was
very near mounting a throne."
M. de Tourville left the miniature in the hands of the ladies to be
admired, and, addressing himself to Mr. Percy, began to tell with much
mystery the story of Euphrosyne. She was an actress of whom the
prince, heir apparent at the German court where he resided, had
become violently enamoured. One of the prince's young confidants had
assisted his royal highness in carrying on a secret correspondence with
Euphrosyne, which she managed so artfully that the prince was on the
point of giving her a written promise of marriage, when the intrigue
was discovered, and prevented from proceeding farther, by a certain
Count Albert Altenberg, a young nobleman who had till that moment
been one of the prince's favourites, but who by thus opposing his
passion lost entirely his prince's favour. The story was a common story
of an intrigue, such as happens every day in every country where there
is a young prince; but there was something uncommon in the conduct
of Count Altenberg. Mr. Percy expressed his admiration of it; but M. de
Tourville, though he acknowledged, as in morality bound, that the
count's conduct had been admirable, just what it ought to be upon this
occasion, yet spoke of him altogether as une tête exaltée, a young man
of a romantic Quixotic enthusiasm, to which he had sacrificed the
interests of his family, and his own hopes of advancement at court. In
support of this opinion, M. de Tourville related several anecdotes, and
on each of these anecdotes Mr. Percy and M. de Tourville differed in
opinion. All that was produced to prove that the young count had no
judgment or discretion appeared to Mr. Percy proofs of his
independence of character and greatness of soul. Mr. Percy repeated the

anecdotes to Mrs. Percy and his daughters; and M. de Tourville, as
soon as he saw that the ladies, and especially Caroline, differed from
him, immediately endeavoured to slide round to their opinion, and
assured Caroline, with many asseverations, and with his hand upon his
heart, that he had merely been speaking of the light in which these
things appeared to the generality of men of the world; that for his own
particular feelings they were all in favour of the frankness and
generosity of character evinced by these imprudences--he only
lamented that certain qualities should expose their possessor to the
censure and ridicule of those who were like half the world, incapable of
being moved by any motive but interest, and unable to reach to the idea
of the moral sublime.
The more M. de Tourville said upon the subject, and the more gesture
and emphasis he used to impress the belief in his truth, the less
Caroline believed him, and the more dislike and contempt she felt for
the duplicity and pitiful meanness of a character, which was always
endeavouring to seem, instead of to be.--He understood and felt the
expression of her countenance, and mortified by that dignified silence,
which said more than words could express, he turned away, and never
afterwards addressed to her any of his confidential conversation.
From this moment Rosamond's opinion of M. de Tourville changed.
She gave him up altogether, and denied, or at least gave him grudgingly,
that praise, which he eminently deserved for agreeable manners and
conversational talents. Not a foible of his now escaped her quick
observation and her lively perception of ridicule.
Whether from accident, or from some suspicion that he had lost ground
with the ladies, M. de Tourville the next day directed the principal part
of his conversation to the gentlemen of the family: comforting himself
with the importance of his political and official character, he talked
grandly of politics and diplomacy. Rosamond, who listened with an air
of arch attention, from time to time, with a tone of ironical simplicity,
asked explanations on certain points relative to the diplomatic code of
morality, and professed herself much edified and enlightened by the
answers she received.

She wished, as she told Caroline, that some one would write Advice to
Diplomatists, in the manner of Swift's advice to Servants; and she
observed that M. de Tourville, chargé d'affaires, &c., might supply
anecdotes illustrative, and might embellish the work with a portrait of a
finished diplomatist. Unfortunately for the public, on the third morning
of the diplomatist's visit, a circumstance occurred, which prevented the
farther development of his character, stopped his flow of anecdote, and
snatched him from the company of his hospitable hosts. In looking