The better we governed them, the more they would hate us. The only
chance for them is to have a king of their own.'
_August_ 15.--In the evening Ampere read to us a comedy called 'Beatrix,'
by a writer of some reputation, and a member of the Institut.
It was very bad, full of exaggerated sentiments, forced situations, and
the cant of philanthropic despotism.
An actress visits the court of a German grand duke. He is absent. His
mother, the duchess, receives her as an equal. The second son falls in
love with her at first sight and wishes to marry her. She is inclined to
consent, when another duchy falls in, the elder duke resigns to his
brother, he becomes king, presses their marriage, his mother does not
oppose, and thereupon Beatrix makes a speech, orders her horses, and
drives off to act somewhere else.
Ampere reads admirably, but no excellence of reading could make such
absurdities endurable. It was written for Ristori, who acted Beatrix in
French with success.
_Friday, August_ 16.--We talked at breakfast of 1793.
'It is difficult,' said Madame de Beaumont, 'to believe that the French
of that day were our ancestors.
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