LXIV

J'ai supprimé le chapitre _Prude_, et quelques autres.

Je suis heureux de trouver le passage suivant dans les mémoires d'Horace Walpole:

THE TWO ELISABETHS. Let us compare the daughters of two ferocious men, and see which was sovereign of a civilised nation, which of a barbarous one. Both were Elisabeths. The daughter of Peter (of Russia) was absolute yet spared a competitor and a rival; and thought the person of an empress had sufficient allurements for as many of her subjects as she chose to honour with the communication. Elisabeth of England could neither forgive the claim of Mary Stuart nor her charms, but ungenerously imprisoned her (as George IV did Napoléon), when imploring protection, and without the sanction of either despotism or law, sacrificed many to her great and little jealousy. Yet this Elisabeth, piqued herself on chastity; and while she practised every ridiculous art of coquetry to be admired at an unseemly age, kept off lovers whom she encouraged, and neither gratified her own desires nor their ambition. Who can help preferring the honest, open-hearted barbarian empress? (LORD OXFORD's _Memoirs_.)