to the weaker; it is true that the camp repudiated by him was the

conquering camp, and the camp adopted by him, the conquered; it is true

that by his treason he lost everything--his political privileges and his

domestic hearth, his title and his country. He gained nothing but

ridicule, he attained no benefit but exile. But what does all this

prove?--that he was a fool. Granted.

Plainly a dupe and traitor in one. Let a man be as great a fool as he

likes, so that he does not set a bad example. Fools need only be civil,

and in consideration thereof they may aim at being the basis of

monarchies. The narrowness of Clancharlie's mind was incomprehensible.

His eyes were still dazzled by the phantasmagoria of the revolution. He

had allowed himself to be taken in by the republic--yes; and cast out.

He was an affront to his country. The attitude he assumed was downright

felony. Absence was an insult. He held aloof from the public joy as from

the plague. In his voluntary banishment he found some indescribable

refuge from the national rejoicing. He treated loyalty as a contagion;

over the widespread gladness at the revival of the monarchy, denounced

by him as a lazaretto, he was the black flag. What! could he look thus

askance at order reconstituted, a nation exalted, and a religion

restored? Over such serenity why cast his shadow? Take umbrage at

England's contentment! Must he be the one blot in the clear blue sky! Be

as a threat! Protest against a nation's will! refuse his Yes to the

universal consent! It would be disgusting, if it were not the part of a

fool. Clancharlie could not have taken into account the fact that it did

not matter if one had taken the wrong turn with Cromwell, as long as one

found one's way back into the right path with Monk.

285

The Man Who Laughs