They were all representatives of the recently instituted Confederacy.
Most of them had dwelt in Paris anterior to the war, and, habituated to
its luxuries, scarcely recognized themselves, now that they were forlorn
and needy. Note Mr. Pisgah, for example--a Georgian, tall, shapely and
handsome, with the gray hairs of his thirtieth year shading his working
temples; he had been the most envied man in Paris; no woman could resist
the magnetism of his eye; he was almost a match for the great Berger at
billiards; he rode like a centaur on the Boulevards, and counterfeited
Apollo at the opera and the masque. His credit was good for fifty
thousand francs any day in the year. He had travelled in far and
contiguous regions, conducted intrigues at Athens and Damascus, and
smoked his pipe upon the Nile and among the ruins of Sebastopol. Without
principle, he was yet amiable, and with his dashing style and address,
one forgot his worthlessness.
How keenly he is reminded of it now! He cannot work, he has no craft nor
profession; he knew enough to pass for an educated gentleman; not enough
to earn a franc a day. He is the _protege_ at present of his
washerwoman, and can say, with some governments, that his debts are
impartially distributed.
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