[167] Alas! how terribly has France been punished for her sins against truth and duty! Yet the time was, when France possessed many great men inspired by duty; but they were all men of a comparatively remote past.

The race of Bayard, Duguesclin, Coligny, Duquesne, Turenne, Colbert, and Sully, seems to have died out and left no lineage.

There has been an occasional great Frenchman of modern times who has raised the cry of Duty; but his voice has been as that of one crying in the wilderness.

De Tocqueville was one of such; but, like all men of his stamp, he was proscribed, imprisoned, and driven from public life.

Writing on one occasion to his friend Kergorlay, he said: "Like you, I become more and more alive to the happiness which consists in the fulfilment of Duty.