The Revolt of the Angels

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CHAPTER I

CONTAINING IN A FEW LINES THE HISTORY OF A FRENCH FAMILY
FROM 1789 TO THE PRESENT DAY


Beneath the shadow of St. Sulpice the ancient mansion of the d'Esparvieu
family rears its austere three stories between a moss-grown fore-court
and a garden hemmed in, as the years have elapsed, by ever loftier and
more intrusive buildings, wherein, nevertheless, two tall chestnut trees
still lift their withered heads.

Here from 1825 to 1857 dwelt the great man of the family, Alexandre
Bussart d'Esparvieu, Vice-President of the Council of State under the
Government of July, Member of the Academy of Moral and Political
Sciences, and author of an _Essay on the Civil and Religious
Institutions of Nations_, in three octavo volumes, a work unfortunately
left incomplete.

This eminent theorist of a Liberal monarchy left as heir to his name his
fortune and his fame, Fulgence-Adolphe Bussart d'Esparvieu, senator
under the Second Empire, who added largely to his patrimony by buying
land over which the Avenue de l'Impératice was destined ultimately to
pass, and who made a remarkable speech in favour of the temporal power
of the popes.