He was，on the whole，a cold and ardent，noble，generous，proud，religious，enthusiastic lad；dignified to harshness，pure to shyness.
REQUIESCANT
Madame de T.'s salon was all that Marius Pontmercy knew of the world.It was the only opening through which he could get a glimpse of life.
This opening was sombre，and more cold than warmth，more night than day，came to him through this skylight.
This child，who had been all joy and light on entering this strange world，soon became melancholy，and，what is still more contrary to his age，grave.
Surrounded by all those singular and imposing personages，he gazed about him with serious amazement.
Everything conspired to increase this astonishment in him.
There were in Madame de T.'s salon some very noble ladies named Mathan，Noe，Levis，——which was pronounced Levi，——Cambis，pronounced Cambyse.
These antique visages and these Biblical names mingled in the child's mind with the Old Testament which he was learning by heart，and when they were all there，seated in a circle around a dying fire，sparely lighted by a lamp shaded with green，with their severe profiles，their gray or white hair，their long gowns of another age，whose lugubrious colors could not be distinguished，dropping，at rare intervals，words which were both majestic and severe，little Marius stared at them with frightened eyes，in the conviction that he beheld not women，but patriarchs and magi，not real beings，but phantoms.
With these phantoms，priests were sometimes mingled，frequenters of this ancient salon，and some gentlemen；the Marquis de Sass****，private secretary to Madame de Berry，the Vicomte de Val***，who published，under the pseudonyme of Charles-Antoine，monorhymed odes，the Prince de Beauff*******，who，though very young，had a gray head and a pretty and witty wife，whose very low-necked toilettes of scarlet velvet with gold torsades alarmed these shadows，the Marquis de C*****d'E******，the man in all France who best understood'proportioned politeness，'the Comte d'Am*****，the kindly man with the amiable chin，and the Chevalier de Port-de-Guy，a pillar of the library of the Louvre，called the King's cabinet，M.de Port-de-Guy，bald，and rather aged than old，was wont to relate that in 1793，at the age of sixteen，he had been put in the galleys as refractory and chained with an octogenarian，the Bishop of Mirepoix，also refractory，but as a priest，while he was so in the capacity of a soldier.
This was at Toulon.Their business was to go at night and gather up on the scaffold the heads and bodies of the persons who had been guillotined during the day；they bore away on their backs these dripping corpses，and their red galley-slave blouses had a clot of blood at the back of the neck，which was dry in the morning and wet at night.These tragic tales abounded in Madame de T.'s salon，and by dint of cursing Marat，they applauded Trestaillon.
Some deputies of the undiscoverable variety played their whist there；M.Thibord du Chalard，M.Lemarchant de Gomicourt，and the celebrated scoffer of the right，M.Cornet-Dincourt.The bailiff de Ferrette，with his short breeches and his thin legs，sometimes traversed this salon on his way to M.de Talleyrand.
He had been M.le Comte d'Artois'companion in pleasures and unlike Aristotle crouching under Campaspe，he had made the Guimard crawl on all fours，and in that way he had exhibited to the ages a philosopher avenged by a bailiff.As for the priests，there was the Abbe Halma，the same to whom M.Larose，his collaborator on la Foudre，said：
'Bah！
Who is there who is not fifty years old？a few greenhorns perhaps？'The Abbe Letourneur，preacher to the King，the Abbe Frayssinous，who was not，as yet，either count，or bishop，or minister，or peer，and who wore an old cassock whose buttons were missing，and the Abbe Keravenant，Cure of Saint-Germain-des-Pres；also the Pope's Nuncio，then Monsignor Macchi，Archbishop of Nisibi，later on Cardinal，remarkable for his long，pensive nose，and another Monsignor，entitled thus：
Abbate Palmieri，domestic prelate，one of the seven participant prothonotaries of the Holy See，Canon of the illustrious Liberian basilica，Advocate of the saints，Postulatore dei Santi，which refers to matters of canonization，and signifies very nearly：Master of Requests of the section of Paradise.
ly，two cardinals，M.de la Luzerne，and M.de Cl******T*******.The Cardinal of Luzerne was a writer and was destined to have，a few years later，the honor of signing in the Conservateur articles side by side with Chateaubriand；M.de Cl******T*******was Archbishop of Toul****，and often made trips to Paris，to his nephew，the Marquis de T*******，who was Minister of Marine and War.
The Cardinal of Cl******T*******was a merry little man，who displayed his red stockings beneath his tucked-up cassock；his specialty was a hatred of the Encyclopaedia，and his desperate play at billiards，and persons who，at that epoch，passed through the Rue M*****on summer evenings，where the hotel de Cl******T*******then stood，halted to listen to the shock of the balls and the piercing voice of the Cardinal shouting to his conclavist，Monseigneur Cotiret，Bishop in partibus of Caryste：'Mark，Abbe，I make a cannon.'
The Cardinal de Cl******T*******had been brought to Madame de T.'s by his most intimate friend，M.de Roquelaure，former Bishop of Senlis，and one of the Forty.M.de Roquelaure was notable for his lofty figure and his assiduity at the Academy；through the glass door of the neighboring hall of the library where the French Academy then held its meetings，the curious could，on every Tuesday，contemplate the Ex-Bishop of Senlis，usually standing erect，freshly powdered，in violet hose，with his back turned to the door，apparently for the purpose of allowing a better view of his little collar.
