fields

I am, grudgingly, a great admirer of Talleyrand. An arch-chameleon who managed to survive and thrive under; wait for it; the Ancien Regime of Louis XVI as Bishop of Autun, the French Revolution as a Jacobin, the Directoire, the Consulate and then the French Empire of Napoleon as his chief minister, the restored Louis XVIII and Charles X... which brings us to 1830 when the French had had quite enough of the absolutist Charles X and were, once again, as is their wont, rioting in the streets of Paris.

Talleyrand, probably the world's first political technocrat, was watching the skirmishes at the barricades from the windows of the Tuileries surrounded by a host of secretaries and acolytes. He was by now the Grand Old man of French politics. At one point he was heard to mutter: "Ah, good, we are winning" at which one intrepid attendant asked him: "Monseigneur, who is winning?" "I'll tell you tomorrow," replied Talleyrand with a half smile.