The Prince De Ligne - His Memoirs, Letters, and Miscellaneous Papers #223160

The Prince de Ligne had a son whom he loved tenderly, whose comrade and friend he was, leading him under fire the moment the occasion offered; the death of this son, in the first war of the Revolution, broke his heart. He had more natural feeling than he likes to admit. If, in the feudal and seigniorial rigidity of the preceding generation there still remained an excess of the ancient customs, it will be seen, by the way the prince speaks of them, that in him there was an opposite excess, an airy tone of the world and an affectation of unrestraint, which presupposes a cer tain manner and style.