text:  A marquis was made to imitate the manners of a gentleman by fear of an epigram; a defeated party in a lawsuit consoled himself by satirizing the court; and from Voltaire down to Palissot all the people who could write and could borrow ink and paper had pen in hand ready to appeal from prejudiced juries overbearing nobles or even _lettres de cachet_ and the Bastile itself to the reading talking gossiping laughing quick-witted cold-hearted citizens of Paris