text:  The ornaments of a court became the scourges of a nation; their influence was an influence made up of falsehood made up of cruelty made up of intrigue of passions the most unbridled and of vices the most detestable and it seems to the student of history in this wild and dreadful era as if all that was generous upright noble and benevolent--as if faith and honour and humanity and justice were foreign and unnatural to the heart of man