The men of the Left believed themselves subtle enough to retain the confidence and esteem of all foreign powers while coquetting at home with elements which some of these powers had reason to regard with suspicion.
After coquetting for a short time with the project of a life of Moliere he decided to follow in the track of his first work with a History of the Conquest of Mexico.
The king and his prime minister were equally agreed about the necessity of showing the Vatican and the Church sufficient favor to induce them to cease coquetting with the pretender Don Carlos, but not so much as to allow the pope and the clergy to expect that they would tolerate any excessive Ultramontane influence in the policy of the Restoration.
They were only coquetting a little with us, or bent on kindling delusive hopes.