Memoirs of Chateaubriand Volume V — Book XIV Part 2

"My dear fellow," replied Charles X. , "you are a good general, but these are things that you know nothing about."

The 29th saw new combatants enter the field: the pupils of the Polytechnic School, who were in correspondence with one of their old schoolfellows, M. Charras[231], broke bounds and sent four of their number, Messieurs Lothon, Perthelin, Pinsonnière and Tourneaux to offer their services to Messieurs Laffitte, Périer and La Fayette.

These young men, distinguished by their studies, had already made themselves known to the Allies, when the latter appeared before Paris in 1814;

during the Three Days, they became the leaders of the people, who, with perfect simplicity, placed them at their head.

Some repaired to the Place de l'Odéon, others to the Palais-Royal and the Tuileries.

[Sidenote: The King's obstinacy.

] The Order of the Day published on the morning of the 29th offended the Guards: it announced that the King, wishing to give a proof of his satisfaction to his brave servants, awarded them six weeks' pay; an impropriety which the French soldier resented: it was placing him on a level with the English, who refuse to march or who mutiny, if their pay is in arrears.

During the night of the 28th, the people took up the street-pavement, at each twenty yards' distance, and, at day-break the next morning, there were four thousand barricades standing in Paris.

The Palais-Bourbon was guarded by the Line, the Louvre by two Swiss battalions, the Rue de la Paix, the Place Vendôme and the Rue Castiglione by the 5th and 53rd Regiments of the Line.

About twelve hundred infantrymen had arrived from Saint-Denis, Versailles and Rueil.

The military position was better: the troops were more concentrated, and big empty spaces had to be crossed to reach them.

General Exelmans[232], who thought well of the dispositions, came at eleven o'clock to place his courage and experience at the disposal of the Maréchal de Raguse, while on his side General Pajol[233] presented himself before the deputies to take command of the National Guard.

The ministers had the idea of summoning the King's Court to the Tuileries, so completely out of touch were they with the movement surrounding them!

The marshal pressed the President of the Council to withdraw the Ordinances.

During the interview, M. de Polignac was asked for; he went out, and returned with M. Bertier[234], son of the first victim sacrificed in 1789. M.

Bertier had been through Paris, and declared that all was going well for the royal cause: what a fatal thing are those families which have a right to vengeance, cast into the tomb, as they were, in our early troubles and conjured up by our later misfortunes!

Those misfortunes were novelties no longer; since 1793, Paris was accustomed to witness the passing of events and kings.

While all was going so well according to the Royalists, the defection was announced of the 5th and 53rd of the Line, who were fraternizing with the people.

[Sidenote: Butchery at the Louvre.

] The Duc de Raguse proposed a suspension of hostilities: it took place at some points and was not carried out at others.

The marshal had sent for one of the two Swiss battalions posted at the Louvres.

They dispatched to him the battalion which lined the colonnade.

The Parisians, seeing the colonnade deserted, came up to the walls and entered by the masked doors which lead from the Jardin de l'Infante to the interior; they made for the windows and opened fire on the battalion standing in the court-yard.

Under the terror of the memory of the 10th of August, the Swiss rushed from the Palace and hurled themselves into their battalion, which was posted opposite the Parisian outposts; here, however, the suspension of hostilities was being observed.

The mob, which from the Louvre had reached the gallery of the Museum, began to fire from the midst of the master-pieces on the Lancers drawn up in the Carrousel.

The Parisian posts, carried away by this example, broke off the suspension of hostilities.

Flung headlong under the Arc de Triomphe, the Swiss drove the Lancers to the porch of the Pavillon de l'Horloge and debouched in confusion into the garden of the Tuileries.

Young Farcy[235] met his death in this scuffle: his name is written up at the corner of the café where he fell; a beet-factory stands at Thermopylae to-day.

The Swiss had three or four men killed or wounded: this small loss was changed into a frightful butchery.

The mob entered the Tuileries, with Messieurs Thomas[236], Bastide[237] and Guinard[238], by the Pont-Royal gate.

A tricolour flag was planted on the Pavillon de l'Horloge, as in the time of Bonaparte, apparently in remembrance of liberty.

Furniture was broken up, pictures slashed with sword-cuts; in a cupboard they found the King's hunting journal, with particulars of his fine exploits against the partridges: an old custom of the gamekeepers of the Monarchy.

They put a corpse on the empty throne, in the Throne Room: that would be a formidable thing, if the French of to-day were not always playing at drama.

The artillery museum, at Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, was pillaged, and the centuries passed down the river, under the helmet of Godfrey of Bouillon and with the lance of Francis I. Then the Duc de Raguse left the Staff Office, leaving 120,000 francs in bags behind him.

He went through the Rue de Rivoli and entered the Tuileries Gardens.

He gave the order for the troops to retire, first to the Champs Élysées, and next to the Étoile.

It was believed that peace was made, that the Dauphin was coming; some carriages from the Royal Mews and a baggage-wagon were seen to cross the Place Louis XV.

: it was the ministers going after their works.

On arriving at the Étoile, Marmont received a letter: it informed him that the King had given M. le Dauphin the command-in-chief of the troops, and that he, the marshal, would serve under his orders.

A company of the 3rd Guards had been forgotten in the house of a hatter in the Rue de Rohan; after a long resistance the house was carried.

Captain Meunier, wounded in three places, jumped from a third-floor window, fell on a roof below, and was taken to the Hôpital du Grand-Caillou: he has survived.

The Caserne Babylone, attacked between twelve and one in the day by three pupils of the Polytechnic School, Vaneau, Lacroix and Ouvrier, was guarded only by a depot of Swiss recruits numbering about a hundred men; Major Dufay, an officer of French descent, was in command: he had served with us for thirty years;

he had been an actor in the great exploits of the Republic and the Empire.

He was called upon to surrender, refused all conditions, and locked himself up in his barrack.

Young Vaneau was killed.

Some firemen set fire to the barrack-door, which fell in pieces; at once Major Dufay issued through this mouth of flame, followed by his highlanders, with fixed bayonets.

He fell, struck by the musket-shot of a neighbouring publican: his death saved his Swiss recruits; they joined the different corps to which they belonged.

M.

le Duc de Mortemart[239] arrived at Saint-Cloud on Wednesday the 28th, at ten o'clock in the evening, to take up his service as Captain of the Hundred Swiss: he was not able to speak to the King till the next day.

At eleven o'clock, on the 29th, he made a few efforts to induce Charles X. to recall the Ordinances; the King said to him: "I do not want to climb into the cart, like my brother; I will not go back by a foot."

A few minutes later, he was to go back by a kingdom!

[Sidenote: Charles X. and his ministers.

] The ministers had arrived: Messieurs de Sémonville, d'Argout[240], Vitrolles were there.

M.

de Sémonville related that he had had a long conversation with the King; that he had not succeeded in shaking his resolution until he made an appeal to his heart by speaking to him of the dangers to which Madame la Dauphine was exposed.

He said to him: "To-morrow, at noon, there will be no King, no Dauphin, no Duc de Bordeaux."

And the King replied: "You will surely give me till one o'clock."

I do not believe a word of all this.

Bragging is our national fault;

question a Frenchman and trust to his story: he will always have done everything.

The ministers went in to the King after M. de Sémonville; the Ordinances were revoked, the Ministry dissolved, M. de Mortemart appointed President of the new Council.

In the Capital, the Republican Party had at last run some one to earth.

M.

Baude, the man of the parade at the office of the _Temps_, going through the streets, had found the Hôtel de Ville occupied by only two men, M. Dubourg and M. Zimmer.

He at once proclaimed himself the emissary of a "Provisional Government" which was coming to instal itself.

He sent for the clerks of the Prefecture and ordered them to set to work as though M. de Chabrol were present.

In governments which have become machines the weights are soon wound up again; every one hastens to take possession of the deserted places: this one made himself secretary-general, that other head of a division, a third took the accounts, a fourth appointed himself to the staff and distributed the places on the staff among his friends; there were some who went so far as to send for their beds, so as not to leave the spot and to be in a position to jump upon the first place that became vacant.

M.

Dubourg, nicknamed "General" Dubourg, and M. Zimmer were styled the heads of the "military" side of the "Provisional Government" M. Baude represented the "civil" side of this unknown government, took resolutions and issued proclamations.

And yet placards had been seen which came from the Republican Party and which were the production of a different government, consisting of Messieurs de La Fayette, Gérard and de Choiseul.

It is difficult to explain the association of the last name with the two others; besides, M. de Choiseul protested.

This old Liberal, who, emigrating and shipwrecked at Calais, to save his life mimicked the stiffness of death[241], found no paternal home, on his return to France, save a box at the Opera.

At three o'clock in the afternoon came a new element of confusion.

An Order of the Day summoned the deputies in Paris to the Hôtel de Ville, there to confer on the measures to be taken.

The mayors were to be restored to their mayoralties; they were also to send one of their deputy-mayors to the Hôtel de Ville, in order to make up a "consultative commission" there.

This Order was signed, "J. Baude, for the Provisional Government" and "Colonel Zimmer, by order of General Dubourg."

This audacity on the part of three persons speaking in the name of a government that existed only in so far as it had placarded itself at the street-corners proves the rare intelligence of the French in revolution: such men as these are evidently leaders destined to sway other nations.

What a misfortune that, in delivering us from a similar anarchy, Bonaparte should have snatched from us our liberty!

[Sidenote: Meeting at M. Laffitte's. ] The deputies had again met at M. Laffitte's[242].

M.

de La Fayette, going back to 1789, declared that he would also go back to the command of the National Guard.

This met with applause, and he proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville.

The deputies nominated a "Municipal Commission" consisting of five members, Messieurs Casimir Périer, Laffitte, de Lobau[243], de Schonen and Audry de Puyravault.

M.

Odilon Barrot was elected secretary to the Commission, which installed itself at the Hôtel de Ville, as M. de La Fayette had done.

All these sat promiscuously, beside the Provisional Government of M. Dubourg.

M.

Mauguin[244], sent as an emissary to the "Commission," remained with it.

The friend of Washington ordered the black flag which had been hoisted by the ingenuity of M. Dubourg to be removed.

At half-past eight in the evening, M. de Sémonville, M. d'Argout and M. de Vitrolles arrived from Saint-Cloud.

They had hastened to Paris immediately after hearing, at Saint-Cloud, of the repeal of the Ordinances, the dismissal of the old ministers and the appointment of M.

de Mortemart to the Presidency of the Council.

They appeared before the Municipal Commission in the quality of mandatories of the King.

M.

Mauguin asked the Grand Refendary if he had written powers; the Grand Refendary replied that "he had not thought of it."

The negociations of the official commissaries went no further.

M.

Laffitte, informed at the meeting at his house of what had taken place at Saint-Cloud, signed a permit for M. de Mortemart, adding that the deputies assembled at his house would wait for him until one o'clock in the morning.

As the noble duke did not appear, the deputies went home.

M.

Laffitte, left alone with M. Thiers, occupied himself with the Duc d'Orléans and the necessary proclamations.

Fifty years of revolution in France had given the men of practice the facility for reorganizing governments and the men of theory the habit of refurbishing charters and preparing the cranes and cradles by which governments are hoisted up or let down.

On this same day, the 29th, the day after my return to Paris, I was not idle.

My plan was fixed: I wanted to act, but only on an order, written in the King's own hand, which would give me the necessary powers to speak with the authorities of the moment; to meddle with everything and do nothing did not suit me.

That I had argued rightly is proved by the affront received by Messieurs d'Argout, de Sémonville and de Vitrolles.

I therefore wrote to Charles X. at Saint-Cloud.

M.

de Givré undertook to carry my letter.

I begged the King to instruct me as to his wishes.

M.

de Givré returned empty-handed.

He had given my letter to M. le Duc de Duras, who had given it to the King, who sent me word that he had appointed M. de Mortemart his Prime Minister and asked me to arrange with him.

Where to find the noble duke?

I looked for him in vain on the evening of the 29th.

Rejected by Charles X. , I turned my thoughts to the Chamber of Peers, which was able, as a sovereign court, to evoke a trial and adjust the difference.

If it was not safe in Paris, it was at liberty to transfer itself to some distance, even to the King's side, and from there to pronounce a grand award.

It had chances of success; there are always chances of success in courage.

After all, had it succumbed, it would have undergone a defeat which would have been useful to the question of principle.

But should I have found twenty men in that Chamber prepared to devote themselves?

Of those twenty men, were there four who would have agreed with me on public liberty?

Aristocratic assemblies enjoy a glorious reign when they are sovereign and alone invested, _de jure et de facto_, with power: they offer the strongest guarantees; but, in mixed forms of government, they lose their value and become pitiful in times of great crisis.

Weak against the king, they do not prevent despotism; weak against the people, they do not stop anarchy.

In any public commotion, they redeem their existence only at the price of perjury or slavery.

Did the House of Lords save Charles I.?

Did it save Richard Cromwell[245], to whom it had taken the oath?

Did it save James II.?

Will it save the Hanoverian Princes to-day?

Will it save itself?

Those self-styled aristocratic counter-weights only disturb the balance and will sooner or later be flung out of the scale.

An ancient and wealthy aristocracy, having the habit of business, has only one means of retaining power when the latter is escaping from it: that is, to cross over from the Capitol to the Forum and place itself at the head of the new movement, unless it think itself still strong enough to risk civil war.

While awaiting M. de Givré's return, I was pretty busy in defending my quarter.

The suburbs, the quarrymen of Montrouge came crowding through the Barrière de l'Enfer.

The latter resembled those quarrymen of Montmartre who caused such great alarm to Mademoiselle de Mornay when she was fleeing from the massacres of St. Bartholomew.

As they passed before the community-house of the Missionaries, in my street, they entered it: a score of priests were obliged to take to flight; the haunt of those fanatics was philosophically pillaged, their beds and their books burnt in the street.

This trifle has not been mentioned.

Was there any need to trouble about what the priesthood might have lost?

I gave hospitality to seven or eight fugitives; they remained for several days hidden under my roof.

I obtained passports for them through the intermediary of my neighbour, M. Arago, and they went elsewhere to preach the Word of God: _utilis populis fuga sanctorum.

_ [Sidenote: The Municipal Commission.

] The Municipal Commission, established at the Hôtel de Ville, appointed the Baron Louis Provisional Commissary of Finance, M. Baude Minister of the Interior, M. Mérilhou Minister of Justice, gave M. Chardel[246] the Post Office, M. Marchal[247] the Telegraphs, M. Bavoux[248] the Police, M. de Laborde the Prefecture of the Seine.

Thus the "voluntary" Provisional Government found itself destroyed in reality by the promotion of M. Baude, who had created himself a member of that government.

The shops were opened again; the public services resumed their course.

At the meeting at M. Laffitte's, it had been decided that the deputies should assemble, at noon, at the palace of the Chamber: some thirty or thirty-five met there, under the presidency of M. Laffitte.

M.

Bérard[249] announced that he had met Messieurs d'Argout, de Forbin-Janson[250] and de Mortemart on their way to M. Laffitte's, thinking that they would find the deputies there; that he had invited those gentlemen to follow him to the Chamber, but that M. le Duc de Mortemart, overwhelmed with fatigue, had gone away to see M. de Sémonville.

M.

de Mortemart, according to M. Bérard, said that he had a signature in blank and that the King consented to everything.

In fact, M. de Mortemart brought five Ordinances: instead of communicating them at once to the deputies, he was obliged by his lassitude to go back to the Luxembourg.

At mid-day he sent the Ordinances to M. Sauvo[251]; the latter replied that he could not publish them in the _Moniteur_ without the authorization of the Chamber of Deputies or the Municipal Commission.

M.

Bérard having told his story, as I have said, in the Chamber, a discussion followed to decide whether they should receive M. de Mortemart or not General Sébastiani insisted on the affirmative; M. Mauguin declared that, if M. de Mortemart were present, he would ask that he should be heard, but that events were urgent and that they could not wait on M. de Mortemart's good pleasure.

Five commissaries were appointed, charged to go to confer with the peers: these five commissaries were Messieurs Augustin Périer[252], Sébastiani, Guizot, Benjamin Delessert[253], and Hyde de Neuville.

But soon the Comte de Sussy[254] was introduced into the Elective Chamber.

M.

de Mortemart had charged him to present the Ordinances to the deputies.

Addressing the assembly, he said: "In the Chancellor's absence, a few peers met at my house.

M.

le Duc de Mortemart handed us this letter, addressed to M. le Général Gérard or M.

Casimir Périer.

I beg leave to communicate its contents to you."

Here is the letter: "MONSIEUR, "After leaving Saint-Cloud during the night, I have in vain tried to meet you.

Please tell me where I can see you.

I beg you to give notice of the Ordinances which I have been carrying since yesterday."

[Sidenote: The Duc de Montemart.

] M.

le Duc de Mortemart had left Saint-Cloud during the night; he had had the Ordinances in his pocket for twelve or fifteen hours, "since yesterday," to use his own expression; he had been unable to find General Gérard or M. Casimir Périer: M. de Mortemart was very unlucky!

M.

Bérard made the following observation on the letter that had been read aloud: "I cannot," he said, "refrain from calling attention here to a lack of frankness: M. de Mortemart, who was proceeding to M. Laffitte's this morning when I met him, formally told me that he would come here."

The five Ordinances were read.

The first recalled the Ordinances of the 25th of July, the second summoned the Chambers for the 3rd of August, the third appointed M. de Mortemart Foreign Minister and President of the Council, the fourth called General Gérard to the War Office, the fifth M. Casimir Périer to the Ministry of Finance.

When I at last met M.

de Mortemart at the Grand Referendary's, he told me that he had been obliged to stay at M. de Sémonville's, because, having returned on foot from Saint-Cloud, he had had to go out of his way and enter the Bois de Boulogne by a gap: his boot or his shoe had taken the skin off his heel.

It is to be regretted that, before producing the acts of the Throne, M. de Mortemart did not try to see the influential men and bring them round to the King's side.

These acts falling suddenly in the midst of the unforewarned deputies, no one dared to declare himself.

They drew down upon themselves this terrible reply from Benjamin Constant: "We know beforehand what the Chamber of Peers will say to us: it will purely and simply accept the repeal of the Ordinances.

As for myself, I do not pronounce positively on the dynastic question; I will only say that it would be too easy for a king to have his people shot down and to avoid the consequences by saying afterwards, 'Everything is as it was.'

" Would Benjamin Constant, who "did not pronounce positively on the dynastic question," have ended his phrase in the same way if words had been addressed to him earlier suited to his talents and his just ambition?

I sincerely pity a man of courage and honour like M. de Mortemart, when I come to think that the Legitimate Monarchy was perhaps overthrown because the minister charged with the royal powers was unable to find two deputies in Paris and because, tired with doing three leagues on foot, he barked his heel.

The Ordinance nominating M.

de Mortemart to the St. Petersburg Embassy has taken the place for him of the Ordinances of his old master.

Ah, how could I refuse Louis-Philippe's request that I should be his Minister of Foreign Affairs or resume my beloved embassy in Rome?

But alas, what should I have done with my "beloved" on the bank of the Tiber?

I should always have believed that she blushed as she looked at me.

On the morning of the 30th, I received a note from the Grand Referendary summoning me to the meeting of the Peers, at the Luxembourg.

I wanted first to learn some news.

I went down the Rue d'Enfer, the Place Saint-Michel and the Rue Dauphine.

There was still a little excitement around the broken barricades.

I compared what I saw with the great revolutionary movement of 1789, and the present struck me as orderly and silent: the change of manners was visible.

At the Pont-Neuf, the statue of Henry IV.

, like an ensign of the League, held a tricolour flag in its hand.

Men of the people said, as they looked at the bronze King: "You would never have been such a fool, old man."

Groups had assembled on the Quai de l'École: I saw, in the distance, a general accompanied by two aides-de-camp, all on horse-back.

I went in their direction.

As I elbowed my way through the crowd, my eyes were on the general: a tricolour sash across his coat, his hat cocked over the back of his head, with one comer in front.

He caught sight of me in his turn, and cried: "See!

The viscount!"

[Sidenote: General Dubourg.

] And I, surprised, recognised Colonel or Captain Dubourg, my companion at Ghent, who was going, during our return to Paris, to take the open towns in the name of Louis XVIII.

, and who brought us, as I have related, half a sheep for dinner in a dirty lodging at Arnouville[255].

This is the officer whom the newspapers had represented as an austere soldier of the Republic, with grey mustachios, who had refused to serve under the imperial tyranny and who was so poor that they had been obliged to buy him a uniform of the days of Larevellière-Lepeaux[256] at the rag-fair.

Then I exclaimed: "Why, it's you!

What..."

He stretched out his arms to me, pressed my hand on Flanquine's neck; a circle was formed around us: "My dear fellow," said the military head of the Provisional Government, pointing out the Louvre to me, "there were twelve hundred of them in there: we gave them prunes in their hinder parts!

And they ran, oh, how they ran!"

M.

Dubourg's aides-de-camp burst into loud roars of laughter; the rabble laughed in unison, the general spurred his nag, which caracoled like a broken-backed beast, followed by two other Rosinantes slipping on the paving-stones as though ready to fall on their noses between their riders' legs.

Thus, proudly borne away, did the Diomedes of the Hôtel de Ville, a man, for the rest, of courage and wit, abandon me.

I have seen men who, taking all the scenes of 1830 for serious, blushed at this story, because it somewhat counteracted their heroic credulity.

I myself was ashamed on seeing the comical side of the gravest revolutions and how easy it is to trifle with the good faith of the people.

M.

Louis Blanc, in the first volume of his excellent _Histoire de dix ans_, published after what I have just written here, confirms my story: "A man," he says, "of middle height, with an energetic countenance, and wearing a general's uniform, was crossing the Marché des Innocents, followed by a great number of armed men.

M.

Évariste Dumoulin[257], editor of the _Constitutionnel_, had supplied this man with his uniform, obtained at an old-clothes shop; and the epaulets which he wore had been given him by Perlet[258], the actor: they came from the property-room of the Opéra-Comique.

"'Who is that general?"

was asked on every hand.

"And when they who surrounded him answered, 'It is General Dubourg,' 'Long live General Dubourg!'

cried the people, who had never heard the name before[259]."

A few paces further, a different sight awaited me: a ditch had been dug before the colonnade of the Louvre; a priest, in surplice and stole, was praying beside the ditch: they were laying dead bodies in it.

I

took off my hat and made the sign of the cross.

The silent crowd stood respectfully watching the ceremony, which would have been nothing if religion had not appeared in it.

So many memories and reflections presented themselves to my mind that I remained quite motionless.

Suddenly I felt myself being crowded round; a cry arose: "Long live the defender of the liberty of the press!"

I had been recognised by my hair.

Forthwith some young men caught hold of me and said: "Which way are you going?

We are going to carry you."

I did not know what to answer; I begged to be excused; I struggled;

I entreated them to let me go.

The time fixed for the meeting in the House of Peers had not yet come.

The young men kept on shouting: "Which way are you going?

Which way are you going?"

I replied at random: "Well, to the Palais-Royal!"

Forthwith I was escorted there, amid cries of "The Charter for ever!

The liberty of the press for ever!

Chateaubriand for ever!"

In the Cour des Fontaines, M. Barba[260], the bookseller, left his house and came to embrace me.

We arrived at the Palais-Royal; I was plumped down in a café under the wooden arcade.

I was dying with heat.

With clasped hands I reiterated my request for remission of my glory: not a bit of it; the whole of that youth refused to leave hold of me.

In the crowd was a man in a waistcoat-jacket with the sleeves turned up, with black hands, a sinister face and gleaming eyes, such as I had seen so often at the commencement of the Revolution: he continually tried to approach me, and the young men always thrust him back.

I learnt neither his name nor what he wanted with me.

I had to make up my mind at last to say that I was going to the House of Peers.

We left the café; the cheers began afresh.

In the court-yard of the Louvre, different kinds of shouts were raised: some cried, "To the Tuileries!

To the Tuileries!"

others, "Long live the First Consul!"

and seemed to wish to make me the heir of Bonaparte the Republican.

Hyacinthe, who accompanied me, received his share of hand-shaking and embraces.

We crossed the Pont des Arts and took the Rue de Seine.

The people flocked on our passage; they crowded the windows.

I suffered under all these honours, for my arms were being torn from their sockets.

One of the young men who were pushing me from behind suddenly slipped his head between my legs and lifted me on his shoulders.

New cheers; they shouted to the spectators in the street and at the windows: "Hats off!

Hurrah for the Charter!"

And I replied: "Yes, gentlemen, hurrah for the Charter!

But hurrah for the King!"

This cry was not taken up, but it provoked no anger.

And that is how the game was lost!

All might still be arranged, but it was necessary to present only popular men to the people: in revolutions, a name does more than an army.

[Sidenote: I am carried to the Luxembourg.

] I besought my young friends to such good purpose that at last they put me down.

In the Rue de Seine, opposite M. Le Normant, my publisher, a furniture-dealer offered an arm-chair to carry me in; I refused it and arrived in the main court of the Luxembourg in the midst of my triumph.

My generous escort then left me, after shouting fresh cries of "The Charter for ever!

Chateaubriand for ever!"

I was touched by the sentiments of this noble youth: I had shouted, "Long live the King!"

in the midst of them all, quite as safely as though I had been alone in my house; they knew my opinions; they carried me themselves to the House of Peers, where they knew that I was going to speak and remain loyal to my King: and yet it was the 30th of July and we had just passed by the ditch where they were burying the citizens killed by the bullets of the soldiers of Charles X.!

The noise which I left outside contrasted with the silence which reigned in the entrance-hall of the Palace of the Luxembourg.

This silence increased in the gloomy gallery which precedes M. de Sémonville's apartments.

My presence embarrassed the twenty-five or thirty peers who had gathered there: I hindered the sweet effusions of fear, the tender consternation to which they were yielding.

I there at last saw M. de Mortemart.

I told him that, in accordance with the King's wishes, I was ready to act in agreement with him.

He replied that, as I have already stated, he had barked his heel on returning: he disappeared again in the throng of the assembly.

He apprized us of the Ordinances which he had already communicated to the Deputies through M.

de Sussy.

M.

de Broglie declared that he had just been through Paris; that we were living on a volcano; that the middle classes were no longer able to restrain the workmen; that, if we merely pronounced the name of Charles X. , they would cut all our throats and demolish the Luxembourg as they had demolished the Bastille: "That's true, that's true!"

muttered the prudent in a hollow voice, shaking their heads[261].

M.

de Caraman[262], who had been made a duke, apparently because he had been M. de Metternich's lackey, maintained with great heat that it was impossible to recognise the Ordinances: "And why not, monsieur?"

I asked.

This cold question iced his rapture.

[Sidenote: Meeting of the peers.

] The five commissaries from the Deputies arrived.

M.

le Général Sébastiani led off with his customary phrase: "Gentlemen, this is a serious business."

Next he sang the praises of M. le Duc de Mortemart's remarkable moderation; he spoke of the dangers of Paris, pronounced a few words in eulogy of H. R.

H.

Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans and concluded with the impossibility of considering the Ordinances.

I and M. Hyde de Neuville were the only two who held the opposite opinion.

I obtained leave to speak: "M. le Duc de Broglie has told us, gentlemen, that he has walked about the streets and seen hostile dispositions on every hand.

I, too, have just been through Paris: three thousand young men escorted me to the court-yard of this palace; you may have heard their cheers: are these thirsting for your blood, who have thus greeted one of your colleagues?

They shouted: "The Charter for ever!'

"I replied: "'The King for ever!'

"They showed no anger, and came and brought me safe and sound into your midst.

Are those such threatening symptoms of public opinion?

Personally, I maintain that nothing is lost, that we can accept the Ordinances.

It is not a question of considering whether there be danger or not, but of keeping the oaths which we have taken to the King, to whom we owe our dignities, and many of us our fortune.

His Majesty, by withdrawing the Ordinances and changing his ministry, has done all that he should; let us, in our turn, do our duty.

What!

In the whole course of our lives there comes one single day in which we are obliged to enter the lists, and shall we decline the combat?