puts me too much at the mercy of the Assembly; I beg you to suppress it."

At the mercy of the Assembly! The words were clear, they hit the exact point of the fundamental debate between the two 'rights," hereditary right and popular right; agreement was impossible.

M. Chesnelong persisted. He could get nothing further. He proposed his queer combination.

"It is not for me to intervene in that," said the Prince. Our friends will use their liberty on their own responsibility; mine is not pledged."

M. Chesnelong, who was in an interpreting vein, interpreted these words as an acquiescence. Everybody started for the station. 'Soon," says M. Chesnelong, "the whistle of the engine announced the arrival of the train by which the Prince was to travel; we conducted him to the door of the saloon carriage which had been reserved for him. He bade us farewell, shook hands with us, then addressing me-these were his last words before his departure-he said: "Once again, thank you, my dear sir, and to meet again, is it not? I give you rendez-vous six months hence at the Château de Pau."

I bowed respect

And M. Chesnelong adds: fully, concealing a tear which I felt rise to my eyes. This was the last time that I heard the voice of the Comte de Chambord. But the tones of that voice still vibrate in my soul, and the recollection of that impressive day will never be effaced from my heart." i

1 Ch. Chesnelong, p. 193.

201

CHAPTER V

THE LETTER OF OCTOBER 27TH

I.-Meetings of the Committee of Nine, and of the executives of the group-M. Chesnelong reports on his mission—It is decided to propose the Restoration-Public opinion. II. The Government and the Restoration-Preparations for the King's return-Incredulity of the country-The Lefts organise resistance-The Army.

III.-Meeting of the groups of the Rights-Report of the Right Centre-The Left centre declares that the Restoration would bring about a fresh revolution-Anxiety respecting the silence of the Comte de Chambord-The letter of October 27th. Did the Comte de Chambord wish to reign? IV. Last meeting of the Committee of Nine-The monarchical campaign abandoned-The Council of Ministers declares for the extension of the Marshal's powers-Public opinion and the parties.

M. Chesnelong and the Com

M.

I

CHESNELONG returned to Paris towards six o'clock in the morning mittee of on October the 16th. During the journey Nine he had reflected at length, and had come to the conclusion that, after all, he had not failed in his mission; there was therefore nothing to be done but to pursue the enterprise of the restoration of the monarchy and "march in spite of difficulties."

His return was awaited in Paris without impatience but without confidence. Already and betimes "the line of retreat" was being prepared, that is to say, the prolongation of the powers

of the Marshal. The Comte de Paris had been obliged to intervene personally in order to secure at least the postponement of any active steps till after the arrival of the mandatory of the Committee of Nine.

He wrote from Chantilly on October 15th: "I understand your anxieties and responsibilities; however I cannot say, as you do, that if the question of the flag was settled to-day, if we could be certain of presenting the tricolor and constitutional monarchy to the Assembly with the support of the Right, the game would be lost. I think, on the contrary, that it would be a very fine hand, and that the whole of the lost ground would be recovered in twenty-four hours. I cannot, then, as yet believe in the necessity for concerning ourselves exclusively with the line of retreat, although I find myself in agreement with you, to-day, as to that line. I had thought of another solution; but for that the help of the Legitimists would have been necessary, and we shall not have it for an abstract monarchy with the Marshal as locum tenens. Just because this line of retreat is the only possible one, it will be sufficient to study it on the day on which circumstances oblige us to take it. That will perhaps be to-morrow; it is not to-day. Two delegates' have been sent to the Comte de Chambord to obtain a categorical reply. The answer, which they are not to bring back till to-morrow, has not yet been received. It seems

1 M. Lucien Brun was generally considered as having received the same mandate to the Comte de Chambord on behalf of the Committee of Nine as M. Chesnelong. It is somewhat curious that the Comte de Paris should have been inaccurately informed on this point. M. de Falloux makes the same mistake (Mémoires d'un royaliste, vol. ii. p. 567).

to me that we must wait before adopting a course of action."

The mental attitude was singularly modified by the return of M. Chesnelong.

The meeting of the Committee of Nine was to take place on the same day, October 16th, at nine o'clock in the evening. As early as nine in the morning M. Chesnelong went to see General Changarnier. He told his story fairly succinctly, and pressed the pursuit of the monarchical campaign. His zeal infected the General. M. Chesnelong tried to see the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier, but failed to meet him. He went to Versailles, where he "reported to M. Ernoul in the greatest detail his conversations with the Comte de Chambord."

M. Ernoul does not appear to have asked himself whether or no there was any advantage to be gained by postponement. He promised to approach the Government-M. Chesnelong undertaking to deal with the Committee of Nine-so that the campaign might be opened immediately and the Assembly might be put in possession of the plan for the monarchical restoration on the first day of its meeting, November 5th. So far as the Marshal and the Government were concerned, M. Ernoul held it to be certain "that they would lend their support very clearly and frankly."

At nine o'clock the meeting took place in General Changarnier's house.

A fresh recital on the part of M. Chesnelong: on the constitutional question, spontaneous acquiescense of the Comte de Chambord, we beat in an open door"; on the question of the flag, the two declarations to which the Prince gave a verbal consent; no change will be made in the flag till the

Prince has taken possession of power; "he reserves to himself the right of presenting to the country at the time which he shall judge to be suitable, and is confident of obtaining from it, through its representatives, a solution compatible with his honour, which he believes to be of a nature to satisfy the Assembly and the nation."

M. Chesnelong did not repeat to the Committee of Nine those words of the Prince: "Never will I accept the tricolor flag." He says that he omitted. this incident on purpose. "Silence on the word never," says he further, "was for me a point of honour.

I should have broken my given word, an elementary obligation of my mandate, I should have incurred blame, and assumed culpable responsibility, if I had imparted this incident of my conversation with the Prince." 1

That may be; but, by giving this information M. Chesnelong would have made light, and would have certainly responded to the thoughts of the Prince, who wished before all things to avoid ambiguity.

M. Chesnelong confided the formidable phrase solely to the" absolute discretion" of MM. de Larcy, de Tarteron, and the Comte Daru, limiting himself to leaving no illusion with the members of the Committee on the present attitude of the Prince, even as to the extreme unlikelihood of his adoption, in the future, of the tricolor flag."

2

M. Chesnelong did not fail to set forth and explain, with some little insistence, the last concession which he had obtained from the Comte de Chambord, to wit, the liberty left to members of the Legi

1 Ch. Chesnelong, p. 201.

2 Ch. Chesnelong, pp. 216 and 277.