The prolongation of the powers of the Marshal might, perhaps, be accepted; but the Government and the Right Centre were more exacting, and demanded, according to the Comte de Paris's formula, "a solid and serious organisation," "a prolongation for ten years!" Ten years! a century! What would Frohsdorf say of this eternity of provisional arrange

ments?

M. Ernoul, carefully coached by the Duc de Broglie, had gone the same evening to M. de La Rochette, president of the Extreme Right, and had put the screw on him: "The danger now lies," M. Ernoul had said, "in the Left. Since we have not succeeded in restoring the Monarchy, let us not at any rate destroy all its chances; there is only one practical way of reserving the future, that is to prolong the powers of the Marshal; if the monarchical campaign were one day to be reopened, the obstacle would apparently not come from him."

M. de La Rochette was afraid to declare himself. He recognised that an immediate decision was necessary, but he saw the gravity of either decision.

Then M. Ernoul, who was doubtless authorised to do so, brought the big springs into play: "The Government wishes to know where it stands; the final resolution must be taken to-morrow at the council of ministers. But it will not proceed, unless it is supported by the Right, by the whole Right. If not, the Cabinet will resign, and the Extreme Right will bear the responsibility before the country and history of having, in the midst of a crisis, brought on a dislocation of the ministry which will inevitably involve the resignation of the Marshal." "

The most influential members of the group who 1 Ch. Chesnelong, p. 421.

were present at this meeting, MM. de La Rochette, Lucien Brun, de Cazenove de Pradine, were looking at each other; they did not know what answer to make; they gave way one after the other, and answered for the Extreme Right. This was an important resolution, and its consequences will

soon be seen.

On the following day, November 2nd, the General Secretary of the Presidency wrote to M. Gavard, head of the Secretariat of the President of the Council, the following letter, announcing success :

VERSAILLES,

November 2nd.

Will

MY DEAR FRIEND,-I have this moment arrived from Paris, too late to take the news to M. de Broglie as I had promised. . . . you tell him, as soon as he wakes, that all the combinations put forward in the course of the day have failed, thanks to the loyal, disinterested, and patriotic attitude of our Princes? The Marshal, then, remains alone in the field. He is accepted by all. The Extreme Right is making difficulties as to the duration of his powers, but will, I think, resign itself to voting for ten years. Yours, etc.,

EM. D'HARCOURT.

And the Duc de Broglie, in transmitting these words to the Keeper of the Seals, M. Ernoul, accompanied them with this short but significant note:

DEAR FRIEND,-I am in receipt of Harcourt's words to Gavard. You see that the last hope of France has not allowed itself to be compromised. It is now for you to act so that the majority may arrive renewed and rallying behind the clay rampart that we have been reduced to giving it in order to save it from the rising flood.

BROGLIE.1

An hour later, the Council of Ministers met. The

1 Merveilleux du Vignaux, p. 118.

Duc de Broglie was master of the situation. Not only was the prolongation of the Marshal's powers decided on, but the Government was of opinion that the initiative of the proposal should come, not from itself, but from the groups of the Right. The latter having announced that they would bring forward a motion for the restoration of the monarchy, and not finding themselves in a position to fulfil their engagement, it seemed indispensable that they should themselves ensure their retreat in the eyes of public opinion.

This was agreed to. General Changarnier was to bring forward the bill for prolongation in the name of the three groups of the Right, and the Right Centre.

Lastly, in a meeting of this latter group, held on November 4th, its President, the Duc d'AudiffretPasquier, sounded the bugle - call on a rather loud note, it is true: "Because," said he, "the ship touched the reef, the pirates thought they were about to seize her, decimate the crew, and share the cargo. They were mistaken. The cargo is salvaged, the crew hale and hearty, the ship about to take the sea again; henceforth she is called 'the MacMahon.' "i

The Comte

1

And the Comte de Chambord! The de Chambord National Assembly met the following day; is silent still there was no news from Frohsdorf.

The Union and Univers showed themselves clearly hostile to the prolongation. These papers affirmed that the majority was by no means in a state of dissolution, and that the King's letter had not been understood. It was difficult to divine what they were aiming at.

1 E. Daudet, p. 258.

M. de La Rochette, in a letter which he wrote later, November 20th, to his constituents, explained his conduct by these simple words: "The Monarchy had become impossible in the Assembly. I do not pass judgment on the fact, I merely state it." "

That was true; but, the parliamentary restoration having failed, did no other resource remain for the monarchical cause? This question does not even seem to have suggested itself to the minds of those members of the Assembly who were most devoted to the Comte de Chambord.

The

II

We have now come to the end of the parliaAssembly mentary vacation. The Assembly met on re-opens November 5th. Nov. 5th

Under the representative system, in which words take the place of deeds, that complex system, in which resolutions are taken in the somewhat restricted circles by which "public opinion" is propagated, things do not come into the broad light of debate until they have been already decided, and only require a justification and a sanction.

Thus, on this exceedingly serious question of the form of government, the sovereign Assembly, at the moment when it resumed its session at Versailles, found itself faced with results which had been arrived at in its absence.

"All is lost," said M. Martial Delpit.

Yes; but all was saved, if the Duc d'AudiffretPasquier's address to the Right Centre was to be

believed. So ingeniously fertile had been the activity of the last few days.

Some time was required to enable the deputies arriving from their provinces to understand the situation and to take their bearings: "My first care on arriving at Versailles," writes the Baron de Vinols in his Memoirs, was to find out the cause of the failure of the monarchical negotiations. I applied to Combier, deputy for the Ardèche, who represented the Extreme Right on the Committee of Nine, and to M. de La Rochette. Both qualified the letter of the Comte de Chambord as disappointing, painful, inexplicable. La Rochette said to me with indescribable emotion: I am thunderstruck; how I wish I were at home, and had never troubled myself about anything!

"On an observation made to Combier that the flag might have been but a pretext to withdraw from a burden which the constitutional shackles would make it impossible for him to bear, Combier answered peremptorily: 'No: the King had certainly accepted our programme.' He went over its principal clauses to me, and I did not indeed see anything in it seriously restrictive to the royal power."

1

Thus nobody, even among the most faithful, understood the policy of the Comte de Chambord, nobody entered into his views. The Legitimist party was disconnected.

The Right Centre was not in much better condition. The authors of the abortive Restoration had on the whole put themselves in an awkward position. Disagreeable rumours were spreading as to their sincerity and capacity. M. Chesnelong went from

1 Baron de Vinols, p. 152.