Brun, Cazenove, dropping their voting papers finally, into the urn." " 1 Seven deputies Dezanneau, de Among the Light-horse, one alone, M. Dahirel, who, however, had signed the Changarnier proposal, voted against the septennate. abstained: MM. d'Aboville, Belcastel, de Cornulier-Lucinière, de Franclieu, General du Temple, de Fréville. They explained their attitude in a note communicated to the papers at the end of the sitting. They had reckoned on reading it before the division, but the Duc de Broglie's speech prevented them. Here is their declaration: Convinced that the National and Christian Monarchy is the only salvation of the country, and that you could restore it, if you would, we cannot make up our minds to tell France by voting for the Bill which you offer her, that it is a necessary and efficacious instrument of social safety. Let those who think so, say so, and vote accordingly; it is their right and duty; we respect it. We have sounded the bottom of our consciences; for us this action would be insincere. Now, after the King, but like the King, we have never deceived the country, and never will. We abstain." The other royalists, without guidance, without any line of conduct, shaken by the skilful arguments of the Duc de Broglie, voted for the septennate. They were persuaded that in this way they reserved the future, even for the Comte de Chambord. M. de La Rochette, in a letter dated November 20th, 1873, and published by the Espérance du peuple, of Nantes, explains the state of mind of the members 1 An article in the Gaulois of November 13th, 1903, by M. Costa de Beauregard. 2 A. de Saint-Albin, p. 417. of the group of the Extreme Right of which he was president : Much obscurity has been thrown on this vote. Some thought they saw the royalists throwing the King overboard for seven years, and have blamed them severely. Others, more confident, and permit me to say, more patient and politic, have not been able to believe that men who have passed their whole lives in loyalty and honour were capable of so sad a falling away. And they are right. It is a mistake on the part of our friends to believe that for seven years we can no longer speak of the King, and restore the monarchy. Until the constitutional laws are passed, the situation does not change, and the Marshal governs under the same conditions as heretofore. We have a guarantee for it in the public speeches of the Vice-president of the Council and the Keeper of the Seals, in the loyalty of the Marshal and the actual text of the law. . . . This delay So I call upon our friends to take confidence. is independent of our will; but there is no abandonment; and our faith and our hopes in a near future have not weakened.1 In a circular to the Royalist Committees dated November 22nd, 1873, M. de Dreux-Brézé expressed the same opinion: The majority of the Chamber has wished, by the creation of a more firmly established power, to oppose a dam to the revolutionary torrent, whose power has been revealed for some months by the result of the bye-elections. In the eyes of all parties this period of rest is not a final solution. We further have as a guarantee for this temporary situation the loyalty and disinterestedness of Marshal MacMahon, who offered himself, but never wished, and never will consent to impose himself. The circular prescribed a double duty for the loyalists : Not to fight, to support at need the government of Marshal MacMahon. Not to give the significance of a final decision to Marquis de Dampierre, p. 291, and A. de Saint-Albin, p. 418. the vote of the Assembly, and to multiply petitions in favour of monarchy. Petitions in favour of Monarchy! They had come to that! The cause of the monarchy, shaken and tossed in a last eddy, disputed between two rival parties, neither of which had been willing to yield, was submerged, and whatever the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier may have said, the MacMahon was not the ship to set it afloat again. Return to The Comte de Chambord had anxiously Exile awaited the vote in the Assembly in M. de Vanssay's house, "three hundred yards from the palace." M. de Dreux-Brézé kept him informed of the course of the debate. The division taken in the night ruined his last hopes. In the course of the morning of November 20th he summoned MM. Lucien Brun, de Carayon, de Cazenove de Pradine, and perhaps also M. de La Rochette. "I have it from my friend M. Lucien Brun," says M. Chesnelong, " that his Highness did not speak to them of their vote of the preceding night; in calling them to him before leaving Versailles, he had only wished to give them a fresh mark of his affectionate sympathy." 1 There was no longer anything for the Prince to do except to leave Versailles, since the Parliament reigned in the palace of Louis XIV. He went to Paris, and traversed the town; he saw the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, and was moved by the imposing structure of that building; he went to Notre-Dame; in the church of St. Laurent 1 Ch. Chesnelong, p. 498. he was recognised by a woman of the people, who, with her basket under her arm, is said to have said to him: "You! I recognise you take care." He had himself driven to the Invalides, where the funeral of Admiral Tréhouart had taken place. Hidden in the back of a carriage, he was present at the march of the troops who paid the military honours.1 This funeral ceremony was his last contact with the army, with Paris, with France. He went away and returned to the exile which he was never to leave again. The son of Kings, imprisoned in the conception which he had formed of his right, his principle, and his duty," without the skill to seize the crown but incapable of renouncing it," had neither been able or willing to reign either for himself or for his heirs. 1 A. de Saint-Albin, p. 423. CHAPTER VII THE SECOND BROGLIE CABINET I. What was the Septennate ?-Interpellation on the nonconvocation of the electoral colleges: vote of the order of the day pure and simple-Resignation of the CabinetThe Duc Decazes-Constitution of the Second Broglie Cabinet-Its precarious position-Election of the Committee of Thirty. II.-The Budget of 1874-Financial System of M. MagneThe new taxes. III. The trial and condemnation of Marshal Bazaine-Character of the sentence-Was Bazaine a traitor? What was the Sep WE may I remember that the Duc Decazes had said to M. Pernolet: tennate? "The foundation of the Republic in France will be dated from the Presidency of Marshal MacMahon." The clear-sighted and shrewd intellect of the Duc Decazes did not linger over deliberate illusions; he no longer had any faith. When the leaders doubt, the troops have already wavered. Disorder had begun. There was a fight over the position selected to cover the retreat, the Septennate,-" a clay rampart," the Duc de Broglie had called it. "Per What exactly was the "Septennate"? sonal," or impersonal," it was the game in vogue. Would the door in front of the monarchy remain open, |