As soon as the little Prince was
seen, there was on every face an expression of kindliness and
sympathy. He was the Child of Paris, the Child of France. Who
could have foretold then that this child, so loved, admired,
applauded, would, innocent victim, less than six years later, be
condemned to perpetual exile, and by whom?
Charles X. had won a triumph. Napoleon, at the time of his
greatest glories, at the apogee of his prodigious fortunes, had
never had a warmer greeting from the Parisian people. In the
course of the review the King spoke to all the colonels. On his
return to the Tuileries he went at a slow pace, paused often to
receive petitions, handed them to one of his suite, and responded
in the most gracious manner to the homage of which he was the
object. An historian not to be accused of partiality for the
Restoration has written: "On entering the Tuileries, Charles X.
might well believe that the favor that greeted his reign effaced
the popularity of all the sovereigns who had gone before. Happy in
being King at last, moved by the acclamations that he met at every
step, the new monarch let his intoxicating joy expand in all his
words. His affability was remarked in his walks through Paris, and
the grace with which he received all petitioners who could
approach him." Everywhere that he appeared, at the Hotel-Dieu, at
Sainte-Genvieve, at the Madeleine, the crowd pressed around him
and manifested the sincerest enthusiasm.
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