M. Villemain, in the
opening discourse of his lectures on eloquence at the Faculty of
Letters, was wildly applauded when he pronounced the following
eulogium on the new sovereign: "A monarch kindly and revered, he
has the loyalty of the antique ways and modern enlightenment.
Religion is the seal of his word. He inherits from Henry IV. those
graces of the heart that are irresistible. He has received from
Louis XIV. an intelligent love of the arts, a nobility of
language, and that dignity that imposes respect while it seduces."
All the journals chanted his praises. Seeing that the
Constitutionnel itself, freed from censorship, rendered
distinguished homage to legitimacy, he came to believe that
principle invincible. He was called Charles the Loyal. At the
Theatre-Francais, the line of Tartufe--
"Nous vivons sous un prince ennemi de la fraude"--
was greeted with a salvo of applause. The former adversaries of
the King reproached themselves with having misunderstood him. They
sincerely reproached themselves for their past criticisms, and
adored that which they had burned. M. de Vaulabelle himself
wrote:--
"Few sovereigns have taken possession of the throne in
circumstances more favorable than those surrounding the accession
of Charles X."
It seemed as if the great problem of the conciliation of order and
liberty had been definitely solved.
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