I urged him one day to allow his
sleeping-room to be furnished. He refused. I insisted, telling him
that it was in a shocking condition of neglect.
"'If it is for me,' he replied with vivacity, 'no; if it is for
the sake of the manufactures, yes.'
"It was the same in everything. He had no whims and never listened
to a proposition by which he alone was to profit. He joined to
these essential qualities, manners that were wholly French, and
mots that often recalled Henry IV. We were always saying to each
other, my colleagues and I, 'If a king were made to order for
France, he would not be different.' What a misfortune for France,
which he loved so much, that he was not known better and more
appreciated. This portrait, I protest, is in nowise flattering; if
this poor Prince were still reigning, I would not say so much of
him, above all in his presence; but he is persecuted and is an
exile; I owe my country the truth, nothing but the truth."
Let us add to the honor of Charles X. that he made of his personal
fortune and his civil list the noblest and most liberal use.
"On the throne," says the Viscount Sosthenes de La Rochefoucauld,"
he was generous to excess. In his noble improvidence of the
future, he considered his civil list as a sort of loan, made by
the nation for the sake of its grandeur, to be returned in luxury,
magnificence, and benefits.
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