Yet was it not just
that Charles X. should cause an expiatory ceremony to be
celebrated at the place where his unfortunate brother had been
guillotined? Was not that for a pious sovereign the accomplishment
of a sacred duty? It matters not; there were those who reproached
him with this homage to the most memorable of misfortunes. They
would have forbidden to Charles X. the memory of Louis XVI. Yet a
king could hardly be asked to have the sentiments of a
conventionnel, of a regicide. In their systematic and bitter
opposition, the adversaries of the Restoration imputed to the
royal family as a crime its very virtues and its piety.
Charles X. was not unaware of this half-expressed hostility. That
evening he wrote to M. Villele, President of the Council of
Ministers:--
"In general I have been content with the ceremony and the
appearance of the people; but I wish to know the whole truth, and
I charge you to see M. Delavau, and to know from him if the
reality corresponds to appearances, if there was any talk against
the government and the clergy. I wish to know all, and I trust to
you to leave me in ignorance of nothing."
M. de Villele was not a flatterer. He responded discreetly, but
without concealing the truth:--
"The aspect of the people," he wrote, "permitted the thoughts
agitating its spirit to be recognized. We were following the King
at a slight distance and could judge very well of it.
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