"The King can do anything!" cries the Duke de Riviere,
with enthusiasm; and May 6th M. de Villele addresses to the Prince
de Polignac, then ambassador at London, a letter in which he says:
"The dissolution of the National Guard has been a complete
success; the bad have been confounded by it, the good encouraged.
Paris has never been more calm than since this act of severity,
justice, and vigor." The monarchy thinks itself saved; it is lost.
XXI
THE FIRST DISQUIETUDE
There were still great illusions among those about Charles X., and
the Duchess of Berry had not for a single instant an idea that the
rights of her son could be compromised. They persuaded themselves
that the Opposition would remain dynastic and that the severest
crises would end only in a change of ministry. Nevertheless, even
at the court, the more thoughtful began to be anxious, and
perceived many dark points on the horizon. Certain royalists,
enlightened by experience of the Emigration and Exile, had a
presentiment that the Restoration would be for them only a halt in
the long way of catastrophes and sorrow. They mourned the optimist
tranquillity in which some of the courtiers succeeded in lulling
the King. There were courageous and faithful servitors who, at the
risk of displeasing their master and losing his good graces, did
not recoil from the sad obligation of telling him the whole truth.
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