From the beginning of his reign, Charles X. heard useful warnings,
and later he blamed himself for not having listened better to
them. This justice, however, must be done him, that if he had not
the wisdom to profit by such counsels, he never was offended at
the men of heart who dared to give them to him.
In this number was the Viscount Sosthenes de La Rochefoucauld, son
of the Duke of Doudeauville, son-in-law of Mathieu de Montmorency,
charged with the department of the fine arts, at the ministry of
the King's household. In publishing the reports addressed by him
to Charles X. from his accession to the Revolution of 1830, he
writes:--
"These are respectful and tender warnings of which too little
account was taken, and which might have saved the King and France.
I put them down here with the gloomy predictions contained in
them, which have been only too completely realized. They are not
prophecies after the event. We saw in advance the misfortunes of
the King, the fall of the monarchy, the ruin of legitimacy. Each
page, then each line, and soon every word of this part of my
Memoirs will be a cry of alarm: 'God save the King!' Alas! He has
not saved him. One is always wrong if one cannot get a hearing and
make one's self believed. It is then, with no pride in my
previsions, but with bitter regret, that I could not get them
accepted, that I recall this long monologue addressed to Charles
X.
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