To-day, it is merely
good. But alas, how far is that interesting Prince from the crown!
and what shocks and revolutions he must traverse first. If ever--
God watch over France; the Orleans are making frightful progress."
The signs of the coming storm accumulated in the most alarming
manner. Read this other report of the Viscount de La Rochefoucauld
(August 8, 1826):--
"Indifference to religion, hatred of the priests, were the
symptoms of the Revolution. God grant that the same things do not
bring the same results. The unfortunate priests no longer dare to
go through the streets; they are everywhere insulted. Three days
since, a well-dressed man, passing by the sentinel of the
Luxembourg said to him, pointing to a priest: 'Never mind; in a
year you'll see no more of all these wretches.' The poor Cure of
Clichy was in real danger, surrounded by two or three hundred
madmen, who cried; 'Down with the black-hats!' Every day there is
a scene of the same sort."
The popularity of Charles X., so great at the beginning of his
reign, was dwindling every day at Paris. M. de La Rochefoucauld
did not fear to declare it to him.
"By what inconceivable fatality is it," he wrote, February 6,
1827, "that the king amid all the care he takes to ensure the
happiness of his people, is losing from day to day in their love
and affection? At the play--and it is there, to use an expression
of Napoleon, that the pulse of public opinion is to be felt--the
most seditious and hostile allusions are eagerly caught up.
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