Charles X. wished to see the letters. "He is good, loyal,"
they said, "loving the King as one loves a friend, but feeble, and
with bad surroundings. It is doubted whether he can ever rise to
the height of the post in which the King wishes to place him."
Charles X., wounded by the indiscretion of the Prince, and also by
that of the Duke of Wellington, who divulged what he himself was
keeping secret, returned the letter to Madame de Gontaut, and
remarked:--
"It is very thoughtless in Jules to have spoken of it so soon, and
in the Duke to have published it." The Duchess of Gontaut, who was
used to frank talk with the King, said: "In the circumstances
existing, I long for, I confess it frankly, and at the risk of
displeasing Your Majesty, yes, I long for the Martignac ministry."
Then, adds the Duchess in her unpublished Memoirs, the King, more
impatient than ever, turned his back on me, and took his way to
his apartment. I had had the courage to tell him my thought and
the truth. I did not repent it. When we saw each other again the
same day he did not speak to me again of it.
One of those most devoted to the elder branch, the Duke Ambroise
de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, also says in his Memoirs:--
"The King sincerely wished for the Charter, whatever may be said,
but he wished for the monarchy; he, therefore, decided to change
ministers who had made promises that seemed to him fatal, and to
replace them by others whose principles suited him better.
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