M. de Polignac had all
the qualities of the most devoted subject, but his talent did not
rise to the height of his position. If it had been necessary only
to suffer and to march to death, no one, surely, could have
equalled him; but more was requisite, and he remained beneath the
level of the circumstances he thought he was overcoming; the fall
of the throne was the consequence. How he developed, though, and
grew great when in duress, and who should flatter himself that he
could bear up with a firmness more unshaken against the severest
trials? If M. de Polignac is not a type of the statesman, he will
at least remain the complete model of the virtues of the Christian
and the private citizen."
The Prince de Polignac was mistaken, but he acted in good faith.
No one can dispute his faults, but none can suspect the purity of
his intentions. Unfortunately his royalism had in it something of
mysticism and ecstasy that made of this gallant man a sort of
illumine. He sincerely believed that he had received from God the
mission to save the throne and the altar, and foreseeing neither
difficulties nor obstacles, regarding all uncertainty and all fear
as unworthy of a gentleman and a Christian, he had in himself and
in his ideas, that blind, imperturbable confidence that is the
characteristic of fanatics. In a period less troubled, this great
noble would perhaps have been a remarkable minister of foreign
affairs, but in the stormy time when he took the helm in hand, he
had neither sufficient prudence nor sufficient experience to
resist the tempest and save the ship from the wreck in which the
dynasty was to go down.
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