Mde. Martignac, who succeeded M. de Villele in the Ministry of the
Interior, was a man of merit, honest, liberal, and sincerely devoted to
the King. Born in 1776, at Bordeaux, he was at first an advocate at the
bar of that city, and at the same time made himself known by some witty
vaudevilles. On the return of the Bourbons, he entered the magistracy,
became procureur-general at Limoges, was elected a deputy in 1821, and
distinguished himself in the tribune. He was Minister of the Interior
from January, 1828, to August, 1829, and his name was given to the
ministry of which he was a member. He had for colleagues enlightened
and moderate men, such as Count Auguste de La Ferronnays, M. Roy, Count
Portalis. He tried to reconcile the different parties, and to preserve
the throne from the double danger of reaction and revolution. Taken
between two fires, the extreme Right and the extreme Left, he was
destined to fail in his generous effort.
The royalist sentiment was becoming constantly more feeble. The 24th of
January, 1828, some days after the formation of the Martignac ministry,
the Viscount Sosthenes de La Rochefoucauld wrote, in a report to the
King:--
"In going to Saint-Denis, the 21st of January (the anniversary of the
death of Louis XVI.), and seeing the lightness with which the court
itself conducted itself there, it was impossible for me not to make
many reflections on the futility of an age in which no memory is
sacred. And by what right can the people be asked to have a better
memory when such an example is given to them? No cortege, no coaches
draped, none of the pomp that strikes the imagination and the eye. Some
isolated carriages, passing rapidly over the route, as if every one
longed to be more promptly rid of whatever is grave and mournful in
this day of cruel memory."
The ultras were thinking much less of the real interests of the
monarchy than of their own spites and their personal ambitions.
These pretended supports of the throne were digging the abyss in which
the throne was to be swallowed up. Charles X., blinded, was already
thinking of calling the Prince de Polignac to power, and regarded the
Martignac ministry as a provisional expedient. To the despair of the
members of this ministry, he maintained relations with M. de Villele,
whose fall he regretted. After the opening of the session, he wrote to
his former minister, February 6, 1828:--
"What do you think of my discourse? I did my best; but as it was a
success with some persons of doubtful opinions, I am afraid that it is
not worth much. Everything appears to me so confused, that I know not
what to count upon. The eulogies of the Debats and the Constitutionnel
make me fear I have said stupid things. Yet I hope not, and I shall
continue to arrest with firmness what may lead to dangerous
concessions."
On the other hand, if there were among the liberals some sincere and
well-intentioned men, who meant to remain faithful alike to the throne
and the Charter, there were others who already masked treachery under
the appearance of devotion to the King. Those who two years later were
to boast of having labored during the entire restoration for the ruin
of the elder branch,--actors in the comedy of fifteen years, as they
called themselves,--gave themselves out, in 1828, as partisans and
enthusiastic admirers of Charles X. At the commencement of the session
a deputy of the Left, having affected to say in the tribune that the
King had not a single enemy, the Right permitted itself some
exclamations of doubt. One of its members, M. de Marinhac, cried: "As a
good prince I believe that His Majesty has no enemies, but as King, he
has many, and I know them," added he, looking at his opponents. The
entire Left was indignant, and caused the orator to be called to order.
M. Dupin thanked the president, and said in an agitated voice: "It is a
calumny, an insult, that we cannot endure. Nothing wounds us more than
to hear ourselves accused of being the enemies of him whom we adore,
cherish, bless."
The tactics of the Opposition were to flatter the King, but to disarm
him and to make him look on those who were really revolutionists as
ministerialists. M. de Martignac was a man of good faith, but many who
boasted of supporting him were not so, and perhaps M. de Villele was
right when he wrote to Charles X. in June, 1828:--
"I could serve Your Majesty only with the light and the character God
has given me. It would have been, it would be, impossible for me to
believe that authority can be maintained by concessions and by leaning
on those who wish to overthrow it."
Meanwhile there were still some fine days for the old King. His journey
in the departments of the east, in 1828, was a continual ovation that
recalled to him the enthusiasm of the beginning of his reign. Setting
out from Saint Cloud the 31st of August, he arrived at Metz the 3d of
September. All the houses of this great military city were hung with
the white flag adorned with fleurs-de-lis. After having visited some of
the fortifications, Charles X., following the ramparts, came to an
elegant pavilion erected on the site of the ancient citadel. Long
covered seats were arranged for the ladies of the city; a prodigious
number of spectators occupied the ramparts. In the presence of the
sovereign a regiment made a simulated attack on a "demi-lune" and a
bastion.
On September 6, Saverne arranged a very picturesque reception for the
King. All the cantons and all the communes sent thither, together with
their mayors and their richest farmers, their prettiest village girls
in Alsatian costume. Five hundred peasants, clad in red vest and long
black coat, the head covered with a great hat turned up on one side, a
white ribbon tied about the left arm, were on horseback at the place of
meeting. The young girls, bearing flags and garlands, were brought in
wagons, each containing a dozen or sixteen. In other wagons were the
musicians. The pretty Alsaciennes presented the monarch with a basket
of flowers; then he breakfasted with the authorities, and, at a signal,
fires were lighted at the same time on the plain and on the surrounding
mountains.
The 7th of September, Charles X. entered Strasbourg in triumph. At a
league from the city, on a height from which it was to be seen, and
whence the wooded hills of the Black Forest were visible, he was
awaited by a crowd of young girls in Alsatian costume, in three hundred
wagons, with four or six horses to each. There were also twelve hundred
horsemen, divided into squadrons, the mayors with their scarfs at their
head and carrying the fleur-de-lis standards. The royal cortege passed,
under arbors of verdure and flowers, amid this long file of vehicles
and horsemen, who escorted it to the walls of Strasbourg. Delighted
with the enthusiasm of which he was the object, the sovereign proceeded
to the Cathedral, where a te deum was sung. In the evening the spire of
this marvellous church was illuminated: it was like a pyramid of stars.
The King of Wurtemberg, the Grand Duke of Baden, and his three brothers
came to greet the King of France in the capital of Alsace. He showed
them at the arsenal sixteen hundred pieces of ordnance on their
carriages, and arms sufficient for a hundred thousand men.
"Sire, and gentlemen," he said with a smile, in which kingly pride
mingled with perfect urbanity, "I have nothing to conceal from you.
This is something I can show to my friends as to my enemies."
Yes, France was great then, and no one could have predicted for Alsace
the fate reserved for her forty-two years later. The army was the
admiration of Europe. The navy had just recaptured at Navarino the
prestige and power of the time of Louis XVI. Charles X. said to Mr.
Hyde de Neuville:--
"France, when a noble design is involved, takes counsel only with
herself. Thus whether England wishes or not, we shall free Greece.
Continue the armaments with the same activity. I shall not pause in the
path of humanity and honor."
And at the moment when the very Christian King was greeted by the
German Princes in the Alsatian capital, his victorious troops were
completing in the Morea the enfranchisement of Greece.
Charles X. returned by Colmar, Luneville, Nancy, and Champagne. At
Troyes he found himself surrounded by all the liberal deputies, and he
decorated Casimir PErier. Everywhere he had an enthusiastic welcome. On
his return to Saint Cloud he was warmly congratulated by all his court.
Nevertheless, as the Duchess of Gontaut said to him:--
"Sire, you must be happy."--"What do cheers signify?" he answered, not
without sadness. "These demonstrations, all superficial, should not
dazzle--a friendly gesture of the hand, a prince's, a king's,
expression of satisfaction will obtain them."
Despite this philosophic reflection, Charles X. was triumphant. If his
ministers wished to credit their liberal policy with the ovations he
had received in the east, he called their attention to the fact that he
had been not less well received the year before under the Villele
ministry at the time of his visit to the camp of Saint Omer. In the
enthusiasm manifested by the people, he saw an homage to the
monarchical principle, not to the policy of one or another ministry.
"You hear these people. Do they shout hurrah for the Charter? No, they
cry long live the King!" Still confident of the future, he wished to
persuade himself that the obstacles piled up before his dynasty were
but clouds that a favorable wind would scatter soon. "Ah, Monsieur de
Martignac," he cried, with deep joy, "what a nation! what should we not
do for it!"
At the moment that Charles X. traversed the provinces of the east in
triumph, the Duchess of Berry was making in the west a journey not less
brilliant than that of the sovereign.