"I knew, from Charles X. himself, that he was very greatly surprised at
the accusation of desertion brought against M. de Bourmont when he
appointed him minister. He had not the least idea that that reproach
could be addressed to him, for he knew that the General had but obeyed
the orders of Louis XVIII., his legitimate sovereign."
Does not this phrase show the illusions of which Charles X. was the
victim? He never even suspected that his choice was a challenge to the
old soldiers of the Empire. Yet the violence of the liberal press
certainly extended the range of insult. "As for the other," said the
Journal des Debats disdainfully, "on what field of battle did he win
his epaulets? There are services by which one may profit, which may
even be liberally paid for, but which no people ever dreamed of
honoring." And, as if the allusion was not sufficiently transparent, "I
see," added the same writer, "but one kind of discussion in which the
minister can engage with credit--that of the military code, and the
chapter relating to desertion to the enemy. There are among our new
ministers those who understand the question to perfection." As for the
Figaro, it confined itself to quoting this line from a proclamation of
the General during the Hundred Days: "The cause of the Bourbons is
forever lost! April, 1815.--BOURMONT."
Despite the virulent attacks of the journals, General de Bourmont, who
had distinguished himself on so many battle-fields, had authority with
the troops, and the Expedition of Algiers the next year was to show him
to be a military man of the first order. If Charles X. committed an
error in naming him as minister, he committed a greater one in sending
him away from Paris before the "ordinances," for no one was more
capable of securing the success of a coup d'etat. M. de Chateaubriand
remarks:--
"If the General had been in Paris at the time of the catastrophe, the
vacant portfolio of war would not have fallen into the hands of M. de
Polignac. Before striking the blow, had he consented to it, M. de
Bourmont would beyond doubt have massed at Paris the entire royal
guard; he would have provided money and supplies so that the soldiers
would have lacked for nothing."
We are inclined to think, however, that when he took the portfolio of
war General de Bourmont was not dreaming of a coup d'etat, and that the
Prince de Polignac had as yet no thought of it. This minister, who was
so decried, showed at the outset such an inoffensive disposition that
the Opposition was surprised and disturbed by it.
"The minister," said the Debats, "boasts of his moderation, because in
the ten days of his existence, he has not put France to fire and sword,
because the prisons are not gorged, because we still walk the streets
in freedom. From all this, nevertheless, flows a striking lesson. There
are men who were going to make an end of the spirit of the century.
Well, they do nothing!"
The journals of the Right lamented this inaction.
"If the ministerial revolution," said the Quotidienne, "reduces itself
to this, we shall retire to some profound solitude where the sound of
the falling monarchy cannot reach us."
Then, more royalist than the King, M. de Lamennais wrote on the subject
of the new ministers: "It is stupidity to which fear counsels silence."
M. Guizot says in his Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de mon temps:--
"This ministry, formed to overcome the Revolution and save the
monarchy, remained inert and sterile. The Opposition insultingly
charged it with impotence; it called it the hectoring ministry, the
dullest of ministries, and, for answer, it prepared the expedition of
Algiers and prorogued the Chambers, protesting always its fidelity to
the Charter, promising itself to get out of its embarrassments by a
majority and a conquest."
The Duchess of Berry had seen without apprehension, and perhaps even
with pleasure, the nomination of the new ministers. Tranquillity
reigned in France. There was no symptom of agitation, no sign of
disquiet in the circle surrounding the Princess, and after an agreeable
stay of some weeks at Dieppe, she proceeded to the south, where her
journey was a triumph.