At the offices of the Executive Committee in the Rue de Berri, Henri de
Brécé, Joseph Lacrisse and Henri Léon were dealing with the business of
the day.
“My dear President,” said Joseph Lacrisse to Henri de Brécé. “I want
you to find a prefecture for a good Royalist. I am sure you will not
refuse when I have told you of my candidate’s qualification. His
father, Ferdinand Dellion, an iron-master at Valcombe, is in every
way deserving of the King’s favour. He is most careful of the moral
and physical well-being of his workmen. He has a dispensary for them,
and he sees that they go to Mass on Sundays and send their children
to the church schools, and that they vote properly and abstain from
trade unions. He is opposed, unfortunately, by the deputy Cothard and
ill-supported by the sub-prefect of Valcombe. His son Gustave is one of
the most active and energetic members of my Departmental Committee. He
was most vigorous in the campaign against the Jews in our city, and
was arrested at Auteuil for taking part in the demonstration against
Loubet. You simply cannot refuse a prefecture to Gustave Dellion, my
dear President!”
“A prefecture,” murmured Brécé, turning over his register, “a
prefecture? We’ve only got Guéret and Draguignan left. Will you have
Guéret?”
Joseph Lacrisse smiled imperceptibly as he replied:
“My dear President, Gustave Dellion is my collaborator. When the time
is ripe he will proceed under my orders to the forcible suppression of
Worms-Clavelin. It is only fair that he should take his place.”
With his eyes glued to the register, Henri de Brécé declared the thing
to be impossible. Worms-Clavelin’s successor was already chosen.
Monseigneur had appointed Jacques de Cadde, one of the first to
subscribe to the Henry subscription-lists.
Lacrisse objected to Jacques de Cadde, saying that he was a stranger
to the department. Henri de Brécé retorted that one did not dispute
the King’s orders, and the discussion was growing somewhat heated
when Henri Léon, astride a chair, put out his hand and remarked in a
peremptory tone:
“Worms-Clavelin’s successor will be neither Jacques de Cadde nor
Gustave Dellion. It will be Worms-Clavelin.”
Lacrisse and Brécé protested.
“It will be Worms-Clavelin,” repeated Henri Léon. “Worms-Clavelin, who
will not await your arrival on the scenes to fly the royal standard
from the roof of the prefecture, and whom the Minister of the Interior
appointed by the King will have notified by telephone of his retention
at the head of the departmental administration.”
“Worms-Clavelin prefect under the monarchy!” said Brécé disdainfully.
“I don’t seem to see him.”
“It would be a shocking thing, of course,” replied Henri Léon. “But if
the Chevalier de Clavelin is appointed prefect there is nothing more
to be said. Don’t let us have any illusions, the King won’t bestow all
the plums on us. Ingratitude is the first duty of a sovereign, and no
Bourbon has ever yet been found lacking in that respect. I say this to
the praise of the House of France.
“Do you really think the King will govern with the white carnation,
the cornflower and the rose of France, and take his ministers from the
Jockey Club and from Puteaux, or make Christiani Grand Master of the
Ceremonies? If so, you are vastly mistaken. The rose of France, the
cornflower and the white carnation will be left on the ground, in the
modest shade beloved of the violet. Christiani will be set at liberty,
nothing more. People will look askance at him for staving in Loubet’s
hat. Of course! Once deposed, Loubet, who at present is nothing but
a low Panamist, will be a predecessor when we have replaced him. The
King will sit in his arm-chair at the Auteuil races and he will then
consider that Christiani created a regrettable precedent and will bear
him a grudge for doing so. Even we ourselves, we who are plotting for
him, will become suspect; conspirators are not liked at Court. I am
telling you this to save you from bitter disappointment. The secret of
happiness is to live without illusions. As far as I am concerned, if
my services are forgotten or despised, I shall not complain. Politics
isn’t a matter of sentiment; I realize only too well what His Majesty
will be forced to do when we have set him upon the throne of his
fathers. Before rewarding gratuitous devotion, a good King pays for
the services which have been sold to him. Don’t make any mistake about
that! The greatest honours and the most lucrative positions will be
given to the Republicans. The trimmers alone will form a third of our
political personnel, and will receive their pay before we do. And that
is only fair. Gromance, the old Chouan who went over to the Republic
under Méline, explains his position very clearly when he tells us:
‘You have lost me a seat in the Senate, therefore you owe me one in
the House of Peers.’ He’ll get it, and after all he deserves it. But
the reward of the trimmers will be as nothing to that of the faithful
Republicans who reserve their treachery for the supreme moment. Those
are they who will get the portfolios and gold-laced coats, the titles
and endowments. Do you know where to look for our Premier and half our
Peerage at the present moment? Don’t look for them in our Royalist
Committees where we hourly run the risk of being arrested like so many
thieves, nor in the wandering Court of our young and handsome Prince
in his cruel exile. You will find them in the ante-chambers of the
Radical ministers, in the drawing-rooms of the Élysée and in every
institution in the pay of the Government. Have you never heard of
Talleyrand and Fouché? Have you read no history, not even the works of
Monsieur Imbert de Saint-Amand? It was not an _émigré_ but a regicide
who was appointed Minister of the Police by Louis XVIII in 1815. Our
young King is certainly not so clever as Louis XVIII, but we must not
think him devoid of intelligence. That would be disrespectful and,
perhaps, too severe. When he is King he will realize the necessities
of the situation. All the chiefs of the Republican party who are not
slain, exiled, transported or incorruptible will have to be regarded,
otherwise they will oppose him in a great and powerful party, and
Méline himself will become a savage enemy. And since I have mentioned
Méline, Brécé, tell me yourself, which would be most advantageous to
the royal cause—that your father should preside over the peers, or
Méline, Duc de Remiremont, Prince des Vosges, with the Grand Cross of
the Legion of Honour, Knight of the Lily and Saint Louis? There can
be no possible doubt. Duc Méline would bring far more adherents to
the crown than the Duc de Brécé. Must I, then, teach you the A B C of
restorations?
“All we shall get will be the titles and positions rejected by the
Republicans. Our gratuitous devotion will be taken for granted. They
will have no fear of displeasing us; they will feel assured that we
shall remain inoffensive malcontents. It will never for a moment enter
their heads that we might form an Opposition.
“Well, they will be mistaken. We shall be obliged to oppose them, and
we shall do so. It will be profitable, and it won’t be difficult.
Of course we shall not ally ourselves with the Republicans. That
would be in execrable taste, and our loyalty would forbid such a
thing. We cannot be less Royalist than the King, but we can be more
so. Monseigneur le Duc d’Orléans is no democrat, we must do him
that justice. He does not interest himself in the condition of the
working-classes. He dates from before the Revolution. Nevertheless,
although he dines in knee-breeches and a Breton waistcoat, with all
his orders round his neck, he will turn Liberal when his ministers
are Liberals. There is nothing to prevent us from becoming ‘Ultras.’
We shall pull to the right while the Republicans pull to the left; we
shall become dangerous and they will treat us properly. And who can
say whether the ‘Ultras’ will not be the means of saving the monarchy?
We have already an incomparable army to-day which is more religious
than the clergy. We have an incomparable bourgeoisie, anti-Semites
every one of them, who think as men thought in the Middle Ages. Louis
XVIII was not so fortunate. If they will give me the post of Minister
of the Interior, with such admirable elements as these I’ll guarantee
to make the monarchy last ten years. After that it will be the turn of
Socialism. But ten years is a good lease of life.”
Having thus spoken, Henri Léon lit a cigar. Still harping on the same
theme, Joseph Lacrisse begged Henri de Brécé to see if he had not a
good prefecture to dispose of; but the President repeated as before
that he had nothing but Guéret and Draguignan.
“It will have to be Draguignan then,” said Joseph Lacrisse with a sigh.
“Gustave Dellion will not be best pleased, but I must make him see it’s
a foot in the stirrup.”