He was made a member of the French Academy, and Charles X.
had appointed him ambassador to Greece, when the Revolution of 1830
occurred, and he refused to serve under King Charles's successor.

In 1832, partly for Julia's health, he visited the Holy Land and
Eastern Europe. Poor little Julia died at Beyrout. On the father's
return he published his "Souvenirs of his Journey." Books descriptive
of Eastern countries were then rare, and Lamartine's was received
with enthusiasm.

In 1833 Lamartine began his political career by entering the Chamber
of Deputies. Some one said of him that he formed a party by himself,--a
party of one. He pleaded for the abolition of capital punishment,
for the amelioration of the poorer classes, for the emancipation
of slaves in the colonies, and for various other social reforms;
but he was never known as a republican.

In 1847 he published his "Histoire des Girondins," which was received
by the public with deep interest and applause. It is not always
accurate in small particulars, but it is one of the most fascinating
books of history ever written, and has had the good fortune to be
singularly well translated. Alexandre Dumas is said to have told
its author: "You have elevated romance to the dignity of history."

When the revolution of February, 1848, broke out, Lamartine, being
unwell, did not make his way on the first day through the crowds
to the Chamber of Deputies, nor did he go thither on the second,
looking on the affair as an _emeute_ likely to be followed only
by a change of ministry. But when news was brought to him which
made him feel it was a very serious affair, he went at once to the
Chamber. On entering, he was seized upon by men of all parties,
but especially by republicans, who drew him into a side-room and
told him that the king had abdicated. He had always advocated the
regency of the Duchess of Orleans in the event of Louis Philippe's
death, in place of that of the Duc de Nemours. The men who addressed
him implored him, as the most popular man in France, to put himself
at the head of a movement to make the Duchess of Orleans regent
during her son's minority, adding that France under a woman and
a child would soon drift into a republic. Lamartine sat for some
minutes at a table with his face bowed on his hands. He was praying,
he says, for light. Then he arose, and after saying that he had
never been a republican, added that _now_ he was for a republic,
without any int