urnals which sold themselves, prostituted journalists, insulted the
exiles of 1815. David had no longer any talent, Arnault had no longer
any wit, Carnot was no longer honest, Soult had won no battles; it is
true that Napoleon had no longer any genius. No one is ignorant of the
fact that letters sent to an exile by post very rarely reached him, as
the police made it their religious duty to intercept them. This is no
new fact; Descartes complained of it in his exile. Now David, having, in
a Belgian publication, shown some displeasure at not receiving letters
which had been written to him, it struck the royalist journals as
amusing; and they derided the prescribed man well on this occasion. What
separated two men more than an abyss was to say, the regicides, or
to say the voters; to say the enemies, or to say the allies; to say
Napoleon, or to say Buonaparte. All sensible people were agreed that the
era of revolution had been closed forever by King Louis XVIII., surnamed
"The Immortal Author of the Charter." On the platform of the Pont-Neuf,
the word Redivivus was carved on the pedestal that awaited the statue of
Henry IV. M. Piet, in the Rue Therese, No. 4, was making the rough draft
of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. The leaders of the
Right said at grave conjunctures, "We must write to Bacot." MM. Canuel,
O'Mahoney, and De Chappedelaine were preparing the sketch, to some
extent with Monsieur's approval, of what was to become later on "The
Conspiracy of the Bord de l'Eau"--of the waterside. L'Epingle Noire was
already plotting in his own quarter. Delaverderie was conferring with
Trogoff. M. Decazes, who was liberal to a degree, reigned. Chateaubriand
stood every morning at his window at No. 27 Rue Saint-Dominique, clad in
footed trousers, and slippers, with a madras kerchief knotted over his
gray hair, with his eyes fixed on a mirror, a complete set of dentist's
instruments spread out before him, cleaning his teeth, which were
charming, while he dictated The Monarchy according to the Charter to
M. Pilorge, his secretary. Criticism, assuming an authoritative tone,
preferred Lafon to Talma. M. de Feletez signed himself A.; M. Hoffmann
signed himself Z. Charles Nodier wrote Therese Aubert. Divorce was
abolished. Lyceums called themselves colleges. The collegians, decorated
on the collar with a golden fleur-de-lys, fought each other apropos of
the King of Rome. The counter-police of the chateau had denounced to