VIII. or Charles X. The princes feared to
excite toward it and toward themselves the envy of the bourgeois
classes, who would have no supremacy but their own. Napoleon, on the
contrary, having frankly faced the difficulty, created a nobility of
his own. Those who belonged to it, or hoped to, found it quite
reasonable that they should be given as peers the descendants of the
first houses of France." The Duchess of Doudeauville was a sister of
the Countess of Montesquiou, who was governess of the King of Rome, and
whose husband had replaced the Prince de Talleyrand as Grand
Chamberlain of the Emperor. Very intimate with the Count and Countess,
the Duke of Doudeauville had some trouble in avoiding the favors of
Napoleon, who held him in high esteem. He found a way to decline them
without wounding the susceptibilities of the powerful sovereign.

Under the Restoration, the Duke of Doudeauville distinguished himself
by an honest liberalism, loyal and intelligent, with nothing
revolutionary in it, and by an enlightened philanthropy that won him
the respect of all parties. When he was named as director of the
post-office in 1822, many people of his circle blamed him for taking a
place beneath him. "Congratulate me," he said, laughing, "that I have
not been offered that of postman; I should have taken it just the same
if I had thought I could be useful." And he added: "It was thought that
it would be a sinecure for me. Far from that, I gave myself up wholly
to my new employment, and I worked so hard at it, than in less than a
year my eyes, previously excellent, were almost ruined. I always
occupied fifteen or twenty places, each more gratuitous than the
others. To make the religion that I practise beloved and to serve my
neighbor, has always seemed to me the best way to serve God. So I
believe that I can say without fear of contradiction that I have never
done any one harm, and that I have always tried to do all the good
possible."

In the month of August, 1824, the Duke of Doudeauville was named
minister of the King's household. In this post he showed administrative
qualities of a high order. In April, 1827, not wishing to share in a
measure that he regarded as both inappropriate and unpopular, the
disbanding of the Parisian National Guard, he gave in his resignation.
"I did not wish," he said, "to join the Opposition. The popularity
given me by my resignation would have assured me a prominent place, but
this role agreed neit