are the more interesting, that not the least
literary pretension mingles with their sincerity. They have a character
of intimacy that doubles their charm. This talk of a venerable
grandmother with her grandchildren is not only solid and instructive,
it is agreeable and gracious, tender and touching.

XIX

THE THREE GOVERNORS

In the space of three years, from 1826 to 1828, Charles X. named three
governors for the Duke of Bordeaux. One, the Duke of Montmorency, never
entered on his duties. The others were the Duke de Riviere and the
Baron de Damas. The Duke of Montmorency was named in anticipation the
8th of January, 1826, although his task did not begin until the 29th of
September. Mathieu de Montmorency, first Viscount and then Duke, was
born in 1766. After having been through the war in America, he had
adopted the ideas of Lafayette, and had been distinguished by his
extreme liberalism. He took the oath of the Jeu de Paume, and was the
first to give up the privileges derived from his birth on the
celebrated night of the 4th of August. The 12th of July, 1791, he was
one of the deputation that attended the solemn transfer of the ashes of
Voltaire, and, August 27th, he sustained the proposition to decree the
honors of the Pantheon to Jean Jacques Rousseau. In his Petit Almanach
des Grands Hommes de la Revolution, Rivarol wrote, not without irony:--

"The most youthful talent of the Assembly, he is still stammering his
patriotism, but he already manages to make it understood, and the
Republic sees in him all it wishes to see. It was necessary that
Montmorency should appear popular for the Revolution to be complete,
and a child alone could set this great example. The little Montmorency
therefore devoted himself to the esteem of the moment, and combated
aristocracy under the ferrule of the Abbe Sieyes."

Mathieu de Montmorency did not adhere to his revolutionary ideas. After
the 10th of August, 1792, he withdrew to Switzerland, at Coppet, near
his friend Madame de Stael. Under the Empire he held himself apart. He
had become as conservative as he had been liberal, as religious as he
had been Voltairian. Under the Restoration, he was one of the most
convinced supporters of the throne and the altar. Minister of Foreign
Affairs in 1821, he showed himself a distinguished diplomat, and during
the session of 1822 made the Amende Honorable for what he called his
former errors.

As he had always been sincere in his s