royal
guard; he would have provided money and supplies so that the soldiers
would have lacked for nothing."

We are inclined to think, however, that when he took the portfolio of
war General de Bourmont was not dreaming of a coup d'etat, and that the
Prince de Polignac had as yet no thought of it. This minister, who was
so decried, showed at the outset such an inoffensive disposition that
the Opposition was surprised and disturbed by it.

"The minister," said the Debats, "boasts of his moderation, because in
the ten days of his existence, he has not put France to fire and sword,
because the prisons are not gorged, because we still walk the streets
in freedom. From all this, nevertheless, flows a striking lesson. There
are men who were going to make an end of the spirit of the century.
Well, they do nothing!"

The journals of the Right lamented this inaction.

"If the ministerial revolution," said the Quotidienne, "reduces itself
to this, we shall retire to some profound solitude where the sound of
the falling monarchy cannot reach us."

Then, more royalist than the King, M. de Lamennais wrote on the subject
of the new ministers: "It is stupidity to which fear counsels silence."
M. Guizot says in his Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de mon temps:--

"This ministry, formed to overcome the Revolution and save the
monarchy, remained inert and sterile. The Opposition insultingly
charged it with impotence; it called it the hectoring ministry, the
dullest of ministries, and, for answer, it prepared the expedition of
Algiers and prorogued the Chambers, protesting always its fidelity to
the Charter, promising itself to get out of its embarrassments by a
majority and a conquest."

The Duchess of Berry had seen without apprehension, and perhaps even
with pleasure, the nomination of the new ministers. Tranquillity
reigned in France. There was no symptom of agitation, no sign of
disquiet in the circle surrounding the Princess, and after an agreeable
stay of some weeks at Dieppe, she proceeded to the south, where her
journey was a triumph.

XXX

THE JOURNEY IN THE SOUTH

The journey of the Duchess of Berry in the south of France, in 1829,
was scarcely less triumphant than that she had made in the Vendee the
year before. The object of the Princess was to meet her family of the
Two Sicilies, which was traversing the kingdom on the way from Italy to
Spain, to escort to Madrid the young Marie-Christine, who was abo