a. The United States are the natural
allies of France. I have decided, and, unless imprisoned, I shall
certainly take my departure." His passport was then given to him. The
Duke de Berry complained to General Haxo of the course adopted by
General Bernard. "After the manner in which he has been treated,"
replied Haxo, "I am only surprised that he has not gone before; it is by
no means certain that I shall not some day follow his example."

Nothing can explain, better than this simple fact, the situation of the
King's ministers at that time, and the sincerity as well as the timidity
of their wishes to be prudent and just.

A great act, resolutely conceived and accomplished, on a great occasion,
was necessary to raise the executive authority from the reputation as
well as the actual mischief of this weakness, and to emancipate it from
the party under which it succumbed while resisting. Today, so long
removed as we are from that time, the more I reflect on it in the calm
freedom of my judgment, the more I am convinced that the trial of
Marshal Ney afforded a most propitious opportunity for such an act as
that to which I now allude. There were undoubtedly weighty reasons for
leaving justice to its unfettered course. Society and the royal power
both required that respect for, and a salutary dread of, the law should
repossess men's minds. It was important that generations formed during
the vicissitudes of the Revolution and the triumphs of the Empire,
should learn, by startling examples, that all does not depend on the
strength and success of the moment; that there are certain inviolable
duties; that we cannot safely sport with the fate of governments and the
peace of nations; and that, in this momentous game, the most powerful
and the most eminent risk their honour and their lives. In a political
and moral sense these considerations were of the greatest importance.
But another prominent truth, equally moral and political, ought to have
weighed heavily in the balance against an extreme decision. The Emperor
Napoleon had reigned long and brilliantly, acknowledged and admired by
France and Europe, and supported by the devotion of millions of men,--by
the people as well as by the army. Ideas of right and duty, sentiments
of respect and fidelity, were confused and antagonistic in many minds.
There were two actual and natural governments in presence of each other;
and many, without perversity, might have hesitated which to choose.