notice of us. The Duchess
d'Angouleme, bewildered with the glory of her husband, distinguished no
one.... On the Sunday following, before the Council met, I returned to
pay my duty to the royal family. The august Princess said something
complimentary to each of my colleagues; to me she did not deign to
address a single word: undoubtedly I had no claim to such an honour. The
silence of the Orphan of the Temple can never be considered
ungrateful." A more liberal sovereign undertook to console
M. de Chateaubriand for this royal ingratitude; the Emperor Alexander,
with whom he had continued in intimate correspondence, being anxious to
signalize his satisfaction, conferred on him and M. de Montmorency, and
on them alone, the great riband of the Order of St. Andrew.

M. de Villele was not insensible to this public token of imperial favour
bestowed on himself and his policy; and the King, Louis XVIII., showed
that he was even more moved by it. "Pozzo and La Ferronays," said he to
M. de Villele, "have made me give you, through the Emperor Alexander, a
slap on the cheek; but I shall be even with him, and mean to pay for it
in coin of a better stamp. I name you, my dear Villele, a knight of my
Orders; they are worth more than his." And M. de Villele received from
the King the Order of St. Esprit. It was in vain that a little later,
and on the mutual request of the two rivals, the Emperor Alexander
conferred on M. de Villele the Grand Cross of St. Andrew, and the King,
Louis XVIII., gave the Saint Esprit to M. de Chateaubriand; favours thus
extorted cannot efface the original disappointments.

To these courtly slights were soon added causes of rupture more serious.
The dissolution of the Chamber had succeeded far beyond the expectations
of the Cabinet. The elections had not returned from the left, or the
left centre, more than seventeen oppositionists. Much more exclusively
than that of 1815, the new Chamber belonged to the right-hand party; the
day had now arrived to give them the satisfaction they had long looked
for. The Cabinet immediately brought in two bills, which appeared to be
evident preparatives and effectual pledges for the measures most
ardently desired. By one, the integral remodelling of the Chamber of
Deputies every seven years was substituted for the partial and annual
reconstruction as at present in force. This was bestowing on the new
Chamber a guarantee of power as of durability. The second bill proposed
the