proposition to the King," replied M. de Villele. "In
that case," retorted M. Bertin, "you will remember that the 'Debats'
overthrew the ministries of Decazes and Richelieu, and will do the same
by the ministry of Villele."--"You turned out the two first to establish
royalism," said M. de Villele; "to destroy mine you must have a
revolution."

There was nothing in this prospect to inspire M. de Villele with
confidence, as the event proved; but thirteen years later,
M. Bertin de Veaux remembered the caution. When, in 1837, under
circumstances of which I shall speak in their proper place, I separated
from M. Mole, he said to me with frankness, "I have certainly quite as
much friendship for you as I ever had for M. de Chateaubriand, but I
decline following you into Opposition. I shall not again try to sap the
Government I wish to establish. One experiment of that nature is
enough."

At Court, as in the Chamber, M. de Villele was triumphant; he had not
only conquered, but he had driven away his rivals, M. de Montmorency and
M. de Chateaubriand, as he had got rid of M. de La Fayette and
M. Manuel. Amongst the men whose voices, opinions, or even presence
might have fettered him, death had already stepped in, and was again
coming to his aid. M. Camille Jordan, the Duke de Richelieu, and
M. de Serre were dead; General Foy and the Emperor Alexander were not
long in following them. There are moments when death seems to delight,
like Tarquin, in cutting down the tallest flowers. M. de Villele
remained sole master. At this precise moment commenced the heavy
difficulties of his position, the weak points of his conduct, and his
first steps towards decline.

In place of having to defend himself against a powerful opposition of
the Left, which was equally to be feared and resisted by the Right and
the Cabinet, he found himself confronted by an Opposition emanating from
the right itself, and headed, in the Chamber of Deputies, by
M. de la Bourdonnaye, his companion during the session of 1815; in the
Chamber of Peers and without, by M. de Chateaubriand, so recently his
colleague in the Council. As long as he had M. de Chateaubriand for an
ally, M. de Villele had only encountered as adversaries, in the interior
of his party, the ultra-royalists of the extreme right,
M. de la Bourdonnaye, M. Delalot, and a few others, whom the old
counter-revolutionary spirit, intractable passions, ambitious
discontent, or habits of grumbling independen