lence and endure
the blame, even while he had the power of justification. In 1825, after
the Spanish war, and during the financial debates to which it had given
rise, M. de la Bourdonnaye accused him of having been the author of the
contracts entered into in 1823, with M. Ouvrard, at Bayonne, for
supplying the army, and which had been made the subject of violent
attacks. M. de Villele might have closed his adversary's mouth; for on
the 7th of April, 1823, he had written to the Duke d'Angouleme expressly
to caution him against M. Ouvrard and his propositions. He took no
advantage of this, but contented himself with explaining to the King in
a Council, when the Dauphin was present, the situation in which he was
placed.

The Dauphin at once authorized him to make use of his letter. "No,
Monseigneur," replied M. de Villele; "let anything happen to me that
Heaven pleases, it will be of little consequence to the country; but I
should be guilty towards the King and to France, if, to exculpate myself
from an accusation, however serious it may be, I should give utterance,
beyond the walls of this cabinet, to a single word which could
compromise the name of your Royal Highness."

When, notwithstanding his obstinate and confiding disposition, he saw
himself seriously menaced, when the cries of "Down with the Ministers!
Down with Villele!" uttered by several battalions of the National Guard,
both before and after the review by the King in the Champ-de-Mars on the
29th of April, 1827, had led to their disbanding, and had equally
excited the public and disturbed the King himself,--when M. de Villele
felt distinctly that, both in the Chambers and at the Court, he was too
much attacked and shaken to govern with efficiency, he resolutely
adopted the course prescribed by the Charter and called for by his
position; he demanded of the King the dissolution of the Chamber of
Deputies, and a new general election, which should either re-establish
or finally overthrow the Cabinet.

Charles X. hesitated; he dreaded the elections, and, although not
disposed to support his Minister with more firmness, the chance of his
fall, and doubt in the selection of his successors, disturbed him, as
much as it was possible for his unreflecting nature to be disturbed.
M. de Villele persisted, the King yielded, and, in defiance of the
electoral law which, in 1820, M. de Villele and the right-hand party had
enacted, in spite of their six years of power, in sp