tempest,--this, perhaps, of all human situations, is the
most oppressive for the mind to endure, and the most difficult to
sustain for any length of time.

At the commencement of the year 1830, such was the common position of
all,--of the Government and the nation, of the ministers and citizens,
of the supporters and opponents of power. No one acted directly, and all
prepared themselves for unknown chances. We pursued our ordinary course
of life, while we felt ourselves on the brink of a convulsion.

I proceeded quietly with my course at the Sorbonne. There, where
M. de Villele and the Abbe Frayssinous had silenced me, M. de Polignac
and M. de Guernon-Ranville permitted me to speak freely. While enjoying
this liberty, I scrupulously preserved my habitual caution, keeping
every lecture entirely divested of all allusion to incidental questions,
and not more solicitous of winning popular favour, than apprehensive of
losing ministerial patronage. Until the meeting of the Chamber, my new
title of Deputy called for no step or demonstration, and I sought not
for any factitious opportunity. In some paragraphs of town and court
gossip, several of the papers in the interest of the extreme right
asserted that meetings of Deputies had been held at the residence of the
late President of the Chamber. M. Royer-Collard, upon this, wrote
immediately to the 'Moniteur:'--"It is positively false that any meeting
of Deputies has taken place at my residence since the closing of the
session of 1829. This is all I have to say; I should feel ashamed of
formally denying absurd reports, in which the King is not more respected
than the truth." Without feeling myself restricted to the severe
abstinence of M. Royer-Collard, I sedulously avoided all demonstrative
opposition; my friends and I were mutually intent on furnishing no
pretext for the mistakes of power.

But in the midst of this tranquil and reserved life, I was deeply
occupied in reflecting on my new position, and on the part I was
henceforward to assume in the uncertain fortune of my country. I
revolved over in my mind every opposite chance, looking upon all as
possible, and wishing to be prepared for all, even for those I was most
desirous to avert. Power cannot commit a greater error than that of
plunging imaginations into darkness. A great public terror is worse than
a great positive evil; above all, when obscure perspectives of the
future excite the hopes of enemies and blunderers,