ectful and even gentle, but let them at
the same time be neither timid nor ambiguous. Truth already finds it
difficult enough to penetrate into the palaces of kings; let us not send
her there weak and trembling; let it be as impossible to misunderstand
what we say, as to mistake the loyalty of our sentiments."

The Address passed as it was drawn up, with uneasy sadness, but with a
profound conviction of its necessity. Two days after the vote, on the
18th of March, we repaired to the Tuileries to present it to the King.
Twenty-one members alone joined the official deputation of the Chamber.
Amongst those who had voted for the Address, some were little anxious of
supporting by their presence, under the eyes of the King, such an act
of opposition; others, from respect for the Crown, had no wish to give
to this presentation additional solemnity and effect. Our entire
number amounted only to forty-six. We waited some time in the
"Salon de la Paix," until the King returned from Mass. We stood there in
silence; opposite to us, in the recesses of the windows, were the King's
pages and some members of the royal establishment, inattentive and
almost intentionally rude. The Dauphiness crossed the saloon on her way
to the chapel, rapidly and without noticing us. She might have been much
colder still before I could have felt that I had any right either to be
surprised or indignant at her demeanour. There are crimes whose
remembrance silences all other thoughts, and misfortunes before which we
bow with a respect almost resembling repentance, as if we ourselves had
been the author of them.

When we were introduced into the hall of the throne, M. Royer-Collard
read the address naturally and suitably, with an emotion which his voice
and features betrayed. The King listened to him with becoming dignity
and without any air of haughtiness or ill humour; his answer was brief
and dry, rather from royal habit than from anger, and, if I am not
mistaken, he felt more satisfied with his own firmness than uneasy for
the future. Four days before, on the eve of the debate on the address,
in his circle at the Tuileries, to which many Deputies were invited, I
saw him bestow marked intention on three members of the Commission,
MM. Dupin, Etienne, and Gautier. In two such opposite situations, it was
the same man and almost the same physiognomy, identical in his manners
as in his ideas, careful to please although determined to quarrel, and
obstinate fr