tain, or he must have broken with the spirit of
citizenship and commerce. It was madness to think of reigning by the
sword, and continuing the Constituent Assembly. France could not have,
at the same time, the destinies of Rome and Carthage. Napoleon
succumbed, and must have succumbed, to the Carthaginian party of the
people of France. But if the necessary development of the middle classes
called for the overthrow of the empire, it demanded also the return of
the Bourbons. To prove this, we have only to present, in its instructive
simplicity of detail, that narrative of the restoration which so many
historians have distorted."--(_Int._, p. 18.)

Well, he proceeds with this simple and instructive detail; and his
first object is evidently to deprive Talleyrand, to whom on all
occasions he manifests a singular bitterness, of the credit generally
given him of having aided materially in the recall of the Bourbons in
1814. But does he effect this by showing, as from this exordium we might
expect, that his countrymen of the middle class, wearied of the costly
triumphs and disasters of the empire, had begun to sigh for peace and
their old kings? Not at all. He transfers the personal share in the
drama from Prince Talleyrand to Baron de Vitrolles. The Duke d'Alberg
had introduced the baron to Talleyrand, whose intention was to employ
him merely to sound the views of the Allies. Talleyrand was to have
accredited him by some lines of his own writing, but ultimately refused
to commit himself. How was Baron de Vitrolles, who by no means limited
himself to the subordinate part designed for him, and on whom it will be
seen so much really depended, to get accredited to the Allies?

The Duke d'Alberg was intimately acquainted with the Count de Stadion,
representative of Austria at the congress. Now these two friends had
formerly, at Munich, had a certain tender intimacy with two young girls,
whose names the Duke d'Alberg remembered; he wrote them on the leaf of a
pocket-book, and they served as a letter of credence to the adventurous
ambassador. "Such," exclaims our lately generalizing historian--"such is
the manner in which God disposes of the fate of nations!--_Voila de
quelle sorte il plait a Dieu de disposer du sort des peuples!_"

The Baron de Vitrolles, we are told, found the Emperor Alexander
possessed with a strong repugnance against the Bourbons. It cost him
three hours' conversation to gain him over. But he succeeded. It was