ootnote O: Life and Times of Louis Philippe.]

The next day the duke was presented to his majesty, Louis XVIII., at
the Tuileries. As he approached the royal presence, the king advanced
towards him, and said,

"Your highness was a lieutenant-general in the service of your
country twenty-five years ago, and you are still the same."

The assumption adopted by Louis XVIII. that there had been no
interruption of the Bourbon reign, and the attempt to blot from
history the twenty-five most eventful years in the annals of France,
deservedly excited both contempt and ridicule. An American writer of
distinction says:

"The unconquerable prejudices of the Bourbons, and their
studied ignorance of the feelings of the country they were
called to govern after an exile of twenty-five years, were
the prognostics as well as the cause of their ultimate fall.

"Their imperial predecessor had indeed left them a difficult
task. His career was so brilliant that it may well have
dazzled his countrymen, and left them unfitted for a milder
domination. He was, indeed, a wonderful man; and I have been
more powerfully impressed than ever, since my arrival in
France, with the prodigious force of his character, and with
the gigantic scope as well as the vast variety of his plans.

"I am satisfied that circumstances have not been favorable to
a just appreciation of the whole character of Napoleon in the
United States. While he was at the head of the nation, we
surveyed him very much through the English journals, and we
imbibed all the prejudices which a long and bitter war had
engendered against him in England. To be sure, his military
renown could not be called in question; but of his civic
talents a comparatively humble estimate was formed. I have
since learned to correct this appreciation."[P]

[Footnote P: General Cass.]

It was the undisguised effort of Louis XVIII., now restored by
foreign armies to the throne, to annihilate the memory of all that
France had achieved at home and abroad, under the administration of
Napoleon. The tri-color was exchanged for the white banner of the
Bourbons, and the eagles were replaced by the Gallic cock. All the
insignia of imperialism were carefully obliterated. The evidence
seems quite conclusive that the king, notwithstanding his apparent
reconciliation with the Duke of Orleans, still regarded him with much
suspicion, a