ad done well to abdicate, and were the crisis to recur, he
would not act otherwise. He had abandoned power (of which he was accused
of being so greedy) as soon as he understood that he could no longer
hold it to the advantage of his country.

As for the charge of avarice, that was abundantly disproved by the
publication of the manner in which he had employed the civil list, and
by the fact that he was covered with debts. He had spent like a King
without counting, and now that he had to pay he was obliged to borrow.
And it is rather curious, said he, that the furniture employed in the
festivals of the Republican President of the Assembly is my personal
property, and that the horses and carriages of which so free use has
been made, had been paid for from my own purse. This however, was a
trifle not worth speaking of.

If he had suffered from falsehoods printed in the journals, print had
however done him justice in giving to the world his private letters.
These had set right his private character as well as his public policy.
He only wished that those papers had all been published, and published
more widely. They did more for the glorification of his policy than the
speeches of his most eloquent ministers. They proved that his had never
been a policy of peace at any price. He had besieged Antwerp without the
consent of England; he had sent an army to Ancona, though Metternich had
declared that a Frenchman in Italy would be war in Europe. His
government had always acted boldly and firmly, and had been respected.
Why, only a few weeks before February, the great powers of Europe had
asked of France to settle with her alone, and without consulting
England, some of the questions which might compromise the equilibrium of
Europe. Such was the consideration in which France was then held.

As to the Spanish marriages, that was all done in the interest of
France, and not, as had been charged, of his dynasty. If the latter were
the thing he had aimed at, would he have refused the crown of Belgium,
or of Greece, or of Portugal, for Nemours? Would he have refused the
hand of Isabella for Aumale or Montpensier? No; he merely sought to
render his country independent of England, and not her dupe. The
_entente cordiale_ in the hands of Lord Palmerston was becoming
treacherous. He recollected the saying of Metternich, that the alliance
of France and England was useful, like the alliance of man and horse.
He determined to be the man, and b