serve, and indulged in all the fury of their
spite and pride. Without attempting to disguise their sentiments, they
openly insulted the titled dames belonging to the new nobility, and
such of the latter as were compelled to go to court on account of the
situations held by their husbands, never entered the saloon without
dread, and never quitted it without being bathed in tears.

Uneasy, harassed, and discontented, the people implored the fulfilment
of the king's promises: they prayed with confidence; but the
government heard them not, and repulsed them harshly. The Doge of
Genoa, speaking of Louis XIV, said, "his majesty steals our hearts by
his amiability, but his ministers give them back again to us." The
apophthegm of the Doge might have been pertinently applied to Louis
XVIII. by the people.

Hitherto the government appeared to adhere to the resolution of
dealing out impartial justice to both parties, and of performing the
covenant which the new monarch had entered into with the nation. But
now he was bound by an influence which he could not withstand.
Ensnared by the machinations, the threats, and the fears of his
emigrant court, and perhaps believing that the new order of things was
incompatible with the stability of the Bourbon dynasty, the maxims of
his government underwent a total change. He was taught to consider the
equality of civil rights as a revolutionary conquest, the liberties of
the nation as an usurpation of the authority of the throne, the new
constitution as insulting the independence of the sovereign. It was
therefore determined that all "dangerous characters[5]" should be led
quietly out of all civil and military offices. The old trustworthy
nobility of the old kingdom were again to become the sole depositaries
of the power of the state: and by slow but sure degrees it was
resolved to cancel the royal charter, and either by fair means or by
foul, to place the nation again beneath the yoke of absolute power.

[Footnote 5: This expression was one of those of
which the ministers made the worst use. If they
were told that any magistrate, any officer, any
functionary, whom they had turned out, had
fulfilled his duties with honour and distinction,
that he was loved and regretted by the people, they
answered, "he is a dangerous character," and there
wa