the Duchess of
Gontaut that he was going to appoint him minister, added: "This news
must give you pleasure; you know him well, I believe." The Duchess
replied: "He has been absent a long time. I only knew him when very
young." The King resumed: "Do not speak of it; it is my secret as yet."
Madame de Gontaut could not keep from smiling, for she held several
letters from London in her hand, among others one from the
sister-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, announcing the news. Charles
X. wished to see the letters. "He is good, loyal," they said, "loving
the King as one loves a friend, but feeble, and with bad surroundings.
It is doubted whether he can ever rise to the height of the post in
which the King wishes to place him."

Charles X., wounded by the indiscretion of the Prince, and also by that
of the Duke of Wellington, who divulged what he himself was keeping
secret, returned the letter to Madame de Gontaut, and remarked:--

"It is very thoughtless in Jules to have spoken of it so soon, and in
the Duke to have published it." The Duchess of Gontaut, who was used to
frank talk with the King, said: "In the circumstances existing, I long
for, I confess it frankly, and at the risk of displeasing Your Majesty,
yes, I long for the Martignac ministry."

Then, adds the Duchess in her unpublished Memoirs, the King, more
impatient than ever, turned his back on me, and took his way to his
apartment. I had had the courage to tell him my thought and the truth.
I did not repent it. When we saw each other again the same day he did
not speak to me again of it.

One of those most devoted to the elder branch, the Duke Ambroise de la
Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, also says in his Memoirs:--

"The King sincerely wished for the Charter, whatever may be said, but
he wished for the monarchy; he, therefore, decided to change ministers
who had made promises that seemed to him fatal, and to replace them by
others whose principles suited him better. He was not happy in this
choice, it must be agreed. He took as Minister of Foreign Affairs and
President of the Council the Prince de Polignac. For a long time public
opinion had foreseen this choice, and dreaded it. At the commencement
of the Restoration M. de Polignac for more than a year had refused to
recognize the Charter and to swear fidelity to it, which made him
regarded as the pronounced enemy of our institutions. Was this
antipathy real? I do not think so. He had for a long time lived