M. de Polignac had all the qualities of the
most devoted subject, but his talent did not rise to the height of his
position. If it had been necessary only to suffer and to march to
death, no one, surely, could have equalled him; but more was requisite,
and he remained beneath the level of the circumstances he thought he
was overcoming; the fall of the throne was the consequence. How he
developed, though, and grew great when in duress, and who should
flatter himself that he could bear up with a firmness more unshaken
against the severest trials? If M. de Polignac is not a type of the
statesman, he will at least remain the complete model of the virtues of
the Christian and the private citizen."

The Prince de Polignac was mistaken, but he acted in good faith. No one
can dispute his faults, but none can suspect the purity of his
intentions. Unfortunately his royalism had in it something of mysticism
and ecstasy that made of this gallant man a sort of illumine. He
sincerely believed that he had received from God the mission to save
the throne and the altar, and foreseeing neither difficulties nor
obstacles, regarding all uncertainty and all fear as unworthy of a
gentleman and a Christian, he had in himself and in his ideas, that
blind, imperturbable confidence that is the characteristic of fanatics.
In a period less troubled, this great noble would perhaps have been a
remarkable minister of foreign affairs, but in the stormy time when he
took the helm in hand, he had neither sufficient prudence nor
sufficient experience to resist the tempest and save the ship from the
wreck in which the dynasty was to go down.

XXIX

GENERAL DE BOURMONT

The new Secretary of War awoke no less lively anger than the Prince de
Polignac. He was a general of great merit, bold to temerity, brave to
heroism, and a tactician of the first order. But his career had felt
the vicissitudes of politics, and like so many of his
contemporaries,--more, perhaps, than any of them,--he had played the
most contradictory parts. Equally intrepid in the army of Conde, in the
Vendean army, and in the Grand Army of Napoleon, he had won as much
distinction under the white flag as under the tricolor. The Emperor,
who was an expert in military talent, having recognized in him a
superior military man, had rewarded his services brilliantly. But it is
difficult to escape from the memories of one's childhood and first
youth.

General Count de Bourmont, born