ked, peculiar flavour that
distinguishes that of the others. You must recollect, however, that some
of your friends knew, and most of the others must have suspected, that
you were taking notes. Thiers speaks evidently for the purpose of being
reported. To be sure that shows what are the opinions that men wish to be
supposed to entertain, and they often betray what they think that they
conceal. Still it must be admitted that you had not always the natural
man.' 'I am sorry,' he added, 'that you have not penetrated more into the
salons of the Legitimists. You have never got further than a Fusionist.
The Legitimists are not the Russians that Thiers describes them. Still
less do they desire to see Henri V. restored by foreign intervention.
They and their cause have suffered too bitterly for having committed
that crime, or that fault, for them to be capable of repeating it. They
are anti-national so far as not to rejoice in any victories obtained by
France under this man's guidance. But I cannot believe that they would
rejoice in her defeat. They have been so injured in their fortunes and
their influence, have been so long an oppressed caste--excluded from
power, and even from sympathy--that they have acquired the faults of
slaves--have become timid and frivolous, or bitter.

'They have ceased to be anxious about anything but to be let alone. But
they are a large, a rich, and comparatively well-educated body. Your
picture is incomplete without them, _et il sera toujours tres-difficile
de gouverner sans eux._[2]

I quite agree,' he continued, 'with Thiers as to the necessity of this
war. Your interests may be more immediate and greater, but ours are very
great. When I say ours, I mean those of France as a country that is
resolved to enjoy constitutional government. I am not sure that if Russia
were to become mistress of the Continent she would not allow France to
continue a quasi-independent despotism under her protectorate. But she
will never willingly allow us to lie powerful and free.

'I sympathise, too, with Thiers's fears as to the result. I do not
believe that Napoleon himself, with all his energy, and all his
diligence, and all his intelligence, would have thought it possible to
conduct a great war to which his Minister of War was opposed. A man who
has no heart in his business will neglect it, or do it imperfectly. His
first step would have been to dismiss St.-Arnaud. Then, look at the other
two on whose skill and