me of my tutor's story, and
for some years afterwards, I only knew from the reports that were
brought home to us. Of course, I saw him several times at a distance, at
reviews, and on popular holidays, and I was surprised that a king of
whom every one spoke so well in private, who seemed to have so much
cause for joy and happiness in his own family, should look so careworn
and depressed in public. For, young as I was, I did not fail to see
that, beneath the calm and smiling exterior, there was a great deal of
hidden grief. But I was too young to understand the deep irony of his
reply to one of my relatives, a few months before his accession to the
throne: "The crown of France is too cold in winter, too warm in summer;
the sceptre is too blunt as a weapon of defence or attack, it is too
short as a stick to lean upon: a good felt hat and a strong umbrella are
at all times more useful." Above all, I was too young to understand the
temper of the French where their rulers were concerned, and though, at
the time of my writing these notes, I have lived for fifty years amongst
them, I doubt whether I could give a succinct psychological account of
their mental attitude towards their succeeding regimes, except by
borrowing the words of one of their cleverest countrywomen, Madame Emile
de Girardin: "When Marshal Soult is in the Opposition, he is
acknowledged to have won the battle of Toulouse; when he belongs to the
Government, he is accused of having lost it." Since then the Americans
have coined a word for that state of mind--"cussedness."

Louis-Philippe's children, and especially his sons, some of whom I knew
personally before I had my first invitation to the Tuileries, seemed to
take matters more cheerfully. Save the partisans of the elder branch, no
one had a word to say against them. On the contrary, even the
Bonapartists admired their manly and straightforward bearing. I remember
being at Tortoni's one afternoon when the Duc d'Orleans and his brother,
the Duc de Nemours, rode by. Two of my neighbours, unmistakable
Imperialists, and old soldiers by their looks, stared very hard at them;
then one said, "Si le petit au lieu de filer le parfait amour partout,
avait mis tous ses oeufs dans le meme panier, il aurait eu des grands
comme cela et nous ne serions pas dans l'impasse ou nous sommes."

"Mon cher," replied the other, "des grands comme cela ne se font qu'a
loisir, pas entre deux campagnes."[39]

[Footnote 39: I