ress and with a countenance
expressive of great anxiety and fatigue. After a few words, which
Chateaubriand rather contemptuously records as an "idyl upon the
pleasures of country life," Chateaubriand repeated what he had said
to the duchess.

The duke exclaimed, "That is just what I should like. Nothing would
please me better than to be the tutor and guardian of that child. I
think just as you do, M. Chateaubriand. To take the Duke of Bordeaux
would certainly be the best thing that could be done. I fear only
that events are stronger than we."

"Stronger than we, my lord!" rejoined M. Chateaubriand. "Are you not
esteemed by all the powers? Let us go and join Henry V. Call around
you, outside the walls of Paris, the Chambers and the army. At the
first tidings of your departure all this effervescence will cease,
and every one will seek shelter under your protection and enlightened
power."

The duke was much embarrassed. He seemed to avoid looking
Chateaubriand in the face. With averted eyes he said, "The thing is
more difficult than you imagine. It can not be accomplished. You do
not know what peril we are in. A furious band can launch against the
Chambers with the most frightful excesses; and we have no means of
defense. Be assured that it is I alone who now hold back this
menacing crowd. If the Royalist party be not massacred, it will owe
its life solely to my efforts."

M. de Chateaubriand responded in brave words, which perhaps the
occasion warranted:

"My lord, I have seen some massacres. Those who have passed through
the Revolution are inured to war. The gray mustaches are not
terrified by objects which frighten the conscripts."

These not very courteous remarks, which implied that, though the duke
might be a coward, the viscount was not, terminated the interview.

Chateaubriand, then the most distinguished writer and illustrious
orator in France, had prepared an "accusing and terrible speech," to
be addressed to the Chamber of Peers, pleading the cause of the
vanquished dynasty, and protesting against the Orleans usurpation.

"This news," writes Louis Blanc, "had reached the Palais Royal, which
it threw into the utmost uneasiness. Such a danger was to be averted
at any cost. Madame Adelaide saw M. Arago, and told him that he would
entitle himself to unbounded gratitude if he would see M. de
Chateaubriand and entreat him to forego his intended speech; upon
which condition he should be assured of having hi