reign, ignoring the Revolution and Napoleon. Did this Bourbon
really take himself seriously? Did he really expect the world to
overlook Napoleon, or did he know as all the world knows to-day,
that long after the Bourbons have sunk into oblivion the name of
Napoleon will continue to be a household word?

If a situation is thus envisaged by a King, what may the wise expect
from a Royalist?

In the absence of the Marquis de Gemosac, Albert de Chantonnay was
considered to be the leader of the party in that quiet corner of
south-western France which lies north of Bordeaux and south of that
great dividing river, the Loire. He was, moreover, looked upon as
representing that younger blood of France, to which must be confided
the hopes and endeavours of the men, now passing away one by one,
who had fought and suffered for their kings.

It was confidently whispered throughout this pastoral country that
August Persons, living in exile in England and elsewhere, were in
familiar and confidential correspondence with the Marquis de
Gemosac, and, in a minor degree, with Albert de Chantonnay. For
kings, and especially deposed kings, may not be choosers, but must
take the instrument that comes to hand. A constitutional monarch
is, by the way, better placed in this respect, for it is his people
who push the instrument into his grasp, and in the long run the
people nearly always read a man aright despite the efforts of a
cheap press to lead them astray.

"If it were not written in the Marquis's own writing I could not
have believed it," said Albert de Chantonnay, speaking aloud his own