When Charles X.--poor, blind, deaf monarch--believing that the enthusiasm aroused by his accession to the throne would last for ever, commanded a review of the National Guard to be held on 29 April, on the Champ de Mars, he heard, to his vast surprise, mingled with those cries of "Vive le roi!" with which sovereigns are intoxicated, and thrill on their thrones, the bitter and raucous cries of "A bas les ministres!" and "A bas les Jésuits!" These cries came particularly from the ranks of the second, third, fifth, seventh and eighth legions, those, namely, belonging to the financial aristocracy and the lower middle classes. Astounded by such a reception, Charles X. drew up for an instant; then, spurring his horse to the front ranks of the legion that had uttered the bitterest of these invectives, he exclaimed-- "Messieurs, I have come here to receive homage and not lectures." Alas! the kings of 1827, like those of 1848, should have known that homage blinds and lectures enlighten. By six o'clock next morning every post of the National Guard was relieved by troops of the line, and by seven o'clock, instead of a leading article in the _Moniteur_ on the review, there appeared the order to disband. From that moment there was a breach between the Elder Branch, and the middle class. The former possessed its king, elected by divine right, to reign over it and to die with it. But from that hour far-seeing eyes could discern the approaching clouds that were bringing on their wings the tempest of 1830. [Footnote 1: See vol. ii. p. 442.] CHAPTER VI English actors in Paris--Literary importations--_Trente Ans_, or _la Vie d'un Joueur_--The _Hamlet_ of Kemble and Miss Smithson--A bas-relief of Mademoiselle de Fauveau--Visit to Frédéric Soulié--He declines to write _Christine_ with me--A night attack--I come across Adèle d'Alvin once more--I spend the night _au violon_ Somewhere about 1822 or '23, I believe, a company of English actors attempted to give a series of representations in the theatre of the Porte-Saint-Martin, but they were received with so much opposition and hooting, and so many apples and oranges had been flung at the unfortunate actors from the pit, that they were compelled to abandon the field of battle under the heavy firing of projectiles. And that was how the national spirit expressed itself in 1822. But then, in 1822, it was considered degrading for any theatre where the productions of MM. Caignez and Pixérécourt were performed (not to mention those of Corneille and Molière) to lend its boards to such a barbarian as Shakespeare, and to the train of _œuvres immondes_ which followed in his wake.