and had no doubt of the nature of his desires, which daily grew more and more hopeful in character. I have mentioned that the Chamber opened on 2 March 1830. I was present at the opening session. Just as the king placed his foot on the first step of the throne, he caught it in the velvet pile carpet that covered the steps. He tripped and nearly fell. His cap rolled on the floor. The Duc d'Orléans sprang forward to pick it up, and returned it to the king. I nudged my neighbour--as far as I can recollect, it was Beauchesne. "Before a year is out," I said to him, "the same thing will happen to the crown--only, instead of giving it back to Charles X., he will keep it for himself." In the speech pronounced by Charles X., after he had set the cap on his head which the Duc d'Orléans had given him back, was the following noteworthy paragraph:-- "I have no doubt of your co-operation in the good deeds I wish to carry out. You will reject with scorn all treacherous insinuations which malevolent feeling endeavours to propagate. Should evil machinations raise up against my rule obstacles which I neither will nor ought to foresee, I should find strength to overcome them through my resolution to maintain the public peace, in the just confidence of the French people and in the love they ever bear towards their king." The Address of the 221 was the reply to this speech; to the above paragraph, the following was the answer:-- "The Charter has laid it down as an indispensable condition of the regular working of public affairs, that there should be a permanent agreement of political views between your Government and the desires of the people. Sire, our loyalty and devotion compel us to tell you that such concurrence of opinion does not exist." It was a declaration of war in perfect form. Charles X. trembled in every limb whilst he listened to the reading of the Address. Then, when the deputation had quitted the Tuileries, he said-- "I will not suffer my crown to be dipped in the gutter!" And he dissolved the Chamber. These were some of the events which thrilled through every heart, even in that of the _Journal des Débats_. It attacked the Government with most unusual violence. "Polignac, La Bourdonnaye and Bourmont," it exclaimed, "that is equivalent to saying Coblence, Waterloo, 1815! Those are the three principles, the three chief characters of the Ministry. Press them hard, twist them and they will disgorge nothing but humiliations and misfortunes and danger!" Charles X. read this article. "Ah!" he said, "these people who invoke the Charter are not aware that it contains Article 14, which we can hold at their heads." And, as a matter of fact, the Polignac Ministry had only been created in order to put into force that famous article, which Louis XVIII. had concealed in the Charter, as a sword of dissension, but of which he would never make use.