But soon another alliance and other enmities were to be formed. The Empire fell; the Bourbons returned to France; Louis XVIII. recognized the _noblesse_ of the Imperial government, and the constitution of society as it had been battled for by the Revolution. At the same time his court was filled with all the great historic names of the country, who returned, no longer avowedly the first in authority, and therefore prompt to condescend, but the first in presumption, and therefore prompt to take offence. The new alliance that was formed was that of the plebeian caste with the _noblesse de l'Empire_, against which it had been previously so incensed. Notwithstanding all the efforts sincerely made by Louis XVIII. to establish a constitutional government and to promote a genuine constitutional feeling throughout France, class-hatreds rose gradually to so violent a height that the king's only occupation soon grew to be the balancing of expediencies. He was forever obliged to reflect upon the choices he could make around him, since each choice made from one party insured him a hundred enemies in the party opposed. This, which was the political part of the drama,--that which regarded the scenes played upon the public stage,--had its instantaneous reflex, as we have already said in the commencement of these pages, in the _salons_, which were the green-rooms and _coulisses_. Urbanity, amenity of language, the bland demeanor hitherto characterized as _la grâce Française_, all these were at an end. Society in France, such as it had been once, the far-famed model for all Europe, had ceased to exist. The ambition which had once been identified with the cares of office or the dangers of war now found sufficient food in the bickerings of party-spirit, and revenged itself by _salon_ jokes and _salon_ impertinence for the loss of a lead it either could not or would not take in Parliament. The descendants of those very fathers and mothers who had, in many cases, suffered incarceration, and death even, together, set to hating each other cordially, because these would not abdicate what those would not condescend to compete for. The _noblesse_ cried out, that the _bourgeoisie_ was usurping all its privileges; and the _bourgeoisie_ retorted, that the time for privilege was past. The two classes could no longer meet together in the world, but formed utterly different sets and _cliques_; and it must be avowed that neither of the two gained in good-manners, or what may be called drawing-room distinction.