“The Comte de Chambord does not, of course, surrender his own theory of his own place on earth, but he does offer some grave pledges intended to diminish suspicion as to the deduction he draws from his claim to be king by right divine.  He renounces formally and distinctly any intention of exercising absolute power, and pledges himself, as he says, ’to submit all acts of his government to the careful control of representatives freely elected.’  He declares that if restored he will not interfere with equality, or attempt to establish privileges.  He promises complete amnesty, and employment under his government to men of all parties; and finally he pledges himself to secure effectual guarantees for the Pope [then trembling on his temporal throne in Italy].”

The English journalist continues,—­

“The tone of this whole paper is that of a man who believes that a movement will be made in his favor which may succeed, if only the factions most likely to resist can be temporarily conciliated.  There is no especial reason that we can see that he should not be chosen.  He has neither sympathized with the Germans, nor received support from them.  He has not bombarded Paris.  He is not more hated than any other king would be,—­perhaps less; for Paris has no gossip to tell of his career.  Indeed, there are powerful reasons in favor of the choice.  His restoration, since the Comte de Paris is his heir, would eliminate two of the dynastic parties which distract France, and would relink the broken chain of history.  And to a people so weary, so dispirited, so thirsty for repose, that of itself must have a certain charm.”

But all these advantages he destroyed for himself by a new proclamation issued five weeks later.  In it he said,—­

“I can neither forget that the monarchical right is the patrimony of the nation, nor decline the duties which it imposes on me.  I will fulfil these duties, believe me, on my word as an honest man and as a king.”

So far was good; but proceeding to announce that thenceforward he assumed the title of Henri V., he goes on to apostrophize the “White Flag” of the Bourbons.  He says,—­

“I received it as a sacred trust from the old king my grandfather when he was dying in exile.  It has always been for me inseparable from the remembrance of my absent country.  It waved above my cradle, and I wish to have it shade my tomb.  Henri V. cannot abandon the ‘White Flag’ of Henri IV.”

This manifesto, written without consulting those who were working for his cause in France, settled the question of his eligibility.  France was not willing, for the sake of Henri V., to give up her tricolor,—­the flag of so many memories.  Its loss had been the bitterest humiliation that the nation had had to suffer at the Restoration.

The Comte de Chambord’s own friends were cruelly disappointed; the moderate Republicans, who had been ready to accept him as a constitutional monarch, said at once that he was far too Bourbon.  There was no longer any hope, unless he could be persuaded, on some other convenient occasion, to renounce the “White Flag.”