“I have often seen Charles X. on horseback reviewing troops or following the chase; I have heard him, seated on his throne, and surrounded with all the pomp of an official cortege, pronounce the opening discourse of the session; I have many times been near him at the little select fetes that the Duchess of Berry used to give, of a morning, in the Pavilion de Marsan, to amuse the Children of France, as they were then called, and to extend their acquaintance with the young people of their own age.  One day when I was visiting with my parents some exposition of objects of art or flowers in one of the lower halls of the Louvre, I saw him approach my mother—­whom he had known in England—­with a familiarity at once respectful and charming.  He plainly wished to please those whom he addressed, and he had the gift of doing so.  In that kind of success he was rarely wanting, especially with women.  His physiognomy as well as his manner helped.  It was open and benevolent, always animated by an easy, perhaps a slightly commonplace smile, that of a man conscious that he was irresistible, and that he could, with a few amiable words, overcome all obstacles.”

The fiercest adversaries of Charles X. never denied the attraction emanating from his whole personality, the chief secret of which was kindliness.  In his constant desire to charm every one that approached him, he had a certain something like feminine coquetry.  The Count of Puymaigre, who, being the Prefect of the Oise, saw him often at the Chateau of Compiegne, says:—­

“If the imposing tone of Louis XVIII. intimidated, it was not so with Charles X.; there was rather danger of forgetting, pacing the room with him, that one was talking with a king.”

Yet, whatever may be asserted, the new monarch never dreamed of restoring the old regime.  We do not believe that for a single instant he had the insensate idea of putting things back to where they were before 1789.  His favorite minister, M. de Villele, was not one of the great nobles, and the men who were to take the chief parts in the consecration were of plebeian origin.  The impartial historian of the Restoration, M. de Viel-Castel, remarked it:—­

“Charles X. by this fact alone, that for three years he had actively shared in affairs and saw the difficulty of them better, by the fact that he was no longer exasperated by the heat of the struggle and by impatience at the political nullity to which events had so long condemned him, had laid aside a part of his former exaggeration.  In the lively satisfaction he felt in entering at last, at the age of sixty-seven, upon the enjoyment of the supreme power by the perspective of which his imagination had been so long haunted, he was disposed to neglect nothing to capture public favor, and thus gain the chance to realize the dreams of his life.  His kindliness and natural courtesy would have inspired these tactics, even if policy had not suggested them.”