The dignity of the private life of the King added to the respect inspired by his personality.  His morals were absolutely irreproachable.  His wife, Marie Therese of Savoy, died the 2d of June, 1805; he never remarried, and his conduct had been wholly edifying.  The sacrifice he made to God, in renouncing the love of women, after he lost his well-beloved Countess of Polastron by death in 1803, was the more meritorious, because, apart from the prestige of his birth and rank, he remained attractive longer than men of his age.  No such scandals as had dishonored the court of nearly all his predecessors occurred in his, and the most malevolent could not charge him with having a favorite.  In his home he was a man as respectable as he was attractive, a tender father, a grandfather even more tender, an affectionate uncle, a gentle, indulgent master for his servants.  None of the divisions that existed in the family of Louis XVIII. appeared in that of his successor; perfect harmony reigned in the court of the Tuileries.

Of a mind more superficial than profound, Charles X. did not lack either in tact or in intelligence.  He sincerely desired to do right, and his errors were made in good faith, in obedience to the mandates of his conscience.  Lamartine, who had occasion to see him near at hand, thus sums up his character:—­

“A man of heart, and impulsive, all his qualities were gifts of nature; hardly any were the fruit acquired by labor and meditation.  He had the spirit of the French race, superficial, rapid, spontaneous, and happy in the hazard of repartee, the smile kindly and communicative, the glance open, the hand outstretched, the attitude cordial, an ardent thirst for popularity, great confidence in his relations with others, a constancy in friendship rare upon the throne, true modesty, a restless seeking for good advice, a conscience severe for himself and indulgent for others, a piety without pettiness, a noble repentance for the sole weaknesses of his life, his youthful amours, a rational and sincere love for his people, an honest and religious desire to make France happy and to render his reign fruitful in the moral improvement and the national grandeur of the country confided to him by Providence.  All these loyal dispositions were written on his physiognomy.  A lively frankness, majesty, kindness, honesty, candor, all revealed therein a man born to love and to be loved.  Depth and solidity alone were wanting in this visage; looking at it, you were drawn to the man, you felt doubts of the King.”

This remark, just enough at the end of Charles X.’s reign, was hardly so at the outset.  In 1824 people had no doubts of the man or of the King.  The French were content with Charles X., and Charles X. was content with himself.