Happy in the ease with which the change in the reign had taken place, and seeing the unanimous manifestations of devotion and enthusiasm by which the throne was surrounded, the Duchess of Berry regarded the future with entire confidence.  Inclined by nature to optimism, the young and amiable Princess believed herself specially protected by Providence, and would have considered as a sort of impiety anything else than absolute faith in the duration of the monarchy and in respect for the rights of her son.  Had any one of the court expressed the slightest doubt as to the future destiny of the child of miracle, he would have been looked upon as an alarmist or a coward.  The royalists were simple enough to believe that, thanks to this child, the era of revolutions was forever closed.  They said to themselves that French royalty, like British royalty, would have its Whigs and its Tories, but that it was forever rid of Republicans and Imperialists.  At the accession of Charles X. the word Republican, become a synonym of Jacobin, awoke only memories of the guillotine and the “Terror.”  A moderate republic seemed but a chimera; only that of Robespierre and Marat was thought of.  The eagle was no longer mentioned; and as to the eaglet, he was a prisoner at Vienna.  What chance of reigning had the Duke of Reichstadt, that child of thirteen, condemned by all the Powers of Europe?  By what means could he mount the throne?  Who would be regent in his name?  A Bonaparte?  The forgetful Marie Louise?  Such hypotheses were relegated to the domain of pure fantasy.  Apart from a few fanatical old soldiers who persisted in saying that Napoleon was not dead, no one, in 1824, believed in the resurrection of the Empire.  As for Orleanism, it was as yet a myth.  The Duke of Orleans himself was not an Orleanist.  Of all the courtiers of Charles X., he was the most eager, the most zealous, the most enthusiastic.  In whatever direction she turned her glance, the Duchess of Berry saw about her only reasons for satisfaction and security.

II

THE ENTRY INTO PARIS

The Duchess of Berry took part in the solemn entry into Paris made by Charles X., Monday, 27th September, 1824.  She was in the same carriage as the Dauphiness and the Duchess and Mademoiselle of Orleans.  The King left the Chateau of Saint Cloud at half-past eleven in the morning, passed through the Bois de Boulogne, and mounted his horse at the Barriere de l’Etoile.  There he was saluted by a salvo of one hundred and one guns, and the Count de Chambral, Prefect of the Seine, surrounded by the members of the Municipal Council, presented to him the keys of the city.  Charles X. replied to the address of the Prefect:  “I deposit these keys with you, because I cannot place them in more faithful hands.  Guard them, gentlemen.  It is with a profound feeling of pain and joy that I enter within these walls, in the midst