When he chose the Duke de Riviere as governor of the Duke of Bordeaux, the King said to Madame de Gontaut:  “In naming Riviere, I have followed, I confess, the inclinations of my heart; I am under obligations to him; he has incessantly exposed himself for our cause; he has borne captivity, poverty; I love him, and I am used to him.”

The new governor, who was very modest, was frightened at the task confided to him.

“You congratulate me,” he wrote to a friend; “console me, rather, pity me.  An employment so grave must be a heavy burden.  I am easy about the instruction my royal pupil will receive; the wise prelate named by the King as his preceptor will be a powerful auxiliary for me.  But my share is still too great.  It requires something more than fidelity for such a place,—­firmness without roughness, unlimited patience, address, intelligence.  I am frightened at the mission I have to fill.  I begged the King to release me.  He insisted.  I asked him to make it a command; he replied:  ’I will not command you, but you will give me great pleasure.’  I did not conceal from the King that I should have preferred to remain captain of his guards; he answered:  ’Well, you made that place for yourself; make this for me.’  How could one resist such language from the lips of such a prince?  There was but one choice to make,—­to do all that he wished.”

Charles X. named as sub-governors two distinguished military men, the Colonel Marquis de Barbamcois and the Lieutenant-Colonel Count de Maupas.  He named as preceptor Mgr.  Tharin, Bishop of Strasbourg, and as sub-preceptor the Abbe Martin de Noirlieu and M. de Barande.  The Bishop of Strasbourg was a pious and learned priest, of great benevolence and extreme affability.  But his appointment exasperated the Opposition, because he had formerly taken up the defence of the Order of the Jesuits against the attacks of M. de Montlosier.  All the liberal sheets cried aloud.  Le Journal des Debates, furious that its candidate to the succession of the Duke de Montmorency, M. de Chateaubriand, had not been named, wrote, regarding the appointment of Mgr.  Tharin:—­

" Such imprudence amazes, such blindness is pitiable.  It awakens profound grief to see this chariot rush toward the abyss with no power to restrain it.”

The Duke de Riviere gave himself up entirely to the task confided to him.  He never quitted the young prince.  He slept in his room and watched over him night and day.  In the month of February, 1828, he fell ill.  The princes and princesses visited him frequently.  The sovereign himself, putting aside for this faithful friend the etiquette which forbade him to visit any one out of his own family, went constantly to see him and remained long with him.  The Duke had no greater consolation, after that of his religion, than the visit of his King.  He said to his family as the hour of the expected visit approached, “Do not let me sleep,” and if he felt himself getting drowsy, “For pity’s sake,” he said, “awaken me if the King comes; it is the best remedy for my pains.”  Charles X. could hardly restrain his tears; on leaving the room he gave way to his grief.  The little Duke of Bordeaux, also, was much saddened.