From 1825, criticism of the King began.  He was accused of giving himself up too much to the pleasures of the chase.  The time was approaching when his enemies would say of him—­a cruel play on words:  “He’s good for nothing but to hunt,” and would translate the four letters over the doors of houses M. A. C. L. (Maison Assuree Contre l’Incendie) by this phrase:  Mes Amis, Chassons-le.

The 17th of June, 1825, M. de La Rochefoucauld wrote:—­

“I must tell all to the King.  I have prevented the giving of a play at the Odeon called Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), because it is a nickname criminally given by the people to him whom they accuse of hunting too often, an accusation very unjust in the eyes of those who know that never did a prince work more than he to whom allusion is made.  When the King takes this distraction so necessary to him, why hasten to make it known to the public?  All news comes from the Chateau, and the Constitutionnel and the Quotidienne are always the best informed.”

He returned to the same subject October 6:—­

“I am in despair at seeing the journals recounting hunt after hunt.  I know the effect that produces.  I wanted to get at the source of these mischievous reports, and M—­ communicated to me confidentially that these reports came to him from the court, and at such length that he always cut them down three-fourths.  In this case, it is for the King to give orders.”

Let us put beside this report the following passage from the Memoirs of the Duke of Doudeauville:—­

“I must justify Charles X. in this passion for the chase, so bitterly laid up against him in that time when malice and bad faith seized on everything that could injure him.  Five whole days every week he remained in his apartment, busy with affairs of state, working with the ministers, examining by himself their different reports with a sensitive heart, much soul, and more intellect than had been believed; he had much reason and a very sound judgment.  We were often astonished at it in the Council, over which he presided, and which he prolonged two, three, four, and five hours, without permitting himself the least distraction or showing any sign of weariness.  Often, in the most difficult discussions, he would open up an opinion that no one had conceived, and which, full of sagacity, smoothed every difficulty.

“Twice a week, and often only once, when the weather permitted, he went hunting, perhaps gunning, perhaps coursing.  It will be conceded that it was a necessary exercise after such assiduous toil and occupations so sedentary.

“I certify that this was the extent of the hunting of which calumny, to ruin him, made a crime.  Every time he went hunting, the Opposition journals did not fail to announce it, which persuaded nearly all France that he passed all his time in the distractions of this amusement.”

The tide of detraction of the sovereign steadily rose.  The Viscount de La Rochefoucauld perceived it clearly.  He wrote to the King, 13th October, 1825:—­