This noteworthy
change in the ideas of a noble on the verge of his sixtieth year--an
age when men rarely renounce their convictions--was due not merely to
his unfortunate residence in the modern Babylon, where, sooner or
later, country folks all get their corners rubbed down; the Comte de
Fontaine's new political conscience was also a result of the King's
advice and friendship. The philosophical prince had taken pleasure in
converting the Vendeen to the ideas required by the advance of the
nineteenth century, and the new aspect of the Monarchy. Louis XVIII.
aimed at fusing parties as Napoleon had fused things and men. The
legitimate King, who was not less clever perhaps than his rival, acted
in a contrary direction. The last head of the House of Bourbon was
just as eager to satisfy the third estate and the creations of the
Empire, by curbing the clergy, as the first of the Napoleons had been
to attract the grand old nobility, or to endow the Church. The Privy
Councillor, being in the secret of these royal projects, had
insensibly become one of the most prudent and influential leaders of
that moderate party which most desired a fusion of opinion in the
interests of the nation. He preached the expensive doctrines of
constitutional government, and lent all his weight to encourage the
political see-saw which enabled his master to rule France in the midst
of storms. Perhaps Monsieur de Fontaine hoped that one of the sudden
gusts of legislation, whose unexpected efforts then startled the
oldest politicians, might carry him up to the rank of peer.
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