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. One of his
most rigid principles was to recognize no nobility in France but that
of the peerage--the only families that might enjoy any privileges.

"A nobility bereft of privileges," he would say, "is a tool without a
handle."

As far from Lafayette's party as he was from La Bourdonnaye's, he
ardently engaged in the task of general reconciliation, which was
to result in a new era and splendid fortunes for France. He
strove to convince the families who frequented his drawing-room,
or those whom he visited, how few favorable openings would
henceforth be offered by a civil or military career. He urged