brigadier-general will not make good the three hundred thousand livres
I have spent, out and out, on the royal cause. I must speak to the
King, face to face, in his own room."

This scene cooled Monsieur de Fontaine's ardor all the more
effectually because his requests for an interview were never answered.
And, indeed, he saw the upstarts of the Empire obtaining some of the
offices reserved, under the old monarchy, for the highest families.

"All is lost!" he exclaimed one morning. "The King has certainly never
been other than a revolutionary. But for Monsieur, who never
derogates, and is some comfort to his faithful adherents, I do not
know what hands the crown of France might not fall into if things are
to go on like this. Their cursed constitutional system is the worst
possible government, and can never suit France. Louis XVIII. and
Monsieur Beugnot spoiled everything at Saint Ouen."

The Count, in despair, was preparing to retire to his estate,
abandoning, with dignity, all claims to repayment. At this moment the
events of the 20th March (1815) gave warning of a fresh storm,
threatening to overwhelm the legitimate monarch and his defenders.
Monsieur de Fontaine, like one of those generous souls who do not
dismiss a servant in a torrent of rain; borrowed on his lands to
follow the routed monarchy, without knowing whether this complicity in
emigration would prove more propitious to him than his past devotion.
But when he perceived that the companions of the King's exile were in
higher favor than the brave men who had protested, sword in hand,
against the establishment of the republic, he may perhaps have hoped
to derive greater profit from this journey into a foreign land than
from active and dangerous service in the heart of his own country. Nor