monastery, caused the breakdown of Prince Napoleon's Boulogne adventure,
occupied the Chamber of Deputies on the 2nd of December, and heroically
lost its whole strength twice over in the siege of Paris, it has had the
good fortune of being almost the only one of our regiments to keep its
arms and its colours amidst all our mishaps.

There was no further interruption to the course of my studies, except a
journey of the King's to Normandy, on which I accompanied him. The
official object of this journey was to hold a review, at Cherbourg, of
the squadron which had operated, in concert with an English one, in the
North Sea, during the arrangement of the Belgian question. But its chief
end was to go through the Departments in Normandy and enter into
relations with the honest folk who populated them.

The trip was fruitful in incident. The first happened at Bernay, the
native town of the virtuous Dupont de l'Eure, one of those virtuous
individuals who would virtuously have your head cut off sooner than drop
the smallest iota of their vulgar and utopian ideas. The prefect, M.
Passy, had warned the King that amongst the addresses that would be read
to him on his arrival there would be one which would give him a lecture.
Thus warned, we arrived, and having mounted a platform in the open air,
with a verdant dome above it, the reception and the addresses began.
There was nothing very particular at first; at last a "President de
Tribunal" advanced, and the way he made his bow with his prim look, and
the curiosity which stretched every neck, told me at once that the King
was to get the promised lecture. It came, indeed, very studied, and very
impertinent too. Everybody listened in silence. It was all about
courtiers, the danger of listening to flatterers, and so forth. As it
ended, the heads of the president and his friends all came up with a
"Take that, my fine fellow" look.