Chapter XX: And Last (3)

"'It is neither from a sentimental devotion, nor the affection
of a nurse for the cradle of Henry IV., that I plead a cause
where all would turn against me if it triumphed. I am neither
influenced by the ideas of romance nor of chivalry: I do not
desire the crown of martyrdom. I do not believe in the divine
right of kings: I am alive to the power of revolutions, and the
evidence of facts. I do not even invoke the charter: I ascend
to a higher source. I draw my principles from the philosophic
ideas of the age in which my life expires: I propose the Duke of
Bordeaux simply as a necessity preferable to the Duke of Orleans.

"'You proclaim the sovereignty of force. It is well. _Look
carefully after it: guard it well; for, if it escapes you,
who will pity your lot?_ Such is human nature. The most
enlightened minds are not always raised above the temptations
of success. The _esprits forts_ were the first to invoke the
right of violence; they supported it by all the force of their
talents; and at the moment when the truth of what they said is
demonstrated by the abuse of that force, and its overthrow,
the conquerors seize the weapon they have broken! Dangerous
trophies, which may wound the hand which seized them.

"'A useless Cassandra, I have fatigued the throne and the
country sufficiently with my disdained predictions: it remains
for me only to seat myself on the remains of the wreck which I
have so often predicted. I recognise in misfortune every power
except that of absolving us from our oaths. I must render my
life uniform: after all I have written, said, and done for the
Bourbons, I should be the basest of the base if I deserted them
when for the third time they bend their steps into exile.

"'Far from me be the thought of casting the seeds of division
into France: thence it is that I have avoided in my discourse
the language of the passions. If I had the firm conviction that
an infant should be left in the obscure and tranquil ranks of
life, to secure the repose of thirty-three millions of men, I
should have regarded any opinion expressed against the declared
wishes of the age as a crime. I have no such conviction. If I
was entitled to dispose of the crown, I should willingly lay it
at the feet of the Duke of Orleans. But I have no such right. I
see no place vacant but a tomb at St Denis, and not a throne.

"'Whatever destinies may attend the lieutenant-general of the
kingdom, I shall never be his enemy, if he acts for the good of
his country. I only ask to be allowed to preserve the freedom of
my conscience, and to go and leave my bones where I shall find
independence and repose. I vote against the motion.'"--Vol. ix.
386-388.

Chateaubriand was as good as his word. He resigned all his appointments, even his pension of £600 a-year as Peer of France: he sold off all his effects, which scarcely paid his debts: he refused the offer of Charles X. to restore that pension out of the wreck of that Prince's own fortune: he set out again penniless on the pilgrimage of life: and till his death, in 1848, supported himself entirely by his literary talents.

Such was honour in the olden time. We do not say that it would not find imitators, on a similar crisis, on this side of the Channel: we believe it would find many. But this we do say, that it would find them only among those who are imbued with the ancient ideas, among whom, whether patrician or plebeian, the spirit of chivalry is not extinct. It will not be found among the worshippers of mammon, or the slaves of interest. Woe to the nation by whom such feelings are classed with the age of the mammoth and the mastodon! It has entered the gulf of destruction, for it deserves to be destroyed.

THE GREEN HAND.

A "SHORT" YARN.