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Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure stream, a majestic hill, we may be sure that religion has left there her stamp by the hand of the monk." But this was Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and the avowed champion of the monks.
Let Montalembert describe this celebrated spot among the western Apennines: "At the foot of this rock Benedict found an amphitheatre of the time of the Cæsars, amidst the ruins of the town of Casinum, which the most learned and pious of Romans, Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and knowledge the sons of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, had rendered illustrious.
We cannot better conclude than by giving the following extract from the Introduction of M. Cochin, who, by the way, is a man of good family and ample fortune, an eminent publicist, and a Catholic of the school of Lacordaire, Montalembert, Monseigneur d'Orleans, and the Prince de Broglie: 'It was once exclaimed, Perish the colonies, rather than a principle!
Our next visit will be to the mountain home of this renowned character, fifty miles to the west of Rome. "A single monk," says Montalembert, "is about to form there a center of spiritual virtue, and to light it up with a splendor destined to shine over regenerated Europe for ten centuries to come."
A visit of his youth to the Island grave of Chateaubriand; his early memories, as a poetical aspirant, of the magnificent flatteries by which Victor Hugo made himself the god of young romantic Paris; his talks with Montalembert in the days of L'Avenir; his memories of Lamennais' sombre figure, of Maurice de Guérin's feverish ethereal charm; his account of the opposition salons under the Empire they had all been elaborated in the course of years, till every word fitted and each point led to the next with the 'inevitableness' of true art.
The defence of Louis Napoleon was conducted by M. Berryer, the great leader of the Legitimists, who, twenty-five years before, had aided in the defence of Ney, and who, nearly twenty years later, defended Montalembert, his client of 1840 being in this last case the prosecutor.
The Paris insurrection was put down, and Ledru-Rollin fled the country. Thiers, Broglie, Mole, Montalembert, and other adherents of the Bourbons, either of the old or of the Orleans branch, now professed to yield to Louis Napoleon their adhesion. His measures for the restraint of the press, the punishment of political offenses, etc., were popular, especially in the provinces.
"One hour of personal interview with Excellency Daun," urges Montalembert; "one more!" "No," answers Soltikof. "Alas, then, send your messenger!" To which last expedient Soltikof does assent, and despatches Romanzof on the errand.
But the movement of 1848, directed as it was against the Doctrinaires, against their monarchy and their ministry, had much developed the conservative element which was always strong within them. In those days Montalembert succeeded Droz at the Academy, and took the opportunity to attack, as he said, not 1793 but 1789.
By intense suasion of Montalembert, Soltikof even consents to undertake some sham movement on Glogau, thereby to alleviate his Austrians across the River; and staggers gradually forward a little in that direction: sham merely; for he has not a siege-gun, nor the least possibility on Glogau; and Goltz with the 12,000 will sufficiently take care of him in that quarter.
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