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I hear that it has been determined that the king shall be placed in the Louvre, where the citizens of Paris can keep guard over him and prevent any attempt by the Orleanists to carry him away.
Sometimes several thousand copies of such and such a pamphlet by Paul-Louis Courier would be sold in a single evening; and people crowded thither to buy Les aventures de la fille d'un Roi that first shot fired by the Orleanists at The Charter promulgated by Louis XVIII.
In 1421 the Orleanists defied the victor of Agincourt: again they were in the agony of a desperate defence against their invaders, ready to sustain all the horrors of a siege. Equally keen and determined were the English leaders to take Orleans, which they rightly considered as the key of what remained unconquered to them in France. Both countries looked anxiously on as the siege progressed.
Only a fragment of the country was held by his followers, the Orleanists; Scotland had come to his aid with a few thousand men, but what did this avail with the greater part of the kingdom held by the Burgundians, while town after town was declaring its allegiance to the English Duke of Bedford, whom his dying brother, Henry V., had named as regent for his infant son.
Republicans, Orleanists, and Imperialists, all would combine against him. The army could not be relied upon to sustain him. Ruin seemed inevitable not only the confiscation of his property, but probably also the loss of his head. Should he allow himself to be made king by the bankers in Paris?
All the traders among the Legitimists and Orléanists continued in a state of secret hostility, and threw all the impediments they could against the government. The situation of Louis Napoleon was indeed extremely difficult and critical.
The Burgundians had again obtained several advantages, and as Sir Clugnet was known to have marched away with his following to the assistance of the Orleanists, who had of late fared badly, there was no fear of any fresh attack being made upon the castle. One day a messenger rode in from the Governor of Calais, who was personally known to Sir Eustace.
Had there been any provisional body composed of men known and esteemed, elected by the Chambers, supported by Trochu and the troops at his back, there would have been a rallying-point for the patriotism of the provinces; and in the wise suspense of any constitution to succeed that Government until the enemy were chased from the field, all partisans Imperialists, Legitimists, Orleanists, Republicans would have equally adjourned their differences.
The war had been arranged amongst them, and it is an error to suppose that we were beaten at Rhichshofen or Sedan. "No," cried an orator, with conviction, "we have never been defeated; but we have been betrayed." Applause. To whom then must we turn to save the country? To the Legitimists? To the Orleanists?"
When the Legislative Assembly, later on, exhausted its energies in useless squabbling, when the Orleanists and the Legitimists tacitly accepted the idea of the Coup d'Etat, he said to himself that the game was definitely lost. In fact, he was the only one who saw things clearly.
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