XI
LAST DAYS AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE
The end of December was detestable. We were en pleine crise for ten
days. Every day W. went to the Chamber of Deputies expecting to be
beaten, and every evening came home discouraged and disgusted. The
Chamber was making the position of the ministers perfectly
untenable--all sorts of violent and useless propositions were discussed,
and there was an undercurrent of jealousy and intrigue everywhere. One
day, just before Christmas, about the 20th, W. and his chef de cabinet,
Comte de P., started for the house, after breakfast--W. expecting to be
beaten by a coalition vote of the extreme Left, Bonapartists and
Legitimists. It was an insane policy on the part of the two last, as
they knew perfectly well they wouldn't gain anything by upsetting the
actual cabinet. They would only get another one much more advanced and
more masterful. I suppose their idea was to have a succession of radical
inefficient ministers, which in the end would disgust the country and
make a "saviour," a prince (which one?) or general, possible. How wise
their reasoning was time has shown! I wanted to go to the Chamber to
hear the debate, but W.
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