Page:Coubertin - France since 1814, 1900.djvu/20

 date of this decision, eighteen days had already passed since the Bourbons had been proclaimed at Bordeaux, where on the 12th of May, 1814, the Mayor had hoisted the white standard ; and Louis XVIII.'s nephew, the Duc d'Angoulême, who was at the moment in Spain, betook himself to Bordeaux with all possible speed. On other points of territory the same proclamation was about to be made.

It was Talleyrand who moved the Emperor of Russia to favour this idea of restoring the old dynasty to the Throne of France. Talleyrand's great skill consisted in the invariably apt divination of coming events. It was said of him that what Talleyrand thought to-day, everybody would be thinking to-morrow, and nothing could be more true. He comprehended that the French would hail Louis XVIII., because this Prince was the very incarnation of the peace and stability they so greatly needed. In fact, they hailed him without the least suspicion that Foreign Powers had any hands in their determination ; consequently without any injury to their self-love.

As it happened, the foreigners who assisted at this restoration bore not the slightest