Page:Coubertin - France since 1814, 1900.djvu/27

 Dieu ; or whether at some banquet given by the city, the Prefect of the Seine and the Municipal Council may have been caught waiting on the Royal Family in person ; or Marshal Soult, the Minister of War, may have seen fit to add a chaplain to his suite, there was nothing in it beyond these " écarts d'un zèle trop ardent " of which the King had to complain publicly a little later. To tell the truth, the Jacobins had much more serious grievances to exploit ; among others, the growing discontent of the Army. Not only had it been necessary to disband a part of it, but the mistake had been made of establishing a Maison Militaire du Roi, much too numerous and much too expensive, to say nothing of many injustices besides. Then there were the highly unpopular taxes of the Empire ; their abrogation had been promised, but it had been found necessary to retain them from the moment when the Government assumed entire financial responsibility for the past.

When we consider, on the one hand, the facility with which the Monarchy crumbled away in 1814, and, on the other, the manner in which its re-establishment was received in 1815, we are tempted to give too much