As to the East,çoisRené it was in contemplation to recall the different ambassadors from Constantinople. I foresaw that England would not follow the movement of the Continental Alliance, and I informed M. de Montmorency of this. The rupture which had been feared between Russia and the Porte did not happen: Alexander's moderation delayed the event. In this connection, I made a great expenditure of going and coming, of sagacity and argument; I wrote a multitude of dispatches, which have gone to must in our archives with the reports of events that never occurred. I at least have this advantage over my colleagues, that I attach no importance to my labours; I saw them, without a care, swallowed up in oblivion with all the lost ideas of mankind.
Parliament resumed its sittings on the 17th of April; the King returned on the 18th, and I was presented to him on the 19th. I gave an account of this presentation in my dispatch of the 19th; it ended thus:
"H. B. M., thanks to his close and varied conversation, did not give me an opening to tell him something with which the King had specially charged me; but the favourable and early occasion of a new audience is about to present itself."
This "something" with which the King had specially charged me related to M. le Duc Decazes. Later, I executed my orders: I told George IV. that Louis XVIII. was distressed at the coldness with which the Ambassador of His Most Christian Majesty had been received. George IV. replied:
"Listen, Monsieur de Chateaubriand, I will confess to you: M. Decazes' mission was not to my liking; it was acting a little cavalierly towards me. My friendship for the King of France alone made me put up with a favourite who had no other merit than his master's attachment. Louis XVIII. reckoned greatly on my good-will, and he was right; but I could not carry indulgence so far as to treat M. Decazes with a distinction at which England would have taken offense. However, tell your King that I am touched by what he ordered you to represent to me, and that I shall always be happy to prove my real attachment for him."
Emboldened by these words, I laid before George IV. all that came to my mind in favour of M. Decazes. He answered, half in English, half in French:
