ANOTHER FRAGMENT FROM PRINCE TALLEYRAND’S MEMOIRS.
The king insisted that the favourable opinion entertained of the services I had rendered him, required that he should instal me in one of the high offices of the crown. The post of grand ecuyer could not be said to be either vacant or filled, as M. de L—— had not tendered his resignation. The king, who still had a leaning to old usages, thought he could not dispose of the post, though the conduct of M. de L——, since the Restoration, had not been congenial with French feeling, but altogether in unison with Austrian ideas. The office of grand chamberlain seemed to be suited to me, though I had filled it under Bonaparte, who deprived me of it to mark his dissatisfaction at the attentions I showed the Spanish princes at Valençay, and at the manner in which I had expressed myself concerning the war against Spain. I lost my post of grand chamberlain, with a salary of 100,000 francs, because I had rendered some assistance, and offered some little solace, to the princes of Spain, during their sojourn at Valençay; and subsequently, the Restoration took from me the post of vice-chamberlain, with a salary of 333,000 francs. Yet I never expressed the least disquietude respecting my fortune, or any desire to seek the means of enlarging my income.