After giving his address in the Peers, Bessin had returned to the Quai d'Orsay to collect some papers he did not wish to see destroyed. With the pronouncement that the Lévis ministry had, at last, fallen in the eyes of the law as well as the people, Bessin quit the Quai. He was reasonably certain no one would have begrudged him for staying, but it would not have felt right, he decided. Paris held nothing for him now.
His first thought had been to present himself at the Hôtel de Crillon, only a short distance from the Quai, and call upon the Prince de Polignac. Polignac surely would have taken in the beleaguered Vicomte, but his real desire was to be rid of Paris in its entirety. This the Prince could not offer.
As there was no evident alternative authority to whom the information might be more usefully convoyed, it had been Bessin who had received word that the foreign ambassadors were to leave for Saint-Cloud. Dispatching a brief, slightly unorthodox message to the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré, within the hour Bessin was in the party of the British ambassador, and by the end of the day had reached the relative safety of the banlieue. From here, it was only a couple of days by coach to Rouen, and three days after having appeared in the Peers for the final time Bessin was safely home at Le Mesnil-Mervay.
Some letters from old colleagues, anxious as to what the weeks ahead might hold, had eventually found the Vicomte in Normandy. He smiled at this; forty years ago, it had been he who had written to his mentor and father-in-law, the Duc de Montmorency-Laval, asking how best he might serve the Legitimacy during the June Monarchy. Finding some small amusement in fate's sense of irony, he began to write his replies.
((Private - @DensleyBlair))
Monsieur du Bessin,
I write this letter in the hopes that it will find you and your family in good health despite our present circumstances. Indeed, I must admit to you that I both grieve the loss of the Kingdom and feel as though its demise had become well-deserved. Perhaps it is the hubris of men, as always, that has led us to our present juncture. The more days pass and the more I hear of what France has experienced in the past weeks, the more I worry for its ability to rebuild. It seems to me as though many are confident that Monsieur Bonaparte will make all right, but is he not also a mortal man?
While I have my hesitations about endorsing the republic, I also feel as though our country now lacks any viable alternative. The monarchy as we knew it died with the ones the press calls the "Martyrs of November Tenth." Hence, I am afraid the only question will be what any man can do to save the people of France from their undoing at the hands of the socialists. What are your thoughts? Is it a doomed crusade? I trust and esteem your counsel.
I hope to read your response soon and again, wish you and your family safety,
Cordialement,
MONTVICQ.
Monsieur le Vicomte de Montvicq—
I was relieved to have heard from you and I am glad that you find yourself well. From the moment I learnt of Lévis's intention to ignore the call from reform, it was quite clear to me that the whole project would be brought down. That curious man, who would accept no counsel to the contrary, carried within him at all times the certainty that he acted in favour of the defence of the Legitimacy. Having found himself so intertwined with the fate of the Crown, I do not wonder whether he felt at times whether it was in fact himself whom he had to protect – or perhaps, by extension, his property and good station. But it is of little consequence now; the Kingdom has befallen the same fate as its predecessor, and for want of some leniency on the question of property the establishment has brought itself to ruin.
I will admit, freely, that I have always been wary of the Bonapartist creed. Much of my early career was spent attacking the first Bonaparte, and the legacy of his rule. But far be it for me to judge the merits of one man through aught but his own conduct, and in his initial pronouncements I have been given little reason to fear the Bonapartist resurgence. The nephew Bonaparte seems sincere in his desires for the well being of France, and I will rush to no hasty conclusions.
Throughout my long life I have seen many men come and go with promises of salvation for the French people. I was a child of the First Republic and grew up in the Empire; I came of age in the years after the First Restoration; I rebelled against Charles and I rallied to Philippe; I was an ambassador of the Second Republic, and finally a confidante of Henri, until my association with Lévis complicated our easy relationship. Principle is a good thing, but it should not be to any one man – nor to any cause which holds the supremacy of any one man. My belief in the Legitimacy was, and remains, a belief for the commonwealth of France. In earlier years, the simplicity of this belief was complicated by matters of the law, but with my age I discover a certain serenity that allows me to re-evaluate such considerations; and I can ill afford to spend my final years labouring to restore the dignity of a Crown which has sullied itself in such a fashion, and whose redemption will surely not come before I have left this world for the next.
You, Sir, do not yet – I pray – have to entertain the implications of this mortal truth. I was a man of thirty-one when Charles was evicted from his throne, and I was fifty-three before I saw Henri restored. After Charles was cast off, much as you have now undertaken to write to me, I wrote then to my father-in-law, the Duc de Montmorency-Laval. In many respects, the situation is the now same; the departed Duc, of esteemed memory, was then six years younger than I am now, and he knew that rallying to the Orléanist banner would be for nought. But he impressed upon me the course taken by younger men, in whose company I soon found myself, which was to rally, and to attempt in so doing the protection of France from the excesses of the Orléanist enterprise. In this, perhaps, we were ultimately not successful – but let it not be said that we abandoned our principles, and I venture that few would argue anything of the sort.
The Republic, if its birth is guided by the efforts of sober men of urgent regard for the needs of the French people, has much potential. If we are able to ensure the moderation of the Bonapartists, and if by the same score we are able to prevent the worst deviations into the politics of the propertied classes at the expense of the common welfare, I believe that we stand to gain much from the cultivation of a new state, unburdened by the rivalries of faction split not by fundamental occupation, but by allegiance to any one standard of inheritance. Therefore, if it is my counsel that you value, have no compunction if you resolve to rally. Go with God, and a concern for the welfare of the French people whose lot the Monarchy was unable to uplift.
I have retired now to my home in Normandy, and will not presume to make for Paris unless I am called once more. Once you are returned to France, I would be glad to welcome you to my home, if it would please you, and further host any men of your acquaintance who are similarly moved by the question of how those of our cause might now best serve France.
I wish you well, Sir, and thank you for your service to me, and to France, across these past years.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Vicomte, l'expression de mes sentiments cordiaux.
Bessin
