never had any historical value, being in flat contradiction to historic truth. As a matter of fact, the candidate who was about to become Louis XVIII. had long ago lost any illusions he may have had as to what his house might expect from Foreign Powers. In the course of his long exile, even among those to whom he was allied by ties of blood, he had not invariably found the ordinary consideration due to his rank and his misfortunes ; with the exception of the Prince Regent of England, no one had taken any real interest in him, and England could do no more for him than give utterance to a passion necessarily somewhat platonic. As for the Allies, they had never dreamed of imposing on France any form of government whatever ; their one idea was to overthrow Napoleon. Thus when after the capitulation the Emperor Alexander of Russia made known to Caulaincourt, the French Minister of Foreign Aflfairs, his resolution to make no terms with Napoleon, he was careful to add that France would be at perfect liberty to dispose of herself as she best pleased. He avoided the most distant allusion to the restoration of the Bourbons, for whom, by the way, he had very little personal affection. Now at the
