Page:Coubertin - France since 1814, 1900.djvu/21

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TWO BEGINNINGS OF ONE PERIOD
5

semblance to those who were to be seen the following year brutal in their irritation. They seemed to be agreeably surprised at finding themselves in Paris, and their attitude towards the things they saw there was one almost of respect. The conditions they imposed were very mild and reasonable. The Prussians, it is true, much wished them harder, for their hearts were still stirred with righteous indignation for the manner in which Napoleon had treated them after Iena. But this time they could not very easily give effect to their resentment. France was not Napoleon. It was against the leader not the nation that they bore a grudge. The peace of the 30th of May, 1814, then left to France the frontiers that were hers in 1792, advantageously rectified in several points. Saarbruck, Landau, Mulhouse, Montbéliard, Annecy, Chambéry, and a part of Savoy remained to her ; her colonies, with the exception of the Île de France and St. Domingo, were given back to her ; she suffered no shameful humiliation. On the other hand, the King (who had meanwhile landed at Calais on the 24th of April, and was slowly making his way towards Paris), in his famous declaration of Saint-Ouen, published