Page:Coubertin - France since 1814, 1900.djvu/57

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A RETROSPECT OF EIGHT YEARS
41

some sort of raison d’être before the Revolution, since Monsieur had then an apanage to administer. But in 1814 Monsieur had no longer an apanage ; nevertheless, he was allowed to re-establish his council, in which were placed, "very advantageously for them," says Pasquier in his Mémoires, "a great number of courtiers old and new." At the beginning of the Restoration, the National Guard constituted in the hands of the Comte d’Artois and his friends yet another instrument of propaganda. The prince was its nominal head, with the somewhat singular title of Colonel-général. His staff kept up a correspondence in his name with the Inspectors-general ; there was one of these for each department. They were chosen with the greatest care, and distributed to numerous agents the secret orders and special instructions received from Paris ; the object being political more often than military. When Louis decided to withdraw his brother from the supreme command of the National Guard, of which he had made such an extraordinary use, the organisation persisted, weakened, no doubt, but still effective. To the very last the " Pavilion Marsan " (the part of Tuileries