Page:Coubertin - France since 1814, 1900.djvu/90

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74
FRANCE SINCE 1814

— holding by the motto of his house, " Etiam si omnes, ego non " — the King forbade him to appear in his presence.

Not long after, on the 17th of August (1828), by virtue of an agreement concluded in London a month before, 14,000 men embarked at Toulon for Greece. They soon took Patras and occupied the whole of the Morea. The expedition was accompanied by a scientific commission, which had the honour of being the first to ransack the spoils of Olympia. France was thus still more deeply pledged to the work of Greek emancipation. In her foreign as in her home policy, she showed herself, officially speaking, Liberal. The King soon reaped the advantage of his attitude. While the Duchesse de Berry, on her way through Vendée, Bordelais, and the departments of the south, met with the most flattering reception, Charles X. and the Duc d'Angoulême also made their progress through the east of France. Liberal Alsace gave the King a triumphal welcome ; the journey was one unbroken ovation, and in every town the deputies of the Left took a warm part in the demonstrations. One of their number could declare, amid the plaudits of the Chamber,