THE CAUSE OF THE BOURBONS. 181 
will even say a roughness, which in this age of conces- 
sions drew upon him numerous vexations. 
The purely speculative opinions of a studious man 
concerning the political organization of society, must 
generally be of too little interest to the public to render 
their mention necessary ; but the influence which they - 
exercised on the career of Fresnel will not allow me to 
be silent upon them. 
Fresnel, like so many good men, waheiaead himself 
deeply in 1814 with the hopes to which the return of 
the Bourbon family gave rise. The charter of 1814, 
executed without retrospective effect, appeared to him to 
contain all the germs of a wise liberty. He saw in it 
the aurora of a political regeneration which would, with- 
out a check, extend itself from France over all Europe. 
His patriotic spirit was excited with the idea that our 
beautiful country was about to exercise such a pacific 
influence over the good of nations. If, during the Im- 
perial dynasty, the great events of Austerlitz, of Jena, of 
Friedland, had not strongly excited his imagination, it 
was solely because they appeared to him destined to per- 
petuate that despotism under which France at that time 
bent. The disembarkment at Cannes, in 1815, appeared 
to him an attack on civilization; and thus, without being 
hindered by the disordered state of his health, he was 
anxious to go and join one of the detachments of the 
royal army of the south. Fresnel flattered himself with 
the hope of meeting only with men of his own disposi- 
tion, if I may judge from the painful impression which 
he experienced at his first interview with the general 
under whose orders he went to place himself. Touched 
by the invalid appearance of the new soldier, the general 
testified his surprise that in such a condition he should 
