RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



3. I also have to point out 

 that you act not only without 

 any regard to antecedents, but 

 solely guided by your inspira- 

 tions and without any written 

 instructions from Government. 



MM. d'Harcourt and Rayne- 

 val previous to each of my 

 steps, which, day by day, hour 

 by hour, minute by minute, 

 demanded immediate and vary- 

 ing decisions, it would have 

 been impossible. Even General 

 Oudinot, who was more directly 

 concerned with me, did not 

 expect this. 



3. The antecedents which at 

 the outset guided the course of 

 M. de Eayneval should un- 

 questionably have been taken 

 into consideration by me, but 

 they could not serve as an in- 

 variable rule for me, because, 

 upon the one hand, the Holy 

 Father, who will certainly re- 

 cognise the necessity of putting 

 himself in our hands, has never 

 done as we advised him; be- 

 cause he has followed advice 

 diametrically opposed to ours ; 

 because his court has become 

 a modern Coblentz, from which 

 French influence has been ex- 

 cluded ; and because, upon the 

 other hand, the facts which 

 had marked the debut of the 

 French expedition, after the 

 occupation of Civita Vecchia, 

 had complicated the question 

 and produced a quite different 

 situation. This situation, the 

 exact nature of which the 

 Government could not under- 

 stand when I left Paris on the 

 8th of May, prevented their 

 giving me precise and detailed 



