178 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



present times than by contesting, botli by his policy and his 

 acts, those conquests which the nation has made under the 

 ancienne regime? 



" What do you mean by that T 



" Sire, pardon me, but I mean to give it as my opinion 

 that interests purely monarchical have too long alone occu- 

 pied the attention of your ministers. They do not compre- 

 hend that, above all, it is necessary to act with the times. 

 Say what they may, ideas get antiquated, and require modi- 

 fying. To be the man for the country, it is necessary to be 

 the man for the times." 



" I am aware of it, Girardin ; but, believe me also, that 

 at the present, as well as all other periods, the firmness of a 

 king is a virtue." 



" Formerly, sire, that might have been the case ; at present 

 it might be termed ' an arbitrary tendency.' There are two 

 things essentially necessary in these days, to comprehend 

 les legates insurrections des chambres, and to lose V illusion des 

 fideles sujets in France; otherwise, disagreeable misunder- 

 standings may arise between the king and the people." 



During the last words of this conversation the attention 

 of the king was directed to a small kiosk, or temple, erected 

 upon the point of the Isle des Rochers. It was the favourite 

 retreat of Napoleon, where he often retired with his ministers 

 to discuss the different subjects of his secret policy. A 

 large flat stone was his usual seat. It was on this spot, it is 

 said, he studied the maps of the north, upon which, by a 

 fatal inspiration, he traced the plan of the great, and for 

 ever deplorable campaign against Russia. It was also at 

 Rambouillet that, on the 25th June, 1815, after the battle 

 of Waterloo, Napoleon passed the night, on his route to 

 Rochefort. 



These souvenirs, as well as the objects that presented 

 themselves to his view, threw a sombre veil over the king's 



