200 MEMOIBS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.

advocate of our cause, and finished by saying that he regarded
our restoration as an act of justice important to the state; that
he knew I was well instructed in these things, and that I
should give him pleasure by talking of them some day.* He
rejoined at that moment the Dauphine, and they set off for St.
Germain.

A few days after this the Dauphin sent for me. I entered
by the wardrobe, where a sure and trusty valet was in .waiting;
he conducted me to a cabinet in which the Dauphin was sitting
alone. Our conversation at once commenced. For a full hour
we talked upon the state of affairs, the Dauphin listening
with much attention to all I said, and expressing himself with
infinite modesty, sense, and judgment. His views, I found,
were almost entirely in harmony with mine. He was sorry, and
touchingly said so, for the ignorance of all things in which the
King was kept by his minister; he was anxious to see the
power of those ministers restricted; he looked with dislike
upon the incredible elevation of the illegitimate children; he
wished to see the order to which I belonged restored to the
position it deserved to occupy.

It is difficult to express what I felt in quitting the Dauphin.
A magnificent and near future opened out before me. I saw a
prince, pious, just, debonnaire, enlightened, and seeking to be-
come more so; with principles completely in accord with my
own, and capacity to carry out those principles when the time
for doing so arrived. I relished deliciously a confidence so
precious and so full, upon the most momentous matters, and at
a first interview. I felt all the sweetness of this perspective,
and of my deliverance from a servitude which, in spite of my-
self, I sometimes could not help showing myself impatient of.
I felt, too, that I now had an opportunity of elevating myself,
and of contributing to those grand works, for the happiness and
advantage of the state I so much wished to see accomplished.

A few days after this I had another interview with the
Dauphin. I was introduced secretly as before, so that no one

* This incredibly serious tone adopted in reference to mere questions of
etiquette and precedence is -worthy of remark.