This is a serial about why Hortense broke the law. Previous entries are available here.
- [Hortense thought the humiliation of having] seen the Bourbons brought back from abroad after our calamities, was such a grievance in the eyes of the nation, that the establishment of the charter could hardly erase it.
On the contrary, this much needed freedom at the time when the old nobility reappeared, and which reassured on the one hand the men who had been actors in our revolutions, shed light on its losses - the educated and plebeian youth. France learned while becoming disillusioned that she was going to have hopes disappointed by the domination of an aristocracy grown too powerful which would like to invade everything.
Thus, to defend freedom was also to defend one's future: the youth gave themselves up entirely to it. The Princess of Poix had said to Mme Campan in 1814: "Let no one believe that this is only the triumph of one dynasty over another; "It is the triumph of the aristocracy: ‘we will do everything to regain our rights and not to "lose" them any more.’”
This was the basis of the thinking of the old nobility.
Perhaps this was why it was difficult for people to unite with the Bourbons then. There existed between them and the nation too many causes of irritation and mistrust, and without confidence, no free government possible.
