THE REGENT. 31
the
restoration of the money and the jewels. Thus the Regent was forced to
abandon the fallen dynasty and to return to Paris to embellish the cap
of the new king.
In
the scrambling restoration of Louis xviii. it was impossible to have a
coronation. Indeed the court of this returned Bourbon was of the
quietest, being under the dominion of Madame d'Angoulême, an austere
bigot, of a temper very different from that of her gay and
pleasure-loving mother, Marie Antoinette. It was not until May, 1818,
that there was anything like a fitting occasion for the Regent to
appear. It was in that month the most delightful of all the months of
the year in France, that the youthful bride of the Duke of Berri
arrived from Naples. Louis xviii. resolved to have the young princess
met in the forest of Fontainebleau, and thither accordingly the whole
court migrated on the previous day. It was the king's wish that the
meeting should take place in a tent pitched in the stately forest.
Perhaps he dreaded the im-
