The fourth volume of the memoirs covers the critical years following the fall of Napoleon, beginning in eighteen hundred and fifteen and eighteen sixteen when the author is made a peer of France and enters the tribune. The text details the complex political shifts under Louis XVIII, the rise of the Duc Decazes, and the author's own diplomatic assignments in Berlin and London. Through detailed diplomatic dispatches and personal reflections, the author recounts his interactions with major European figures, including George IV and the Marquess of Londonderry. The narrative explores the tense political atmosphere surrounding the Spanish War, the Congress of Verona, and the domestic struggles over the liberty of the press and the morality of interest versus duty.
The volume illustrates the author's growing disillusionment with ministerial politics, his ultimate dismissal from office, and his transition into the parliamentary opposition. The events culminate in the death of Louis XVIII and the coronation of Charles X, capturing the fragile state of the Bourbon Restoration and the inevitable friction between traditional authority and rising constitutional demands. The intimate portraits of contemporary statesmen and monarchs provide a rare, first-hand look at the mechanics of nineteenth-century European diplomacy and the personal costs of political integrity.
