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The famous meeting then took place on the 5th August, at which the Comte de Chambord made his remark about the political opinions of the Comte de Paris. The statement following, however, stated clearly that there had been no discussion regarding the circumstances that would lead to a monarchical restoration, which would be in the exclusive competence of the National Assembly. “Mais il est établi par cette visite que les princes d’Orléans ne seront plus un obstacle à la réconciliation de la France et du prince qui représente la monarchie traditionnelle.”
The drapeau blanc, however, was not the real obstacle that prevented the Comte de Chambord from returning, as is usually claimed. The constitutional problem was in reality the interpretation of the powers of the King, which if there was an immediate confrontation with the Assembly, would have led to a constitutional crisis; but it was the evident political divisions among the royalists that prevented a compromise from being found. This compromise could have worked, because the Comte de Chambord understood that the army would not accept the abandonment of the tricolore and any proposal to re-establish the drapeau blanc would likely have been postponed, at least until the new King had found a way to persuade the army to accept some workable compromise solution. This, however, was eventually sabotaged at the last minute by the Orleanists Vicomte d’Haussonville and Duc Decazes (the latter through an agent, a M. Savaray). Their hope was that their actions would provoke the Comte de Chambord to abdicate in favor of the Comte de Paris; indeed, apparently Haussonville stated that he would prefer a republic to the return of Chambord...
...Chambord was not the ultra-reactionary he has been portrayed, as he had earlier made it clear (19 September 1873) that he rejected the “fantôme de la dîme, des droits féodaux, de l’intolérance religieuse, de la persécution contre nos frères séparés… [and that he rejected the]… gouvernement des prêtres, de la prédominance des classes privilégiées”, the very allegations against him made by the republicans led by Gambetta and Thiers. He considered himself above party, but that his act of reconciliation with the Comte de Paris had been “de rendre à la France son rang, et dans les plus chers intérêts de sa prospérité, de sa gloire et de sa grandeur.”
Nonetheless he did not fully comprehend the reality of the divisions between the differing groups which, on some or other terms, were prepared to support the restoration. Perhaps this was why, on 14th October, he did not receive the deputies who had accompanied Chesnelong. The position of the Church was also uncertain; some, on the extreme right, vigorously demanded that the Comte de Chambord reject the tricolore because it symbolized the sovereignty of the people; yet the Pope, in an audience accorded to the royalist deputy Keller said “La couleur du pavillon n’a pas une grande importance. C’est avec le drapeau tricolore que les Français m’avaient rétabli à Rome. Vous voyez qu’avec ce drapeau on peut faire de bonne choses, mais M. le Comte de Chambord n’a pa voulu me croire.”