- 1 LIFE AND TIMKS OF LOUIS PHILIPPE KING OF THE FRENCH. BY THE REV G. N. WRIGHT, M.A. AUTHOR OF " LIFE AND REIGN OF WILLIAM THF. FOURTH," LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS OF THE IMJKE OF WELLINGTON," ETC ETC. F.TC. FISHER, SON, & CO. NEWGATE STREET, LONDON; RUE ST. HONOR^, PARIS PREFACE. THE desire that is implanted in the human breast, of approaching those who have filled dis- tinguished parts in the theatre of human action those who have secured the highest pedestals in the pantheon of political fame those who have acquired a memorable name by the exercise of personal authority over a large portion of their fellow-creatures, will for ever give to biography a high moral influence, and an interest superior to any that general history can excite. Time intervenes to remove us from a familiar inter- course with the greatest characters, space also produces a similar separation, but, the evil of both cases has found its remedy in the truthful and laborious productions of impartial writers. The history of every nation presents some remarkable instance of a prince or a subject, who, burning with an insatiable thirst for con- quest, inflamed by the ardour of military glory, or dazzled by the splendour of heroic achieve- ments, has invaded neighbouring nations, over- run countries far distant from his own, and, like a destined scourge of the human race, has been permitted by Providence to inflict a monstrous PREFACE. amount of calamity upon the victims of his am- bition. However interesting the memoirs of such chivalrous characters however fascinating such tales of old romance they fail altogether ae in- structive lessons to legislators, or monarchs, of after ages, being rather exceptions than exam- ples of the rules of government the very inter- vals that elapse between their appearance on earth, like the rarely -seen comets in the heavens, indicate the eccentricities of their movements The life of Louis Philippe, individually, is unconnected with the subjugation of kingdoms, or with that love of dominion which pervaded the French nation during the eighteenth ceu- tury ; his extraordinary adventures, the vicissi- tudes which he experienced, almost unparalleled in the history of princes, ( before " His banisb'd gods, restored to rites divine, Had settled sure succession in bis line,") grew out of those revolutionary convulsions which overthrew the throne of his ancestors, and extinguished the ancient institutions of his country. Feudality and aristocracy being annihilated a perfect equality being established the right of primogeniture, which dates from the creation, being abolished the national chamber being declared the centre and fountain of authority, and law ecclesiastical power being annulled and church property confiscated the freedom of the press left unconfined, and public opinion received as the final judgment ; these enact- ments becoming the basis of legislation, noplace PREFACE. was allotted for princes of the blood-royal, and the denunciation of the whole Bourbon race sent the heir of the house of Orleans into exile. Before this Ulysses of later times was driven from his father-land, he had given evidence of literary attainments, of military ability, and of a sr-nsibility and sympathy for suffering rarely exceeded. These traits of excellence were not unknown to the sovereigns of Europe, and, ng the wanderings of the royal exile, when- ever the veil of his assumed character was pene- trated, the hand of friendship was invariably extended towards him, often at the peril of en- co'untering the vengeance of republican France. Imposing a cautious silence on himself with respect to the criminal course pursued by the revolutionists, the prince visited many countries of Europe, passed into America, and took refuge ultimately in England : although during these years of poverty, peril, and banishment, he had seen monarchy abolished, republicanism substi- tuted, a consulate erected, an emperor enthroned and deposed, and absolute monarchy restored. From the great lessons of adversity which he had received, Louis Philippe had profited so sincerely, that he beheld with firmness the dark hurricane that swept over the world, and, when the ark of his country righted after the ruin, he laid his hand on the helm, and became its pilot amidst the waters of peace. The early years of Louis Philippe's life were passed in the most remote regions of Europe and of America, in countries and periods of those countries, wherein no public chroniclers lived, to K r.r ACK. record, for the instruction of posterity, the actions of such an illustrious visitor : his own educati< mal habits, however, have fortunately supplied that want ; for, being taught by his preceptress to register the daily occurrences of his tender years, he continued to exercise this valuable practice in more mature life, and, on reaching England, he published a journal of his wanderings in Swit- zerland, Germany, Norway, &c. and the United States of America.* This interesting publication has furnished the outline of the picture which investigation and industry have here filled up, whilst the later periods 01 the prince's event lid memoirs have been separated, with just caution, from the histories of the kingdoms of Europe, with which they are necessarily interwoven since his accession to the throne of one of the uTe;tt< -t nations upon earth. * "Journal of the Eldest Son of the Duke of Orleans, daily kept by himself. London, De Boss, price 6s. i C O N T E N 1 s CHAP I From the foundation of the Houe of Orleans to the year 1793 HAP. II. Prom the birth of Loui Philippe, Duke of Vmlois, 1773, to the year of bis age, when he was granted a separate establishment, as DuL. <>i Chartrcs, 1790 (HAP. III. Prom the Duke of Cbaitres* first campaign, under Dumouries. in the war between Prance and Austria, to his appointment of lecturer in geography and mathematics, at the college of Reichenau, in Switzerland, in 1793 CHAP. IV Arrest and imprisonment of the Duke of Montpensier and the Count Beau, jolais They are released, join their brother, the Duke of Orleans, in Ame- rica; and. returning to Kuropr. visit England CHAP. V. Prom the arrival of the Duke de Montpensier and Count Beaujolais at Phil- adelphia, in February, 1797, to the embarkation of the three Princes for Havannah, in Cuba, in 1798 .294 CHAP. VI. "rom the embarkation of Louis Philippe and his brothers for Palmouth. in England, 1798, to the birth of the present Duke of Orleans, at Palermo, on the second of September, 1810 ... 329 CHAP. VII. From the first Abdication of Napoleon to the Death of Louis XVIII. in 307 CHAP. Mil. Frosj the death of Louis X VIII. to the revolution of !&*) 461 CHAP IV From the accession of Louis Philippe'to the Throne of France, to the estab- lishment of his government, and its unqualified recognition by foreign potentates . ... . ... 666 ''ST OF PLATKS. Or., lns ,,, T w ick,,,l,a,, 1 -Vi ir ,, ott( , Louis I>|,i|i,, p( , at v t , ll(i me . 4f i f I, V Marie Amelia, Queen of the French S Talleyrand, Prince of Denevento ... Chateau of Neuilly 4 Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orlenn, 530 Soult, Marshal, Duke of Dal.natia " ' " 571 HeltW, Duchess of Orleans 616 The Chateau d'lOu 621 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE, KING OF THE FRENCH. CHAP. I. From the foundation of the House of Orleans to the year 1 793. THE city of Orleans, the Aurelianum of Imperial Rome, has long continued to give the title of Duke to a prince of the blood-royal of France. This dignity, however, has more than once hecome extinct, or merged in the higher one of monarch. The most distinguished of those who united both honours in their persons, was Louis the Twelfth, surnamed "Father of the People," the brilliancy of whose ducal coronet lent no incon- siderable lustre even to the regal diadem, which devolved on him, as next male heir of the Valois- Orleans family, on the death of Charles the Eighth (in 1498.) For upwards of a century the dukedom of Orleans remained united to the crown, when it was revived again in favour of Philippe, second son of Louis the Thirteenth, by Anne of Austria, younger brother of LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Louis the fourteenth, and grandson of Henri Quatre, in whom the family of Bourbon-Orleans ascended the throne. This Philippe, first duke of Orleans, better known in history as " Monsieur," the style of the king's next brother under the ancient regime, was distinguished more for capriciousness of conduct than strength of intellect, arid, contrasted with his royal relative, must have appeared to disadvantage at the court of the grand monarque. His feebleness of cha- racter betrayed itself in his tastes, dress, masquerades, pageants, and even in his extravagant superstitions. At the battle of Mont Cassel, however, on the llth of April, 1617, where he defeated the Prince of Orange, he acquired for himself a reputation, in which was combined the intelligence of the general with the intrepid courage of the soldier; and his officers declared that during that campaign, he appeared to be more afraid of the sun, than of powder and ball. He died of apoplexy, at the palace of St. Cloud, in the sixty-first year of his age. Monsieur was twice married. By his first wife, the beautiful Henrietta Stuart, daughter of Charles I. of England and Henrietta of France, like himself a grandchild of Henri Quatre, he left no male issue;* the present family of Orleans is, therefore, sprung from * The marked esteem which the king showed for this princess excited the jealousy of his brother. Being despatched to England, by the monarch, to detach her brother from the triple alliance, she returned, apparently in perfect health, but died suddenly a few days after her arrival. Her death was attributed to poison, and to the administering of which, the duke, her husband, was suspected of being accessary. From the published letters of his second wife, the imputa- tion of jealousy appears not to have been unfounded, but that of his having been an accomplice in her death, is there indignantly repelled. THE REGENT ORLEANS. 3 his second marriage, with Elizabeth Charlotte of Ba- varia, who was cousin of his former wife, being the (laughter of the Elector Charles, eldest son of the unfortunate Frederick Elector Palatine, king of Bo- hemia, by Elizabeth, daughter of James I. and sister of Charles I. It is not a little remarkable, therefore, that the House of Orleans was thus nearer to the crown of England, in the direct line, than the present reigning family ; being descended from the son of the Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, while the latter derives from her daughter the Princess Sophia ; on whom, however, and her descendants, being Protestant, the crown has been settled, the act having in view care- fully to exclude from the succession " all such descen- dants of James I. as were, or should become, Catholics." Monsieur was succeeded in his titles and domains by his son Philippe, who has attained such an unhappy celebrity under the title of " Regent."* This prince was undoubtedly possessed of high mental endowments, but the unhealthy atmosphere of a licentious court, which he had unfortunately in- haled from his youth, had done much to injure the tone of those higher moral qualities, which are the true ornaments of princes, no less than of those in the humbler walks of life. His courage was never called in question, and the firmness with which he asserted his right to be admitted as regent of France, during the minority of Louis XV. though excluded from it by the will of Louis XIV. proves that he was, naturally, of that indomitable character, that would not readily be turned aside from any object which, grounded on the justice of its claims, yielded a fair prospect of success. * " Monsieur " is not to be confounded with the regent, Duke of Orleans, who was afterwards Louis XII. 4 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Influenced by his tutor Dubois, and in compliance with the desire of Louis XIV. he consented to marry Marie Franoise de Bourbon, or rather de Blois, the legitimated daughter of the king. By this marriage, not a happy one, he had three daughters and one son : he neglected his duchess, who was cold and proud, and indulged in a course of the most scandalous licen- tiousness. Dying suddenly at the age of fifty-one, his title descended to a son, in every respect the reverse of his father. Louis Duke of Orleans,* was a prince whose striking qualities gave hopes of the most brilliant career. Two domestic calamities, however, made a deep impression on his mind, and convinced him of the vanity of all those grandeurs with which his high birth had sur- rounded him. The first was the death of his father the regent, hurried away, at a comparatively early age, from the midst of voluptuous enjoyment, to the dreary night of the tomb : the second, a still more fatal blow to his happiness, the decease of a much-loved wife, Au- guste Marie Jeanne, Princess of Baden, cut off in her twenty-second year, leaving him to lament the loss of a companion, whose virtues, he trusted, would have been his solace in declining years. From the grief of this privation he never recovered ; and, renouncing the world, he retired to the Abbey of St. Gene vie ve, where he devoted the residue of his life to the acquisition of classical and scientific knowledge. He also cultivated a taste for the fine arts, and was skilled in Oriental * De Valois, de Chartres, de Nemours, and de Montpensier, First Prince of the blood, First Peer of France, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Colonel-General of the French and Foreign Infantry, Gover- nor of Dauphiny, and Grand Master of the Orders of Notre Dame, cf Mount Carmel, and of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem. LOUIS, DUKE OF ORLEANS. 5 languages ; evidences of which are to he found in trans- lations which he made of the Epistles of St. Paul, from the Greek, and of the Psalms of David, and other portions of the Old Testament, from the Hebrew. He founded many hospitals, institutions for learning, and other useful establishments, the most remarkable of which were a college at Versailles, and a Pro- fessor's chair in the Sorbonne for expounding the Hebrew text of the Holy Scriptures. He was a liberal patron of literary men, especially those whose writings were calculated to confer any moral benefit on society. The delicate manner in which he expressed himself on such occasions, enhanced the value of those solid proofs which he gave of his generosity and esteem. In the deed under which he granted a pension to the savan Abbe Fran9ois, he declares the motives which influ- enced him to be " wishing to take on himself the recognition of the obligation which the public owed to PAbbe Fran9ois, author of a work on the evidences of our Religion, as well as to enable him to continue labours so useful," &c. His munificence was unbounded, and sought its objects not only in France, but in Silesia, in America, and in the East Indies. Dying at the early age of forty-eight years, he closed without regret, a life which could scarcely be called short, since it was so full of kind and generous actions. It is true, it presents none of those warlike exploits, or ready traits of poli- tical intrigue which dazzle the multitude and win the admiration of succeeding ages ; but the glory which is acquired by the constant practice of the social and religious virtues, though less brilliant perhaps than that which is obtained in gathering laurels in the battle- field, is assuredly as solid, and not less real. To subdue 6 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the passions when every thing invites, every thing urges to gratify them, is itself an act of heroism, for who can deny wisdom her heroes, as well as valour? Louis Philippe, the son of this amiable prince, acquired the sobriquet of le Gros from his cor- pulence of body and indolence of mind. Aware of the suspicion with which he was regarded by Louis XV. on account of his proximity to the crown, and especially as the grandson of the Regent Orleans, he prudently declined any participation in political affairs. When the ancient parliaments of France were set aside by the Chancellor Maupeur, it is said that an offer was made him by deputies from Brittany, to put himself at the head of 60,000 men completely armed, which that province promised to furnish, with a view to overthrow the ministry, and, it was hinted, perhaps to exchange the dynasty of the reigning family for that of the House of Orleans. He received the deputation with courtesy, and thanked them for the friendly dis- positions which they manifested towards his family, but added, that the enterprise they contemplated was be- yond the energy of his character, and that he had all his life preserved too much attachment towards Louis XV. to lend himself to a measure of that description. Hitherto he had been looked on as another Brutus, as one who played a part at court, to pass the time away until an opportunity should arise of taking off his mask, and of laying aside his stage-dress ; henceforth he was looked on as free from the hypocrisy that belonged to that patriot of antiquity simply, a man of honour. He was kind, generous, affable in his manners, and a patron of the learned ; not, however, so much from a love of literature itself, as that he considered it a matter of state etiquette that the second family in the A MORGANATIC MARRIAGE. 7 kingdom should take under its protection such as had obtained celebrity in those arts which adorn society. His marriage with Louise Henriette de Bourbon Conti, allied him with that princely house, itself also a scion of the royal family of France. On the death of his duchess, he made a morganatic marriage* with Madame de Montesson, aunt of the celebrated Madame de Genlis. Deeply attached to this interesting woman, it was his wish to share with her all the honours of his exalted rank. In vain did he entreat the court that she might be permitted to bear the title of Duchess d' Orleans, that the vows which they had solemnly and mutually pledged in the sight of God, might thus be recognised in the palace of an earthly prince. Louis was inflexible ; and so rigid was his adherence to court etiquette, that, even on the death of the duke, which took place in his sixty-first year, (in 17&5,) Madame de Montesson was not permitted to exhibit any public demonstrations of mourning, all such manifestations on her part being strictly confined to the internal arrangements of her ovvn household. Does not such illiberality tend to diminish regret, that retributive justice should have visited a court, whose haughty policy trampled on the sacred institution of marriage, and insulted even the noblesse in the person of Madame de Montesson, by declaring that, " the blood of a Capet was too pure to admit of a recognized alliance below the rank of royalty." This marriage, however, in connecting the House of Orleans with Madame de * From the Gothic word morgjan, to limit or shorten ; such alliances, called also left-handed marriages, are permitted by the common law of Germany to the high nobility. They are often erroneously regarded as illegal, which is not the case, although they are seriously objectionable in principle. 8 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Genlis, laid the foundation of that liaison which was destined to exercise no inconsiderable influence over the fortunes of his son Philippe, and his grandson Louis Philippe, the subject of these memoirs, and now the reigning monarch of the French. Having taken this rapid sketch of the first four Dukes of this illustrious House, we shall dwell on the life and character of Louis Philippe Joseph d' Orleans, the son of Louis Philippe and of Henrietta de Bourbon Conti, on account of the acknowledged part which he took in the first French revolution; an event that directly prepared the nation for one less stained with blood, in 1830, by which the crown of the French monarchy was transferred from the elder family of Bourbon to the younger House of Bourbon- Orleans, in the person of his son Louis Philippe I. It is not our intention to analyze this prince's conduct, or pronounce sentence on his actions, but merely to record those events with which he was so remarkably connected, and which had a direct influence on the fortunes of his family. It is the duty of his particular biographer, or of the general historian of France, calmly to review his motives, and determine how much was to be ascribed to the exalted ideas of a pure and high-toned patriotism, and how much to the secret, selfish, policy of family aggrandisement. Louis Philippe Joseph d' Orleans, was born at Saint Cloud, on the 13th of April, 17^7. During the life-time of his father he bore the title of Duke of Chartres, and his education was superin- tended by scholars of eminence in various branches of instruction. He appears, however, to have profited little under their care, a circumstance attributable rather to a want of application, than a deficiency of talent, since at no period of his life did he evince any fondness for CHARACTER OF LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH. 9 reading. The general information which he subsequently acquired, and in which he seems to have been by no means deficient, was obtained by communication with literary and scientific characters, as well as political economists, to whom his saloons were thrown open, with a freedom which gave him the reputation of being a patron of the arts and sciences, an encourager of every thing liberal in the expansive theories of political reform. Unfortunately for himself, he was surrounded from his birth by flatterers, and, yielding to those temptations to which rank and fortune exposed him, plunged into the most censurable excesses, by which means he dis- figured a countenance which, in youth, from the fresh- ness of its bloom and ingenuous glow of innocence that lighted up its features, had never failed to please. His person was handsome and well made, in stature above the middle size ; his features agreeable, though somewhat deficient in vigour of expression ; his teeth regular, his skin remarkable for the whiteness and fineness of its texture, and a smile generally played on his lips when he spoke ; he danced gracefully, was an expert swimmer, and excelled in the art of fencing, and all other bodily exercises, which he preferred to those of an intellectual character. He disliked sedentary occu- pations, delighted in agitation, and was devoted to field-sports of every kind; totally disregarding parade in private life, his dress was always plain ; and his attendants, when he rode out, but few. But on all occasions of state and ceremony he exhibited a grandeur and magnificence suitable to his rank as premier peer, and a prince of the royal blood. In his household he was so kind and indulgent, that he never gave his domes- tics occasion to complain of the severity of their duties. To perfect himself in the living languages, which he 10 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. had failed in accomplishing with the assistance of masters, as well as to acquire those enlarged views of men and manners which travel only can supply, he visited England, the Netherlands, and Italy. Amongst the fruits of experience which he brought home with him, was a taste for English dress and manners, as well as an admiration of the theory of the British constitution. This feeling, adopted from him, gave rise amongst the French to that Anglomanie, which, like other worth- less imputations, exercised a certain influence in pro- moting the revolution. Nor did he content himself with obtaining informa- tion as to foreign countries ; France and her distant provinces also engaged his attention, and, in 1778 he visited the lead-mines of Poulavoine and of Plouagat, in Lower Brittany. They had been, at that time, sunk to the depth of about 500 feet, which was reached by per- pendicular ladders that descended through the shafts. The Duke of Chartres here gave proof, not only of per- sonal courage, but of his desire to procure useful infor- mation, in causing himself to be lowered to the bottom of the pit, by means not unattended with danger to the uninitiated ; he passed three hours below, examining the works, receiving explanations, and witnessing the process of blasting. By his marriage with Marie Therese Louise de Savoix Carignan, only daughter and presumptive heiress of the wealthy Duke of Penthievre, the im- mense fortune of that prince was secured, in eventual succession, to the house of Orleans. Her only brother, Prince de Lamballe,* who died about sixteen months * The Duke of Chartres was accused of having seduced the Prince de Lamballe to participate in his profligate excesses, for the purpose of ruining his constitution, and succeeding to his estate. LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH. 11 before, leaving no child by his widow, the Princess de Lamballe, afterwards one of the unfortunate victims of the revolution. His father-in-law, the old Due de Penthievre, hold- ing the high and lucrative situation of admiral of France, the Duke of Chartres entered the French navy, in the expectation of succeeding to that appointment at his decease. Obliged, according to the rules of the service, to pass through every grade, he entered on board the Saint Esprit as a simple mariner, but, in the course of the war, was raised to the rank of lieutenant-general. The office of admiral of France being destined, on the death of the Duke de Penthievre, for one of the sons of the Comte d'Artois, (afterwards Charles X.) the Duke of Chartres was appointed colonel-general of hussars ; a military employment, ex- pressly created for him, as a compensation for the disappointment. This attempt to conciliate was not effectual, for it is more than probable that the decided opposition, which he henceforth manifested to the mea- sures of the court, originated, in a great degree, in the slight which he considered to be offered to his claims to the higher office of admiral of France.* It was about this period that he gave an example of personal courage, which proved also the interest he took in anything that tended to enlarge the sphere of * It is difficult to reconcile the inconsistencies of this extraordinary man's character ; perhaps the idea that his obvious guilt, in many instances, has created calumniators of his conduct in many more, may be admitted as an explanation. However this may be, it is asserted that he exhibited the most flagrant cowardice during his service in the navy. In the action with Keppel, it is positively stated, that he went down into the hold, and refused to appear on deck until the engage- ment was over. LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. human enterprise, by the application of the sciences and arts. Balloons had just been invented ; and two brothers of the name of Robert, with their brother- in-law Hullin, had made one, which they hoped, by means of oars and a rudder, to direct at pleasure through the air. They ascended from the park of St. Cloud, and the Duke of Chartres, at his own urgent request, made the fourth in the aerial car. The wives of the two Roberts held the cords which detained the balloon till the proper moment of ascent. The crowd of spectators was immense, and the rear ranks called upon those in front to kneel down, that they might behold the departure of this splendid machine. It was an imposing spectacle to behold the balloon rise majes- tically from the midst of such a vast multitude, the greater part of them upon their knees, In a few minutes it was concealed from view in the clouds, where it encountered a tremendous storm, which swept the upper air, though all was calm and serene below : oars and helm were useless, and the balloon, becoming un- manageable, was the mere sport of the winds. In this awful situation, the duke alone preserved his presence of mind, and, with the agility of the sailor, climbing the suspension ropes, reached the balloon, and pierced it with his knife : the gas being allowed to escape, the whole apparatus descended with rapidity, and the aero- nauts landed without having sustained any personal injury. At a period when aeoronaution is an event of every day, it may not indeed be so easy to estimate the intrepidity of character which led him, in the very infancy of the art, to commit himself to those unex- plored regions in company with three inexperienced companions. We can also readily comprehend a more scientific mode of procuring the necessary escape of GROWTH OF FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 13 gas by the valve, as in the modern balloon, but none in which there shall be exhibited more of that calm cou- rage, which afforded clearness of judgment to suggest, and promptness of action to execute the plan, which, in a critical moment, relieved himself and his fellow- travellers from the dangerous embarrassment in which they found themselves, being so totally disappointed in their expectations of the balloon being completely under their control. Freemasonry had now become popular in France, and numbered, amongst others, the Duke of Chartres on the roll of its members. In England it was originally limited to persons connected with the practice of archi- tecture, but in the reign of Charles I. honorary mem- bers, called accepted masons, were admitted amongst them, and hence the distinction of the terms free and accepted. These, however, outnumbering the former, the distinction was obliterated, and the original object of the institution departed from. The views of the members became more expansive, and they now boasted of an universal philanthropy and cosmopolitical cha- racter; while the mysterious secrecy, attached to their meetings, was supposed to be favourable to every pro- ject for the overthrow of ancient institutions, and the erection of a new order of things. It is well known that the Germans, from their fondness for mysticism, had grafted, in their newly invented order of Jlluminati, many ceremonies and fanciful explanations on the ruder simplicity of English masonry ; and the position which the Duke of Chartres occupied, as head of the free- masons of France, exposed him, therefore, to the re- proach of employing his influence, in that capacity, to promote his own ambitious projects. Notwithstanding the immense revenues which he 14" LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. derived from various estates, his extravagance, as well as the liberal expenditure which was expected from him as a prince so nearly allied to the throne, had embarrassed his affairs considerably. He, therefore, willingly listened to the suggestions of an architect, who proposed to convert the gardens of the Palais Royal into a square of buildings, with shops beneath, opening on a covered promenade, while the centre, gravelled, and planted out with shrubs, might afford an agreeable lounge to the idle, or a place of recreation to the invalid. Instantly adopting the idea, those gardens in which Cardinal de Richelieu sought repose from the fatigues of his administration, were thrown open to the noise and bustle, and busy ills, of a Parisian population, crowding thither to enjoy the promenade, or purchase articles of bijouterie in the surrounding shops : these, though small, from the brilliancy with which they were set off, and their peculiar locality, created, at all seasons, a never-failing centre of attraction. o The speculation completely succeeded, and the rent returned from the shops, and the apartments above them, exceeded his most sanguine calculations. He met with some opposition from the proprietors whose houses had overlooked the gardens, but they were defeated in an action at law which they brought against him, after which his speculation was never disturbed. On the decease of his father in the year 1785, he became Duke of Orleans, and, shortly after, entered on that career of political agitation which has associated his name so closely, and unenviably, with the history of the fiercest revolution that has ever been recorded. The part which France had taken in the war between England and her American colonies, deeply embarrassed her finances ; while, by the encouragement SCHISM BETWEEN THE KING AND THE PARLIAMENT. 15 it afforded to the promulgation and discussion of the abstract principle of liberty, rendered all classes dis- contented with a monarchy, whose yoke it considered galling, and expenses burdensome. Such was the situation of affairs in the year 1787, when the court, under the successive administrations of Necker, Calonne, andBrienne,* endeavoured by loans, imposts, and other expedients, to provide for an ex- penditure exceeding the revenues. This brought the executive into collision with the ancient parliaments, which remonstrated, and even refused to enregister the royal edicts. As the Duke of Orleans was at the head of the party in opposition to the court, and pro- fessed to adopt the cause of the people, it was at the Palais Royal that the leading men, the Rochefou- caults, Lafayettes, Mirabeaus, &c., met, to discuss and organize those measures, which, by thwarting the crown, might place it under the necessity of calling an as- sembly of the States General then the only mode in which they could hope to curb the monarchy, recover the rights of the people, and extend the privileges they already enjoyed : many even have imagined that the duke hoped to be declared Lieutenant-General of France on the first assemblage of that public body. Wholly deceived as to the real character of the duke, the court entertained no apprehension from any in- trigues which he was represented to be engaged in ; his characteristic and habitual dissipation confirmed it in the opinion, that he was incapable of exhibiting that energy which was indispensable in constituting an efficient leader of a revolution. At length compelled to regard him in a new light, and as the centre of a * Archbishop of Toulouse ; he was brought forward by the queen, and had been conspicuous for his activity in ruining Calonrie. 16 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. revolutionary party, it was determined to make him feel the weight of the royal displeasure, and intimida- tion was employed to dissolve the association of the Palais Royal, of which he was the nucleus. How mis- taken this policy was, appeared by subsequent events, for the severity of the king actually augmented the popu- larity of the duke, and enabled the democratic party to boast of having, avowedly, at its head a prince of the blood-royal, the sincerity of whose devotedness was demonstrated by his sacrifices to principle. Louis XVI., under the advice of Brienne, having resolved to effect the enregistration of a loan, for that purpose held a royal sitting in preference to a lit de justice, much odium being then attached to the latter. D'Espremenel, and others, eloquently argued against the enregistration, and urged the calling of the States General, as alone competent to impose taxes on the people ; but the king was inflexible, and the measure was carried. The keeper of the seals having read the usual form which was to be endorsed on the edict, the entire assembly heard it in profound silence, and the clerk was just about to write down the words, when the Duke of Orleans, with evident emotion, casting an indignant glance upon the magistrates, and looking haughtily at the monarch, demanded if the present assemblage was a lit de justice, or a free consultation ? "It is a royal sitting," answered the king. " Sire, then," continued the duke, " I beg your majesty will permit me to deposit at your feet, and in the bosom of the court, the declaration, that I regard the enregistra- tion as illegal, and that it will be necessary, for the exculpation of those persons who are held to have deliberated upon it, to add, that it is by the express command of the king." THE DUKE REMONSTRATES WITH THE KING. 17 This declaration, which announced to all France that the first prince of the blood had put himself at the head of the discontented, and that he had the boldness to remonstrate with the king himself, was an act of con- summate resolution, an evidence that he was not devoid of the highest degree of energy, and that he was capa- ble of acting with the most manly decision. We know it has been asserted that he was not altogether disin- terested in the adoption of this line of conduct, having taken the former loan of 125,000,000f. himself, and being now apprehensive lest the new loan should depreciate its value. Such a surmise, if true, may impeach his integrity, but does not detract from his moral courage. The king contented himself with replying, that he believed he did nothing in this sitting which had not been done by his predecessors, and per- sisted in enforcing the record of the edicts. King Louis having withdrawn, had scarcely reached his carriage, when the Duke of Orleans, accompanied by his brother-in-law, the Duke of Bourbon, returned to the parliament, and, seconded by his associates of the Palais Royal, proposed and carried the following resolution, which was totally destructive of all confi- dence in the loan : " This court, i. e. the parliament, considering the illegality of what has taken place in ' the royal sitting,' where the votes have not been counted and taken in the manner prescribed by the ordinances, so that the deliberation has not been complete declares, that it deter- mines to take no part in the record ordered to be made on the registries, of establishing gradual and progressive loans from the years 1788 to 1792," &c. Although deeply offended, both at the declaration of the duke, and the tone in which he delivered it, the king would willingly have forgiven and forgotten I. D * 18 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. his conduct ; but the queen, unhappily for herself, for France, and the world, employed the unbounded in- fluence which she had acquired over his mind, not in promoting measures of moderation, but in recommend- ing those of an arbitrary character ; which she defended under the specious plea, that such firmness adorned royalty. The Duchess de Polignac, mother of the minister who became the victim of a later revolution, advised either the total removal of the duke, or" a total disregard of his conduct, as a middle course would only tend to exasperate his party, without depriving them of the power to avenge the injury; but the former plan being impossible, the latter alternative alone remained. This calm, cautious counsel was rejected ; the duke was banished to his chateau of Villers Cot- terets ; and his friends, Freteau and Sabbatieu, who supported him in his opposition and insolence to the king, were exiled to the isles of Hieres. The indignation of the parliament, and of Paris, was roused by this decisive conduct ; and the pen of d'Espremenel, afterwards the most devoted advocate of monarchy in the National Assembly, was employed in drawing up this supplication to the throne : " Sire, The public grief has preceded your parliament to the foot of the throne. The first prince of the royal family is exiled ; it is asked in vain, what crime has he committed ? Is it for having spoken truth in the sitting of your majesty ? Is it for having spoken it with a respectful frankness, worthy of his illustrious race ? " If the Duke of Orleans is culpable, we all are so. It was worthy of the first prince of your blood to represent to your majesty that you were changing the sitting into a lit de justice. His declaration only gave utterance to our sentiments. If the Duke of Orleans has evinced a courage suited to his birth and rank, he has also manifested a Seal for your glory. * If exile be the reward of fidelity, in princes, we may ask ourselves THE DUKE BANISHED FROM COURT. 19 with terror and with grief, what protection is there for law and liberty, for national honour, for those morals so necessary to the preservation of the common interest of the throne and the people ? " Such measures, Sire, dwelt not in your heart, such examples do not originate from your majesty ; they flow from another source. " Your parliament, Sire, supplicates your majesty humbly, urgently, by the interests of your glory, to reject these merciless counsels, to listen to the dictates of your own heart, and to obey them only ; and justice, consoled by humanity, at the return of this excellent prince, will hasten to efface an example, which would inevitably end in the destruction of the laws, the degradation of the magistracy, universal discontent, and the triumph of the enemies of the French name." The king refused to comply with their request, repeating that sentiment which power has, unfortunately for itself, too often used since the days of Rehoboam " The more kindness I manifest when I can yield to the sentiments of my heart, the firmer I shall be when I perceive an attempt made to abuse that kindness." Parliament continued to make representations, and pass resolutions, against lettres de cachet, and in favour of the recall of the exiles, which, being printed and widely circulated, kept up the agitation of the public mind. The king, on the other hand, on 9th January, 1788, answered, "that he did not think proper to yield to the intreaties which were made to him," condemned some expressions in the representations as indiscreet, and annulled the condonatory act. Neither intimidated nor discouraged by the answer from the throne, parliament addressed new remon- strances, expressed in language so eloquent, that d'Espremenel, the author, became, during the feverish excitement of the moment, the very idol of the people. The immediate calling of the States General as well as the abolition of lettres de cachet, those instruments of caprice and cruelty, by means of which so many victims 20 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. were consigned to a dungeon, in a country where no habeas corpus act existed were again demanded. "We are authorized to believe," said the remon- strance, " that the Duke of Orleans is not guilty. We shall never cease, therefore, to demand, respectfully, of your majesty the personal liberty of that august prince. It is no longer a prince of your blood that your par- liament redemands, in the name of the laws and of rea- son it is a Frenchman, it is a man." Meanwhile, the Duke of Orleans, unable to endure his exile at Villers Cotterets, irritated against the king and queen, the latter of whom he considered the chief author of his disgrace, was contemplating the most effectual means of rendering that popularity, of which he was now the object, eventually ruinous to those, whose elevation upon the throne seemed to secure them from the vicissitudes of fortune. Such was the light in which his conduct was viewed by his enemies, though it is but fair to state, that nobler motives than a spirit of revenge, might have dictated to him, the part which he subsequently acted, in overthrowing that irresponsible system of tyranny, which the amiable Louis XVI. was but an instrument in sustaining, and of which the duke himself became a distinguished victim. His popularity, no longer fed at Paris by his personal presence among the citizens, was cherished by the relation of numerous adventures, all characteristic of generosity and bravery. There was one peculiarly dwelt on, as marking that combination of courage and pleasantry for which he was said to be so much distin- guished. Making an excursion into the country, attended by a groom, whom he facetiously designated by the English term "jockey," he had occasion to cross a crazy old bridge ; the master passed safely, but the ANECDOTE OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. 21 planks gave way under the jockey, who was precipitated into the water. The duke immediately leaped from his horse, plunged into the river, Seized the groom hy the hair, and drew him safely to land. "Jockey" threw himself at the feet of his august deliverer, embraced his knees, which he bedewed with tears, but could not find words to express the fulness of his gratitude. The duke raised him with kindness, and added, with a smiling air, " The only testimony of gratitude, my friend, which I demand of you, is for the future not to cut your hair so close, for you see what a difficult matter I found it to drag you out of the water." During his exile at Villers Cotterets, the duke acquired the affections of the peasantry by his affability, kindliness, and liberality. He presented dowries to brides, stood sponsor for infants, visited the cottages of the poor, seated himself beside the farmer and the labourer, and conversed familiarly with them on their respective occupations. Many a peasant in that dis- trict, even after the death of the duke, has been heard to dwell, with much tenderness, on the recollection of those days, and on the condescension with which that prince had noticed himself, his wife, and children. As the parliament did not desist from solicitations for his recall, the court began to feel its increasing embarrassment, and gladly took advantage of a letter written to the king by the Duchess of Orleans, sup- plicating the release of her husband: her petition being granted, the king acquired the merit of having conceded, from clemency, that which menaces were wholly unable to obtain from him. While the germs of the revolution may be observed in the conduct of parliament throughout this transaction, so the position which the duke himself then occupied, contributed to LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. give him that prominency, which he afterwards main- tained throughout its various stages, till his death. Events now hurried rapidly on. The arrest of d'Espremenel and Goislard de Monsabert, in the midst of the parliament, while its hall was surrounded hy a body of armed men the ejection of the parliament itself by M. d'Agoult, commander of the guards the troubles in Brittany, and other parts of France, with the disaffection of the troops, many of whom maintained that they enlisted to fight against foreign foes, not against their kindred and countrymen, a feeling which manifested itself principally in the six regiments d'Or- leans in conjunction with the famine which resulted from a hail-storm that happened on the 13th of July, 1788 this combination of unpropitious events obliged the court to yield ; and the calling of the States General was accordingly fixed for the month of May the year following. The enemies of the duke insinuated, that he had been instrumental in increasing the horrors of the famine by buying up immense quantities of grain, through private agents, and shipping it for the English market, having in view the double object of adding to his own funds, and of hastening the denoue- ment of the revolution, by the excesses of which a starving people were likely to be guilty in the frenzy of despair. The visit of the Marquis Decorest brother of Madame de Genlis, and chancellor of the duke's household to England, about this period, gave a colour to these reports, which probably owed their origin to the duke's connexion with some speculators in corn, a con- nexion, probably, prompted by a spirit of cupidity alone. Brienne being dismissed from office, Necker was once more recalled, under the title of Director-General NECKER RECALLED TO OFFICE. 23 of Finances, and made prime-minister of France. The court relied on his influence with the Tiers Etat to conciliate to itself the support of that influential body, and employ its weight as a counterpoise to that of the noblesse and clergy, who had acted so decided a part in abridging the power of the crown. While the Parisians manifested a rapidly increasing aversion to royalty, they still cherished, affectionately, the memory of Henri Quatre ; a feeling which acquired additional strength from the severity of the famine under which they were then suffering ; for they dwelt with rapture on that monarch's generosity, during the siege of Paris, who, with a magnanimity almost unpa- ralleled, had fed the very citizens who refused to acknow- ledge submission to his arms. In commemoration of this act of humanity, the Parisians assembled every evening around his statue, which they crowned with laurel, and obliged ay. passengers of respectable appearance to salute by taking off their hats. Amongst others who happened to pass that way was the Duke of Orleans, whom they respect- fully requested to alight, and make the required homage ; a concession, however, not very painful to him, for, in gratifying the multitude, he was only acknowledging the m^rit of an illustrious ancestor. The duke derived a singular political power from the varied class of inhabitants that occupied the Palais Royal, for he found it a matter of little difficulty to move them, and, through them, the mass of the Parisians. The gardens of the Palais Royal afforded also a ready stage for the impassioned declaimer upon popular rights, who, mounting a chair, or the most convenient elevation, harangued the multitude with an eloquence and fervour which seldom failed to prove impressive, LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. meeting, as it did, with a ready response in the bosoms of the auditors. The court, under the advice of Necker, now yielded to the wishes of the people, and the question of the propriety of giving a double representation to the Tiers Etat was submitted to an assembly of notables, divided into bureaux, each presided over by a prince of the blood. The only bureau which recommended the double representation was under the presidency of Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII. ; but, as the Duke of Orleans seldom attended the deliberations at Ver- sailles, he cannot be held responsible for the decision of the bureau of which he had been named president. The severity of the winter of 1789 called forth the active liberality of the wealthier and elevated classes of society at Paris. In the houses of the noblesse, tables spread with food were always prepared for the sufferers, without distinction of persons ; and, amongst those who exerted themselves on this humane occasion, none was more conspicuous than the duke. Passing in his cabriolet through the quarter of the Faubourg de St. Germain, he was so affected by the picture of misery that presented itself there, that he suddenly stopped, hired spacious apartments for three months, in which he opened a public kitchen, and distributed thence, at his own expense, a daily supply equivalent to the wants of the necessitous. In this humane conduct he was imitated by his amiable duchess, as well as by his sister the Duchess de Bourbon. The growing popularity of the duke induced the court to desire, and to seek, a more intimate con- nexion with his family, in order to secure his interest in the important scenes, soon likely to be enacted in the States General. With this view the king pro- POLITIC MARRIAGES PROPOSED. 25 posed an alliance between Mademoiselle d'Orleans, the duke's daughter, and the young Duke d'Angouleme, son of the Comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. Mademoiselle, since known as Madame Adelaide, had not quite reached her twelfth year, and the prince had only entered his fourteenth. Had Louis been able to withdraw the veil of destiny, he would have seen, that this alliance was never to be formed, but, that it was his own daughter whom fate had selected to be the future Duchess d'Angouleme. Another marriage, however, then proposed, was subsequently realized, that of a princess of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies with the Due de Chartres, eldest son of the Duke of Orleans, and afterwards king of the French, which Louis XVI. promised to promote in every way. The course of these memoirs will unfold the accomplishment of this union, under circumstances, however, very different from those contemplated either by Louis XVI. or his noble relative. Amongst the various stratagems, practised by the Duke of Orleans for the accumulation of popularity, none gave so much offence to the nobility as his renun- ciation of all his feudal rights, and his granting per- mission to the public to hunt, and shoot, and sport indiscriminately, over his vast domains. In addition to this extraordinary measure, he circulated, in his own name, a pamphlet suggesting instructions to be given by all constituencies to their deputies, the whole ten- dency of which was to curb the power of the aristocracy, take away their exclusive privileges, and extend the influence of the Tiers Etat. There was one of the duke's suggestions, however, which occasioned consider- able surprise the introduction into France of a law to facilitate divorces. The Catholic was the established I. E C 2f) LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. religion of that country, in which the indissolubility of the sacred tie of marriage is an article of faith, conse- quently, divorces are not permitted in any country where that religion prevails. To admit, therefore, of divorce, even under the modified form in which it takes place in England, seemed to verge towards Protestantism ; yet, the effect of these "Instructions" upon the public mind was quite unparalleled the accession of popula- rity he obtained was immense the journals were filled with eulogies on his character and, when he appeared in public, the very air rang with shouts of applause. Never did the presence of Titus, never did that of Henri Quatre, excite higher or more rapturous trans- ports. Having visited the Italian comedy a few days after the publication of his Instructions, the spectacle was necessarily discontinued, as the rounds of plaudits were incessant, actors and spectators being literally intoxicated with this new idolatry. A similar display, attended with the same character of enthusiasm, was exhibited at a promenade of the Parisians to Long- Champs, in Passion- week. The duke, surrounded by his entire family, having presented himself to the people, the multitude crowded around, prostrated themselves at his feet, and loaded him with their blessings. There were some, however, who, independently of the religious view of the question, still felt that there was a want of delicacy in the duke's advocacy of a divorce law, being united to a princess so amiable, virtuous, and accom- plished. But the influence which he had acquired soon gave evidence of its extent ; being named deputy by two bailliages, of which he accepted Villers Cotterets ; whilst, in Paris, he was chosen an elector m the assembly of nobles. In the electoral assembly, also, his patron- procured the return of such as were of his own, DESTRUCTION OF REVEILLON*S FACTORY. 27 party, or, at least, detached from that of the court. He was also unanimously chosen representative of the no- blesse of Paris, hut, having accepted the deputation of Villers Cotterets, he was obliged to decline the honour. The court now becoming jealous of his influence, and totally distrusting his loyalty, openly broke with him, and notified its determination to resist the proposition of the double marriage. But this was a short-sighted policy, which only confirmed him in his enmity without weaken- ing his power ; and henceforth we find him directing the whole weight of that power to thwart the measures of the crown, and to compass the ruin of the monarch. A short time previous to the opening of the States General, Paris was made the scene of a fatal disturb- ance, in which circumstances seemed to implicate the Duke of Orleans as an accomplice. The people, who were still suffering from the high price of corn, became exasperated against a paper manufacturer, named Reveillon, who was so indiscreet as to say, " That they ought to think themselves very well off in having bread even so cheap, and that seven- pence-halfpenny a day was very good wages for working men." In the fury of their indignation, they burnt the blockhead in effigy, and proceeded to his manufactory, in the quarter of St.Antoine, to wreak their further vengeance upon him, in the annihilation of his property ; but a guard of soldiers, stationed in the street that led to the factory, for a while prevented the accomplish- ment of their purpose. While both parties were observing each other, the Duke of Orleans came up, being en route to the races at Vincennes, which he had himself previously fixed for that day. The mob instantly raising the most deafening cheers, he stopped to acknowledge the compliment, in a few conciliatory 28 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. words, and then rode forward. His duchess, returning from the races in the evening, was not deterred by the riot from taking the same route, and was received with similar acclamations ; even the soldiers, respecting a princess so immeasurably esteemed, made way for her carriage to pass. The barrier being now broken, the rioters seized on the advantage which it gave them, and rushing en masse into the factory, commenced the work of destruction. Additional troops were soon upon the spot, but the multitude were then so steeped in mischief, that it was not until many lives were sacrificed that they could either be diverted from their object or repulsed. The duke's presence in the earlier part of the day, as well as the manner in which his duchess was permitted to pass through the street in the evening, although it faci- litated the movements of the rioters, is capable of being accounted for in the simplest and most natural manner. Yet, such suspicions did appearances excite, that he felt it necessary to publish a defence of himself, which con- cluded with these words : "But the truth shall not be long delayed. I know who are the true authors of the emeute of which they wish to render me culpable ; I know them, I shall demand the justice of the king against them ; I shall denounce them openly ; I shall deliver them up to the States General for trial ; I shall supplicate the severest sentence against them. Finally, I solemnly pledge myself to print and publish my denun- ciation." A stronger proof of his innocence than his own declaration, was to be found in the fact, that Reveillon himself did not accuse him, but threw the whole blame of this movement upon an Abbe Leroi, author of the " History of Cardinals," against whom he had insti- tuted legal proceedings. STATES GENERAL SIT AT VERSAILLES. 2 the Orleans family resumed their tours of pleasure, recreation, and instruction : St. Valery was one of the first places which they visited, and there the Duke of Chartres and his sister were godfather and godmother to a vessel about to be launched, and which it was agreed should be named after the young prince. The ceremony was rather interesting ; and the cure, who strewed salt and corn, symbols of plenty, on the deck, addressed a very touching discourse to his noble auditors : " The bene- diction of a vessel about to depart on a long and perilous voyage, is a most appropriate subject for a lecture intended for a young prince." From La Motte the party proceeded to Havre de Grace, where they visited the arsenals and the mole, and beheld with regret a huge slave-ship that was lying there ; an FORTRESS OF ST. MICHAEL. $ infamous evidence of the cupidity and injustice of their nation. The rocky fortress of St. Michael, one of the most romantic objects in Europe, became the next subject of their solicitude ; and no fatigue appeared intolerable in order to attain that destination. Having sur- mounted all difficulties of the way, they entered the citadel, where the people of the place, dressed as soldiers, and bearing guns, awaited the princes. There were no troops stationed in the fortress but in time of war ; and during peace the prior was the comman- dant. Passing the citadel they entered the town, where every house was lighted up, and the proprietor of each standing at the door. Having climbed the steep street for half an hour, escorted by all the monks, and the inhabitants bearing lanterns, they quit- ted the town, and ascended four hundred steps, high and difficult, all moss-grown and overhung with bram- bles. The uppermost landing led into a gothic church, with a noble choir, belonging to the convent, and a second flight of stairs conducted to the lofty and elegant suite of apartments destined for the reception of the illustrious visitors. Above these apartments, and on the summit of the fort, was a Belvedere, which was reached by another series of steps, and also four hun- dred in number. When the Duke of Chartres visited St. Michael's, twelve monks dwelt permanently there, but no novices were received. They appeared to employ the best means in their power to alleviate the sufferings of the prisoners ; they refused to admit any but those whom the king himself condemned to captivity in their cells, and they not unfrequently took the wretched captives to walk with them in the vicinity of the mount. 94 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. One of the first subjects of curiosity to the gouver- nante and her charge in this state-prison, was the famous iron cage, in which prisoners committed on lettres de cachet were confined. Amongst those whose sufferings were most distinctly remembered, was the editor of a Dutch newspaper, whom Louis XIV. caused to be arrested by a party of gens-d'armes, placed in ambush for the purpose, and actually torn from the very bosom of his own country. This unhappy man's crime consisted in having published certain articles in his journal, favourable to the cause of universal free- dom, displeasing, therefore, to the King of France. For this abuse of the liberty of the press, the journalist suffered seventeen years' incarceration, not merely within the walls of these frightful dungeons, but still farther shut in from the world within the bars of the iron cage at St. Michael's. This infamous structure for the infliction of insult above injury, was not wholly of iron, but consisted of enormous logs of wood, placed at intervals of about four inches breadth, the whole being secured by huge iron bars and strong clasps. When the young Duke arrived at this infamous scene, fifteen years had elapsed since the cage had been permanently tenanted, but the prior acknowledged that refractory individuals of the monastery or the town, were occasionally put in for four-and-twenty hours. Even this was a stretch of power highly cen- surable, for the dungeon in which the cage stood was dark, damp and unwholesome, and other places of con- finement in the same bastile were equally terrific, with- out being equally destructive of health. The prior, perceiving the rising indignation of the youthful visitors, informed them that it \vas his intention, at no very distant period, to destroy this monument of the DEMOLITION OF THE IRON CAGE. 95 cruelty of princes ; the duke and his sister expressed the utmost delight at the determination of the prior, and asked permission to be present at this interesting sacrifice to freedom. The request was at once assented to ; in addition to other reasons, for one that is deserving of being recorded, namely, that when the Count d'Ar- tois (afterwards Charles X.) had visited the mount only a few months previously, he had commanded its demolition ; some trifling reasons were given why this peremptory order had not been complied with, and the delay was readily pardoned, since it was transformed, by the visit of the prince and his sister, into an occasion of happiness and triumph. The gouvernante, who participated sanguinely in everything that tended to the extension of rational freedom, was present during this conversation ; and she had the sad gratification of being lodged, during her stay at St. Michael's, in the chamber where the Abbe Sabattiere slept while a state-prisoner there. He too had been a victim to the cause of liberty ; for the only crime with which he had ever been charged, was his having spoken too forcibly and truthfully against the grossest abuses of public trusts. He had the good fortune to have produced a happier effect upon the feelings of his venerable jailors, who never spoke of him during Madame Genlis' sojourn amongst those "cloud-capped towers," without emotion and enthu- siasm. The demolition of the iron cage by the future King of the French, is thus related by his gouvernante, her- self a witness of the scene : " A few hours before our departure from St. Michael's, the prior, followed by the monks, two carpenters, one of the Swiss of the castle, and the greater part of the prisoners (who, at our 96 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. request, were allowed to be present), accompanied us to the vault containing the horrible cage. In order to reach it we were obliged to traverse caverns so dark, that we had to use lighted flambeaux ; and after having descended many steps, we reached a frightful cavern, where stood this abominable structure. It was surpris- ingly small, and placed on ground so damp, that the water was seen running under it. I entered with sentiments of horror and indignation, mingled with the pleasant feeling that at least thanks to my pupils no unfor- tunate person would ever have to reflect with bitter- ness within its walls, on his own misfortunes and the cruelty of men. The Duke of Chartres, with the most touching expression, and with a strength beyond his years, gave the first blow with his axe to the cage, after which the carpenters cut down the door, and removed some of the wood. I have never witnessed anything more affecting than the transports, the acclamations, and the applauses of the prisoners, during this demolition. In the midst of the tumult, I was struck with the melan- choly and miserable looks of the Swiss, who regarded the operation with evident symptoms of grief. I mentioned this to the prior, who replied, that the Swiss regretted the destruction of the cage, because he derived some fees for showing it to strangers. The explanation being overheard by the Duke of Chartres, he turned instantly round, and handing ten louis to the Swiss, said, ' In future, instead of showing the iron cage to travellers, you will have to point out to them the place where it once stood, and surely that view will be infinitely more gratifying to those who possess feelings of humanity.' ' Having performed this work of mercy, the duke visited the different apartments of the castle, prison, and monastery, and inspected the rude machinery by MOUNT ST. MICHAEL. 97 which supplies were raised from the foot of the rock to the open casements of the refectory. The wheel em- ployed for this purpose is of large diameter, and is worked like a capstan, except that its plane is perpen- dicular to the horizon, and the power applied as in Carysbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight, where a donkey turns it, inside the drum. From the parapets of the castle, the view is in the highest degree commanding : Mont Tomblaine, which is but one mile distant, over- tops Saint Michael, and is a much larger mass, but is not inhabited. But from this elevation, and from its own insular character, it appears a mere speck upon the great mirror of the ocean. Tradition informs us that this beautiful mount, being, like Montserrat in Spain, or still more similar to Athos in Greece, tenanted by hermits, was frequently visited by the good St. Michael. This excellent man uniformly selected the most inaccessible situations for the display of his powers, but his taste for the pictu- resque partook, in no moderate degree, of a romantic character. The bold and beautiful mount now dedi- cated to his honour in Cornwall, is one of the noblest coast-views in Great Britain, and his rock at Puy is less sublime but not less singular than his mount in the bay of Avranches. This latter, accessible only at low water on one side, is completely fortified by its crags and cliffs, and mural precipices, rendering all approach impracticable, except by the most consummate courage and address. The other sides are defended by ramparts, semilunar towers, and defensive works, so strong and skilful in execution, as to render the for- tress impregnable to any attack. On one of his visits to this favourite retreat, St. Michael commanded the hermits to build a monastery upon the "Mount of the i. o 98 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Tomb," its ancient name, and imparted a distinguished sanctity to the site hy performing upon it several miracles. However after ages have smiled at the credulity of their ancestors, the Dukes of Normandy and many French and foreign princes made pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Michael, and laid offerings on his altar, which the careful monks removed, and still preserve in the treasury of their gothic convent. Such religious visits are not yet entirely discontinued, and shells, crucifixes, silver medals, printed regulations for the performance of devotion at the various stations, and at the shrine, are still dispensed, as in the instance of the pilgrims to St. Patrick's Purgatory on Lough Dearg in Ireland. The young Duke of Chartres was loaded with these religious records, as well as with gifts of a more im- perishable nature the prayers and blessings of the prisoners for whose liberty he pleaded the poor whose wants he liberally relieved. There is a library attached to the establishment, but its contents are less varied and extensive than the remoteness of St. Michael's from the busy haunts of men would seem to require. One apartment, however, the Sale de Chevalerie, or Hall of the Knights, is of noble proportions, and in character with the high nature of its former appropria- tion. Here the knights of the order of St. Michael of the Mount, met in solemn convocation, and swore to defend the sacred rock and abbey, after the forms of their brethren of the church-militant at Malta and Jerusalem. No circumstance connected with this interesting scene, excites more surprise than the state of preserva- tion, solidity, and strength, which this extensive collec- lection of buildings continues to exhibit, through so many centuries of time, and exposed to the rocking tempests and angry waters. " I was delighted," says LAST DAY AT ST. MICHAEI/S. 99 the gouvernante of the illustrious youth, "to have seen this spot, at once so melancholy and so strange : this amphibious castle, of which the possession is by turns rejected both by land and sea ; for the mountain is one part of the day a solitary island in the midst of the sea, and at another it is placed on a vast plain of arid sand." When the party were about to bid farewell to St. Michael's, with which they had eternally and honourably connected their high names, the Duke of Chartres, with all the fervour of youthful generosity, obtained the prior's permission for several of the prisoners to accompany him to the foot of the rock. One of these poor captives had suffered fifteen months' incarcera- tion, without ever being permitted to descend from the highest story of the fort. When this victim of state policy found himself once more at large, and felt the verdure underneath his step, with emotions combining joy and tenderness, he exclaimed, " O ! what happiness it is to tread once more upon the grass ! " Madame Genlis had derived support from his arm in descending to the place of embarkation, and his sufferings made an indelible impression upon the whole party. Upon their arrival at Paris she made some fruitless attempts to obtain his release, but it was reserved for the more sincere heart of the Duke of Chartres to enjoy the happiness of becoming his liberator, by his intercession with the cruel authorities that imprisoned him. It has been asserted, but with no demonstration of its truth, that the prisoners in Mount St. Michael were subjected to disgraceful cruelty and restrictions, result- ing from the capricious tyranny of the ruling prior. We have the evidence of the reigning monarch of France, that such was not the case during the heated 100 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. atmosphere of his eventful youth ; and so recently as 1834, a still more singular testimony was afforded, in the courage and devotion of the prisoners, who not only extinguished a conflagration which threatened to destroy the whole edifice, but actually saved the lives of their reverend keepers. From St. Michael the tourists proceeded to Mont- marin, where they witnessed the happy consequences of well-directed industry in the prosperity of an individual, named Dubois, who, from the earnings of his honour- able labours, constructed a harbour at this place, situated near St. Malo, which proved so beneficial to the vicinity as a safe asylum for shipping/ that in a few years he saw a flourishing sea-port town grow up under his auspices, and in submission to his wishes and interests. What a contrast the useful life of this enterprising man afforded to those of his own class at that period, in other parts of France, who clamoured, rebelled, and at length proceeded to the extremity of death, in order to obtain an imaginary property, which they have proved to all Europe they were incompetent to enjoy. Such an example as Dubois's could not have been lost upon the youthful Duke, whose mind seemed to imbibe the most useful impressions with the utmost powers of absorption. Revolutionary principles had continued to spread over France during the boyhood of the Duke of Char- tres ; and when he approached to the age of manhood, the revolution may be said to have also attained its full growth. His father's participation in the new order of things was not concealed from him ; and his affectionate disposition left him readily susceptible of those political principles, which he witnessed daily in him, as well as in his gouvernante, whose abilities he POLITICAL CHARACTER OF MADAME GENLIS. 101 naturally respected and admired. Had Madame de Genlis confined the studies of her pupils to history, science, and general literature, and their practical education to the useful employments before described as forming part of her system, without introducing them to an acquaintance with political factions, and the most violent family feuds that have arisen in modern history, her duties to her pupils and her country would have been more honourably discharged. But her mind was too active for the employment she had undertaken ; incapable of being confined to the limits of mere instruction of youth, it looked abroad over the agitated waves of politics, and participated, with a lively anxiety, in every rise and fall of the waters. Conscious of her impropriety in teaching modern politics to her pupils, in after years she endea- voured to defend herself, and has ventured to say, that " she was. of no party, but that of religion ;* she desired to see the reformation of abuses, and witnessed with joy the demolition of the Bastille, the abolition of lettres de cachet, and of the rights of the chase ; but that her politics never went further." So warm an interest, however, did she feel in this particular part of the revolutionary proceedings, that she had the imprudence to carry her pupils with her from St. Leu to Paris, in order to be present at the performance of this tremendous drama ; totally overlooking the fact, that the destruction of the Bastille, however humanity may defend, and even applaud it, was an act of the greatest insubordination, a violation of the royal autho- rity, a total contempt for legal restraints, and one of the worst examples that ingenuity could have detected * A subject that has agitated every country in Europe succes- sively, and extended its powerful influence to the shores of Asia. LIKE AND TIMKS OF l.OHS 1MIII.UMM . to he submitted by a governess to her pupils. This instance is sufficient to prove, however she may have denied the fact, that in political allairs, during this terrific revolution, the feelings and passions of .Madame Genlis completely outran her judgment. " Desiring to show her pupils everything," their gouvernante proceeded to Paris, where she had pre- viously secured places for the party in the garden of Beaumarchois, that the children of the Duke of Orleans, the first prince of the blood-royal, might. witness a violent ebullition of popular feeling, and, by their presence, sanction an act done in direct hostility to the royal authority. With such sentiments, her description of the razing of this hated edifice must have been sufficiently enthusiastic ; she declares that the event must have been seen to be understood : " This redoubtable fortress was covered with men, women, and children, working with unequalled ardour, even on the most lofty parts of the building, and on its turrets. The astonishing numbers of these voluntary labourers, their activity, their enthusiasm, their delight at seeing the fall of that terrible monument of tyranny ; these avenging hands, which seemed consecrated by Providence, and which annihilated with such rapidity the work of many centuries : all this spoke at once to the imagination and the heart." Such an initiation was hardly equitable, certainly not wise, as regarded the formation of her pupils' judgment : they must naturally have acquired a taste, and attachment, for those particular political views, to which they were introduced by those whom they most respected, and whom it was their duty to regard and obey. Such a scene as the demolition of the Bastille, totally indepen- dent of the moral of the transaction, must have been Jiff. MHLANTHUOPIC SOCIETY. 103 particularly attractive to the young princes, were it only from its noisy, tumultuous character ; for when they came to the place of action, human havoc had ended, and mirth and triumph were painted on every face. One of the first evidences of the efficacy of her poli- tical system of instruction, which her pupils afforded, occurred in the instance of the Duke of Chartres : bf;inj( informed that a decree of the assembly had annul- led all the rights of primogeniture, he turned instantly round, and embracing his brother, the Duke de Mont- pensier, who was present, said aloud, "Ah! now, indeed, we are brothers in every respect." Such a heart as this incident displays, however false the theory in which it happened to originate, was worthy of any human being; and perhaps there never was a more appro- priate honour conferred upon a prince, or a subject, of any realm, than that of electing this generous young man a member of the Philanthropic Society, which took place about this period. It is but justice to his governess to state, that this compliment was paid to him at her suggestion ; and, presuming upon the high reputation of Charost, the president, for universal bene- volence, it was but reasonable to conclude that charitable measures only could emanate from that society. How far it is fair to the fortunes of a child to educate him in peculiar political prejudices, none will question; the expediency, in special cases, may possibly create some doubt ; but in this instance, the early initiation of the Duke of Chartres, by his governess, in the new principles of government then in course of dissemina- tion in France, widened the breach between the court and the Orleans family. It was customary to confer the cordon-lieu upon princes of the blood at an early age, but such was the angry feeling of the court towards 104 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the house of Egalite, that it was not until January, 1789, that the Duke of Chartres was made a knight of the order of the Holy Ghost. The distinction entitled its possessor to an annual pension of a thousand crowns, which sum the generous boy shared equally with his brothers and sisters, that all might have means of still further relieving the unfortunate. A grave offence to the feelings of the royal family was the admission of the youthful Duke of Chartres into the Jacobin Club ; this step was solely attributable to his father, and was taken in direct opposition to the wishes of Madame Genlis. She protests against the language of those who add this to the catalogue of miseries, which they believe to have resulted from her influence over the Duke of Orleans ; and they, on the other hand, deny wholly that this circumstance was at all connected with the withdrawal of the Duchess of Orleans' friendship from her the indignation of that virtuous woman towards the governess of her children, arose from different and very natural causes. Although Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, did not personally share in the operations of the numerous clubs that brought about the first revolution that con- tinued the horrors of civil war produced a tyranny and, ultimately, placed him upon the throne ; yet his exile, and the sufferings of himself and of his race, flow so immediately from the decisions of these tribunals, that his prudence and principles cannot be justly estimated, unless accompanied by some account of those individuals and associations who were the means of testing them. The Jacobin Club is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in history. That so large a body of men, and in a civilized nation, could be found, uniting rare energy with execrable vice, political madness and out- THE JACOBIN CLUB. 105 rageous cruelty, committed always in the name of virtue, is a solecism in politics and history of the most unusual character. The state of France, before the birth of this political monster, was deplorable ; the great mass of the people was totally uneducated and grievously oppressed, and the whole state organization so rotten, that once touched it necessarily fell to pieces. Nor did the religious condition of the country possess any superiority over the political : the church was too corrupt to withstand the bold attacks of the reformers, enthusiastically devoted to the new system. The court and the aristocracy in general, had, for centuries previously, given an example of gross immorality to the people, which had produced its natural effects in vitiating their character. The adversaries of both church and nobility, who acceded to power upon the overthrow of the old order of things, were wholly unacquainted with the practical administration of gov- ernment, and their sole guide was abstract philoso- phical principles. Under these circumstances, the excesses which the French people committed, when left to govern themselves, are matter of sorrow rather than of wonder. It was at this period, and during this transition in politics and government, that the Jacobin Club sprung up, shaped after models which, it will be seen, the authors had borrowed from other countries. There were in London certain debating societies, where the cultivation of oratory was the professed object, and from which, as unsuited to youthful minds, political and party questions, or, as they were technically termed, " modern politics," were to be excluded. There were some questions, however, of an aspect so tempting to the generous soul, such as the "Impressment of Seamen," i. p 106 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and the " Liberty of the Press," that they found admission into the list of subjects, and the warm debates that followed the proposition of these theories, ulti- mately engendered an extensive spirit of republicanism. These schools of oratory, becoming hot-beds of repub- licanism, if not of sedition, were discouraged ; but the doctrines promulgated in them had first been wafted over the Atlantic, where they caused to England the loss of her greatest colonies. Having the model of the London Oratorical Society before them, as a theoretical example, and the separation of America from England as a practical one, the Bureaux d' Esprit, or Literary Associations, in Paris, passed at once from their chrysalis state into a perfect practical existence. Seeing the necessity of concert, in order to oppose the court party with effect, the most active and dis- tinguished members of the first National Assembly generally met in the afternoon, at the house of one of their body, and there matured plans of operation for the following day. In this way the Jacobin Club originated, and Mirabeau was at first amongst its members ; but, when they transgressed all constitutional limits, he not only seceded from but denounced them. La Fayette followed his example, yet both were obliged to return and supplicate re-admission, finding that the Jacobin Club was then the only medium through which any beneficial measure could be effected in the National Assembly. Wisdom and moderation withdrew from this assembly when Mirabeau died (in 1791); and when Clermont Tonnerre organised the " Monarchical Club," as a counterpoise, the Jacobins appealed to an armed mob, which succeeded in dispersing the royalists by violence. From this moment they felt that they possessed physical force, and became insolent ; the flight FRIENDS OF THE REVOLUTION. 107 of the king exasperated them beyond any calculation ; and, after 1792, their principles became so exaggerated, that Freron, Legendre, and many other original mem- bers, were expelled from the club as royalists, or " moderes." The resolutions of these secret meetings found undeviating support from every member of the club, in his place in the National Assembly, and the Bretons, the founders, to secure their measures, aug- mented the number of the club. In this way, the mem- bers being pledged to a certain line of conduct upon every public question, before it was brought forward in the general assembly of national representatives, an imperium in imperio was formed by a strong party, which always voted together. It should not be unno- ticed, that besides the intolerance exhibited towards those of different opinions, which afterwards degenerated into political proscription and persecution, personal motives had a powerful influence on the members. The private house in which these partisans assem- bled being no longer capable of containing the enlarged number of the " Friends of the Revolution" at the close of the year 1789, they chose for their place of meeting the church of a suppressed Jacobin* monastery, in the street of St. Honore, which is in the centre of Paris. From the date of this removal they were called Jacobins, although they are frequently mentioned in history, even after this period, as the "Friends of the Constitution :" their external symbol, at first, was a red cap, but subsequently their sansculottism was designated by a slovenly dress. The revolution now spread itself rapidly, and, in all the principal towns, even in many small villages, * A name given, in France, to Dominican friars, because their first convent at Paris was in the street of St. Jaqiies. IDS' LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. similar clubs were formed, which the parent society in Paris had rendered dependent on itself, and which, by this centralization, became enabled to direct the public opinion of all France. The principal club, in which two thousand five hundred members were frequently convened, during the year 1792, maintained a com- munication with upwards of four hundred affiliated societies, and the total number of Jacobins then in France was estimated at 400,000. It is unnecessary to designate here the principal cha- racters of this celebrated assembly, as it is a fact, with which every reader of modern history is acquainted, that every man of that period who played, or desired to play, a conspicuous part in the French revolution, must neces- sarily have been a Jacobin. This extensive influence was more readily obtained in France, at that moment, than in any other country, from the peculiar and falla- cious system of centralization which is adopted there, by which Paris exerts such a controlling power, that a Frenchman speaking of his country, in most instances, includes Paris only in his contemplation. Whatever mea- sure the Jacobins proposed in the National Assembly, however daring its character, obtained the ready assent of all other popular societies, from their connexion with the leading members of those clubs. This advan- tage induced ambitious individuals, several even of the highest classes, to renounce the privileges of their order, and become Jacobins, to push their projects with more success in the new order of things. The exaltation of a revolutionary spirit was most rapid ; but the intrigues of the opposing party created so much dissension amongst its advocates, in which foreign influence is known to have been employed, that the boldest characters amongst the revolutionists THE CLUB OF CORDELIERS. 109 selected a smaller club, to which all the "exaltes" attached themselves. This branch society was called " the Club of Cordeliers," from their place of meeting, the choir of a Franciscan friary of that order. It was here that the daring Danton found a field suited to the exercise of his vicious powers ; and here the monster Marat * formed his wild and criminal maxim, " the end justifies the means," Here sansculottism was fully developed in all its deformity and violence, in its hatred of religion, and contempt of morality and law. The circumstances of that agitated period required the boldest measures, and the most unscru- pulous were of course the most daring. In such a whirlwind, such spirits alone were abroad as the ex- capuchin Chabot, Anacharsis Cloots, and Collet d'Her- bois, who carried their temerity to the utmost possible length in their public declamation. The Jacobins desired to abolish monarchy, and set up, instead, a republic ; the Orleanists and Brissotists sought the decheance of Louis, with the intention of placing Egalite on the throne ; as all three, however, meditated the fall of the monarch, unity in this point was sufficient to place them on the right side of the hall of the National Assembly, the members of all the other popular societies taking their seats opposite. Distinction between right and left was, however, un- real ; all free discussion, all calm deliberation having long before been dismissed from that assembly, and the vote of every member being disposed of, by concert, before he presented himself to tender it. The cere- monies and rules by which the National Assembly had formerly been regulated, becoming a dead letter, the * Editor of a journal called " The Friend of the People" and assassinated by Charlotte Corday, in 1793. 110 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. clubs adopted them, and, by anticipating discussions, superseded all necessity for more public deliberation. Presidents, secretaries, and requisite officers in all parliaments were chosen ; the order of the day deter- mined, resolutions proposed, seconded, passed by a majority of votes, and tribunes or seats assigned to the audience. Such was the effect of familiarity, that at length it was proposed, dispassionately, in the National Assembly, that a law should be included in the new constitution, then preparing, legalising all such socie- ties as the Jacobins, Cordeliers, and others. This law was a virtual resignation of its authority, at least, of its liberty, by the great council of the nation, over which, henceforth, Jacobinism triumphed and tyrannized. Whenever a Jacobin measure was resisted, and a majority in its favour uncertain, the tribunes in the hall of the deputies were filled by the followers of that party, who, by their disorderly con- duct, and not unfrequently by uttering loud threats against individual members, discouraged all opinions that did not coincide with those of the party by whom they had been suborned. This infamous stratagem was practised with the most lamentable success with respect to the king, against whom the Jacobins and Cordeliers propagated publicly the grossest calumnies ; and, whenever they thought proper to indulge in slan- derous charges against their majesties, to drown the voice of truth and virtue, which would have been raised in refutation, they hired the lowest rabble, and filling the tribunes of the hall with them, placed their systematic interruption under the direction of some devoted partisan. It was to such infamous means, it was to slanders, calumnies, and the most deliberate falsehoods, propa- THE FEUILLANTES. Ill gated according to this plan, and by the leaders of the Jacobin party, that the emeute is to be ascribed which opposed, with so much violence, the departure of Louis XVI. to St. Cloud, on the eighteenth of April, 1791, where he wished to pass the Easter holidays. Even the national guard had been so empoisoned by the uncontradicted falsehoods of the Jacobins, that they disobeyed the orders of their commander, La Fayette, and refused to escort the king, who was already seated in his carriage, through the immense multitude that collected to impede him. The king's enemies had just then been multiplied by the accession of the Cordeliers, who had rejoined the Jacobins upon the secession from that body of the more moderate members. This reunion did not extinguish the Cor- deliers ; they only merged pro tempore in the Jacobin Club, resuming their separate existence at pleasure ; and, as the Jacobins matured measures to submit to the National Assembly, the Cordeliers prepared and 'digested the different subjects for discussion in the Jacobin assembly, preserving unity, therefore, amongst their own members. After the flight of the king, it was the Cordeliers alone who were insatiable in their clamours for his deposition and death a republican government they declared to be alone consistent with liberty. Their desperate attempts to augment the popular hatred were successfully opposed, and for a considerable time, by the more moderate party, the Feuillantes ;* and their opposition produced the failure of the insurrection of July, 1791. This success, how- * So called from the church of a nunnery of Feuillantes, in which they met. Feuillantes observed the rule of St. Bernard ; but they reformed, and settled, under the new rule, at Feuillans, near Thoulouse, whence their denomination. 12 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. ever, was counterbalanced by the inability of the Constituent assembly to dissolve the Jacobin Club before the close of its own session. Towards the conclusion of the year 1791, the Cor- deliers met a still more determined opposition from the royalists. Although the Jacobins exerted a most ex- tensive influence in the choice of delegates to the Legislative Assembly, the king's party was unexpect- edly strong ; amongst them, the Girondists,* conspicuous for talents and parliamentary tact, maintained a spirited opposition, and secured a majority against the Corde- liers, even in the Jacobin Club ; so that the most des- perate leaders of that notorious society, Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, were under the necessity of disguising their projects. But Jacobin authority and power were then irresistible in Paris the mayor Petion, and all the municipal authorities were members of the club, and carried their partisanship along with them in the discharge of their civic duties. In addition to this unnatural accession to the enemies of the throne, there were found many moderate Jacobins, and several even of the king's ministers, through either treachery or timidity, in the ranks of his opponents. By Jacobin instigation an insurrection was caused in May 1792, as a pretext for proposing a resolution in the .National Assembly, requiring the king to disband the body-guard decreed him by the first assembly of the nation. The club organized a second insurrection in the suburbs of St. Antoine and St. Marcell, to oblige the monarch to retract a veto he had affixed to two resolutions of the National Assembly, but in this project they were frus- * So called because their leaders, Guadet, Gensonne, Vergniatid Ducos, and" several others equally distinguished by their abilities and eloquence, were from the department of the Gironie. THE DUKE OF CHARTRES A JACOBIN. 113 trated by the bravery of the life-guard and cowardice of the mob, whose most furious attacks were successfully resisted by only four Swiss grenadiers. Petion and Manuel were proved to have been the promoters and leaders of this tumult, but the Jacobin party rescued them from the punishment due to their treason, and passed an act of indemnity relative to the riot, in which they were both included. The Jacobin Club, to which the Duke of Orleans had introduced his eldest son, that he there might learn how to rule, had now arrived at the zenith of its power and of its infamy also. In direct opposition to the Cordeliers, they declared war against Austria, because Kaunitz, the Austrian minister, had not sufficiently respected the dignity of political clubs. Their influence was discovered in every department of the government, as well as of the kingdom : in the selection of generals, in proclamations, in the very disposition of the armies ; so that neither La Fayette (in 1792), nor Dumouriez, in the following year, could excite the army against them. In short, every public act of treason, cruelty, violation of national or international law, from the 20th June, 1792, to the close of the revolution, was, more or less, the work of Jacobinism. Amongst these are the arrival of the confederates from Brest and Marseilles ; the attack on the Tuilleries, the seizure, imprisonment, and death of the king ; massacre of the prisoners with- out trial ; all the misdeeds of the convention, and the establishment of the revolutionary tribunal, in 1793. The Jacobins were separated into two parties, both agreeing as to the end, but differing as to the means. Tallien, who overthrew Robespierre, was as true a Jacobin as the latter. The enthusiastic suspected the moderate ; the victory was long doubtful j but the I. Q Ill LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. latter were vanquished. The only true republicans, the Girondists, or party of the plain, were subdued by the more violent of the Jacobins, or party of the moun- tain, and these again submitted to the Maratists, or Cordeliers, who ruled in the Jacobin Club with uncon- trollable sway, under the duumvirate of Robespierre the incorruptible, and Danton the formidable creator of the revolution, with Marat for an assistant. In the provinces, at Bourdeaux, Marseilles, and Lyons, the moderate party prevailed, and the South actually took up arms against the Jacobin Convention. The mountain party, however, having succeeded in de- priving the convention totally of its power, on the sug- gestion and motion of Billaud de Varennes, the consti- tution gave way to the reign of terror. The triumph of Jacobinism was not yet arrived ; this appeared to have been reserved for " the Com- mittee of Safety," established under Robespierre, which completed the reign of terror, and employed the revolutionary armies in suppressing insurrection with fire and sword, in Vendee and the South. Large cities, such as Lyons, Marseilles, and Toulon, were destined to total demolition, and all Vendee was to be converted into a field of blood and ashes. On these frightful determinations the terrorists acted, and it was only by fourteen disciplined armies, the aid of the guillotine, and a stubborness which the circumstances of the time sustained, that the victory was finally won over the system of terror. It was said at that moment, " that France only wanted iron and bread." The convention having resolved upon recovering their authority and they had been taught the most effectual method by their enemies one system of terror was opposed to the other ; and, by bringing the dictator, CHARACTER OF CARRIER. 115 Robespierre, with one hundred and four of his partisans, and all the municipal council of Paris, to the guillotine, the object was ultimately attained. Henceforth all popular assemblies were disowned, and their interference in affairs of government neither tolerated nor recognised. The Jacobins promoted an insurrection in November 1794, to tear from the sword of justice the monster Carrier,* who had been arrested on the ninth Thermi- dor (twenty-seventh July) 1794, and condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal, but in vain their energies were exhausted, their reign had passed away. * The prisoners, after the defeat of the Vendeans near Savenay, were so much increased in number, that special commissions were appointed to deliver the gaols in the provinces. Multitudes, informally tried, and precipitately condemned, were executed daily; but even this infamous process of immolation seemed too slow for Carrier, who had been despatched to Nantes to suppress the civil war. He resolved, therefore, to destroy the prisoners in a mass, and without any trial. He commenced his system of extermination by causing" ninety-four priests to be placed in a boat under the pretence of having them con- veyed to another place of confinement, but in reality with a view of drowning them in the river at night-time, the bottom of the boat being perforated ; and this artifice was repeated every day during the system of extermination. At evening, the destined victims, of every age and of both sexes, were brought to the fatal boats ; two were generally tied together and plunged into the water, at the point of the bayonet and the edge of the sabre. Sometimes the executioners amused themselves by tying together a young man and woman, and they designated these noyades, republican marriages. Besides these means of destruction, Carrier caused five hundred prisoners to be shot daily in the quarries at Gigan. For upwards of forty days these deeds of madness were perpetrated ; and it has been ascertained that in this incredible mode of outraging divine and human laws, fifteen thousand individuals perished. The banks of the Loire were strewn with dead, and the water was so polluted, that the inhabitants along its course were prohibited to drink it. Such was the life, such the practical principles of a Jacobin leader ex uno disce omnes. 116 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. The citizens had justly resolved that Carrier should afford the only retribution that could be made for such unheard-of crimes ; and, surrounding the hall of the Jacobins, they kept them within until the military arrived and dispersed the meeting, upon which Legen- dre closed the doors. At the next sitting of the con- vention, a decree was passed prohibiting ever after the renewal of Jacobin meetings. The Jacobin Club might have been abolished by a parliamentary enactment ; but their principles survived the closing of their hall ; and during the famine of 1795, the Jacobins stirred up two emeutes, the latter of which brought the convention to the last verge of dissolution. One member, Ferrand, being assassinated, all the rest fled, with the exception of fourteen of the original mountain party, who, to save themselves, and at no great sacrifice of principle, passed a number of decrees agreeable to the Jacobin party. This bloody tumult was not suppressed without a desperate struggle on the part of the Paris committee ; but the disarming of the Faubourg of St. Antoine had deprived the Jacobins of their physical powers, as they had lost all their orato- rical by the banishment of Barrere, Collet d'Herbois, and Billaud de Varennes, to Cayenne. As to the four- teen deputies who yielded to Jacobin will for a moment, they were all condemned to the guillotine ; but six of them anticipated the execution of the sentence by suicide, amongst whom was the eloquent Romme. For a brief season the light of victory gleamed upon Jacobin arms, and Toulon acknowledged them for its masters, but the troops of the convention again over- powered them, and dealt towards them that merciless measure of justice which they had administered to others. In every department courts-martial sat, before ROYALISTS AND JACOBINS UNITED. 117 whom the Jacobins were arraigned, and by which they were uniformly condemned as terrorists. The fury of the moderate party now in turn outstripping the de- mands of justice, on the twenty-third of June, 1795, a constitution was drawn up, and the directorial govern- ment, which was erected upon its provisions, struck the last blow against expiring Jacobinism. A political fabric arose from the ruins of the fallen monarchy, and the popular indignation against terrorists and Jacobins for awhile sustained its slender, ill-concerted, propor- tions, until the eighteenth Fructidor (fourth September) 1797> when the victory of the directors, Rewbel, Bar- ras, and Lareveillere, called the slumbering monster once more into activity. Driven to frenzy by the destruction of their greatest characters, they seemed to seek vengeance, or rather notoriety, on any terms ; and the name Jacobin, which was originally intended to designate a child of freedom, or votary of liberty, was adopted by those who denounced republicanism, and ranged themselves under the banners of Napoleon Buonaparte. Here, at length, royalists and Jacobins found shelter, and from shedding each other's blood, the Frenchmen's sanguinary temperament was directed to the chastisement, and humiliation, of the enemies of their country. All political distinctions were forgot- ten ; all individual aspirations were stifled ; all civil wars merged in national aggrandisement, under the great projects of the statesman and warrior, who had suddenly risen up amid a tempest in which he alone was calm. During the imperial government, the name was no longer uttered, but when the sun of Napoleon was descending, and his glory in its twilight, his most devoted adherents were termed red Jacobins, while the 118 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. violent ultras of 1814 bore the name of white Jacobins. Again, in the revolution of 1830, which set Louis Philippe on the throne, every liberal was designated a Jacobin, as a term of contempt, analogous to la canaille, the usual epithet for anarchists, before 1792. From this period Jacobinism has been unknown, and those who apply the term to associations of liberal but vir- tuous men, are ignorant of the infamy inherent in its principles. Time may mitigate rancour, and, all active feelings of vengeance being extinct, the conduct of the original Jacobins may be read with that calmness which the history of past periods claims from its readers ; but the records of Europe do not furnish more unpardon- able, inexplicable, unparallelled crimes, than those that were perpetrated by the Jacobin Club. When the elevation of a wise, wealthy, and popular prince to the throne of their fine country, had stilled the emeute of 1830, secret political societies were organized, professedly to watch over the liberties of their countrymen ; of these, two, V Ami du Peuple, and Aide toi et Dieu f aid-era, gave uneasiness to govern- ment ; their proceedings became the subject of judicial investigation, and, from their likeness to Jacobinism, they were condemned to its fate. The several clubs, associations, and assemblies of conspirators against the happiness of their country, here briefly described, flourished during the boyhood of the Duke of Chartres; and, although the most enlarged views of liberty had been always submitted, and recommended to him, by his father and his gover- ness, it was not until he had attained his seventeenth year, that the former had the imprudence to demand the admission of his high-hearted boy into the most violent union of frantic politicians that ever existed THE DUKE OF CHARTRES OF AGE. 119 under any established government. It was necessary, in order to estimate the judgment, and firmness of the subject of these memoirs in his early years, to take a retrospect of those events that were simultaneous with his childhood and education : for, from this review alone, can the state of France be understood, or the motives which actuated his conduct be appreciated. A know- ledge of the relative strength of parties, a just idea of the violence of the republican section, of their inextin- guishable hatred towards the royal race, and, above all, of the murderous propensities of the Jacobins, must be acquired by those who desire to analyze the eventful biography of the present monarch of France, and understand the dangers that surrounded his bed, that attended his most secret path, from the moment that Jacobinism got the ascendant, until the restoration of the monarchy. It does not appear that the young duke exhibited any sympathy with his brother Jacobins, although he very warmly, and decidedly, admired and applauded the liberal sentiments of many eloquent members of the National Assembly : he frequently attended the sit- tings of the latter, but it is not plain that he entitled himself to the least share of Jacobin reputa- tion, whatever value posterity may attach to it. Having been withdrawn from the care and tutelage of Madame Genlis, Monsieur Peyre, author of some dramatic pieces, Merys, one of the duke's secretaries, and Broval, a friend of Madame Necker, were appointed to attend on the emancipated youth, to whom now a separate establishment was given. But even this exten- sion of liberty, with all its charms of novelty, could not obliterate those sentiments of generosity and affectionate gratitude which nature had placed within his breast j 120 LIFE AND TIMES Of LOUIS PHILIPPE. for the Duke of Chartres continued, for twelve months after attaining his legal majority, to visit his gouver- nante daily at Belle Chasse, and solicit his usual lecture. A most incontestable proof of the duke's innate amiability, and his truly virtuous mind, exists in a remonstrance, to be found in the autobiography of his gouvernante, addressed to her former pupil, in conse- quence of his continuing, even after he had reached the age of manhood, to follow his instructress with all the affection and dependence of more early life. This interesting document, which she called " a reprimand," was to this effect : " I am content with you all. The Duke of Chartres is more accustomed to society, and ought to follow me less constantly about : he knows the value I place on his esteem ; and he ought only to regard as a proof of mine, the manner in which I sometimes receive him, when he forgets what he owes to others, in order to follow me, to place himself by my side, and in short, to devote all his attention to me ; which gives him the awkward air of a little boy, who dares not venture to separate himself for a moment from the person who has charge of him. Besides, all these exclusive preferences are troublesome, and do not constitute true friendship : it is not these little demonstrations that fortify it : he should leave these manners and caresses to weak women ; confidence, esteem, unvarying attention, and inviolable fidelity, are the qualities which nourish friendship. In short, I know nothing so puerile, or so little becoming in a man, as that manner of showing your love, which leads you to look at, or listen to no one but me, and to discover an invincible sadness when you cannot be by my side. You cannot imagine what a degree of awkwardness this gives you in the eyes of others : you CHARTRES' GRATITUDE TO HIS GOVERNESS. ought to be persuaded that I love you always ; but if you desire to please me, show yourself pleasing to everybody." There is some false philosophy in this reprimand ; for, these acts, which the writer denies to belong to friendship, are frequently, though not always, its com- panions, and few mothers would desire the case to be otherwise: one fact, however, is indisputably proved and it was for this object alone that "the reprimand" is quoted here it is, the affectionate disposition which the future monarch of France exhibited, at that period of life when hopes or fears exert little influence over our actions. A series of years, more charged with great events than any other equal portion of time within the last millen- nium, passed away, when the governess of these royal children reverted, with feelings of the highest happi- ness and no little vanity, to the troublesome attach- ment of her eldest pupil. She speaks with much self-gratulation of the several rings, tokens of remem- brance, which the Orleans family presented to her in 1789, and the devices graven on each, and selects that of the Duke of Chartres, then seventeen years of age, as that which made the most indelible impression on her memory and heart ; it was, " What would I have been but for you ?" This modest sentiment affected her more strongly because it had been entirely his own selection. Mademoiselle chose for the motto on her gift, " Is there anything I can prefer to the happiness of being with you?" On this ring was inscribed Adele, the name she bore in the family, while the Duke of Chartres took that of Theodore. That the gift of liberty was not conferred upon a worth- less worshipper, sufficiently appears from the letter of LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. conciliation which Madame Genlis addressed to the Duchess of Orleans at this period, in the fond hope of obliterating those feelings of jealousy and wounded pride, which the conduct of her husband had occasioned by placing their children beyond maternal controul. In this clever piece of female diplomacy the writer repeats the character she had previously, and elsewhere given, of her eldest pupil, stating, " his disposition is good, his principles are so correct, his heart so excellent, that his liberty will be much less dangerous to him than to any other. He is so perfectly disposed, by his natural character, and by my guidance, to love you affectionately, that you must infallibly attain the ascen- dency when you know him well." Time has since fully developed his real character, and proved the amazing accuracy and truth of this delineation ; his life being a continued series of benevolent acts, and his affection for his virtuous mother ending only with her useful existence. It is time, however, to separate the duke from the care of his gouvernante, and, placing him in a position public and independent, observe the first-fruits of that practical education of which a woman alone had been the guide. He had been assailed in the public jour- nals as partaking of his father's inconsistency of cha- racter, and, therefore, obnoxious to the charge of infidelity to the new order of things ; but to these fierce and groundless exclamations he only replied by renewed efforts for the happiness of his country. There was a society called " The Friends of Revolu- tion," whose objects were, to point out to the people their rights and their duties, and to prepare them for treading in the path that was opened for them by Mirabeau, Barnave, and Dupont. At this society the CHARTRES' FIRST APPEARANCE IN UNIFORM. 123 youthful duke appeared, and was at once admired for his brilliant capacity, precocious powers of reasoning, experience of men and things, and a boundless devo- tion to the national cause. His age necessarily sug- gested the propriety of addressing the society but rarely, and those occasions were generally limited to an appeal to their humanity in favour of some suffering patriot. The death of Mirabeau had given a violent shock to both parties ; for both looked to him for that wis- dom and firmness which would enable France to resist, successfully, the intrigues and the combined armies of all the European powers ; and the species of national desolation which this event produced, united their energies for the common safety, and orders were issued that all absent officers should join the army of the north. On the twentieth of November, 1785, the young duke was appointed proprietary-colonel of the fourteenth regiment of dragoons, which was distin- guished also by the name of Chartres ; an appointment that came to him by inheritance, but of which he had not, except in one instance, taken the command. Accom- panied by his brothers Montpensier and Beaujolais, he appeared in the uniform of the national guard, in the district of Saint Roch, on the ninth of February, 1791 : where his chief duty consisted in entering his name in the register. The duke took up the pen to perform this ceremony, but perceived that all his titles of nobility had been entered there by the officer at full length ; he instantly erased them and wrote after his name, Citizen of Paris. He was soon after a candidate for the rank of commandant of the battalion of Saint Roch, in which he was unsuccessful ; but the disap- LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. pointment only increased his ambition in pursuit of mili- tary promotion and occasions of honourable distinction. When the order for proprietary-colonels to join the army was issued, while many of that rank, who had inherited or purchased, avoided the responsibility which they never meant to have undertaken, the duke imme- diately proceeded to Vendome, and there placed him- self at the head of his regiment. He was accompanied by Monsieur Peyre, a man of considerable talent, and distinguished by his virtues. This faithful friend con- tinued his attachment to his noble companion until the close of his own well-spent life in the year 1830. Arrived at Vendome, the duke devoted himself, with all the enthusiasm of youth, to the duties of his profession ; he felt how much the presence of the com- manding officer excites emulation, and stimulates the negligent. Far from imitating the example of those young noblemen who disdained to mix or converse with the soldiers, the duke was constantly in the midst of them, and the advice and reprimands which they received from his lips had double the force of usual orders. On every occasion he proved himself the soldier's friend; he heard their complaints with kind- ness, and the generous, noble familiarity, with which he replied to their demands, in a little time won for him all their hearts. Strengthened by those affections, which he so well knew how to merit, he was enabled, without any exertion, to establish and preserve the strictest discipline : his men obeyed him with pleasure, because his orders were always given with urbanity. His exemplary conduct had the happiest influence over the whole garrison of Vendome; the soldiers now forgot his youth, the oldest officers found in him such DISCIPLINE OF THE CHARTRES REGIMENT. 125 intelligence, and punctuality, as sometimes left their experience in arrear. He frequently reached the stables, in the morning, before the lieutenant, whose duty it was to call there, and he exhibited equal energy in every other subject. His lieutenant-colonel, imagin- ing that this too frequent appearance amongst the men would lessen that respect for the dignity of colonel, which he considered so essential to the maintenance of discipline, ventured to remonstrate with him on the subject; the duke, however, replied, " that he did not think he should forfeit the respect of his men, or be less entitled to their regard, by giving them an example of punctuality, and by being the first to submit himself to the demands of discipline." While the young soldier w r as introducing the strictest discipline into the regiment which he commanded, he was not insensible to the flow of public feeling, and contributed to guide the current by throwing himself into it, and becoming its companion. At a meeting of the constitutionalists at Vendome, the colonel of the fourteenth dragoons attended, and delivered an address so full of civic and moral worth, that it gave the most incontestable proof of his sincere admiration for the constitution. "Gentlemen," said the duke, " you are aware of the decree for the suppression of all emblems of nobility, of every external decoration implying distinction of birth, and I hope you will do me the justice to believe, that I am too much the friend of equality not to have received that enactment with transport. I have, then, from the very first moment, and with the utmost satisfaction, laid aside all those frivolous marks of distinction, to which, for too long a period, an importance has been attributed which was due to personal virtue, and which alone ever should LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. have obtained it. This last decree, passed when the assembly was preparing a revision of its labours, ought to make us hope that it will maintain, as constitutional, everything which has been hitherto ordained, relative to the titles and orders of nobility ; and, that French- men, free and equal, shall acknowledge no other dis- tinction than those derived from serving their country. It is for such men only that true marks of honour should be reserved symbols by which we can at once re- cognise those who have the best claim to public esteem. I shall always, therefore, despise those distinctions which I owe to the sole chance of my birth, as I shall one day glory in the others, if I shall have the happiness to meet with an occasion of deserving them. Such only is want- ing to my zeal for the public cause ; and should there be a default of actions sufficiently meritorious to acquire for me the admiration of my fellow-citizens, and a recom- pense from my country, I trust that my well-known senti- ments, and a life entirely devoted to its service, will be sufficient to secure for me those marks of honour, of which I entertain the most entire confidence of rendering myself worthy." These sentiments, honourable to his position and rank at that momentous crisis, were received with much enthusiasm by the citizens of Ven- dome, who immediately transmitted a faithful report to the editor of the Moniteur, with a demand that, he would render justice to the rising virtues of the illus- trious youth who then commanded the garrison of their ancient town. At Vendome the Duke of Chartres distinguished himself by an action full of courage and humanity, and which completely conciliated the affections of the citizens, as he had previously secured those of the soldiers. On the twenty-fourth of June, 1791 , and on the INSTANCE OF COURAGE AND HUMANITY. occasion of a Fete-Dieu, conducted by a constitutional clergyman, two non-juring priests had the temerity to insult the vicar, who carried the holy sacrament. The people, under the influence of the prevailing political opinions, and infuriated by the foolish affront directed towards their vicar, assembled before the principal inn in the town, and demanded that the offenders should be instantly given to their fury. This extravagant act was opposed by the Duke of Chartres singly ; he rushed into the crowd, extricated the unfortunate priests from the grasp of the assassins, and, by the most extraordinary efforts of personal strength, and unparalleled presence of mind, succeeded in withdraw- ing them into a place of security. Unwilling to press further upon the noble youth who had given such an example of courage and humanity, the people now demanded a concession from him, which was, that he should dismiss the priests immediately from the town. The duke, who was just then joined by some dra- goons of his regiment, who were unarmed, continued to extend his protection to the unhappy clergymen, and escorted them beyond the municipal limits. At the distance of about one mile they reached a bridge, where they found an immense crowd again collected, whose evident determination was to throw their in- tended victims into the deepest part of the river. The duke, however, was as resolved upon saving their lives as the mob on sacrificing them ; and, when several peasants, armed with muskets, advanced with hideous yells, and cries of death ! death ! finding further entreaty useless, he deliberately advanced, and placed himself between the unhappy victims and the carbine of a peasant, which was determinedly levelled at their hearts. The pause produced by this heroic interpo- 128 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. sition, gave the actors a moment to reflect upon the barbarity of their intentions ; and, remembering the promise they had previously given to spare the offen- ders' lives, he succeeded in carrying them off, and placing them in prison, by which stratagem they were ultimately saved from the fatal consequences of popular indignation. On the following day, the gallant soldier perceived a man, carrying a large basket, to arrive at his apart- ments, and, advancing towards him, demanded what was the object of his visit, or for whom those delicious-look- ing fruits were intended ? " For you, my colonel," said the peasant ; " they are the most valuable productions of my garden ; and I present them to you as an offering to gratitude. I am the individual, who, yesterday, under the impulse of a culpable frenzy, would have assassinated the priests whom you so nobly protected. I now return to bless and thank you for having saved me from the commission of so great a crime." The example of their colonel was not lost upon the brave fellows under his command ; and the following anecdote, relative to their conduct in the town of Mans, lends a gratifying confirmation of the high tone of humanity which pervaded the fourteenth regiment of dragoons, and proves that they were in every way worthy of their commander. When their departure from that place was officially communicated to the civic authorities, an assembly was held at the Hotel de Ville, where the following resolution was cheerfully passed : " The soldiers of the cavalry regiment of Chartres, in garrison at Mans, having exhibited, day and night, zeal and diligence for the public safety, from the first commencement of the troubles that agi- tate France, and being otherwise distinguished by MONSIEUR SIRET SAVED FROM DROWNING. 129 their faithful protection of the property in the capital of the province, whenever it was requisite ; the muni- cipality, fully sensible of these proofs of patriotism, have directed that a sum of six hundred livres shall be placed in the hands of the commanding officer, to be distributed by him amongst the privates and non- commissioned officers of the regiment." The bounty of the town-council was accepted ; but the soldiers, instead of receiving any portion of the gift, agreed, unanimously, that it should be given to the poor of the district, and that the cure of the town should have the pleasure of dividing it amongst them ; and, to obtain this amiable object, they addressed to him the following request : " Sir, we have no necessity for this money : while we are in the king's service we are assured of a sufficiency for our support, but the poor are not certain of their's ; oblige us, therefore, we beg, by placing it in the parish chest, for the benefit of the indigent." This single anecdote is an eulogy upon the regiment. A second opportunity of adding to his reputation for courage and humanity, occurred to the Duke of Chartres while stationed at Vendome, only a few days after the rescue of the priests. Monsieur Siret, an engineer, fatigued by swimming too long, attempted to get upon a rock in the river, near to a deep pool, of which he was ignorant, but where several of the townspeople had previously perished. Being attracted by the current, he called out for help, and the Duke of Chartres, who was about a hundred yards from the spot, hearing his cries, flew to his assistance, calling out, " Courage ! courage, my friend ; I shall be with you in a moment !" Plunging into the stream, he caught the hand of the drowning man, which was still visible above the water ; but Siret held the arms of his deliverer with such a 130 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. tenacious grasp, that he obstructed his efforts, and the whirlpool was already ingulphing both. At this instant, Edward, a negro-servant of the prince, well worthy of the liberty bestowed upon him, leaped into the river, swam to the spot, and seizing Siret round the waist, saved him from a watery grave, and released his noble master.* The municipality of Vendome waited, in a body, upon the prince, thanked him, publicly, for having saved the lives of their fellow -citizens, and recorded all these acts of heroism in a "proces- verbal," which they called the civic crown of Vendome. That crown, preserved by the Vendomins for nearly thirty years, was presented to the Duchess of Orleans (now Queen of France) on her return to Paris in 1814, and is placed by that illustrious princess amongst the most precious mementos in the cabinets of the Tuilleries. It was well observed, by the official organs of the * When to calumniate the memory of the late Duke of Orleans, and to distort the fair narrative of his successor's exemplary life, were acceptable to the French people, the story of the saving of Siret's life, was most completely garbled by their enemies. It was asserted that the duke had desired his footman to throw himself into the water, and pretend to sink, that he might have the honour and merit of saving a citizen. A reference to page 21 of this volume, will afford a clue to the introduction of the footman into the tale, as well as to the evident confusion into which the calumniators fell, by mixing up two different transactions ; in one of which the father, in the other, the son alone was concerned. The same silly slanderers declared that Monsieur Egalite only imitated the Duke of Brunswick, in his stratagem to catch popularity by saving his servant ; but the Brunswickers may fearlessly appeal to the monuments of their country, which declare, that Leopold, their prince, fell a sacrifice to his humanity, being drowned in the inundation of 1785, while hastening to the relief of his subjects. THE CIVIC CROWN OF VENDOME. 131 government of that day, "that a prince who had so generously exposed his life for an humble citizen, and who, only a few days before, with an equal degree of cou- rageous humanity, rescued two unfortunate men from an undeserved death, would not hesitate, when required, to shed his blood for the still higher cause of his country." Nothing can more clearly demonstrate, if farther proof were requisite, the kindly character of this young prince, than his generous desire to share with his pre- ceptress the honours acquired at Vendome. She had taken especial care to have the princes taught to swim, assuring them, it was a branch of knowledge worthy of being acquired both for themselves and for others : and a similar sentiment led to their being instructed in bleeding and the dressing of wounds. During one whole winter their preceptress took them to the Hotel Dieu, to dress the wounds of the poor. Upon these early proofs of the advantages of a practical education, the duke immediately addressed a grateful letter to Madame Genlis, informing her of the eminent suc- cess of her system of instruction, and enclosing a leaf of his civic crown ; this she placed in her souvenir, and cherished with a lover's fondness to her latest moments. A new oath, prepared by order of the National Assembly, was sent to all the regiments in the service, and amongst them to the fourteenth dragoons, then garrisoned at Vendome. Out of twenty-eight officers in the regiment of Chartres, only seven could be induced to take it, but, owing to the zeal, energy, and popularity of its colonel, their discipline did not sustain even a moment's interruption : LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. " I promise, on my honour, to be faithful to the nation, the law and the king ; not to take part, directly, or indirectly, but, on the contrary, to oppose, with all my might, all conspiracies, plots, or com- binations which shall come to my knowledge, and which may be directed either against the nation and the king, or against the con- stitution decreed by the National Assembly, and accepted by the king ; to employ all means entrusted to me by those clauses that have been accepted or sanctioned by the king, to cause their observance by those who are subordinate to me by the same decree ; consenting, if I should fail in my part of the agreement, to be regarded as in- famous, unworthy of carrying arms, or of being counted amongst the number of French citizens. 133 CHAP. III. From the Duke of Chartres' first campaign, under Dumouriez, in the war between France and Austria, to his appointment of lecturer in feography and mathematics, at the college of Reichenau, in witzerland, in 1793. IN the month of August, 1791> the Duke of Chartres quitted Vendome with his regiment, and proceeded to Valenciennes, where he spent the winter, discharging the duties of commandant of that place, with an ability and firmness which could not have been surpassed by the oldest colonel of the garrison. The menances, of which France was continually the object, determined the government to divide their frontiers, from Huningue as far as Dunkirk, into three commandments, entrusted to the Marshals Rochambeau and Luckner, and to General Lafayette. The court of Vienna had ordered Marshal de Brender to lead his troops into the electorate of Treves, in case the French should wish to disperse the emigrants who had collected there. The same court pretended to direct the elector of Treves not to suffer a repetition of these emigrant meetings ; and, the ecclesiastical prince himself seemed, at one moment, resolved upon pursuing the same policy, towards the un- fortunate men who had taken refuge in the electorate ; but the cause of humanity finally prevailed, and emigrant meetings continued to be held at Treves. The French government complained loudly of this perfidy and insult ; of want of respect for the sacred character of ambas- dor, but in vain ; meetings were permitted at Coblentz, in greater numbers than before, and nothing was spoken of but a crusade for the new conquest of France. 134 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Upon the proposal of Gensonne, the National As- sembly decreed, that the king should be requested to demand from the Emperor, Leopold II., the most clear and satisfactory explanation of his intentions with respect to France ; to require such a categorical answer as would remove all uncertainty, disclose completely the magnitude of the hostile measures then in preparation, and convince all Europe of the necessity, under which France was placed, to interrupt them. Guadet, the president of the assembly, proposed a decree to the effect that, the French nation would regard as infamous traitors to their country guilty of high-treason, all those agents of executive power, all Frenchmen, who should participate, directly or indirectly, either at a congress, the object of which should be to obtain any modification of the constitution, or in any mediation between the nation and the rebels, or, in short, in entering into any stipulation with those princes holding estates in Alsace. Before the close of the session, the minister announced that his Majesty had sanctioned this decree. The king of Bohemia and Hungary, (for France did not acknowledge him as emperor of Austria,) replied, by a note from the prince of Kaunitz, that he did not know of any armaments, or measures, in the Austrian states, which could be magnified into "prepara- tions for war." This answer being deemed insufficient, and the National Assembly secretly believing that nature itself had intended Alsace to be a province of France,* Louis XVI. appeared in the assembly, on * By the peace of Ryswick, in 1697, all the territory on the left bank of the Rhine, occupied by the French troops, was ceded to France. Several states of the empire, however, still retained im- portant possessions in it, for which, as the French declared it to be DECLARATION OF WAR WITH AUSTRIA. 135 the 20th of April, 1792, and there publicly declared war. Upon the approach of hostilities between these two great nations, M. de Graves, the minister of war, conceived it to be his duty to consult, for the last time, her Majesty, Maria Antoinette, who was sister of the Emperor of Austria, Being unable, however, to obtain a personal interview, he expressed his wishes in a respectful note, which the queen instantly returned, her own hand having first traced upon it, with a pencil, the monosyllable " war." From that moment the minister's uneasiness was dissipated. The Duke of Orleans (Egalite), asked the king's permission to proceed, as a volunteer, to the army of the North, with which his two sons, Monsieur Chartres and the Duke of Montpensier were serving, to which Louis XVI. replied, that he might do as he pleased; he immediately set out for Valenciennes, accompa- nied by his third son the Count of Beaujolais, then just twelve years of age. The Duke of Byron, a friend of Monsieur Egalite, was intrusted with the command of a division of the army of Valenciennes and Maubeuge ; and, it was under his orders that the Duke of Chartres made his debut on the theatre of war. On the 28th of April, 1792, he took a part in the hostilities by which the campaign was opened at Boussu and Quaragnon ; and, in the affair of Quievrain, on the 30th of April, he was instrumental in rallying a divi- sion of the army, which, under the influence of false terror, or preconcerted plan, fled from Quievrain to- wards Valenciennes without being pursued. "Messieurs incompatible with the security of their country, compensation was promised. The German princes were unwilling to part with their ancient estates, and this was one of the chief causes of the war between France and that empire. i 136 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Chartres and Montpensier," writes General Byron to the minister of war, " have accompanied me as volun- teers, and, being exposed, for the first time, to a brisk fire from the enemy, behaved with the utmost heroism and intrepidity." The commission of marechal-de-camp was the reward of this military debut. Monsieur Chartres received his appointment on the 7th of May, at the same time with Berthier, who was afterwards created prince of Wagram. It was in this rank, or capacity, that the Duke of Chartres commanded a brigade of dragoons, under the orders of Marshal Luckner,* who succeeded Rochambeau as general-in-chief of the army of the north. The French advanced-guard having moved upon Courtray, the Duke of Chartres succeeded in taking that place, redeeming, in some degree, the dis- grace which his countrymen once sustained there in the celebrated "battle of the spurs :" but the retreat, which Marshal Luckner deemed it prudent to make, did not permit him to take advantage of his conquest. After this retrograde movement, t the necessity for * This brave soldier, a native of Campen, in Bavaria, having dis- played considerable military talents in the seven years' war, as com- mander of the cavalry, was invited to enter the French service with the rank of lieutenant-general, where he soon after received the baton of maEshal. Being appointed generalissimo of the French armies by the revolutionary party, he unfortunately showed some inclination to support the king's constitutional authority, for which he was deprived of his command, imprisoned, and put to death. f The Duke of Chartres, while he was under the command of Marshal Luckner, was the first to propose that the French should enter Belgium. He shook the conviction of Kellermann, who main- tained the propriety of his advice ; but the majority of the council declared themselves against it. The Duke expressed the utmost indignation at this hesitation to invade an enemy's country, when supported by an army of 30,000 Frenchmen. KELLERMANN COMMANDS THE ARMY. 137 which was never made sufficiently plain to the French government, Luckner's army was separated into two corps: one, under the command of General Harville, was sent into Lorraine, but the other, under Dumou- riez' orders, who had only that moment withdrawn from the ministry, continued in Flanders to protect the frontier. The Duke of Chartres and his brigade, consisting of the fourteenth and seventeenth dragoons, formed part of Harville's corps, which, at the end of July, was in garrison at Metz, where Marshal Luckner arrived to resume the command. But the marshal himself was very shortly afterwards replaced by General Kellermann, known afterwards, under the French empire, as Marshal Duke of Valmy. When the Duke of Chartres first appeared at the head-quarters of Kellermann, the latter exclaimed, ' Ah, Monsieur, I have never before had the pleasure of seeing so young a general-officer how have you contrived to be made a general so soon?" " By being the son of him," replied the duke, "who made a colonel of you." Kellermann took him by the hand, and ex- pressed his entire happiness in having the son of his friend under his command. Such was the commence- ment of that co-operation, which ended in covering both with glory by humbling the enemies of their country. The Legislative Assembly, in the sitting of the month of July, having declared the country to be in danger, the following proclamation was published in Paris and its environs : " A numerous army has moved upon our frontiers ; all those who are enemies to liberty have armed themselves against our constitution. Citizens, the country is in danger. Let all those 138 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. who have had the happiness of taking up arms in the cause of liberty, remember that they are Frenchmen and free ; that their fellow-citizens enjoy in their homes security of person and property; that the magistrates of the people are vigilant ; that everything depends on calm resolution ; that they should take care to acknowledge the majesty of the law; and the country will still be safe." Such was the reply of France to the famous mani- festo of the Duke of Brunswick, generalissimo of the Austrian and Prussian armies. The duke had received his commission at Coblentz, where, on the fifteenth of July 179> he issued this injudicious document, drawn up in a harsh, and haughty style, by De Simon, a Frenchman. It certainly inflicted a greater injury upon the allied forces, than a hostile army would have done. It excited a still more extravagant enthusiasm amongst the French, and inflamed them to a degree of frenzy against the audacious strangers, who declared their fixed intention "To punish as rebels, every national guard which opposed the allied sovereigns, and should be taken with arms in their hands. Those of the inhabitants who should dare to defend themselves were to be delivered immediately to the rigour of a court-martial; and, in the event of any attack being made upon the palace of the Tuilleries by the factious, Paris was to be given up to total destruction, and the rebels themselves to instant death." The emigrants adopted similar language: "A few weeks," they asserted, " would suffice for the reduction of Brabant two months for the total extinc- tion of the French revolution, and, post-boys' whips to drive away the clowns w r ho had now taken up epaulettes and swords. The Duke of Brunswick, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK'S MANIFESTO. 139 distinguished by his brilliant successes in Holland, where he headed the Prussian army for the support of the Stadtholder, possessed a high reputation as a soldier, and still higher as a wise and generous prince. He considered the language of the manifesto too strong, and actually expunged several harsh expressions with his own hand ; but the Emperor Francis, and the King of Prussia, both approved of it, and desired that it should be issued without further deliberation. It formed part of the duke's plan of operations to enter France, press forward from Lorraine to Paris, cut off its supplies, and oblige it to surrender by famine. This invasion was made by a powerful army, including the combined troops of Austria, Prussia, and Hesse ; and the king of Prussia in person, attended by a num- ber of princes, amongst whom were the brothers of Louis XVI., accompanied the expedition. To oppose this formidable array, France assembled one corps of 14,000 effective men near Metz, under the command of Kellermann, and a second, 33,000 strong, at Sedan, under that of Dumouriez, who had succeeded Lafayette. The latter, having shown an attachment to good order, and a disposition to restrain the blood-thirsty appetites of the jacobins, was burnt in effigy at the Palais Royal, accused of treason before the assembly, and a price set on his head. Perceiving that his soldiers would not support him, against the principles which were then triumphant in the clubs, he resolved upon consulting his safety by withdrawing from his distracted country, and awaiting a happier opportunity for the exercise of that patriotism, which has since been so honourably associated with his name. In his flight he was captured by an Austrian patrol, and delivered to the Prussians, by whom he was again transferred to 140 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Austria. Conveyed with the utmost secrecy to Olmutz, he was there placed in solitary confinement, subjected to every species of privation and suffering, and cut off, so completely, from all communication with his friends, that the place of his confinement was not discovered by them until 1794. His wife and daughters succeeded in obtaining leave to see him, and were his companions for two years previous to his release which took place in 1797, after the memorable campaign of Buonaparte in North Italy. The Duke of Chartres being promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general on the llth of September, was nominated to the command at Strasbourg " I am too young," he replied, " to be shut up in a citadel, and I request permission to remain on active service." The proclamation setting forth that the country was in danger, caused many battalions, both of volunteers andfederes, to set out from all parts of France ; which arrived by forced marches, to oppose the progress of an armed enemy. In the space of three days, Paris alone had armed, equipped, and sent out forty-eight battalions of infantry, forming an effective force of 32,000 men. These troops, more enthusiastic than warlike, or disciplined, were almost all detained at Chalons-sur-Marne, from a suggestion dictated by the apprehension, that their indiscipline might impede the operations of a well- trained, orderly, and active force. Luckner, decorated with the vain title of generalissimo, was intrusted with the command of this great reserve, which, from its mass, appeared calcu- lated rather to terrify than to struggle with the enemy. No sooner had Dumouriez undertaken the command of the army encamped near Sedan, than he directed a THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK INVADES FRANCE. movement upon Argonne, the defiles of which appeared to him to be the line of defence best calculated to arrest the rapid progress of the allied army. It was while taking up his position at Grandpre that he heard of the loss of Verdun, and that he wrote to the executive council this remarkable letter, which events subsequently rendered so glorious : " Verdun is taken, and I am waiting for the Prus- sians. The camps of Grandpre and of Islettes are the Thermopyles of France ; but I shall be more for- tunate than Leonidas," His policy was prudent, his conclusion correct ; but a variety of circumstances shook the confidence to which his plan of defence was entitled ; and, to sustain it, he was obliged to contend, incessantly, with the executive council, and with several military men of the highest rank and character, who considered the Marne the proper line of defence, and wished him to assume that timid attitude ; so that, instead of urging the junction of Kellermann's army with his, the executive council in- duced that general to remain on the Upper Marne ; sometimes at St. Dizier, sometimes at Vitry-le-Fran9ais. It is probable that they hoped, by this inactivity, to induce Dumouriez to adopt the plan which was pre- ferred, and fall back behind the Marne ; but he re- mained alone and immoveable, in his camps at Grand- pre and at Islettes, until his left wing was beaten and broken in upon, at the Croix-aux-Bois, on the 14th of September. This success opening an entrance for the Duke of Brunswick into the plains of Champagne, upon which he threw himself immediately with the major part of his forces, Dumouriez was compelled to abandon Grandpre ; but he retained Islettes andChalade, and fell back upon Sainte-Menehould, employing those two LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. important posts as a pivot, and making a grand quarter- wheeling to the rear. o On the 16th of September, a terrific panic spread through the ranks of the French army, while this retrograde movement was in progress : the cavalry gal- loped in upon the infantry, the whole corps was thrown into confusion, and the disorder became general. For- tunately the enemy did not perceive it ; and the troops took up their position at Sainte-Menehould in good order. Dumouriez remained master of the great road from Verdun to Chalons, and obliged the Prussians to establish their communications by roads, and across a country, which an inclement season was beginning to render impracticable. Again Dumouriez urged his colleague, Kellermann, to join him, to which the latter at length consented, and, on the evening of the 19th of September, his corps took up a position on the left of Dumouriez, between Valmy and Dommartin-la-Planchette. He encamped his men in two lines, the first under the command of Lieutenant-General Valence, the second under that of Lieutenant-General the Duke of Chartres. The advance-guard of Kellermann, commanded by General Desprez de Grassier, occupied Hans, having in their rear, at Valmy, General Stengel, with a detachment of light troops belonging to Dumouriez' army. Gisan- court was occupied by Colonel Tolozan, with the first regiment of dragoons. Meanwhile the Prussian army, defiling by Grand- pre and Croix-aux-Bois, advanced into the plains of Champagne, proceeded as far as the road to Chalons, and placed itself between the French army and the metropolis. Before day-break on the 20th of September, the Prussian hussars of Kcehler, surprised the first regi- KELLERMANN PREPARES FOR BATTLE. 143 ment of dragoons at Gisancourt, which was stationed in the rear of Kellermann's camp, and, so complete was the surprise, that Colonel Tolozan's troop had only time to mount their horses and escape from the village, leaving all their baggage behind. The Prussian Hussars, not having any infantry with them, dared not remain at Gisancourt, so that this important post was retaken by the French, who were not again dislodged from it. About six in the morning, a heavy cannonade was heard in the direction of Hans, where the advance- guard was stationed, upon which the drums beat to arms in the camp. Desprez de Grassier now informed Kellermann that he was unable to resist the force by which he w r as attacked, and must, therefore, fall back : besides, that the thick morning mist prevented him from ascertain- ing, with any degree of certainty, the strength of the attacking division ; his own conviction was, that the whole of the Prussian army was advancing* against him. Adopting the latter opinion, he returned to the camp with the advance-guard. Kellermann immediately directed him to march on Gisancourt, in order to secure that important point; and, at the same time, drew up his front line, under the command of General Valence, before Orbeval, between the river Auve and the hill of Valmy, at right angles with the high road of Chalons; the second line, commanded by the Duke of Chartres, was placed in a position parallel with the road, and at right angles with the front line, upon the crest of the hill of Valmy ; so that the two lines formed an exact square. A strong battery of artillery was established at the mill of Valmy, the most elevated point of the impending hills. Notwithstanding the extraordinary activity of the Duke of Chartres to put 144 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. his troops in motion, the necessity of defending the camp, and of loading the sumpter horses,* occasioned such a loss of time, that it was nearly eight hours before he arrived at the mill of Valmy with the advance-guard of the infantry. "Come on, come on," said Stengel, "for I cannot leave the post I occupy without being relieved, and if I do not get before those Prussians there," he added, "pointing to the hill of Hyron, " we shall be annihilated here immediately." Meanwhile, ordering his infantry to follow him as well as they could, he set off at a brisk trot, with some squadrons of light troops which he had under his command, while the two companies of horse-artillery of Captains Barrois and Anique, passed rapidly through the village of Valmy, crossed the valley which separates it from the hill of Hyron, and arrived at the moment when a Prussian column was advancing to occupy it ; but he repulsed them, and defended the Hyron all that day with the most determined resolution. Dumouriez, perceiving that the attack was directed * Of the twelve battalions of infantry forming the detachment commanded by the Duke of Chartres, there was only one of national volunteers, which was the first battalion of Saone and Loire. This body was animated with such a noble spirit, and such an emulation of the troops of the line, that the men who were appointed to guard the baggage, refused to perform that duty, and the officer command- ing was unable to fin4 substitutes. When this irregularity was reported to the Duke of Chartres, in presence of the battalion, a soldier stepped forward from the ranks, and said, in the names of his fellow- soldiers " General, we are here to defend our country, and we entreat you not to require any of us to leave the standard of our bat- talion for the purpose of guarding the baggage." " Very well," said the duke, " I shall not require it ; your baggage must take care of itself for to-day, and your battalion shall march along with your fel- low-soldiers of the line, to whom you must prove that you are as brave as the best veterans of France. THE CANNONADE OF VALMY. 145 entirely against Kellermann's corps,* sought out his colleague, and informed him of the resolution he had come to of supporting him. He had separated his army into three divisions, which he had put in motion im- mediately, exclusive of the reserve which he had left in the camp at Sainte-Menehould, and the detachment of General Arthur Dillon, which occupied the Islettes. The left division, consisting of nine hattalions and eight squadrons, under the command of General Cha- zot, passed along the Chalons road, towards the heights of Dampierre-sur-Auve, and of Gisancourt, to support Desprez de Grassier and General Valence's left ; the division of the centre, including sixteen hattalions commanded by Beurnonville, was directed to ascend the hill of Hyron, to support Stengel; while the right, made up of twelve battalions and eight squadrons, con- ducted by Levemur, was to extend itself on the right of Beurnonville, so as to cut off the rear-guard of the Prussians, and fall upon their baggage. The celebrated "cannonade of Valmy," as it is called in history, having already commenced at the mill, before the Duke of Chartres had arrived there to relieve Stengel, became very hot towards ten o'clock.f The Prussians established two principal batteries directly opposite to the mill, and these they reinforced continu- ally. One of them was upon an extension of the mill-hill, the other on the hill opposite to the cause- way, and in front of the farm called La Lune, upon which this day has conferred a lasting celebrity, and * Dumouriez and Kellermann were then generals-in-chief, and inde- pendent of each other, but the former was the senior general officer. f It was at this moment that the horse which Kellermann rode was wounded, General Senarmont, of the artillery, had his thigh broken by a bullet, and Colonel Lormier, of the volunteer grenadiers, was killed. I. U 146 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. where the King of Prussia fixed his head-quarters on the next. These batteries caused frightful destruction in the French army, but the loss did not shake the firmness of the troops; and there was only a single instance of disorder in the two battalions of the Duke of Chartres' division,* amongst which a shell had fallen, and blown up two powder -waggons. The explosion dispersed them for an instant, but they promptly rallied, notwithstanding the heavy fire to which they were exposed, and immediately resumed their position in the line. Such was the noble ardour of the troops on that memorable day, that all the mounted soldiers, carbineers, and dragoons, whose horses were killed or wounded, ran immediately, with the carbine on the shoulder, and fell into the infantry ranks. About eleven o'clock the fog dispersed, and disclosed the enemy advancing, in beautiful order, in several columns, and deploying with as much precision as it would have done upon an open esplanade, on the great plain which extends from Somme - Bionne to the Chapelle-sur- Auve. The eye could then embrace within its glance 100,000 men prepared for battle ; and the sight was the more imposing, because it was not then usual to witness such numerous armies as have since been collected ; besides, at that period Europe had not marshalled such a force for upwards of thirty years. The deploying of the Prussian army was very slow, and it was two o'clock before they were observed to seperate into columns for attack. It was then supposed * These two battalions were the old German regiments in the service of France, of Salm-Salm and of Nassau (the ninety -fourth and the ninety-sixth), commanded by Colonels Rothenbourg and Rewbell. CHARACTER OF KELLERMANN. 147 that they meant seriously to engage in close fight, and cries of " Long live the nation ! long live France ! " were heard along the ranks of the French army. But, whether the fine appearance of the troops led the Duke of Brunswick to conclude, that he would encounter a more determined resistance than he had antici- pated ; or, what is more probable, that he wished to wait for the Austrian detachment, under Clairfait, which did not arrive until night, the Prussian columns were formed, and deployed three times successively, without ever deciding upon an attack. The contest was reduced to a simple cannonade, which lasted all day, and ceased only when the darkness of the night rendered its further continuance impossible. The artillery officers have estimated the number of cannon- balls discharged by the opposing armies, at upwards of 40,000 ; and the ammunition of Kellermann's pare of artillery was almost exhausted. Such was the first success of the French armies at the commencement of this long war, in which they afterwards gathered so many laurels. Considered singly, it was merely a grand cannonade, where each army maintained its position. The Prussians, however, failed in the desired object, the French attained theirs. Considered in a strategic point of view, the period the circumstances, the moral and political effects of this tremendous cannonade, the consequences that attended it being admitted into the calculation, it seems justly entitled to the character, not only of a battle but of a victory.* In fact, it was this day demonstrated how formidable the resistance of a great nation, defending its indepen- * In the imperial wars of France, Kellermann received various general commands. Napoleon loaded him with honours, and gave 148 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. dence and its liberty, might become. Valmy decided the judgment of the king of Prussia, and the Duke of Brunswick proposed to the French generals an im- mediate suspension of hostilities ; this armistice was followed by the total evacuation of the French territory,* and the abandonment of a project, in which the invaders had so imprudently involved themselves. Thus were all the visions of the emigrants dissipated. The ci-devant lords, who were successively restored to their estates, finding themselves in the rear of the Prussian army, were again compelled to relinquish them ; and thus, also, vanished those dreams of por- tioning out the territories of France, in which the invaders had indulged themselves. Such was the con- ndence of the allied army, that the day after the can- him Johannisberg. After the restoration of the Bourbons, he was appointed a member of the chamber of peers, where he espoused the liberal side. He died on the 12th of September, 1820, at the age of 85 years. In his last will he had ordered, that his heart should be buried on the field of Valmy, and his simple monument be marked by the following inscription : " Here died gloriously, the brave men who saved France on the 20th of September, 1792. A soldier, who had the honour of commanding them on this memorable day, Marshal Kellermann, Duke of Valmy, dictating, after twenty-eight years, his last wishes, requested that his heart might be placed in the midst of them." This ceremony was performed in a solemn manner, on the 28th of October, 1820- * When Charles X. was on his way to Rheims, where his coronation took place, passing through Champagne, he said to the Duke of Orleans (Louis Philippe I.), " I think we have met upon these plains before now ?" " Yes, Sire, but it was not under the same colours." " I never knew exactly," added the king, "if Brunswick had received money, or orders to retire." " Sire, the courage of the French army accom- plished everything ; and I am not at all surprised, that after the battle of Valmy, the Duke of Brunswick was not in the humour to march on Paris." THE DUKE OF CHARTRES CONTINUES IN THE FIELD. 149 nonade of Valmy, an officer from Berlin, unacquainted with his person, told the Duke of Chartres, "that he had letters of introduction to all the chateaux on the road to Paris. He had promised himself a life of gaiety, and was opposed to all delay, for he wished to reach Paris in time to see the patriots hanged." "The best thing you can do," said the prince, who immediately discovered himself, "is to return to Berlin, where I hope you will not see any one hanged." The conduct of the Duke of Chartres at Valmy entitled him to this generous testimony of Kellermann. " Embarrassed by an attempt at selection," says the ge- neral in his official despatch, " I shall only particularize, amongst those who have shown distinguished courage, M. Chartres and his aide-de-camp, M. Montpensier, whose extreme youth renders his presence of mind, during one of the most tremendous cannonades ever heard, so very remarkable." A superior command was now offered to the Duke of Chartres, but it was over the new-levied troops, who were to be united with those of Labourdonnaie, at Douay, and he declined the promotion, still preferring to serve with that army, which appeared to him to present the most brilliant career. And it was natural for a prince of nineteen years of age, who had not been reared in indolence to prefer the busy hum of the camp to a life of comparative inactivity. " Then, indeed the republic was proclaimed," says a contemporary writer, " the prince could not, ought not, as a son, hesitate to take the oath to it ; any hesitation on his part would only have hastened the impending dangers which already menaced his father's life. What do I say ! the Duke of Orlean's was no more ; he had lost his civil rank ; he, as well as his noble son, 150 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. was only the citizen Egalite ; and that name alone proved that equality no longer existed for any one, who, notwithstanding their hirth, had embraced the national cause. Surrounded by spies, calumniated by all parties, suspected by intriguers and by their victims, by dupes, and rogues who were disputing about the shreds of the country ; his life was embittered by every species of inquietude and agitation. Even his courtly manners, the politeness of a prince, rendered him an object of suspicion with these savage commissioners of the con- vention. In such a situation, the duke of Chartres could only have been happy whilst engaged in the activity of military movements ; and, perhaps, more than once, the dangers of the battle-field appeard to him an honourable refuge. Declining this new, but superior command, the duke proceeded to Paris, and asked permission to remain in the line, and in Kellermann's army, but as he had been already superseded there, he was recommended to pass over to that of Marshal Luckner, which he quitted almost immediately for the Belgian army, under Dumouriez, then advancing to- wards the frontier, to commence an active campaign. It is the campaign of Belgium that has inscribed the name of the Duke of Chartres in the military annals of France. Valmy had revealed to Prussia the desperate cha- racter of those struggles, which a high-hearted people could make for the preservation of its freedom, it was reserved for Jemmapes to teach a similar lesson to the Austrians. Their army, consisting of 22,000 veteran troops, well disciplined, was commanded by Clairfait, under the orders of Prince Albert of Saxe-Tescher, governor of the Low Countries. The French army, which had just arrived from Champagne by forced THE FRENCH SEEK THE ENEMY. 151 marches, under the gallant Dumouriez, included forty- eight batallions of infantry, of which one- third were veteran troops of the line, but the remainder national volunteers newly-levied. There was no other cavalry in this army, except a few hussars, the mounted chasseurs who formed the advance-guard, and some battalions of light infantry, under the command of Beurnonville and Dampierre ; besides two small detachments of flankers, on the right and left, commanded by Generals Stengel, and Henry de Fregeville. Dumouriez divided his army into two wings of twenty-four batallions each. The right com- manded by the Duke of Chartres, having under him the Camp-Marshals Desforets, Drouet, and Stetenhoff. The left was to have been led by Lieutenant- General Miranda, and Camp- Marshals Ferraud, Blottiefiere, and Berneron ; but Miranda not having returned from Paris, his command devolved upon the Camp- Marshal Ferraud, as being the most senior officer. These dif- ferent brigades formed a grand total of 27,000 effective men. A slight affair, perhaps imprudently commenced on the 2nd of November, 1792, near the village of Timlin, decided Dumouriez' determination to reinforce his advance-guard with a detachment from the Duke of Chartres's division, which, operating on the right, attacked the enemy on the 3rd, carried the mill at Boussu, with the battery which defended it, whilst Beurnonville, Dampierre, Stengel, and Fregeville, dis- lodged the Austrians from one position after another, and drove them at length as far as St. Ghislain. On the 4th, General Dumouriez resolving to benefit by these advantages, put his army in motion, and on the 5th it bivouacked in front of the Austrian's camp, who had entrenched themselves on the heights of Jernmapes, LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. On the morning of the 6th of November, Dumouriez brought forward twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and twelve small mortars, under the direction of Labayette, an artillery colonel, and placed them in battery in front of his line, while his left wing attacked the village of Quaregnon, which was gallantly defended by the Aus- trians. The French advance-guard then made a move- ment to place itself in a line with the main body of the army, so that it might become the right wing, while the right wing, commanded by the Duke of Chartres, should form the centre. The position of the Austrians was most formidable ; their right resting on the village of Jemmapes, formed a right angle with their front, and their left extended along the heights, to the point where they begin to descend towards Berthaimont. They also occupied a hill garnished with redoubts and batteries, and the front of which besides was clothed with woods, in which they formed an abattis. Dumouriez had fixed the hour for attack at noon, to allow Harville's detachment time to come up, but, after a cannonade of three hours, seeing the Austrian regiment of Cobourg dragoons descending the hill at a full trot, and apparently moving towards his artillery, he resolved not to wait longer for Harville, and gave orders for a general attack by the whole army. The Duke of Chartres, who commanded the centre, sepa- rated his division into columns of battalions, and moved on the wood of Flenu, which covered the Austrian centre. Placing six battalions in reserve, with the eighteen others he drove in the Austrian light infantry that defended the abattis, traversed the wood and arrived on the level ground above it. But the Aus- trian infantry, supported by the artillery in the redoubts, who continued to discharge case shot, made such havoc THE BATAILLON DE MONS. 153 amongst the heads of the columns, that it hecame im- possible to make them debouche ; re-entering the wood they traversed it rapidly in great disorder. In this attempt Colonel Dubouzet, of the hundred-and-fourth regiment of the line, was wounded, General Drouet had both legs shot off, and died a few hours after ; Colonels Dupont de Chaumont, and Gustave de Montjoye, adjutants-general, were also hit by mus- ket balls. All would have been lost had the Austrians known how to profit by this momentary advantage; but their infantry remained immoyeable, being content with putting to death a few hussars and chasseurs who were unable to pass through the wood. Besides which, they were restrained by the opposition of two bat- talions of the eighty -third, commanded by Colonel Champollon, and Lieutenant-Colonel Villars ; two of the ninety-eighth, under Colonel Lecler, and an equal force of the twenty-ninth, Colonel Laroque, and some others. The Duke of Chartres saved the army from a great disaster, by forming a chain of mounted chasseurs in front of the wood, to arrest the fugitives. Finding it impossible to re-establish order in many of the battalions, which were all now mixed together, he formed one great column of the whole, which he named the Batail- lon de Mom, placed the five stands of colours in the midst of it, caused the trumpeters to sound a charge, and, with the same soldiers, whose flight, a few moments before, could not be checked, attacked the Austrian infantry that occupied the intervals between the redoubts, penetrated their ranks with the bayonet, and got possession of the enemy's artillery, which the Austrian cavalry in vain endeavoured to carry back to Mons. From this moment victory was no longer i. x LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. doubtful, prodigies of valour were multiplied in the French ranks. The enthusiasm of the French on this occasion has never been exceeded, even by them- selves, elsewhere ; and, the martial spirit which dis- played itself here in such brilliancy, bore down all obstacles. As they followed the brave young soldier to the successive attacks on the redoubts, they rent the air with shouts, which uniformly passed into a grand chanting of the Marseillois hymn. In the left wing the most distinguished were Colonel Thouvenot and General Ferraud, who had a horse killed under him ; in the right, Beurnonville and Dampierre ; Colonel Despenchez, Lieutenant-Colonel Darmenonville, at the head of the nineteenth regiment, Colonel de Bannes, of the seventy-first, and some battalions from Paris ; Dumouriez, also, who had himself charged at the head of a squadron ; everywhere, in short, the French soldiers lavished both their courage and their blood. The enemy, driven from all their positions, fled, leaving the battle-field at Jemmapes covered with their dead and their cannon. After this victory, so glorious for an army but newly levied, and badly equipped, two days elapsed before order could be restored in the ranks. The Duke of Chartres covered himself with glory, although it was difficult to obtain distinction in an army where shone already those warriors, whose names are inscribed on the walls of the capitals of Europe : Davoust, Prince of Eckmiihl, Mortier, Duke of Treviso, Moreau, Ser- rurier, Jourdan, Augereau, Maisons, Gerard, and General Foy, whose life and death are such noble recollections amongst Frenchmen. The French pursued the Austrians, and, coming up with them on the fourteenth at Anderlacht, an action THE FRENCH ENTER LIEGE. 155 took place in which the Duke of Chartres again signalised himself, as well as on the nineteenth of No- vember, in the combat at Tirlemont ; on the twenty- seventh, again, at Varroux, the French challenged this dispirited enemy, and, on the twenty-eighth the tri- coloured flag waved over the walls of Liege. The loss of the battle by the Austrians (in which five thousand of their best soldiers perished), had an extensive influence upon the public sentiment of Europe, and gave a still higher impulse to the extravagant enthu- siasm of the French revolutionists. Its consequences, the loss of the Netherlands and of Liege by the allies, would have been still more severe and extended, if the pursuit by the French had not been terminated at the Roer, instead of driving the flying Austrians across the Rhine. Dumouriez advanced the standard of his country to Brussels on the eighth day after his victory of Jemmapes. The Duke of Chartres, who had, by his heroic con- duct, fixed the attention of his general, and entitled himself to an honourable mention in his official bulletin, left the winter quarters of the army in Belgium, to visit his sister, the Princess Eugine Louise Adelaide, who had just been included, along with Madame Gen- lis, in the prescriptive laws against emigration. Having conducted his sister to Tournay, the duke was still there, when a decree appeared, declaring that every member of the Bourbon- Capet family, then in France, with the exception of those detained in the Temple, and upon whose fate the convention reserved to themselves the right of pronouncing judgment, should, within three days, quit the department of Paris, and, within eight days, the territory of the republic, as well as that occupied by its armies. 156 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Whenever any great principle, or interest, brings large bodies of men into direct opposition, it is the natural and usual course to adopt some distinguishing watch-word or badge ; and the more active the opposi- tion, the more significant the motto or emblem. Time does not admit of explanation, the question of your party is answered in a moment by the colour of the rose or the riband you wear. It has always proved unfortunate to that state, in which a change has taken place in the national standard, for then two distinct rallying signs are brought into existence, and feuds and civil wars become imminent. Such a symbol was the tricoloured flag, consisting of red, blue, and white, during the revolution, in opposition to white, the badge of a branch of the Bourbons. These, however, were not the original colours of the insurrection, the besiegers of the bastile wore red cockades ; green had first been chosen, in a moment of enthusiasm, by the patriots, who decorated themselves with green leaves ; but this emblem of hope being remarked to be the colour of the Count d'Artois' livery, the most unpopular prince of the royal family, it was instantly relinquished. Blue was the royal colour, derived from the " Cape de Saint Martin ;" the white that of Charles VI L, who recon- quered France from the English ; the red was borrowed from the oriflamme kept in the treasury of the chapter of St. Denis ; and, like the Sandjak-sheriff, or standard of the prophet, in the mosque of Sultan Achmet, at Constantinople, never displayed but upon extraordinary emergencies, and when the king himself took the field at the head of the nobility. Blue and red, the original colours of the city of Paris, were planted every where by the citizens, and the new national guard being favourable to the king the white colour THE TRI-COLOURED COCKADE. 157 of the Bourbons was, by them, added to the colours of Paris ; and thus arose the famous white, red, and blue ensign, which has been planted by the French army on the walls of Berlin, Moscow, and Madrid. Besides the great national differences, which the tri-coloured cockade and flag were meant to perpetuate, this com- bination was highly obnoxious both to the aristocracy and the ultra-revolutionists, as being also the* colours of the Orleans family. The liveries of this branch of the Bourbons had included these precise colours, as well as those of the house of Vendome, before the reign of Henry IV. ; Louis XIV. exchanged the red for the blue. The tri-colour, therefore, owes its origin altogether to accident, not design, although the Orleanists asserted, that it had been adopted in compliment to him, who was, involuntarily, the head of their party; and their enemies, while they spurned, suspected them. The tri-colour is now the emblem of all who adhere to liberalism in France, of all whether monarchists, or republicans, Buonapartists, or Orleanists, who main- tain the principle of equality, under whatever modifi- cations. The white banner is the emblem of the ancient aristocracy of the elder Bourbons of the old order of things ; the tri-colour is now an historical sign ; and, if the elder branch of the royal line should ever be recalled to the throne, they could only hope to acquire permanent power in France by adopting the popular standard. In 1814 the Count d'Artois adopted it ; in 1815 Fouche advised Louis XVIII. to imitate his example, but an intrigue prevented him from doing so. "Why should I exchange the badge of my family," said the king " for another ?" That no one may anticipate you in the change, replied the Duke of Otranto. In 1830, when Louis Philippe entered Paris, his first public 158 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. act was to assume the tri-colour. This conduct was a pledge, understood and accepted by all, and so com- pletely in accordance with the national sentiment, that the sixty-seventh section was added, in consequence, to the constitution ; it includes the following passage : " France resumes her colours ; for the future there will be no other than the tri-coloured cockade." Buzot, a popular orator, demanded that Philippe and his sons should be exiled, and compelled to endure else- where than in the republic, the misfortunes of having been born so near a throne, of having known its maxims, and been influenced by its examples, the consequences of being invested with a name which might serve as a rallying sound to the factions, or to secret emissaries of neighbouring powers,* and, with which the ear of free- * In the preceding pages of this volume the defence of Monsieur Egalite, against the charge of faction will be found. We give the following fact from a work published under the title of " Une Veillee au corps-de-garde du Palais Royal" which will sufficiently refute the baseness of the second imputation, relative to the secret agents of foreign powers : " While we were at General Kellermann's head-quarters, Colonel Manstein, aide-de-camp to the king of Prussia, asked the favour of being presented to the general, under the patronage of Baron de Leymann, who, having served in the French hussars, owed his pro- motion to the Duke of Orleans, Kellermann at once consented, and both were received. The baron immediately inquired for the Duke of Chartres, and addressing him, said ' Will you be the bearer of a letter for the prince your father ?' ' Willingly,' replied the duke, < if it contains only testimonies of your regard for him.' ' Ah ! if it contained that alone it would be very insufficient. It is in the power of the Duke of Orleans perhaps to stop the scourge of war. I know the sentiments of the allied sovereigns ; I know that their most anxious wish is to save France from anarchy ; and, in the hope of my seeing you here, they have authorized me to communicate their desires to the prince, your father, whom they would gladty see placed at the THREATENED BANISHMENT OF THE ORLEANS FAMILY. 159 dom should never be offended. But the influence of the Montagnards procured a reversal of the decree two days* after. The assembly made an exception in favour of the Duke of Orleans ; it applauded the defence of another orator, who said, that when all the powers of Europe should be arranged in battalions upon our frontiers, and should threaten the rising liberty of France, Philippe Egalite would be there, with his brave children, to defend the rights of the people, with muskets on their shoulders. The Duke of Chartres would have wished his father to take advantage of this decree, withdraw from the convention, and retire with his family to the United States of America. He actually made such request in a letter addressed to the president of the assembly ; but this document was suppressed, because it did not reach Paris until after the revocation of the decree. Its contents, however, becoming known to the leaders of the Mountain party, had the effect of prejudicing the interests of the Duke of Chartres, by disclosing his indisposition towards a system calculated to accelerate that tremendous catastrophe the death of Louis XVI. " It cannot be denied, however, says a French historian, that upon this occasion the young prince evinced that high sagacity, which, by foreseeing events, head of the government.' ' How could you imagine,' said the prince, with indignation, ' that either my noble father or myself could listen to such nonsense ?' The baron persisted to urge his mission, but perceiving the duke's resolute manner, he at last desisted, contenting himself with requesting him to present to his father, a letter expres- sive of his respect and attachment. The letter being forwarded to Egalite, by his directions was laid, unopened, upon the table of the convention, and, by the decree of that body, it was instantly, and without having been read, committed to the flames." 160 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. succeeded in dispering their dangers. He looked upon it, that the revocation of the decree of banishment against his family, was a great misfortune, because the name of Orleans, having been once pronounced sus- pected and dangerous, could never again be useful to their country, and would be infallibly persecuted. From what had passed in the convention, and been printed in the journals of the Mountain party, it was quite competent to the prince to impose upon himself a voluntary exile,* anticipating, by such a step, an * The Duke of Chartres could not view without uneasiness the difficulties to which an ardent love of liberty had exposed his father. Judgment was called for by the nation against Louis XVI., and in demanding the banishment of every Bourbon - Capet, Saint -Just added " As to the king, we shall keep him, and you know for what." " The young prince, desirous of sheltering his family from danger, wished to make use of the decree of the assembly, as an honourable avenue opened to them, to retire from a situation of imminent peril. " The Duke of Orleans had frankly embraced the cause of the revolutionists, but they were not slow in calumniating his intentions. The party that had circumvented him, and compromised his name in those civil discords, first seized upon it as a rallying point, then affected to reject it with disdain. A stranger to all these intrigues, he found himself, according to Boissy d'Anglas, the head of a body to which he had really never belonged. " The Duke of Chartres earnestly entreated his father to take ad- vantage of the decree of banishment, and extricate himself from all these perplexities. ' You will assuredly,' said he, ' find yourself in an. appaling situation. Louis XVI. is about to be accused before an assembly, of which you are a member. You must sit before the king as his judge. Reject the ungracious duty, withdraw with your family to America, and seek a calm retreat, far from the enemies of France, and there await the return of happier days.' As for the Duke of Orleans he believed it to be consistent with his honour, and his duty, not to desert his post, at the approach of danger. Yet, so much was he moved by the entreaties of his noble son, that he desired him to THE DUKE OF CHARTRES RETURNS TO THE ARMY. l6l inevitable proscription. Virtuous from principle and character, a stranger to every ambitious view, the Duke of Chartres did not experience any feeling too painful in adopting this part. * If we can no longer be useful,' said he, ' and if we only give occasion of offence, can we hesitate in expatriating ourselves ?' Released, along with his father, from the cruel decree of proscription, the duke returned, or rather was recalled to the army, and soon after acquired fresh laurels at the siege of Maastricht,* under the command of General Miranda. On the approach of the Prince of Saxe Cobourg, the different corps of the army effected a junction before Louvain, and found themselves placed under the commandership-in-chief of Dumouriez. The French were less numerous ; the Austrians had fortified their consult an influential member of the assembly on this subject, and let him know the result. The deputy, however, declined to express his opinion. ( I am incompetent,' said he, ' to give your father any advice. Our positions are dissimilar. I myself seek redress for per- sonal injuries ; your father, the Duke of Orleans, ought to obey the dictates of his conscience as a prince, of his duty as a citizen.' This undecided answer neither influenced the judgment of the Duke of Orleans, nor corroborated the arguments of his son. Impressed to the fullest extent with the duties of a citizen, he felt that he could not honourably recede ; and that a man, whatever his rank might be, who intentionally abandoned his country, was deserving of the penalties reserved for traitors. Perceiving that his father made his determination a point of honour a case of political con- scientiousness, he desisted from further solicitation, embraced him for the last time, and returned to the army." History of the First Revolution. * This is one of the strongest places in the Netherlands, and has been rendered famous by the numerous sieges which it has sustained. In 1673 and 1748 it was taken by the French, who bombarded it without success in 1793, and again captured it in 1794. I. Y LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. position at the village of Nerwinde ; so that a surprise alone afforded Dumouriez any chance of success. The French army was badly provisioned, and had no expectation of being reinforced by fresh troops ; the Austrians, on the contrary, had reason to expect rein- forcements, and were abundantly supplied with every- thing ; it was completely within their power to have deferred the contest. Dumouriez, who could not retire without a battle, was content to rest the fortune of the day upon the vehemence and patriotism of a French army. General Valence, who commanded the right wing, commenced the attack, on the eighteenth of March, 1793. The Duke of Chartres, who com- manded the centre, having under him Generals Diet- mann and Dampierre, was to support Valence if it should have been necessary. Success was not long doubtful, and the enemy were driven out of the village with terrible loss. Valence, who had followed them too far, without regard to what was passing at any other point of the line, neglected to leave a detach- ment in charge of the village, which the Austrians observing, re-entered, and placed both wings of the French army in a most critical situation. At this moment the Duke of Chartres dashed forward towards Nerwinde, with an unparalleled courage ; his brave efforts were covered by a destructive and well-directed fire of heavy ordnance, and, being seconded by an attack with bayonets, the village was again rescued from the Austrians. This second engagement was more obstinate and protracted than the first, the enemy having received fresh supplies of men during the struggle. Dumouriez did not know to what the continued augmentation of the Austrian forces was to be attri- POLITICAL CHARACTER OF MADAME GENLIS. 163 buted, until he was informed that his left wing, com- manded by Miranda, was totally routed, This report was soon spread through the ranks. Fresh columns were now observed, bearing to the enemy's right, and marching on the village. This was the signal of Dumouriez's defeat. In vain the generals endeavoured to arrest the progress of confusion and disorder, or to bring back the fugitives ; the cry of "sauve qui peut" was heard everywhere, and above every other sound ; the route of the French army was complete. The Duke of Chartres and General Leveneur, alone, suc- ceeded, at the head of a battalion composed of veteran soldiers, in checking the impetuosity of the enemy, and preventing them from pursuing the fugitives. The duke, who had a horse killed under him during the action, remained the whole night upon the field of battle, rallying the troops, and, the next day, the army fell back upon Tirlemont. It was the devotion of the prince to his country and his profession, that prevented this great reverse from becoming still more disastrous to the arms of France. Only thirteen days after this misfortune, (March 31st), Dumouriez raised the standard of revolt. Much has been written upon this circumstance, and its features have been disfigured by turns by partisan historians. Suspected by the Convention,* defeated at Nerwinde, * The Moniteur of the 27th of March, published the following statement of Proly, Pereyra, and Dubuisson : " Intrusted by the minister of foreign affairs with an important mission, we repaired to Tournay, where the army was, to hold a consultation with General Dumouriez, on the best means of preserving Belgium, and upon the subject of the proclamation he had made. We arrived on Tuesday, the 26th. Citizen Proly, who was previously known to the general, waited on him. He found him at the house of Madame de Sillery, in company with that lady, the Misses Egalite, and Pamela. He was 164 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Dumouriez had no other alternative but to permit himself to be arrested at the head of his army, or make his escape. He was supping with the Duke of Chartres, at Saint Amand-des-Boucs, when a courier arrived, bringing an order for his immediate return, to give a public explanation of his conduct ; this order originated with a simple committee, not with the Convention, and was signed Duhem. It was natural for both to protect themselves against this unjustifiable despotism. The prince, who regarded such an order as identical with a death-warrant, expressed his deep regrets to his general, who, upon opening another des- attended also by Generals Valence and Egalite ; and the deputies from Valenciennes and Cambray, who had come there to express their fears, were also present. "Amongst other unbecoming observations which he did not hesitate to make, Dumouriez said that the Convention was the cause of all the misfortunes of France ; that it was composed of 745 tyrants, all regicides ; that he, Dumouriez, was strong enough to bring them to a sense of propriety ; and, that if they were to call him Caesar, Cromwell, or Monk, he was still resolved to save his country." Such a report must naturally have made Dumouriez an object of suspicion to the Convention, but we have the testimony of Madame Genlis, which is sustained in every part by circumstantial evidence, that the whole of this document is false. Dubuisson, its author, was beheaded in 1794, along with Anacharsis Cloots. Dumouriez was also accused of favouring the emigrants, to the prejudice of the revolution ; but this is quite untrue. In 1814, when Marshal Macdonald placed Dumouriez's name amongst those who should be made marshals of France, or grand-cordons of the Legion of Honour, Louis XVIII. effaced it from two different returns. Dumouriez hearing of this, exclaimed " It does not sur- prise me ; I have something here on my forehead, which they can never forgive ; it is an inscription in which may be traced the word 1 Champagne.' " FLIGHT OF DUMOURIEZ. l6<5 patch, said " Now it is your turn, my young friend ; this letter encloses a similar invitation for you." The gallant veteran and his noble companion, who had so recently reflected a bright light upon their country, were now cited to appear as criminals before the com- mittee of public safety. It was obvious their lives were demanded,* a price was set upon their heads not a moment was to be lost. The next day they set off to- wards the frontier, and bade adieu to unhappy France. The battalion of the Yonne, commanded by Davoust, afterwards Prince of Eckimihl, met the fugitives and fired upon them. The alarm was given, and this first warn- ing had nearly been fatal to the unfortunate objects of proscription, who were endeavouring to conceal them- selves from the death-warrant directed against them by the committee of public safety. A detachment of dra- goons was sent in pursuit of them ; and they would inevitably have been taken or slain then, but for the extraordinary presence of mind displayed by Baudoin, the young duke's groom. This faithful servant, to divert the attention of the dragoons, who were pursuing his master, pretended to be wounded, and lay down at the road-side, near to a stack of hay, behind which his horse was concealed. The squadron came up to him in a few minutes, and asked which way the fugitives had taken, when Baudoin, finding his stratagem successful, pointed towards a *" You have placed your persons and properties under the protection of the law," said the Society of the Friends of Liberty at Lundun, yet we see the cannibal Marat amongst you, who never ceases to recommend murder and pillage. We find the greatest difficulty in endeavouring to reconcile your philantropy with your association of this man, who wishes only for blood, who still demands a sacrifice of 200,000 lives. 166 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. direction the opposite -nearly to that pursued by the prince. The dragoons galloped off in search of their victims, while Baudoin, mounting his charger, soon overtook his illustrious companion, whose misfortunes he voluntarily shared. The Duke of Chartres repaired in the first instance to Mons,* the Austrian head-quarters, to obtain pass- ports. Prince Charles invited him to enter the service * The following reflections upon certain plans of Dumouriez for the elevation of the Duke of Chartres, are extracted from an anonymous publication : l< That which complicates the question is, the many falsehoods, and exaggerations, then and subsequently put forth by Dumouriez, who was, nevertheless a greater boaster of in- trigues. We do not hesitate to place amongst the number of these boasts a project which did him honour, that of abolishing the repub- lican system, and erecting a constitutional monarchy in favour of the Duke of Chartres. Many persons have imagined that he was aware of this design ; it is certain, that in the army, as well as amongst the moderes of the interior, the prince would have found a crowd of adherents. But there was one thing wanted to the accom- plishment of the project, the consent of the principle person interested ; who was too conscientious to usurp a crown which had just fallen in blood, too good a son to authorize proceedings which would have endangered the life of his father ; in short, too enlightened, too pru- dent, notwithstanding his extreme youth, to be instrumental in any ambitious or ill-conceived scheme emanating from such a man as Dumouriez. However, whether the duke was conscious or not of Dumouriez's real objects, a stern necessity rendered an union of their fortunes indispensable for a time ; thanks to that species of caution which the convention affected to establish, and the odium that the intriguers of that period attached to the title of prince. Besides, it does not follow that, by disconnecting himself from Dumouriez, he would have escaped captivity in the territory of France ; and, in that state of suspicion, absent or not from France, he could not have influenced the destiny of his father, on whose path the sun had just began to reflect its rays, at the moment when lie fell living into the same abyss which had ingulfed Louis XVI." THE DUKE OF CHARTRES GOES INTO EXILE. 167 of the empire, but in vain the hero of Jemappes could never consent to carry arms against his country. Proscribed in France by those who ruled by terror and the scaffold,* he was repulsed abroad, as an adhe- rent to that revolution of which he was the victim, because he declined to place himself under the flao- t O of the emigrants. He chose exile, and poverty, rather than place his sword at the discretion of the enemies of his country. Having determined to leave Mons so soon as he should have informed his mother, the Duchess of Orleans, then confined in the Duke of Penthievre's chateau, at Vernon, he set out from that place in the month of April, 1793, assuming the name and appearance of an English traveller, accompanined only by his aide-de-camp, Cesar Ducrest. He was now obliged to take every precaution to preserve his incognito, in those very countries which he had traversed as a conqueror, and in those towns and cities where his enemies were his companions in exile. At Liege, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Cologne, he dared not venture to dine at the table d'hote, from the danger of recognition. At Coblentz, he found some remains of the pomp of that court, which was erected by the pride of the French nobility, and overthrown by the victory of Valmy. The king's brothers, abandoned by the king of Prussia, who could not endure them in consequence of the dis- grace inflicted on his arms, were obliged to depart from those walls which had witnessed their counter-revolu- * The Conventionalists were much enraged against the Duke of Chartres, because he had dared to speak the truth. " Into what a gulf," said he, " have they precipitated France ? I see civil war kindled, I see innumerable armies advancing on all sides, against our unfortunate country, and I see no army to oppose them." 168 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. tionary attempts, and separate themselves from those titled emigrants, whose vanity had neutralized all other advantages of their association. At the hotel where the Duke of Chartres lodged, he was surprised to see his portrait and those of all his family. Curious to learn the motive that had inspired his host with the idea of such an ovation, at a moment when so many dangers menaced every member of the Orleans family, he asked him what it meant. "It is a reminiscence of their having stopped here," replied the innkeeper, " I have received them all." " All ?" said the duke " Yes, all without exception." And he persevered so far in the falsehood as to show the illus- trious traveller the apartments which each of these noble personages occupied during their sojourn there. The poor man little thought that the stranger whom he was thus conducting through his house, was one of those very princes whose portraits he had so carefully collected. The duke was at Frankfort, when he read an ac- count in the newspapers, of the arrest of his father and his brothers. Lafayette, detained by the Prussians, loaded with irons, and forgotten by France, was pining in a dun- geon. Thus, at the two opposite extremities of France, the friends of liberty were receiving, from a common gaoler, the reward of their sacrifices ; while a generous young prince was exiled for having sacrificed every thing to that cause. o The Duke of Chartres, with that foresight and pru- dence, which he had inherited from an inestimable and virtuous mother ; and which had been cultivated by a governess of brilliant talents, had at first suggested the retirement of the whole Orleans family from Europe. M. MONTPENSIER VISITS ITALY, 169 This was opposed by his father, who either went, or was carried, headlong in his mad career, until his own retreat became impracticable. In this state of affairs the duke determined upon addressing the Convention, asking permission to leave France for ever, for he had fallen into the deepest dejection at the state of his country, after the violent death of the king. Having always shown the most filial obedience to his father's wishes, he submitted his petition in the first instance to him, requesting that he would present it, and obtain an assent to its prayer. He added, that as his father was a deputy, he could not make such a request for himself, but that there was nothing irregular in seeking the permission for his son. The character of Monsieur Egalite's reply was very different from that of the application ; it is highly characteristic, and rather tends to show that he possessed by nature a rough, boister- ous, hasty temperament, not unlike to that of Fielding's Squire Western. He briefly answered, that " the idea was destitute of common sense," and must not be thought of any more. His rude orders were respect- fully obeyed. The Duke of Montpensier, who desired much to visit Italy, asked permission to serve with the troops then stationed at Nice ; and, having succeeded in his application, he bade farewell to his sister and brothers, and set out from Tournay. It was while Madame Genlis and the children of Egalite were at Tournay, that the Duke of Chartres received the letter from his father, beginning with these words " My heart is oppressed with sorrow, but for the interests of France and of liberty, I have thought it my duty," &c. " This letter," says Madame Genlis, " produced the same effect upon the Duke of Chartres i. z 170 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. as on myself ; we were equally seized with horror and dismay." Departing from Frankfort, the Duke of Chartres and his companions directed their journey towards Basle. From the top of a hill which rises above the environs of the town, the hattlements of the fortress of Hun- inguen are visible. At the sight of the tri-coloured flag, the evidence of all he had done for France, the prince was unable to suppress his deepest emotion. It was near to his country, which perhaps he should never see again, and from which he was compelled to fly. The exiles saluted the flag of liberty, and bade it a last fare- well. What regrets, what bitterness, what deathful recollections did it awaken ! The duke being recognized at Basle by a captain of the royal Swedes, resolved on hastening his departure ; besides, he had just been informed, by a letter from Gustave de Montjoie,* that Mademoiselle d'Orleans and Madame Genlis, accompanied by this stedfast friend, had proceeded to Switzerland. To rejoin his exiled family, who had arrived at Schaffousen, on the 26th of April, the duke quitted Basle without delay ; and, remaining at Schaffousen until Mademoiselle had recovered sufficiently from her fatigue to resume her journey, the party set out for Zurich. Arrived at Zurich, they there intended to establish * At the breaking out of the first revolution, Montjoie was a cap- tain in the regiment of Darmstadt. The emigration of almost all the officers of the regiment, procured rapid promotion for those that remained, and Montjoie became colonel. In that capacity he served in the campaign in Flanders, at the time Dumouriez raised the standard of revolt, when he thought proper to retire to Switzerland, where he died. THE EXILES VISIT ZUG. 171 themselves for some time ; but, when it was necessary for the illustrious outlaws to acquaint the magistrates with their names, that of Orleans destroyed all their arrangements. On one side, the Helvetic aristocracy imagined themselves endangered by the presence of a republican general amongst them, whose high birth could not preserve him from democratical opinions ; on the other, the emigrant royalists expressed the most marked aversion for the prince and his interesting sister. While the family were walking one evening in the public square at Zurich, an emigrant passed, in a vulgar and impertinent manner, and purposely tore away part of Mademoiselle d' Orleans' gown with his spur.* It was now necessary to set out on their journey, and, on the 14th of May the three exiles left Zurich for Zug, where they took a small house in a secluded situation on the banks of the lake, not far from the town. For the preservation of tranquillity, they took every precaution against a discovery of their real characters, and even the magistrates supposed them to be an Irish family. During an entire month they dwelt in the most perfect quiet and seclusion, needing no external assistance regular occupations engaging all their time, receiving no company, and only going out for the benefit of their health, or to attend at church. The peasants regarded them affectionately, as did also the poor in the immediate neighbourhood, who were always most kindly treated by the duke and mademoiselle, who were selected from the party to distribute whatever alms they could afford to give. Such was their situation, when some emigrants passed through Zug ; and, although the exiles did not * Madame Genlis' Memoirs. 172 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. know them personally, they immediately recognized the Duke of Chartres, whom they had seen at Versailles j and the same day the little town of Zug learned, with amazement, the quality of the guests they had enter- tained without being aware of it. The magistrates conducted themselves not merely with respect, but kind- ness ; expressed an anxious desire to retain within the canton, persons, whom they said, "gave such a virtuous example by their whole conduct and demeanour ;" but in a few days afterwards the German and Swiss journals* disclosed the retreat of the duke and his sister, to the inexpressible sorrow of the good-natured magis- trates. This public disclosure was quickly followed by despatches from Berne, reproaching the authorities for having afforded an asylum to the noble wanderers. The principal magistrate, however, uneasy at his diffi- culties, and in an embarrassed but respectful manner, requested that the duke and his party would seek another retreat. This request was complied with in a fortnight from that date. The prince now saw the cruel necessity he was under of separating from his sister, in order to assure her an asylum less ephemeral. M. de Montjoie, who was settled at Basle, with his family, came to visit them ; he informed them, that, as he passed through Brem- garten, he saw M. de Montesquiou, who, having rendered valuable services to Geneva, possessed con- siderable influence and power in Switzerland. An application was immediately made to this excellent man, * The Moniteur of the 12th of June contained the following para- graph The ci-devant Duke of Chartres arid his suite are not in Italy, as had been supposed, but reside in a solitary house on the margin of Lake Zug, in Switzerland. They pass for an Irish family." DUMOURIEZ' LETTER TO MONTESQUIOU. who cheerfully undertook to procure admission for Mademoiselle Orleans into the convent of Sainte-Claire, near to Bremgarten. " For you," said he to the Duke of Chartres, " there is no alternative but to wander in the mountains, not sojourning long in any place, but pursuing this life of sorrow until the circumstances of your country shall assume a more favourable aspect. If fortune shall prove propitious, your wanderings will be an ' Odyssey,' the details of which will one day be collected with avidity." His sentiments on the subject were precisely similar to those of General Dumouriez, who, himself an exile, wrote the following letter to General Montesquiou at that period. " Embrace, for me, our excellent young friend ; what you are doing to serve him is worthy of you. Let him derive instruction and strength from his adversity. This frenzy will pass away, and then he will find his place. Induce him to make a circumstantial diary of his travels ; it will be curious to see the diary of a Bourbon treating of other subjects than the chase, women, and the table. I am convinced that this work, which he will one day produce, will serve as a certificate for life, either when he shall have re-entered it, or to make him return to it.* Princes ought to write Odysseys rather than pastorals." * In 1795 he addressed the following to M. de Montesquiou : " I received my young friend as you may well suppose, with in- finite pleasure. I found him resigned and courageous. He remained five days with me, and I might have detained him here very agree- ably all the summer ; but if we should be discovered, they would have said that I was abetting royalty, and that I was raising the lit ad of the new dynasty up to the pinnacle. I considered that the Capetian dynasty was now concluded ; for none of the revolutions, which are so rapidly succeeding each other, will be favourable to 17 4< LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. The Duke of Chartres followed the advice of Madame Genlis and M. Montjoie, and resigned the society of his sister. Having no funds of any sort, he set out for Basle, where M. de Montjoie expected him ; and there sold his horses for the sum of sixty louis : but there again he had another sacrifice to undergo ; he was obliged to part with a devoted friend ; it was hardly safe to retain a servant ; he took leave, therefore, of Montjoie. The faithful Baudoin, however, could not entertain the thought of separation, nor of his noble young master undertaking such a journey alone ; and, although feeble, and suffering seriously from indisposi- tion, he persisted in accompanying him. The illustrious outlaw now quitted Basle on foot, leading by the hand the only horse which he had retained, and on which the humble but faithful com- panion of his exile was mounted.* it. There will one day be a king of France ; I don't know when, I don't know who ; but certainly he will not be a descendant from the direct line." This letter would lead to the conclusion that Dumouriez had con- templated placing the Duke of Chartres upon the throne. The thought had reference to the future, not to the passing moment ; and that future thought, it was not reserved for Dumouriez to realize, but for the whole nation ; and at a crisis when the people, disgusted with republican tyrants, required a prince of the most shining talents. * " How often," says Madame Genlis, " have I congratulated myself on the education I gave him on having made him learn from his childhood all the principal modern languages, on having accustomed him to serve himself, without assistance, to despise every kind of effeminacy, to sleep habitually on a wooden bed, merely covered with a straw mat ; to face the sun, cold, and rain ; to habituate him- self to fatigue, by daily practising violent exercises, and by going five or six leagues with leaden soles in his usual walks ; and, lastly, on having taught him many branches of knowledge, and on having ANECDOTE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 175 The peasants, astonished at seeing such affectionate care, bestowed by a master upon the suffering moments of his servant, stopped as he passed, uncovered their heads as a testimony of respect, as an acknowledgment of that veneration which such virtuous conduct could not fail to inspire, although so conformable to the duties of humanity. At first the prince desired to travel through the different cantons of Switzerland, with the idea of making his labours useful for instruction. Reaching Neufehatel, he there occupied himself with the elo- quent recollections of Jean-Jacques. He visited those places whence the philosopher of Geneva issued his celebrated "Lettre a Christophe de Beaumont," Arch- bishop of Paris, and his " Lettres de la Montagne." Everywhere he encountered mementos of liberty and heroism ; he who had himself performed so many acts of heroism for that very liberty, and which was pro- inspired him with a taste for travelling ! All that he was indebted for to the chance of birth and fortune, he had lost ; and nothing now remained to him but what he held from nature and from me." The following anecdote, related in the Literary Gazette, is a consummation of Madame Genlis' most sanguine hopes. " An English nobleman, Lord B m, having had the honour of dining with the king, in that unceremonious manner in which he delights to withdraw himself from the trammels of state, the conversation was carried on as if between equals, and his majesty, inter alia, remarked, that * he was the only sovereign now in Europe fit to fill a throne.' Lord B m, somewhat staggered by this piece of egotism, muttered out some trite compliments upon the great talents for government which his royal entertainer had always displayed, &c., &c., when the king burst into a fit of laughter, and exclaimed, ' No, no, that is not what I mean ; but kings are at such a dis- count in our days, there is no saying what may happen ; and I am the only monarch who has cleaned his own boots, and could do it again.' " ? LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. scribed in his name. At Tellen-Blatt, the chapel con- secrated to William Tell arrested his progress ; at Kussnacht he saluted the monument erected to the glory of the deliverer of Switzerland. As he approached the sacred temple dedicated to the shade of Tell, he turned aside to visit the imperial ruin of Halsbourg, and saw its last vestiges mouldering away beneath rank weeds and grass. Its former lords had ruled all Germany ; and it was once the proudest palace in that land of liberty ; but, in the space of five-and-twenty years, twice had it witnessed misfortunes equal to his own. The great-grandson of the brother of Louis XIV. sought an asylum amongst these ruins, against an act of persecution ; and Maria- Louisa, fallen from the throne of France to the rank of Archduchess of Austria, came hither, to seek, amidst these majestic but crumbling battlements, some recollections of her ancestors. At Grindelwald, the prince paid the tribute of his highest admiration to that vale, which seems to unite the glories and the beauties of all seasons at the same time, all climates in the same place; to that Schreck- horn w r hich, braving the red rays of the sun, reflects its lustre in a rainbow of a thousand colours, and rises, amidst a beautiful verdure, to a height af 2724 fathoms above the sea. During one of his adventurous excursions in the Alps, attended by the faithful Baudoin, he presented himself at the hospitium of Saint-Gothard: it was on the 29th of August, in the year 1793.* Having rang the bell * This hospital, founded for the purpose of affording an assylum to poor travellers, no longer exists ; it was destroyed in 1800, when the French ancf Russians fought on Saint-Gothard. FKOM THE O'l THE HOSPITIUM ON ST. GOTHARD. 177 gently, a Capuchin friar appeared at the casement, and said in Italian " Che volete ?" What do you wish ? "I request," replied the Duke of Orleans, "some nourishment for my companion and myself." "My good young men, we do not admit foot-passengers here, particularly of your description." "But, reverend father, we will pay whatever you demand." " No, no, that little inn there is good enough for you," added the Capuchin, pointing to a poor shed where some mule- teers were partaking of alpine cheese ; and closed the window. Driven from this humble asylum, the duke con- tinued his wandering life, travelling through the country of the Grisons. He was not more fortunate at Gor- dona, than he had heen at Saint-Gothard. His costume and his knapsack were the cause of his being denied the hospitality which he demanded. However, the weather being most inclement, and night having come on, the hostess reluctantly consented, after numerous entreaties, to give the travellers shelter, which con- sisted of a bed of straw spread in an out-house. Over- come by fatigue, and having no particular object in then continuing his journey, the prince accepted even this kindness with gratitude, and slept soundly until the break of day, when he was awoke by a monotonous sound of feet passing and re-passing immediately by him. As soon as he was capable of clearly discerning objects around, he discovered, to his utter astonishment, a young man with a gun, on guard beside him. En- quiring from him the cause of this extraordinary pre- caution " It was my aunt," replied the peasant, " who placed me here, with instructions to kill you if you attempted to rob us. My aunt, you must know, is a i. 2 A 178 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. miser and mistrustful." The Duke of Orleans smiled at the vain suspicion, released his garde-du-corps, paid his bill, and took leave of his hostess. Upon the banks o/ lake Lucerne he fell in with a French priest and a pedlar, earnestly disputing with a boatman about the charge of their passage across. The duke, discovering that the reverend voyager had no funds whatever, notwithstanding his own pinching poverty, undertook to pay for him. During the passage across the lake they engaged in conversation. The pedlar informed his companions that his name was Mauseda, his trade that of an optician, and his late residence the Palais- Royal ; he spoke for some time of the Duke of Orleans, to whom he pretended to have sold spectacles and other articles of his manufac- ture ; and at length, to the great embarrassment of the duke, assured them that he knew personally every member of the Orleans family. A close examina- tion, however, proved this itinerant merchant to be merely a similar character to the duke's host at Coblentz. As for the priest, anxious to express his gratitude to the generous traveller who had defrayed his expenses, he entreated to be taken into his service as chaplain ; but the situation and circumstances in which the noble exile found himself, did not admit of any addition to his suite. He laughed heartily at the proposal of the churchman, but at the same time expressed his warm admiration of that gratitude in which the proposal originated. It was during his wanderings in Switzerland, that the duke received a letter from M. Montesquiou, offering him the situation of professor at the college COLLEGE OF REICHENAU. 179 of Reichenau.* He was aware that M. Chabaud- Latour had quitted France, for the purpose of entering this establishment with the rank of professor ; but not arriving at the appointed time, M. de Montesquieu solicited the appointment from M. Aloyse Jost, presi- dent of the college, for his young friend the Duke of Chartres. The prince had attained his twenty - second year when he was admitted at Reichenau, in the month of October, 1793 ; he had previously submitted to the most rigid examination, presenting himself under the name of Chabaud,f without being recognized by any save M. Aloyse Jost himself, or exciting the least suspicion as to his real character ; and he continued to teach geography, history, the French and English languages, together with mathematics, for the space of eight months. He not only succeeded in the discharge of his academic duties, but had the good fortune to inspire the inhabitants of Reichenau with such a high esteem for his virtues and abilities, that they appointed him their deputy to the assembly of Coire. It was at this moment that the chilling intelligence reached him of his father's tragic fate. Overwhelmed with affliction, he sought relief in change of scene, and carrying with him the esteem, and even affectionate, * The chateau of Reichenau, where the college was established, is situated at the conflux of the Upper Rhein and Lower Rhein, which here take the common name of Rhine. f This was the name of a protestant gentleman who was a deputy in the year 1815, and one of the proprietors of the Journal des Debats. The certificate of honourable and faithful services, which was delivered to the prince upon his quitting the college of Reiche- nau, is in the name of Chabaud-Latour ; and it is not the least honourable record amongst the archives of the ancient house of Orleans, 180 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. regards, of his associates at Reichenau, he-became once more a wanderer, his knapsack hanging from his shoulder, and a staff giving additional firmness to his steps. As he approached Bremgarten, Baudoin, who had preceded him from precautionary motives, was in wait- ing to inform him whether all was safe within the town. Accosting his master with a much more cheerful air than he had exhibited at Saint-Gothard " You may enter boldly, Monseigneur," said he, " we shall have a better supper here than those detestable Capuchins gave us, for I heard them turning the spit, and I smelt the savour of a chicken, much more agreeable fare than the cheese of the Alps." The prince remained with M. de Montesquiou, under the assumed name of Corby, and with the title and rank of aide-de-camp, until some time in the year 1794. But can a prince ever remain concealed ? In default of any knowledge of his personal appearance, and equally ignorant of his place of concealment, intrigue and falsehood are alive, and busy with his name. Whilst a small but steady party in France still dreamt of a constitutional monarchy under the Duke of Orleans, the German papers represented him as living ostentatiously, and indolently, in a palace erected for him by General Montesquiou, at Bremgarten. And yet the putative Corby, as well as his generous host, was without money ; and both were necessitated to lead the most simple, quiet, and frugal lives ! Relieved from the anxiety of watching over the safety of his sister, who had quitted the convent of Bremgarten, to seek an asylum in Hungary, with the Princess de Conti, her aunt, the Duke of Orleans came to the determination of leaving Switzerland. THE DUKE OF ORLEANS AT HAMBURG. 181 One day as he sat in a parlour adjoining that occupied by M. de Montesquiou, he over-heard him arguing with some persons, whose conduct, on his generous host's account, he regarded with suspicion and fear. This conversation made him apprehensive lest the hospitality which he was then receiving, might even prove fatal to his Mend ; and, to obviate such a fright- ful termination of their connection, he at once decided upon repairing to Hamburg. Upon his arrival at this great mart of commerce, he experienced so much difficulty in recruiting his pecuniary resources, that he was obliged to forego his projected voyage across the seas ; but so incapable of enduring inactivity, that he set out, once more, as a wanderer, resolving to visit the cheer- less climate of northern Europe. A letter of credit, limited in extent, on a banker at Copenhagen, was sufficient for the expenses of an exile now taught to endure the severest privations. The banker at Copen- hagen, to whose kind attention he had been particularly recommended, not as Duke of Orleans, but only as a Swiss traveller, procured passports for him from the king of Denmark, under the authority of which he was at liberty to take with him two companions, his stead- fast friend Count Montjoie, and honest Baudoin, who had shared with his master all the sorrows and suffer- ings of a persecuted exile. The Scandinavian peninsula, possessing considerable interest, may be explored at a trifling expense, especially in the modest manner adopted by the prince in his wanderings ; besides, it offered still greater induce- ments to him in other, and not unimportant respects its great distance from the seat of war, and the small number of French emigrants who had taken refuge 18% LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. there, neutralizing, to some extent, the malevolence which pursued him. From Copenhagen he passed to Elsineur, and visited the castle of Kronenhurg, which commands the port ; in this state prison the unhappy Queen, Caroline- Matilda, was immured, whilst an unauthorized tri- bunal proceeded rigorously against the minister, Count Struensee, who fell a victim to the ambition and hatred of the Dowager Queen, Maria-Julia. He next visited the gardens of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, immor- talized by the genius of Shakspeare, and familiarized to Frenchmen, by Ducis, and his inimitable interpreter, Talma. Crossing the sound at Helsinbourg, he first set foot upon the hospitable soil of Sweden, where the traveller, without distinction of rank or fortune, is sure of meeting with a kind reception. Having examined the institutions of the rich and commercial town of Gottenburg, the second in the kingdom, he ascended lake Wener, to see the splendid waterfalls of Goetha-Elf, and the herculean works undertaken within the last two centuries at Troll- hsethan, to connect the gulf of Bothnia with the North sea, by means of a ship canal. Thence bending his course towards Norway, the traveller remained for a short period at Frederickshall, the scene of Charles XIFs. last moments, an event, one of the most impressive which history has bequeathed, of the vanity of earthly ambition, and a theme for future moralists.* Proceeding to Christiania, he was there * He fell at the siege of Frederickshall, in Norway, in 1718, when he had attained only his 36th year. There are various opinions as to the precise circumstances of his death ; Voltaire believed that it was occasioned by a cannon fired from the fortress ; but others M. MONOD. 183 received in the most gracious manner by the inhabitants, although none possessed any knowledge of his objects, or even suspected his rank. M. Monod, afterwards lecturer at the reformed church in Paris, was then in Christiania, and fully appreciated the conduct of the prince. He has since been repeatedly heard to declare, that the more the virtuous and instructive life of this traveller was examined, the more exalted and exemplary it appeared. What must have been this kind man's astonishment, after the revolution of many eventful years, on returning to his native country, to recognise in the ^oung French traveller of Christiania, conspicuous by his gentleness and modesty, a prince of the blood royal, and standing upon the very steps of the throne of France. pretend to think that a pistol discharged by a nearer hand, by one of his immediate attendants, terminated the life of this extraordinary character. To this opinion also the Swedes in general adhere. It would appear from this, that the nation became tired of a prince under whose government they had lost their finest provinces, their best soldiers, and their national wealth ; one whom adversity could neither instruct or subdue, and persisted in maintaining a war so unequal, that the worst results only were anticipated by his people ; a prince, in short, who would never listen to the counsel of those who recommended peace, even when his kingdom was no longer in a condition to continue at war. In the arsenal at Frederickshof, near Stockholm, the hat and garments which he wore when he was killed, are still preserved. However a party may depreciate the genius of this singular monarch, he has been fortunate in finding Voltaire for his historian, and Dr. Johnson has contributed by the graces of his manner to give interest to the story of his dying hour " His death was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand : He left the name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 184 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. The duke remained for some time at Christiania, living quietly and unrecognised, happy at escaping those suspicions, and that surveillance, which had pur- sued him so incessantly in his journeyings. On one occasion he was fully convinced he had been discovered. It is an established custom in that country, at the proper season, after having breakfasted in town, to go into the country to pass the remainder of the day. At the conclusion of one of these excursions, and when the guests were about to return to Christiania, he heard the son of the banker, whose guest he was, exclaim, in a loud and somewhat playful tone " The Duke of Orleans' carriage !" The well-known sounds startled him not a little such an occurrence could not be acci- dental he was, he must be known to some one present! Perceiving that the young Norwegian did not notice the embarrassment into which he had been thrown, he soon recovered his self-possession, and only thought of investigating the extraordinary circumstance. With a playful smile upon his countenance, he asked his young friend " Pray, why do you call for the Duke of Orleans' carriage ? what have you to do with him ?" " Nothing at all ; only that whilst our family resided in Paris, every evening, as we were coming out of the opera, we heard the people vociferating on all sides, and with the most extravagant eagerness " La voiture de Monseigneur le due d' Orleans ! les gens de son Altesse Royale !" I have been almost stunned with the noise ; I shall never forget the transaction the whole thing just occurred to me now, and, instead of simply calling for our carriage, I gave an humble imita- tion of the way they do things in Paris." This explanation completely dissipated all uneasiness on the subject of his recognition. How little did the THE CLOCK OF HAMERSFELDT. ] 8,5 Norwegian youth imagine, that words uttered in a moment of thoughtlessness could awake recollections so painful I At Drontheim the prince was most kindly received by the governor, Baron Kroh, who literally overwhelmed him with attention. Anxious to reach the extremest point of the continent towards the period of the solstice, he hastened his departure from Drontheim. Hamers- feldt, which he passed through immediately after his departure from Drontheim, is the most northern town in Europe ; and, if the visit of a wandering prince, driven from the land of his fathers by the most blood- thirsty monsters that ever dishonoured the human form, has not conferred upon this little place some dis- tinction, the kind recollection which the exile cherished for it, when he was one of the most powerful monarchs in the world, has atoned for that defect. Some few years since, a French frigate was commis- sioned, and sent on a scientific voyage, to the Northern seas; Louis Philippe, remembering the warm hearts he found in the frigid clime of Lapland, sent a present of a noble clock to the inhabitants of Hamersfeldt, to be set up in the church-tower, and sound the solemn warnings of time's continual advances, over the surface of the Frozen sea. The innocent objects of this kind- hearted recollection desired their affectionate regards to the great king, who, they declared, would never be forgotten by the inhabitants of the icy world, until " time should be no more," alluding to the character of the royal gift. Travelling along the coast of Norway, as far as the gulf of Salten, he visited the dangerous whirlpool of the Maelstrom, notwithstanding the dangers which prohibit the approach of the inquisitive. At certain 186 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. periods, the waters of the sea, without any apparent or explained cause, acquire a centripetal motion, attended with such force and velocity, that they ingulf every thing that comes within the influence of their fatal powers ; even the largest ships have been drawn in, nor do their wrecks ever rise again to the surface. There are occasions, however, when the waters roll on unagitated, obliterating all distinction between the absolute place of this terrific vortex, and the waters that cover the sea. Setting out from Saltdalm, under the guidance of Holm, a journeyman wig-maker from Iceland, who was to act as his interpreter, he visited the most interesting scenes in Lapland, and saw another family of the human species, differing very essentially from their neighbours, the Norwegians and the Swedes, and offering ample subject for observation in their simple and patriarchal habits. Accompanied by his newly-formed Lapland host, who became his conductor and companion amidst the mountains, precipices, and torrents of this frigid land, he reached the most northern point of the olden world, the Ultima Thule of Europe, called, by geogra- phers, the North Cape, on the 24th of August, 1795. This great buttress of the continent is impressively described by the few educated travellers who have visited it, and is remarkable by its features, situation, associations. It is one of those spots on the face of the globe, where the conviction of human weakness and of Almighty power is the most overwhelming. Ovid has well described the sad aspect of the chilling scene.* Thus, the exiled Duke of Orleans approached * " Est locus extremis Seythise glacialis in oris Triste solum, sterilis, sine fruge, sine arbore, tellus." LIFE IN LAPLAND. 187 within eighteen degrees of the Arctic pole, being five degrees farther north than the only Frenchmen, who, before his time, had ever penetrated these hyperborean regions, had attained Maupertuis, sent by the King of France to measure a degree of the meridian under the polar circle, and the poet Regnard, who, travelled for pleasure and instruction more than a century before, and who was protected, during his wanderings, by Charles XL, King of Sweden. The Duke of Orleans might, with greater truth than the latter, have engraved upon the pillar-stone the inscription still quoted in the north : " Hie tandem stetimus nobis ubi defait orbis;" for, at the point where the poet stopped, there was no lack of land to plant his foot on. If the political events of France had overturned the throne of the Capets, and sent forth its descendants to wander in foreign lands, it must be confessed that this young member of the exiled race had turned his misfor- tunes to the most profitable account. He was studying nature in the best of all schools, the school of experience and adversity ; and, by bringing himself in contact with every species of life, and, by adding the treasures of personal observation, to those with which his mind was fraught, he was preparing himself for that course of events, which gave him subsequently such a powerful influence over the destinies of his own country, and of Europe. The bold and rugged scenery of these Arctic regions, and the simple and unpretending kindness of the inhabitants, must have produced a vivid impression upon a young man of his rank and previous pursuits, obliged to commence his novitiate in the world under such extraordinary circumstances. The duke sojourned, for sometime, with this happy, hospitable, people ; he delighted in conversing with the 188 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. inhabitants, in analyzing their recitals, and learning from them their manners, customs, and the strange and sudden transitions that take place in their climate, so very different from ours, under a heaven, which affords to man, and to vegetation, but a single day of six months' length, and a night of the same duration. Adopting the maxim " When at Rome do as Rome does," he clothed himself in a tunic, which he wore continually during his travels in Lapland, a dress bor- rowed from the Norwegian sailors, who call it in their language, a " koufte ;" he was frequently to be found in the humble tents of the Laplanders, an enclosure covered by a valmar wrapped round a few poles, so that the smoke from the fire, which is in the middle of the hovel, may escape through an aperture in the apex of the conical roof. The stone houses of the Laplanders, not unlike our baking ovens, attracted his particular attention, they resemble the Lapland-tent in design, and a similar provision is made, by the artless archi- tects, for the escape of smoke. These humble dwellings in the language of Lapland, are called kodeki. A similar feeling of curiosity, a like spirit of inquiry, and desire to be instructed, induced him to climb to the little hutches, mounted on poles, similar to our pigeon-houses, which are employed as magazines during the winter for the safe deposition of their stock of food. They are elevated a sufficient height from the ground, not only to prevent them from being buried in the snow, but to secure them against the invasion of wild animals. They are, however, not wholly inaccessible to bears, who are often able to break the poles, and, on the fall of the store-house, they drag it away to a distance from its original position and there rifle it of its contents. Crossing Swedish Lapland for the second time, on foot, THE COURT OF SWEDEN. 18Q attended by several natives, and their reindeer, the duke descended to Torneo, at the extremity of the gulf of Bothnia ; passed thence to Abo, traversed a part of Finland, in order to study the theatre of the last war between the Russians and Swedes, under Gustavus III. ; and advanced as far as the river Kymene, which separates Sweden from Russia. He did not desire to pass this boundary. Catherine II., then governed that great empire, and her hostile dispositions towards France, which seem to have des- cended as an inheritance to her grandsons, were not of a nature to inspire him with any desire to visit her territories, or to study their institutions ; he pre- ferred a visit to the capital of Sweden, and, embarking for the Aland islands, proceeded thence to Stockholm, where he arrived at the latter end of October.* For several days he preserved his incognito as strictly as he could have wished, when, from curiosity to witness a grand ball at the court, given in celebration of the birth of the king, Gustavus II., he availed him- self of a ticket of admission to the highest gallery in the ball-room, which a banker had procured for him. Having enjoyed the gay picture for an hour or more, he was surprised by the entrance of a master of the ceremonies, into the box where he was seated; the courtier approached him with all the graces and respect- ful manifestations that belonged to his office, and begged the honour of being permitted to conduct the prince to his proper place in that assembly the royal circle. After this public discovery, it was in vain, any longer, to conceal his real character. He owed this unexpected, * "The Gallophobia of the Northern Semiramis was too well known to allow the duke to run the risk of Siberia, and the knout ; so he crossed the gulf of Finland to Stockholm. American Biography." 190 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and unwelcome, attention, to the officiousness of the French envoy at Stockholm, M. de Rivals, who, having perceived the prince in the gallery, went instantly over to the chancellor, Count de Sparre, and said " You keep some of your secrets from me ; you never told me that you had the Duke of Orleans concealed here." The chancellor, as much astonished as the envoy could have been, declared it was impossible it could be the fact ; but the envoy replied " He is so assuredly in Stockholm, that he now sits up there," at the same time pointing to the place where the prince sat. The veil of mystery being removed, the Count de Sparre informed the prince, that his majesty, as well as the Duke of Suder- manie, then regent, would be happy to see him. Being accordingly presented to these illustrious persons, they received him with as much kindness as distinction, lavished on him the most generous offers, and gave all necessary orders to facilitate his examina- tion of everything which he considered instructing, interesting, or deserving of his notice, in that kingdom ; but of all these generous favours the duke accepted the last only. From Stockholm, he repaired to the interesting ruins of Dalecarlia, visiting successively Sahla, Afvesestad, Sseter, Ornses ; and he entered also the house in which Gustavus Vasa was concealed in 1520, when pursued by the satellites of Christiern. The latter was to him a scene of no little interest, and the mansion itself, the architectural character of which was very remarkable, had been preserved with the most scrupulous attention to its original state. The staircase climbs the outer walls ; the chamber, occupied by Gustavus, is on the second story, of noble proportions, and forming an exact hollow cube. At each side of the door- way stood figures THE MINES OF FAHLUN. 1Q1 of his two faithful Dalecarlians, clothed in a white woollen stuff, and armed cap-a-pie, having sugar-loaf hats, according to the costume of that age. At the bed-side was a figure of the faithful domestic who at- tended the brave Gustavus in his exile. The care- takers also showed the little closet where the hero was secreted, and whence he escaped to effect the important union which subsequently took place at Mora. The Duke of Orleans descended into the famous copper mines at Fahlun, where he found, at an in- credible depth beneath the surface, a number of sub- terraneous towns. He mingled on terms of complete equality with the honest peasantry, who have per- severed in cherishing the manners and costume of their forefathers ; he examined that great rock of Mora 9 from the top of which Gustavus Vasa harangued the Dalecarlians, and persuaded them to march against the cruel Christiern, the Nero of the North. The French prince, himself also an outlaw, slept in the farm-house which had served, for such a length of time, as a place of refuge for the Swedish hero. What emotions must the recollection of Gustavus have re- called to his mind, who had so miraculously escaped the axe of the executioners, and, obliged to bury himself alive in the very bowels of the earth, there organized that plan for the chastisement of Christiern, which subsequently gave freedom to his country. It is a coincidence, somewhat extraordinary, that two exiled princes should have taken shelter at Mora, and that both should have quitted it to become, at different periods, the one king of Sweden, the other monarch of the French. The Duke of Orleans was unwilling to take leave of Sweden without visiting the superb arsenal of 192 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Carlscrona, where vessels of the largest class can be placed in spacious dry docks, hewn out of the rock, as well for their preservation in time of peace, as for any necessary repairs they may require. The court desired to escort him thither, with all the honours due to his elevated rank ; but he declined that homage to which he had been so long unaccustomed, and repaired to Carlscron&t as a traveller in search of instruction and experience. The governor, to whom he personally applied, informed him that strangers were not admitted to the arsenal. Accustomed to disappointment, the prince was about to retire, when a courier, who had been despatched by the regent, arrived just in time to displace the inflexible commissary. The ponderous gates at once opened to admit the royal exile, and the governor made ample amends for the discourtesy that had been shown at first, by attending the duke and explaining the purposes of the various inventions in that great naval depot. He put several questions to his visiter, calculated to draw the duke from the incognito which he strictly maintained, but in vain ; he must naturally have con- cluded that an individual, whom the court of Sweden treated not merely with ceremony, but kindness, held, or was entitled to, an exalted rank ; conjecture could avail but little to one whose knowledge of the political constitutions of Europe was so limited. Repassing the Sound, the duke returned, by Copen- hagen and Lubeck, once more to Hamburg, in 1796. Unfortunately, his visit to the kingdoms in the North of Europe, had not improved his situation, either as re- garded his political position or his finances, for he now found himself entirely destitute of pecuniary resources. It is true that many proposals had been made to him, THE DIRECTORY NEGOCIATE WITH THE EXILE. 1Q3 wnich, to other men, must have appeared highly flatter- ing, and he was solicited to enter the service of several monarchs, from the high sense entertained of his military abilities and experience. The Directory, the authority which then governed France, dreaded the presence of the prince in Europe, and thought, that their power would he insecure until he was separated from them by the intervening ocean. The most effectual mode of bringing about this relative arrangement was by attacking him through the medium of his dearest affections. A negotiation was accordingly set on foot, with the duchess his mother, promising to remove the sequestration from her property, and liberate her two younger sons, who were then imprisoned at Marseilles, upon condition that they would all three embark for America. The first step towards the ac- complishment, by either parties to the treaty, was the discovery of the Duke of Orleans' concealment ; for, from the moment when he withdrew from Sweden, the spies of France were unable to trace him. The envoy of the French republic to the Hanseatic towns, after two months of ineffectual inquiries in every part of Poland and Prussia, found himself completely baffled, and, when at length he was discovered, in the little town of Fre- derickstadt, in Holstein, where a letter from his mother was put into his hands, it was by those means which alone could have proved effectual, an appeal to his feelings as a son and brother, for these alone could have induced him to disclose his retreat. When the awful circumstances, connected with the destruction of the monarchy in France, are remembered, it will not appear that the precautions of the Duke of Orleans, against either the threats or the promises of the Director, were unnecessar. His father, who had lQ4f LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. sacrificed his rank and property, in his mistaken zeal for the people, perished on a scaffold : his mother, against whom no constructive crime had heen alleged, was thrown into prison in Paris ; and his brothers, the Duke of Montpensier, and the Count de Beaujolais, were immured in the castle of St. Jean, at Marseilles ; and thus they passed the morning of their lives, and, without a fault hut that of their illustrious birth, were treated with all that cruelty which characterized the revolutionary government of France, and disgusted the whole world by its extravagance. The concealed adherents of this frenzied democracy ventured to assert that the conspicuous moral worth of the Duchess of Orleans was duly appreciated, by the monsters who tyrannized over their country at that period, and that she was, in consequence, released from prison, supplied with the means of existence, and merely subjected to a rigorous surveillance ; this specialty is easily refuted. Her virtuous life should have saved her from the insult of imprisonment ; and, when she was liberated, it was solely for the purpose of assisting the dastardly Directory to negociate with her brave son, whose triumphant return, to chastise the real enemies of France, they justly apprehended. Copyists of Con- sular Rome, in other instances, they were not forgetful of its history in this, and meanly stooped to induce an affectionate mother to mediate, when all other efforts had proved fruitless ; the artifice succeeded, and the banished prince replied, in the language of his Roman prototype " Mother, thou hast saved France, but lost thy son." The princess entreated him in the most impressive and affecting language, for his own safety, and for the interest of his captive brothers, to cross the Atlantic, MR. WESTFORD OF HAMBURG. 1 Q5 and seek an asylum in the United States of America, concluding with this affectionate supplication " May the prospect of relieving the misfortunes of your dis- tressed mother, of mitigating the sorrows of your family, and of contributing to restore peace to your unhappy country, reward your generosity/' The Directory had charged itself with the transmis- sion of his mother's request to the illustrious exile, and again renewed its researches for the discovery of his retreat. This attempt proving as unsuccessful as the former, recourse was had to a Mr. Westford, a Hamburg merchant, who, from some circumstances, was supposed to be in correspondence with the prince. The suspicion was well founded ; but this faithful friend, ready to exclaim " Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes," received with prudent incredulity, the declaration of the French charge d'affaires at Hamburg, "that his object in opening a communication with the wandering prince, was to convey a letter from his mother on the part of the government ;" and disclaimed all knowledge of his actual residence. In the meantime, however, he com- municated to the duke a detailed statement of what had taken place, upon which the latter resolved to risk an exposure, in the fond hope of receiving a letter directly from his mother. He was then actually in the vicinity of Hamburg, but in the Danish states, where he had changed his residence from time to time, as a due regard to secrecy required. An interview be- tween the Duke of Orleans and the French charge, was arranged by Mr. Westford at his own house, where they met at evening time, and where, after the receipt and perusal of his mother's letter, he signified at once his acceptance of the terms proposed, and his determina- tion to embark for the United States without delay. 196 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Having now closed his wanderings in Europe, and consented to go into voluntary exile, in the hope of re- storing tranquillity to his distracted country, the duke sent the following filial communication to his mother : " When my heloved mother shall have received this letter, her commands will have been executed and I shall have sailed for America ; I shall embark in the first vessel destined for the United States. And what would I not do in return for the letter I have just received ? I no longer think that happiness is lost to me, while I have it in my power to alleviate the sorrows of a cherished mother, whose situation and sufferings have almost rent my heart for a length of time. " That I shall soon again embrace my brothers, and shall be again united to them, appears like the phantom of a dream, for I am reduced to such a state of mind that I can scarcely believe that to be a fact, the contrary of which had always appeared to me im- possible. Still I do not complain of my destiny, but rather think how much more miserable it might have been; nor should I even call it unfortunate, if, after having found my long -lost brothers, and heard that our dear mother is as well as she can be supposed to be, if after that I can once more have an opportunity to serve my country, by contributing to its tranquillity and happiness. There is no sacrifice I would not endure for such a purpose ; and as long as I live, there will not be any that I shall not be prepared to make for it." On the 24th of September 1796, the Duke of Orleans embarked on board " The America," an American vessel, then lying in the Elbe, and a regular trader between Philadelphia and Hamburg. Having repre- sented himself as a Dane, and being provided with BAUDOIN AND CAPTAIN EWING. 197 Danish passports, he engaged his passage, for the usual amount at that period, thirty-five guineas ; but, when he expressed his intention to take his servant, the faithful Baudoin, along with him, Captain Ewing earnestly pressed him not to do so, for that he could be of no service to him on board, and would assuredly desert him on landing. The duke, however, under- stood the character of his companion much more perfectly than the captain, and, persisting in his deter- mination, paid seventeen guineas and a half for his passage. The refusal of Captain Ewing to receive Baudoin wears a most suspicious aspect, and subsequent events rather tend to confirm the presentiment. Possibly the precautionary measures, adopted by the duke, might have excited counter-suspicions on the part of the sailor, for, a few days before the vessel was ready for sea these mysterious passengers asked leave to repair on board, and take possession of their berths ; a con- cession which the captain very reluctantly made, and which by no means calmed his apprehensions as to Baudoin. On the evening that preceded their departure, a French emigrant, advanced in years, and who had been long a resident in St. Domingo, came on board, and, far from suspecting the rank of his companions, abused profusely, in bad English, every person and object in the ship. The Domingo merchant understood English badly and spoke it worse, a circumstance rather advantageous to his fellow-passengers, for this inability was the only check to his extraordinary garrulity. Having frequently called for an interpreter, without being able to enlist any in his service, he became exhausted by his discon- 1 98 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. tent, and fell asleep. Awaking at an early hour, he perceived the duke, and eagerly inquired if he spoke French, of which the latter satisfied him hy replying in that language. " Ah,(said he,)you speak very well for a Dane, and you will he able to make your way without my instruction. You are a young man, I am much your senior, and you must act as my interpreter." This office the duke at once accepted, and now lent an attentive ear to the gentleman's multitudinous grievances, for each of which he was to demand instant redress. One of the first related to himself; the most important that followed, to the ship. He explained that he had no teeth, and the cook no soft bread ; he declared that it was impossible to* sail in a ship not provided with the means of baking fresh bread, that such an arrangement existed on board all French ships, and that he could not eat the American biscuits. To this Captain Ewing replied " There is my beef there is my bread, if you do not like them, leave the ship." Anxious to revisit his favourite island once more, he contented himself with the hard fare that was provided for him, and remained on board. There were eight or nine steerage passengers, Alsa- cians and Germans, one of whom was a youngHanove- rian priest, whom the American sailors tormented du- ring the voyage by calling him " Jonas" and declaring that they would throw him into the sea, should they be overtaken by tempestuous weather. Another was a rich farmer from Alsace, who was flying from the requisition, with 500 golden louis in his trunk, the whole of which were stolen from him at Philadelphia, by an adventurer who served him in the twofold capa- city of servant and interpreter, and whose passage he had paid. On an early day after their departure from THE AMERICAN BOARDED. 199 the Elbe, just as a thick fog had dispersed, they found themselves in sight of the port of Calais. A little French cruiser was conducting two Danish vessels in, which it had just captured on their way to England. When the emigrant perceived the cruiser's boat ap- proaching, he was seized with the utmost consternation, and quickly descended from deck to conceal himself in the cabin. Reaching the head of the cabin-stairs, and perceiving that he was not followed by the duke, whose indifference provoked him, he turned towards him and said, " Ah I sir, if you were a Frenchman as I am, you would not feel so much at your ease at this moment." The crew of the cruiser having boarded the America, the captain showed' them his papers, upon which they observed, " Ah I very well from Hamburg to Phila- delphia ; that is, from one neutral port to another : we have nothing to say to that. Continue your course we wish you a prosperous voyage ; you had better keep to the English coast, it is safer than that of France :" and, having given this useful advice, quitted the vessel without noticing the passengers. The duke immedi- ately went down to the cabin to inform the emigrant of his good fortune ; he found him almost paralyzed with terror ; but, when the poor fellow recovered sufficiently to give utterance to his sentiments, he exclaimed, " So they are gone ! the devil take them ! but not before they had nearly killed me with fright." After a favourable passage of twenty-seven days having left the Elbe on the twenty-fourth September, and reached the American coast on the 21st of October following the duke arrived at Philadelphia. As the vessel sailed between the capes of the Delaware, he felt desirous that the captain should learn the real character of his passenger from himself, rather than from 200 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the columns of a public journal ; and, under this im- pression, at length disclosed the secret of his incognito. The captain thanked him for his condescension, con- gratulated himself upon the honour he had enjoyed, and candidly stated, that the mysterious manner of his em- barkation had raised suspicions unfavourable to his character which, he trusted the generous prince would pardon. " I fancied," said he, " that you were some unsuccessful gambler, of broken spirit, and still more broken fortunes, who expected to find that secrecy and refuge in the new world, which it were vain to look for in the old. The chances, indeed, sir, have been fear- fully against you, and you have lost a rich prize in the great lottery of life ; but you had the magnanimity to retain treasures still more valuable, a conscience free from reproach a reputation without blemish." No other person on board was then made acquainted with the secret, nor was it until the newspapers had dis- closed it to the Philadelphians, that the Domingo planter felt the blush of shame rise to his pallid cheek, at having degraded one of the wisest, best, although least happy, princes of Europe into the humble rank of an interpreter, and on occasions of the most contemptible description. Less alarmed, however, at this discovery than at the approach of the cruiser off Calais, he re- covered the action of his faculties earlier, and the first use he made of their restoration was, to wait on the duke, request his forgiveness, congratulate him on his safe arrival in a land of liberty, and pray for a return of that happiness that had shone upon his boyhood. 201 CHAP. IV. Arrest and imprisonment of the Duke of Montpensier and the Count Beaujolais. They are released, join their brother, the Duke of Orleans, in America ; and, returning to Europe, visit England. THE proscription that included Dumouriez and the Duke of Chartres, extended to the youthful princes, Montpensier and Beaujolais ; and, on the 8th of April, 1793, while the elder of these interesting boys was with the army at Nice, commanded by the Duke of Byron, an order arrived, directing the general to arrest him, and send him strongly guarded to Paris. This cruel mandate was signed by the members of the Com- mittee of Public Safety, and mentioned no other person but M. Montpensier, then only seventeen years of age. The agony of the manly soldier to whom these villan- ous instructions were committed, was almost insupport- able. Although no man feared the cold hand of death less, it is not possible to conceive the performance of greater sacrifices, than Byron voluntarily made, to rescue the child of his early friend from the axe of the execu- tioner, or the dagger of the assassin. Falling on his knees, he implored Montpensier to tell him truly what parti- cipation he ever had in any counter-revolutionary plot. Receiving the young man's solemn assurances that he had never, directly or indirectly, been accessaiy to any project for the chastisement of the regicides, or resto- ration of the old order of things, while he confessed the disgust with which the conduct of the Jacobins i. 2 D 202 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. inspired him, Byron suggested the propriety of exa- mining his letters, and destroying, instantly, such as might be liable to misrepresentation. Assisted by La Barre, commandant of the place, a total stranger to the accused, but a man of feeling and integrity, who volun- teered his services as he followed Byron to the Duke's lodgings, observing "that it would be worse than use- less to leave any thing for those fellows to lay hold of." Some letters from his eldest brother were found, ex- pressing, in strong terms of disapprobation, the turn which the cause of liberalism had taken, and his ear- nest wish to detach himself from it. These letters would have been fully sufficient, before such a blood- thirsty tribunal, to have convicted Montpensier of culpable correspondence with a counter-revolutionary party, and brought him summarily to the scaffold. La Barre* at once perceived their dangerous tendency, and committed them to the flames. In a few moments after the accomplishment of this precautionary measure, the municipal officers arrived, for the purpose of securing Montpensier's papers, and, with much solemnity, placed their seal upon some useless letters, printed documents, and blank writing paper. Byron had quitted the room in such a state of mental agony, that he left his hat be- hind him ; and, when the prince's messenger followed him with it, he desired him to tell his young master that he had only done justice to his sentiments by re- posing the last confidence in his desire to serve him.f * He had been a lieutenant- colonel in the line, before the revolu- tion, and was then colonel of the Lorraine regiment of dragoons, and commandant at Nice. Soon after, he was made a major-general, and fell in an action against the Spaniards. f The Duke of Byron, celebrated, first under the title of Lauzun, for his adventurous gallantry, wit, and courage, was ardently THE DUKE OF BYRON. 203 Being placed under arrest, with a sentinel at his door who had no countersign, did not know the prince's person, nor the precise nature of his own duty, it was in Montpensier's power to have escaped. But, when he called to mind the situation of his mother, sister, brother, who would most probably have been all sacri- ficed to the vengeance of the Jacobins, he refused to accept of liberty on such conditions. At first, Byron thought of giving him an escort of gens-d'-armes, but this idea was instantly abandoned, from an apprehen- sion that the revolutionists in the provincial towns, seeing him so strongly guarded, would suppose him to be some distinguished aristocrat, and assassinate him on the highway. It was decided therefore that he should be accompanied by a single officer of the geris-d'-armes, disguised also in a grey surtout. On passing through Bignoles, his carriage was stopped by a number of Jacobins, assembled in the great square, who clamo- attached to the Orleans family. His connexion with the duke, Monsieur Egalite, commenced with their entrance into life. They were of the same age ; and a similarity of tastes, habits, and senti- ments, rendered this connexion familiar and intimate. Conveyed to the Conciergerie, he appeared, on the 31 st of December, 1793, before the revolutionary tribunal, by which he was immediately condemned to death : he heard the decree with stoical calmness. On his return to prison, his philosophy resumed that character of Epicurean indif- ference which had accompanied his happier years. He ordered some oysters and white wine : the executioner entered as he was enjoying this last repast, " My friend," said he, " I shall attend you, but let me finish my oysters. You, also, must require strength for the business you have to perform ; drink a glass of wine with me." Then filling a glass for the executioner, another for the turnkey, and a third for himself, he proceeded to the place of execution, where he met death with the courage and fortitude which distinguished almost all the victims of that fearful period." LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. rously demanded to see their passports. The officer, who was a remarkably brave, firm man, boldly answered, that he was the bearer of despatches to the Convention, those who interrupted him did so at their peril. Then turning to the prince, he said, " If I show my orders, you are a lost man ; for when they know who you are, they will hew you in pieces : but don't be- alarmed, they shall take my life before they have yours." Placing himself in a determined attitude, he continued, " Let no man, unauthorized, approach this carriage, but bring your mayor here, and I shall allow him to examine my orders." Reluctantly consenting to this arrangement, they led their chief magistrate up to the door of the carriage, where Pellissier read to him, in a garbled manner, his instructions, and concluded by exhibiting the signatures of the commissioners of the convention. Having gone dashingly through this very hazardous part of his duty, he called aloud to the postillion to go forward, amidst reiterated shouts of " Stop ! stop I" A much more serious interruption to their journey occurred at Aix. There the town-guard appeared to have been called together for the express purpose of arresting them, and carrying them before the magistrates, who totally discredited the representations of the officer, and insisted upon treating both himself and his prisoner as aristocrats in disguise. Being now removed into ano- ther apartment of the town-hall, while their fate was matter of deliberation amongst the authorities and the Jacobin multitude, the duke laughed at the transition which the gens-d'-arme had undergone, from guard into prisoner. Having an open and generous disposition, he took the joke as it was intended, but observed, with respect to those who had so transformed him, " I know nothing more contemptible, and disgusting than the M. MONTPENSIER AT AIX. 205 conduct of those wretches, who, to please a vile mob, would not hesitate to sacrifice innocent lives." Scarcely had this conversation ended, when cries of " let us go in," accompanied by blows against the fold- ing doors, which soon yielded to their violence, fell on their astonished ears, and, in an instant the room was filled with a mob of the lowest class, all with red caps, and a genuine specimen of the sans culottes of that day. They would, no doubt, have put the prisoners to death, but for the intervention of the national guard, who rushed in along with them, demanding " by whose orders they had entered." The reply, " by orders of the sovereign, the people," being unanswerable, villany was again about to assume its reign, when the chief magistrates, in their official cos- tume, arriving, ordered the soldiers to clear the room. A few hours only had elapsed when the prisoners were again brought before the municipal court, and informed, that they must necessarily be detained, until instruc- tions should be received from the administration of the department, which was at Marseilles, as to all future proceedings in their case. The young prince, fatigued by the length of his journey, as well as by the painful nature of his detention, requested permission to retire to rest : his suit being granted, he was conducted into a guard-room, where he lay down in his clothes, and slept soundly until the noon of the following day. He awoke to another scene, different, but not less disagreeable, than that of the preceding day ; the citi- zens of Aix, affected with an inordinate curiosity, insisted upon being admitted to see the illustrious aristocrat, and, as the sovereign power was lodged in their majesties, their will was law. The guard-room was now thrown open, and the mob permitted to enter 206 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and walk round the prisoners, until their appetite for hatred and curiosity was satisfied. This disgusting conduct was permitted hy the authorities for the space of six hours. On the day following two administrators arrived from Marseilles, with orders to conduct the prisoner to that city, and such were their apprehensions for his personal safety, that they recommended him to send forward the empty carriage, and allow it to he driven through the public streets, while he performed the journey, eight leagues, on foot, and entered the city through hy-streets. To this he at once consented, being assured, that an immense mob had assembled at Marseilles to look at the state-prisoner, and that the people of that city were ferocious Jacobins. The lan- guage which Montpensier was obliged to hear, from some of the guard that accompanied him, could not have failed to convince him of the prudence of the administrator's precautions. " Ah," said one of these fierce monsters, " we have cut down the trunk, but the business will only be half done, unless we extermi- nate the shoots, otherwise the tree may sprout again." This witticism produced the most immoderate laughter, evincing that the application was not misunderstood. On their approach to Marseilles, however, they were discovered, and the magistrates came out to receive them : the prince at first suspected that their object in receiving him publicly, was to point out his person to the mob, and cause his instant assassination, but in this he was mistaken. Having been insulted by the people as he passed, he was committed to prison in the palace of justice. His cell measured nine feet square, it had not been swept since the departure of two thieves, who had dwelt there for six vears, and, the stench THE MAYOR OF SALON. 207 was intolerable : the only light found admission through a grated ventilator, opening into a gloomy court-yard. The president of the department apologized for the wretchedness and filth of the cell, and requested the prince to be content until another less foul, but equally secure, could be procured. The turnkey, most inap- propriately adorned with a cap of liberty, appeared, and informed the prisoner that candles were not allowed to persons in his situation, but might be supplied for payment ; and, farther, that the stench might be dissi- pated by the burning of a faggot in the passage and cell, but this would also require compensation ; as to the filth of the place, it should be swept away on the morrow. The prince having at once consented to the remunerative part of the covenant, a lighted faggot was placed in the passage, and the officer of justice and liberty retired. In a few minutes after the faggot had been lighted, and the prisoner seated before it, giving way to the most melancholy reflections, he was startled by a voice of anguish behind him, exclaiming, " They are going to burn me ! they are going to burn me !" Upon the return of the jailor, the next morning, the prince asked who was that aged man, with a long grey beard, and covered with rags, whose pitiable accents reached him on the previous evening. "It is only the old mayor of Salon, (said he,) who probably came down to warm himself; he has been here these two months, and he may act the part of the madman as much as he pleases, but he will not escape the guillotine." The jailor was correct in stating that he should not escape the scaffold, 'on which he soon after suffered ; but he grossly slandered the poor ex-magistrate, by saying, that he feigned mad- ness, he was an incurable lunatic. Some alleviation of the prisoner's sorrow was pro- 208 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. duced by the permission to allow Gamache, his valet, to be the companion of his captivity. When the faith- ful servant was shown into the narrow apartment where his master was confined, he was so much affected as to be incapable of utterance. He fixed his eyes on the dark walls of the dungeon for some minutes, then, in a paroxysm of grief, exclaimed, " Oh ! my God ! is it here then? what have we done to heaven my dear Lord God I" The prince desired that he would not add to his sufferings by yielding too much to sorrow ; and the poor fellow professed, at least, a willing obe- dience. A species of injustice was now established, for the purpose of converting innocence into guilt ; this commission consisted of the officers of the munici- pality, who now, two at a time, remained constantly, day and night, in the prince's dungeon, endeavouring, by incessant questions and artful conversations, to extract from him some expression unfavourable to that new order of things, which was established in such a sea of blood. One object, and that not an unimpor- tant one, was gained by this arrangement ; the officers, unable to endure the offensive smell of the prince's dungeon, procured his removal to one of larger dimen- sions, and much cleaner, although not better lighted ; but their zeal was not abated, for, even while he slept, they not unfrequently passed a lantern over his face, to be sure that the victim had not escaped, and that no substitution was effected. On one occasion an officer of a peculiarly Jacobinical air, having remained silent for some time, j:hen looking at the prince with a gloomy countenance, asked, "Is it long since you heard from your eldest brother ?" "Yes, very long," said the prince, " the post is now very uncertain, and this deprives me of a great pleasure." "I would advise vou, however, THE ORLEANS FAMILY IMPRISONED. 20 ( J to reconcile yourself, your brother has betrayed us, and gone over to the enemy;" and, repeating these false- hoods, he took a newspaper from his pocket, and handed it to the prince, in which there was an account of the flight of Louis Philippe and Dumouriez. Per- ceiving the exultation which the Jacobin's features betrayed at his dismay, the prince recollected himself, and, returning the paper, observed, " You seem to triumph in my sufferings, allow me to complete your happiness, by assuring you, that you have succeeded in multiplying my wretchedness." "Ah," said the officer, " you are passionate, I perceive, but I like that better than dissimulation, and, since you inspire me with confidence, I will tell you frankly, that I am not your personal enemy ; but I abhor the ci-devants in general, for they ever have been, and still are, the authors of all our misfortunes." The next unexpected intelligence that arrived, was " that the Convention having decreed the arrest of all the Bourbons remaining in France, and directed their immediate imprisonment in the fortresses and castle of Marseilles, the prince might expect to be joined by his family in the course of a few days." At midnight he was suddenly aroused by a municipal officer, who, in an abrupt manner, desired him to rise, dress, and attend him without hesitation. Having obeyed these orders, he descended to the prison-gate, where a strong guard awaited, to conduct him to the fortress of Notre Dame de la Garde. Soon after he entered this new place of confinement, and while it was yet dark, he had the consolation to embrace his father, his little brother Beaujolais, his aunt the Duchess of Bourbon, and the Prince of Conti.* Night had been chosen as the * " His presence at the plenary court ; his motion in the assembly of notables, on the 8th Nov. 1788; his eagerness to sign the pro- I. 2 E 210 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. most prudent period for conducting the royal captives to their dungeon, to save them from the dangers of popular commotion. The Duchess of Bourbon was the sister of Mon. Egalite, and mother of the Duke D'Enghien, whom Napoleon put to death in the castle of Vincennes. Egalite was allowed, for a short time, the consolation of having in his cell with him his youngest child Beaujolais ; but the strictest silence was enjoined to the prisoners in each other's presence, and enforced by the personal attendance of municipal officers, who, capriciously, tyrannically, ordered them to retire to their respective cells, frequently in the course of the day, and for no obvious or intelligible cause, save the gratification of malignity. The change in Montpensier's situation was consider- ably for the better : his apartment was sufficiently light to admit of reading, drawing, and writing ; and, for a while, he was allowed the exercise of playing at bowls. But these solaces were speedily interrupted by the injunc- tion to silence, and the separation of the prisoners from each other, except at meal-times, when the attendants enforced this cruel decree. At the door of each pri- soner's apartment a sentinel was placed, to prevent intercourse ; Gamache, however, was permitted to pass the intervening space as he pleased, and convey to the captives the wishes of each other. After twelve days of irksome imprisonment, the prisoners, even the little Beaujolais, who was not quite thirteen years of age, were brought before the tribunal, and subjected to the most illiberal interrogations. Montpensier at last appeared before these mock magistrates, the chief of whom wore a Henri -Quatre hat, decked with black plumes, and a tri-coloured riband passing round his neck test of the princes ; and his emigration comprised the list of his offences against the new order of things." Mem. of the Revolution. SUICIDE OF A REPUBLICAN MAGISTRATE. and across his breast. Amongst the various remarks, disgraceful to any court of justice, but disgusting in one which professed to be founded on principles of universal freedom and philanthropy, was the following : " You must have been acquainted with the liberticidal intentions of your brother Louis Philippe, since you were always with him : and you ought to know, that your failing to denounce him was rendering yourself an accomplice." The prince might have answered, " Am I not a man and brother ?" but he contented him- self by stating, that he had no knowledge of his inten- tions, and that his flight had excited his astonishment. " So then," said the inquisitor, " you left your brother solely for the purpose, in concert with him, of betray- ing the republic in the south, while he was betraying it in the north." Montpensier observed upon the nonsense of his having succeeded in betraying a state, whose prisoner he became before he had ever per- formed one public act connected with the question at* issue. Upon his return to the fortress, the report of a pistol, followed by shouts of " guards ! treason ! the prisoners !" alarmed the unhappy persons who were, for a moment, supposed to have been the occasion of the confusion. The prisoners were immediately shut up in their cells, where they remained for not more than half an hour, and, upon the opening of the doors again, were informed, that " it was only a suicidal act, com- mitted within the fortress, by one of the municipal magistrates." During the outcry of assassination, Mons. Egalite was transferred to the fortress of St. John, and cruelly prevented from taking his son Beaujolais along with him. The boy, who had never hitherto been separated from his father, was overwhelmed with ^1^ LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. grief ; nor were the affectionate efforts of his brother, tc console him for the privation, successful his grief long continued to be poignant. It was next resolved by the Convention, that the other state-prisoners should be transferred to the same prison, and a battalion of five hundred men arrived at the fort of Mont Notre Dame to escort " a woman, an old man, a youth of seventeen, and a boy not thirteen years of age." Such, however, was the frenzy of the French people at that period, that even this strong guard did not completely save the prisoners from violence, and it afforded them no pro- tection whatever from the grossest insults. Yet not one of the noble party had committed any species of crime against the state. The Duchess of Bourbon and the Prince of Conti being conducted to their apartments, which did not wear the deepest gloom that may invest a dungeon, a stentorian voice was heard to exclaim, " Now citizens, the two young Orleans to the tower !" Strange coinci- dence, singular resemblance between monarchical and popular despotism, in the histories of different nations ! Our Richard III. passed the same sentence upon the two young princes who obstructed his path to earthly ambition. The French people spared their victims' lives, yet the English usurper and assassin acted more mercifully to his. " Here," writes M. Montpensier, in his narrative of his captivity, " we were at the foot of that infernal tower, where we were confined eleven successive months ! an iron grate was opened, and we ascended a narrow, winding staircase, dark and fetid, where only one person could pass at a time : and the officers and guards rushed up so eagerly, that we were nearly stifled. When we had ascended about a dozen steps, one of them, who was before me, violently pushed THE TOWER OF FORT ST. JOHN. 213 me back, crying out " The elder is to be put below." "No," replied a guard at the foot of the stairs, "it is above, with his father." " By no means, I tell you the little one is to be with his father, the other is to be put below." During this dispute I was precisely situated as a ball between two rackets. I observed, however, that if the dispute continued much longer, they might lay me as low as they pleased, for that I should most certainly be suffocated. Fortunately they were ex- periencing similar sensations themselves, and brought the dispute to a conclusion. I had now to descend some steps, where two enormous doors, secured with triple bolts, being opened, I was pushed into my dun- geon. The darkness, smell, and dimensions of this abode of sadness, compelled me to exclaim, as Gamache did at the palace of justice " is it here ! " An exclama- tion, so natural, so involuntary, that not only Gamache, but my unfortunate father, Beaujolais, and afterwards the Prince of Conti, all expressed, in similar terms, the .mixture of astonishment and horror, with which they were inspired at the sight of this abode of misery. To my first sensation a senseless stupor succeeded, which completely deprived me of all ability to perceive what was passing around me. Roused from this lethargy, by the sound of the closing bolts, I called out " Citizens ! Citizens ! pray open the door for a moment, I have something important to say." One of the administrators, moved by this affecting appeal, opened the door, and asked me what I wished to com- municate. " I wish to know by what order, and for what crime you have put me into this horrible dun- geon?" " It is by order of the Convention," he replied, " and as to how long you are to remain here, I do not know."* * Autobiography of the Duke of Montpensier 11< LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Entombed, while living, in this narrow cell, the dis- consolate, but guiltless prince threw himself upon the stone floor, and became a prey to the bitterest feelings of rage and vengeance, which contributed to support him under such severe and unjust treatment. After some hours had passed away, the bolts were again drawn, the ponderous doors again grated on their hinges, and Gamache appeared, carrying two mattresses, a chair, and some other articles, for the dungeon. Raising the small lamp above his head, his eye caught the lustre that was reflected from the dripping walls, and the honest fellow sighed out " Oh, patience ! patience ! things will not always be thus ; the wretches who have placed you here will one day taste these dun- geons themselves/' A prophecy fulfilled to the letter, most of the Jacobins of Marseilles having passed to the scaffold through the dungeons of this very tower. The sufferings of the Duke of Montpensier were not, probably, more severe than those of the other captives, the conclusion from which is, that death would have been a more merciful punishment to have inflicted on them. It was not only inhuman, but flagrantly unjust to subject them, in the first instance, before they had been convicted of the smallest crime, to the severest penalty that the human frame was capable of enduring.* * The following account of his painful situation in the tower of Fort St. John, is from Montpensier's Memoirs of himself: " We were then in the middle of summer, and the heat of Provence was difficult to endure, in a dungeon where the air could never be renewed. We spent the day in our shirts, notwithstanding the dampness of our melancholy habitation. In vain we attempted to burn some vine twigs in it to render it more wholesome ; the smoke suffocated us so, that we were obliged to give it up. To remedy the stench, Gamache burned sugar, and I procured some flowers, which I kept in water, and had them perpetually under my nose, Frequently, CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE ORLEANS FAMILY. Monsieur Egalite was confined in the story over that in which were Montpensier and his valet, yet they were not allowed to see each other during a lapse of three months. The most insulting conduct continued to be pursued towards both ; the lowest of the soldiery, and even of the sans culottes, being admitted to see the prisoners at their meals, and put insolent questions to them. The Brissotists had succeeded the Jacobins, but their accession brought no mitigation of the cruel- ties exercised towards the Orleans family. A new order was issued by these magisterial monsters, to de- prive the state prisoners of "all knives, razors, scissors, and every thing pointed, which they happened to pos- sess." At last one of the officers stated, that he had orders to search even the pockets of the royal captives. " What!" said Montpensier, " is' not my word that I keep nothing, sufficient for you ?" " Yes," replied the administrator, " if you give it to us." There is one scene of this melancholy drama, the imprisonment of this unhappy family, so touchingly drawn by the chief actor and sufferer, that much of its interest would be affected by any deviation from the original narrative. " My father," writes M. de Mont- pensier, " having ineffectually asked permission, on his own account, to take the air, were it only at the gate of the tower, now solicited it for Beaujolais, whose health began to suffer from such close confinement ; his ten- der years obviating every pretext for denial, it was when overpowered with the heat, and wanting to respire a little pure air, we rushed, each on his own side to the air-holes, and, with our faces glued to the bars, drew in with all our strength, the very small quantity of air that could reach us. I read all day, and Gamache did the same ; but he generally began with the second volume, and assured me it was the same to him." 216 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. granted ; on condition, however, that one of the admi- nistrators should keep him constantly in sight. He was sent for, suffered to 'remain in the open air, for two or three hours, and then remanded to his dungeon. He often begged earnestly to be permitted to come and see me, but was sternly refused. His cell being above mine, he was obliged to pass my door on his way out, and he never failed to call out, ' Good day, Montpen- sier : how are you ?' It is impossible to describe the effect his gentle voice had upon me, or the distress I felt when a day passed without my hearing it, for he was sometimes actually forbidden to utter these few words, and was always hurried by so quickly, that he had scarcely time to hear my answer. Once, however, that he was permitted to remain till my dinner was brought, he kept so close to the heels of the basket-bearer, that, in spite of the administrators, who tried to hold him back, he darted into my cell, and embraced me. It was six weeks since I had seen him six wretched weeks ! The moment was precious but, how short ! He was torn from me forthwith, with threats of being no more allowed to go out, should the same scene be repeated. Is such barbarity credible ? What possible plea could be advanced for preventing two brothers, the one but thirteen, the other seventeen years of age, from enjoying the consolation of a moment's interview before witnesses? I myself was not afterwards per- mitted, when my door was opened, to go near enough to catch the breeze which passed up the narrow stair- case." Some slight relaxation of tower discipline soon after took place, and little Beaujolais was permitted to pass an hour daily with his brother; and when Carteaux entered Marseilles, and the civil government was super- DENUNCIATION AGAINST THE BOURBONS. seded by a military one, torture was suspended, and a nobler species of restriction observed towards the pri- soners, who were allowed occasionally to dine toge- ther. Indulgence was extended so far, as to permit Egalite and his children to walk upon the ramparts ; but, such were the effects of a merciless treatment, and inhuman seclusion, upon Montpensier, that when he first came into the open air, he became " dizzy, deaf, staggered for some minutes, and, for upwards of a quar- ter of an hour, was unable to proceed to the enjoyment of the liberty that had been granted to him." It was during a hasty retreat into his cell, from a promenade on the tower- terrace, that Montpensier first heard anything of the fatal denunciations against his house, that ended in the death of his wretched father. As one of the administrators passed his door, he over- heard him saying, " Above is the ci-devant Duke of Orleans, and below his eldest son ; but they will not be there long, their heads must fall." From this moment he anticipated a tragic fate, both for his father and himself. Soon after this ill omen, Monsieur Egalite was removed to Paris, and there fulfilled his luckless destiny. The captives were left to deplore the privation of an affectionate parent, under every circumstance that could wound the feelings, or aggravate the inhumanity of the treatment observed towards them by the authorities. A petition, which they addressed to those fierce savages, was answered by an order to deprive the prisoners of every previous indulgence, and confine them altogether to the hateful tower, the parapets of which in future were to constitute their only place of exercise. Books had been allowed to them, but the public papers were prohibited, so that the progress of the revolution, any 218 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. great changes that took place, the state of feeling of foreign countries towards France, and the enormities committed by the Jacobins, were equally concealed from the knowledge of Montpensier and his brother. The last letter they ever received from their father now arrived, but it merely contained a few sentences respect- ing his health and situation ; had it communicated any public intelligence, it would not have been delivered, as all their letters were opened and read by the civic authorities. These unhappy children were left in total ignorance of the desperate manner of their father's death, for some time after that violence had been perpetrated. The first intimation they received, of some great calamity having befallen their family, was contained in a note from Lebrun, their former sub-tutor ; and this was conveyed to them with so much ambiguity, merely recommending resignation to the decrees of Providence, that the pre- cise nature of the misfortune could not be conjectured. At length one of the city-guards informed Montpensier that his aunt had obtained permission to visit him, and would be with him on the following day. It was thence evident that her visit was rather an order than a kind permission, and the most melancholy anticipations took possession of the prisoners. At the appointed hour the duchess entered their dungeon, which was lighted by the rays of an ever- burning lamp, and, fixing her eyes upon her nephews, in trembling accents began " My poor children, I hope you are prepared for the painful duty I have to fulfil towards you." Upon their replying that they knew nothing, and consequently were prepared for nothing, she observed, " Is it possible you should not have had some presentiment of a misfortune 59 terrible, that religion alone can enable you to support it with firm- MONTPENSIER HEARS OF HIS FATHER'S DEATH. ness ! You must no longer be deceived. First, read this from your mother, which has been entrusted to me to deliver to you." She here handed to Montpen- sier his mother's letter, written in a large and disfigured hand, and containing only these words "Live, wretched children ! for your equally wretched mother !" Over- come by this heart-rending injunction, for a while they found relief from tears, but still, totally unable to yield to the frightful idea of such an infliction, they besought their aunt, in mercy to be explicit, to say what was become of their father ? " You have no longer a father," she replied, " he has been condemned and executed !" " O execrable monsters," exclaimed Montpensier, and instantly fell senseless to the ground. Beaujolais was, also, overpowered, and fainted in the arms of an attendant. The officers who were present at this distressing scene, raised up the prince, and placed him upon the bed that bed on which his murdered father had lain for four preceding months. This acci- dental circumstance not only renewed his grief, but rendered him nearly frantic, and, to such a degree of rage was he transported, that his aunt, apprehensive of his uttering expressions that might be translated into treason to the republic, desisted from further attempts to tranquilize him, and withdrew. When reason had resumed her empire over the minds of these injured princes, they made their own situation the subject of their contemplation, and soon perceived, that liberty was a hopeless project, life little less so ; for, the rejection of their numerous petitions proved, that close and solitary confinement was the immediate object of the government, while the epithet of " wolves 9 cubs," which the jacobins applied to the children of the aristocracy? show r ed the feeling they LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. entertained towards them, and the fate to which they were probahly destined. Monlpensier having allowed his faithful servant, Gamache, to accompany his father to Paris, now took into his service a Limousin, named Coste. This con temptible wretch first stipulated for a premium as a compensation for the loss of liberty, the administration having ordered that the attendant of the prisoners should not be permitted to hold communication with any person outside the fort. The remuneration he demanded was so insignificant, that Montpensier sus- pected his sincerity, and soon after he entered on his duties, the captives caught him listening at the key- hole of their sleeping -room ; and his whole conduct soon convinced them that he was a spy, employed for the specific object of giving evidence against them before the tribunal. The most insulting and violent treatment continued to be given to the captives, and in some instances their lives were menaced. As they lay in bed one night, they were disturbed by a loud knocking at the door, which they had been permitted to make fast at the inside, and a loud voice called out " The night-watch ! Open the door !" "-It shall be opened to-morrow," said Montpensier, " not sooner." " Open instantly, or I shall break it open !" " You may do that," said the duke, "just as you please." The applicant finding threats vain, went away, uttering the most horrible im- precations. Returning next morning, and counter- feiting the voice of the commandant of the fortress, he induced the prince to open the door, when he instantly rushed in, with a drawn sword, exclaiming in the most demoniacal tones " Til teach you what it is to resist a republican," and was proceeding to put his threats MAGISTERIAL DISHONESTY. into execution upon the elder brother, when a sergeant, who had followed him, interfered, and pointed out the cowardice of assaulting persons so situated, whose mis- fortunes entitled them to the compassion of every brave soldier. " Well," said he, addressing Montpensier, " the guillotine will spare me the trouble of treating you as you deserve. Remember your father's fate, and tremble, for such will assuredly be your own ! and I shall make such a report to the people as cannot fail to hasten it I" This savage was an officer in the republican army, but had previously been an attendant on coach-stands, analogous to what are called water- men in London, and occasionally stood at the doors of the theatres to call coaches for parties coming out. It would not appear, however, that the committee of public safety thought it advisable to bring these interesting young princes to the scaffold ; they had decided upon treating them differently, not from motives of humanity, but from what they conceived to be state- policy. Having learned that the purveyor furnished rather a scanty allowance to the prisoners, he was dis- missed, and the eight francs a day, decreed for their maintenance, paid to M. Montpensier, who employed his servant in future as cook. A long coat, flannel trousers, heavy shoes, and a hair cap, were also fur- nished, with a supply of shirts, tolerably certain indi- cations of the intention of the committee to spare their lives, but deprive them of liberty for a lengthened period. Their mother had remitted, through Robaut, a merchant, twelve thousand francs, for the relief of her children's necessities, but the district magistrates silently confiscated the whole sum. Every change brought with it some hope, however LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. slight, of relaxation in the severe rules by which the fortress was governed ; and when Maignet, one of the most inhuman monsters of that merciless period, arrived at Marseilles, the poor captives immediately petitioned him for some extension of the kindnesses they received in their imprisonment, adding, unluckily, that the Prince of Conti was allowed the generous treatment of the decree against their family, but, that they were con- fined to a squalid dungeon, and refused permission to breathe the air upon the ramparts. The only result of this application for more merciful usage, was, not the removal of restraints from the petitioners, but the in- fliction of greater severity upon the Prince of Conti, who was now ordered into the tower, to share its miseries with his nephews, in order, as Maignet ironi- cally expressed it, that justice might be impartially administered to all the prisoners. The picture of the aged prince, drawn by his own nephew, is not calculated to raise the character of the aristocracy, of that period or country, in the estimation of after ages ; but, when it is remembered that the same age, country, and even family, produced the noble youth who drew this picture, and who displayed a forti- tude never exceeded under such trying circumstances when it is recollected that Louis Philippe, a man of the humblest and yet loftiest mind, was also a contem- porary aristocrat the whole race of French nobility are not to be included in the censure that may be justly passed upon the frivolous character of the persecuted Prince of Conti. " It would be impossible," writes Monsieur Mont- pensier, " to give an adequate idea of the appearance of the Prince of Conti, as he entered our dungeon ; his head covered with curls in paper, a little three- THE PRINCE OF CONTI. cocked hat placed horizontally over them, and his customary grimaces increased hy those excited by the occasion. Thrusting forward his cane, he called out " What, rascal ! is this the place ?" His old and faith- ful servant, Jacquelin, followed him, accompanied by a city-guard, whose insolent air justified his selection for such an office. " Now," said the citizen-soldier, address- ing the prince, " I shall send your bed and baggage, and then my orders will be fulfilled to the letter." When the guard departed, the prince began to soliloquize upon his misfortunes " I am destined to die in a slow fire ! well, it will soon be over ! I shall be smothered in this horrible place." Then turning to his nephews, he continued, " Poor boys, how have you been able to keep yourselves alive here these ten months ?" to which the poor fellows only replied by expressing their regret at finding him compelled, at his age, to share their rigorous fate. Their sorrow only aggravated his, and the miserable old man threw himself into a chair, and in a moment his withered features were bathed with tears. His conduct in all respects was as frivolous as is represented here, although his firmness and fidelity, in the principles he professed, were not exceeded by the most devoted victims of any age or country. Having recovered from a paroxysm of grief, his mind wandered upon the subject of his final fate at the bloody hands of the Jacobins, and, calling his nephews to the iron grate, he said, "Lads, I will not conceal from you that it is all over with us : nay, I am bound to tell you that we have not four and twenty hours to live ! I am only shut up here with you, as oxen are with sheep, when the time is come for them to be slaughtered. Do you see yonder ship ?" pointing with his cane to a vessel in the harbour-" that is the place of execution, thither LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. we are to be taken, to be drowned, the moment we get out of the harbour." This transaction almost confirmed Montpensier in the belief that his uncle's misfortunes had affected his reason ; but the prince was naturally a singular character, and, although his years, sorrows, terrors, could not fail to excite sympathy in the most obdurate hearts, yet his language, the contrast between his dress and his situation, and the etiquette which he insisted upon maintaining, frequently promoted in- voluntary mirth amongst the captives. During the day-time the Prince of Conti was engaged in drawing up petitions to the Convention, after the fatigue of which he walked on the tower-ramparts, and at night descended into the tomb, the name which he gave, not inappropriately, to his dungeon. After supper his respectful and attached valet put his hair in papers, a ceremony which might well have been spared in such a place ; but, nevertheless, was never once omitted during his imprisonment. One morning while he was engaged at his toilet, to which he regularly devoted three hours, the young princes were walking on the ramparts, and from thence perceived a crowd on the quay, which they soon recognised to be " the procession of the decade.' 9 It consisted of about a dozen of the rabble, clad in Roman costume, carrying busts of Brutus, Marat, Lepelletier, and an enormous moun- tain made of plaster of Paris. All the administrative bodies, somewhat pompously, followed this ridiculous masquerade ; Viva la republico et la Montagno, was shouted by the sans culottes that attended on the occasion. Montpensier, amused at the sight, instantly ran down to call his uncle, whom he found in a dressing- gown of crimson large-flowered damask, a night-cap being tied tightly round his head with a riband ; and, MONTPENSIER'S PETITION SUCCESSFUL. when his nephew spoke of a procession, his terror became inconceivable. With all the grace and ceremony of the Tuileries, he requested that he might be excused, and was proceeding to urge the inconvenience that would result to the arrangement of his toilette, by consenting, when the generous-hearted Montpensier interrupted him, apologized for the inconvenience he had occasioned, and assured him he did so merely from a desire to amuse him. " If that's the case," said the prince, " I am particularly obliged to you, and I shall be on the terrace in a few minutes." His appearance on the top of the tower, in the extraordinary costume just mentioned, and carrying an enormous telescope, which he turned round in every direction, crying out " Where are they ? where are they ?" was so irresistibly comic, that the sentry on the tower laughed aloud ; and the soldiery on the drawbridge, catching the infection, joined in the unpremeditated affront to this very un- fortunate sample of an aristrocrat, and member of the royal family. Hope is seldom totally extinct in the human breast : if all confidence in his creatures be abandoned, the victim or the sinner still looks to the Creator of all and everything. Ten months of the closest imprisonment, most cruel treatment, and this without being charged with any alleged crime, had not extinguished every spark of hope in these poor captives ; and, upon the change of government that had occurred, they renewed their efforts, and repeated their ardent petitions, if not for release, at least for some mitigation of the rigours of their prison-house. More successful than hitherto, their prayer produced the appointment of commis- sioners, by the administration of the department, to inquire into the truth of the prisoners' statements, and i. 2 G LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. report whether their request could be granted, consist- ently with the decree of the Convention, and their security. When the intelligence was communicated to the Prince of Conti, he seemed transported with ecstasy, exhibiting, in this instance, the extreme of happiness, as he before had manifested the deepest degree of woe. He, very artfully, desired his nephews to light as many fires as they possibly could, in their cells, and keep the doors close, so that such an accumulation of smoke might be collected, by the time the commissioners arrived, as would render their stay brief, and their re- port necessarily favourable to a removal of the prisoners to apartments better ventilated and more habitable. Vouland, a jacobin, but a veteran soldier, accompanied the deputation, and was the first to denounce the in- justice and severity of confining the princes to so narrow a space, and one so inconvenienced by a suffocating smoke. The Prince of Conti having indulged very freely in his propensity of speaking upon the horrors of his situation, and in a strain which, to the citizen-com- missioners, appeared altogether affected, one of them, more brutal than the rest, exclaimed " What ! can that cry-baby value a few days of existence so much ! If he suffers, he ought rather to rejoice at the prospect of his sufferings being so soon likely to be ended." The aged man was spared the pain of this insult, happening to be engaged, at the moment, with another of the inquisitors ; but, continuing to accompany his requests with appropriate gestures, another of the citizens said " No thanks, no scrapings, Conti. All that belongs to the old order of things, we'll have none of it." " Alas, citizen," said the prince, " a habit of sixty years cannot be conquered in a day." CONDITION OF THE PRISONERS IMPROVED. The result of the visit, however, was an alleviation of the captives' sufferings, for the commissioners pro- mised, that if they could find another part of the for- tress, where they would be equally secure, and more comfortable, they should consent to their removal. There was a suite of apartments, formerly occupied by the major of the fortress, and afterwards by the Duchess of Bourbon and the Prince of Conti, which the commissioners thought might be rendered a suffi- ciently secure prison for the princes. It derived its light from a gallery with six large windows ; but it was deemed advisable to block up three, put strong grates in the other three, wall up one outlet of the gallery, place a strong door, treble-bolted at the other, where a sentinel should be stationed. It was decided " that there would be nothing inexpedient in removing the prisoners to the old quarters of the sub-commandant, after such measures of security had been taken." Three weeks were occupied in completing the arrangements, and the Prince of Conti, who had retained a supply of money, occasionally sent a small present to the work- men, " to accelerate the completion of his own cage." At length, after the expiration of eleven months' close imprisonment in a loathsome dungeon, the captives were conducted, by the commissioners, to their new apartments, and, as they trod upon the little patch of verdure that covered the court between their different tenements, they experienced sensations known only to those, the bloom of whose life has been left to wither in captivity. This change produced the most beneficial conse- quences to the young princes ; they were no longer denied free space to breathe ; those emblems of tyranny and oppression, chains and huge rings, which decorated LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the cells in the tower, no longer met the eye ; and they now assumed the privilege of dismissing their servant Coste, whose fidelity could not be trusted, and took into their service a cook of their own selection. Although the relation of master and servant still continued, the revolutionary or equalizing principle had extended so far, that the terms were everywhere exploded, and agent was substituted for the latter. Montpensier was only supplied with a few louis, his friends having advised him not to carry a large sum with him, not only because it was likely that the citizens would plunder him, but, as placing a temptation to murder, in their way also ; and little Beaujolais was in the act of saying his daily lessons to his tutor, when he was arrested. The bribe, therefore, which procured from the commandant's secretary permission for the captives to enjoy the pleasures of the small enclosed garden attached to their new apartments, was furnished entirely from the Prince of Conti's funds. The wretch's appetite grew by what it fed on, and, from the moment that he discovered Conti's little treasure, he made new demands for every trifling indulgence, and at last stated that they should obtain no relief from him, not procured by bribery. Yet the prisoners congratulated themselves upon being placed under the care of this corrupt citizen. His treatment was, by comparison, merciful. A few weeks having passed by, unmarked by the presentation of any fresh gratuity from the princes, the secretary's thirst for gold returned, and, waiting on the captives, with an air of affected sorrow he commu- nicated to them the unpleasant intelligence, that he had been subjected to the most bitter reproaches from persons in power, for the indulgence of walking in the garden, which he had extended to them ; and, EXECUTION OF THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. much as he felt for their privation, he was compelled to deny them that enjoyment in future. Montpensier endeavoured to prove that he had not received any order to discontinue this kindness, but the secretary remained unconvinced until the prince presented him with a dozen of cravats, upon which his faculties became suddenly illumined, he saw his orders in the new and more benignant light, and that door, at which humanity knocked in vain, yielded easily to a key of gold. " While money lasts," said the Prince of Conti, " I cannot make a better use of it, than bribing the citizen-secretary, and, in that conviction, I see it going without regret. When it shall be all gone, we will smother, starve, or be spared the trouble, for they will despatch us." "You," said he to Montpensier, "will march at the head ; for being nearer the throne, they will grant you the honour of precedence ; but I shall follow close. As for this youth," pointing to Beaujolais, "he will be recommended to the care of the apothecary"* An event which the wretched Conti read in the public papers, and for which he was unprepared, pro- duced a species of temporary derangement. This was the inhuman execution of the Princess Elizabeth, a cruelty almost without a parallel in the history of revolution and civil strife. When the aged prince received the fatal tidings, he ran; in a state of total distraction, to his nephews' apartment, calling out as he went " Gentlemen, gentlemen, I announce to you our The infamous jest of Chabot, the Capuchin, upon the unfor- tunate boy, Louis XVII., who was entrusted, not precisely to an apothecary, but to a cobbler, who undertook to destroy him by such means as would not sit heavy on the conscience of his enemies, Vide note, page 47, vol. 1. 230 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. sentence of death ! there is nothing left before us now, we cannot be forgotten much longer. As to the children, they will be all poisoned ! You, Montpensier, are already a man, you will be treated as such ; you should be nineteen in a month, but I prophesy you will never attain that age ! we are all lost beyond redemp- tion I" The young princes acknowledged that their prospects were ominous, but denied that the gloom was as heavy as Conti represented. They endeavoured to show him that their lives were not required ; that it would not answer the purposes of the Conventionalists, while so many members of their family were still in existence out of France ; and their estates had all been confiscated. Besides, the chances of war were to be considered, par- ticularly as the republicans were less successful than at first ; they had just then lost four strong places, and should Cambray surrender, the road to Paris would be open to the allies. These arguments, not wholly un- deserving of serious estimate, were supported by the fabrications of Jacquelin, who, from an apprehension that his poor master's mind would give way completely under grief and terror, brought in hourly reports, that the Austrians were at the barriers of Paris ; that the Prussian hussars had arrived at the faubourg of La Villette ; that the Convention had fled, the Parisians having declared against them, opened the prisons, and reared the white standard. These statements, involving- truth and falsehood, would have produced a calm in the terrorized mind of the venerable captive, had not the journals continued to teem with accounts of the most horrible atrocities, daily lists of victims beheaded in the streets and prisons of Paris, for the pretended crime of conspiracy. ANECDOTE OF COUNT DE BEAUJOLAIS. 231 One evening, soon after Maignet* had established his sanguinary commission at Orange, while the young princes were reading themselves to sleep, the Prince of Conti came running into the room, in his dressing- gown and night-cap, his features convulsed with terror, exclaiming, " Gentlemen, it is all over with us, we have but a few hours to live ! Know that to-morrow we depart for Orange I" This intelligence almost stunned Montpensier, it was so terrific in its character, and so likely to be true : it was not that death pre- sented any terrors to his own, or even to the mind of the young Beaujolais ; but, the torture and barbarity that attended the execution of victims at Orange, rendered such an approach of fate insupportable. The agony of Conti's mind could only be appeased by Beaujolais con- senting to go to the door of the gallery, endeavouring to draw the sentinel into a conversation, and extracting from him the meaning of the movements then going- forward in the fort. Beaujolais undertook the mission without delay, and was just going to open the wicket of the iron-door to speak to the sentinel, when he heard some one outside giving orders, and at once recognised the voice of Massugue, captain of the fort-artillery, who was a most furious terrorist. He instantly stopped, and then distinctly heard " Take special care to guard your prisoners ; for, if they escape, your fate is sealed. Should any of them be found in the gallery after mid- night, order him to his chamber, and, if he hesitates to obey, shoot him at once I" A buzz and a whispering succeeded these commands, after which he again dis- tinguished the voice of Massugue " To-morrow, at * This monster's career was analogous to the horrifying conduct of Carrier, at Nantes. Vide page 115, vol. 1. LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. four in the morning, they will be sent for, and trans- mitted to Orange." Beaujolais was a boy of uncommon intelligence, and satisfied that he had heard enough, he returned, having instantly formed the determination of concealing the whole of this alarming discovery from his terrified uncle ; and, entering the room, he coolly said, " that he could not speak to the sentinel, for Massugue was there, and therefore learned nothing, except that they were all forbidden to walk in the gallery after midnight." He added also, " that it would be quite useless to try again, for the battalion that was on guard was one of the worst and most insolent in the fort." The prince then withdrew, leaving Beaujolais an opportunity of disclosing the whole scene to his brother, which the dread of driving his uncle to despair had induced him to suppress. The most melancholy forebodings took possession of the young princes, upon an analysis of Massugue's orders, and they were both wrapped in reflections of the most melancholy description, when they heard the gallery door creek on its hinges, and a footstep gently tread the floor. Montpensier looked towards the lamp that burned without, and perceived Massugue himself approach it cautiously, and blow out the light. This mysterious conduct, coupled with the ferocious habits of the man, confirmed the princes in the belief that they beheld their assassin, or that his nocturnal visit portended evil. Suspense and anxiety kept them awake for a few hours, but, nothing further occurring to augment their apprehension, they fell asleep, and when they rose in the morning were informed it had then struck eight. The conversation which Beaujolais overheard seemed now to require some explanation, and this was afforded, in the course of the morning, by DEPUTIES FROM THE JACOBIN CLUB. 233 the intelligence, that at four o'clock a number of victims, destined to perish by the most cruel death, had been transferred from the fort to Orange. Relieved from the alarm of one danger, new ones presented themselves with little interruption. It was but a few days after, that a scene which, at first, was still more menacing, occurred in the fort. A little after noon, when all was tranquil within this abode of suffer- ing and sorrow, a number of wretched-looking fellows, having red caps on their heads, their shirt-sleeves turned up over their elbows, and their long swords drawn, rushed into the corridor, on which the prisoners apartments opened, and one, more forward than the rest, exclaimed " Aha, you vile aristocrats, you are preciously well off here!" then perceiving the aged Prince of Conti, who gazed on him with terror, he added " How are you, Conti ? What, are you afraid of us ? We have no intention to hurt you. We are deputies from the society of the friends of liberty, (the Jacobin club,) directed to inspect the prisons, and ascer- tain whether all is right, and no abuses committed ; we must, of course, have a thorough examination." These respectable deputies fulfilled their duty with more zeal than mercy ; and, passing on to the apartment next to that of the Orleans family, they inflicted upon their victim confined there, abuse the most violent and inhuman. He had once been a very zealous republican, but, during the period of the sections, he perceived the sanguinary propensities of the new rulers, and dared to express anti-jacobin principles ; for this temerity and change of opinion he had been condemned to the chain, or the galley, for six years. When the same commis- sioner, who had spoken so plainly to the princes, saw this apostate from jacobinism, he said to him " You ^31 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. vile whelp of a federalist ! we will have you taken to Toulon, where your health will be benefited by exercise at the oar. You had better lay in a good stock of pocket-handkerchiefs, for the little rings you will wear on your legs will be apt to peel the skin off, until you are used to them ! However, your stay will, probably, not be very long even at that work, for your sentence has been much too lenient ; we'll cause it to be recon- sidered, and you shall have the honour of passing * the national razor' " The wretched Largurier understood their language, and, having already experienced their severity so com- pletely, he swooned at the conclusion of this savage speech, while the deputies left him in the hands of Pro- vidence, and withdrew. Shocked at the ferocity of the officers of the republic, the princes, however, felt less regret at the sorrows of their neighbour than they should have experienced in any other instance, for he had dis- gusted them by the affectation with which he displayed his ultra-republicanism ; and there is little doubt that it formed part of his vain object, to triumph over the fallen princes. He had been originally an advocate, but, after the revolution, attorney of the commune of Marseilles ; and, it was while in possession of this lucrative office that he made himself obnoxious to the Jacobins, who now persecuted him as a federalist. Confined in the same suite of apartments with the princes, they had all become acquainted, for misfortune uniformly levels all distinctions ; and, whenever he re- ceived a newspaper, he kindly permitted his fellow- prisoners to read it. Even in the performance of this act of courtesy his political bigotry was expressed ; for while he never failed to let them have those papers that contained anv news favourable to the arms of the ENTHUSIASM OF THE REPUBLICANS. C 2S5 republic, he endeavoured to conceal, and withhold from them, any that detailed the successes of the royalists, or the allies. Passing over, without the least comment, the list of victims who perished on the scaffold, he only seemed to perceive the progress of the republican army, arid he was sometimes overheard by the princes, as they sat reading in their apartment, exclaiming aloud " Victory ! victory ! triumph !" and using other ejacula- tions of delight and transport, as he read, alone in his cell, the details of some trifling advantage over the enemies of his principles. The inconsistency, and insignificance, of this enthusiast's character, should not be taken as a fair sample of the liberalism of the party, any more than the poor Prince of Conti should be referred to as a true sample of the aristocracy ; both belonged to the extremes of their respective sections, and were amongst their excesses. The imposition of new restraints, the prohibition against further recreation in the little garden, the intelligence that the Duchess of Bourbon had been denounced to the Convention by Vadier, who decreed that she should be placed in solitary confinement pre- paratory to her trial and execution ; all these circum- stances contributed to render the captives less tranquil than they had been since the establishment of a military government at Marseilles. But, at the moment when death would have been a relief to them, the glorious news arrived of the fall of Robespierre, and of all his blood-thirsty accomplices, on the 27th of July, 1794. At first the princes were incapable of appreciating fully the blessings that would immediately attend the re- moval of this monster ; their knowledge of the state of parties, caught up by snatches, was imperfect, uncon- nected, and confused. They had seen other villains 236 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. almost as furious, cut off in their sanguinary course, yet new heads sprang up, and the work of the evil one was continued without a moment's respite. Eighteen months had rolled over since the first act of the tragedy, and each only brought forth deeper villains, and darker scenes upon the stage, scenes which the Orleans family did not expect to have survived. These reflections threw a gloom over the glittering glory of the news, and for awhile produced but a calm satisfaction at learning, that a just Providence had punished one of the most flagitious monsters that ever existed. These unimpassioned feelings were soon exchanged for others much more warm, light, and sanguine, upon the information, that a complete rupture had taken place between the jacobin leaders, in consequence of which it was publicly decreed, that the operations of the guillotine should be altogether suspended, all state prisoners should be set at liberty, proscriptions should cease and the government, such as it was, pledged itself that the sanguinary system, all the odium of which was now thrown on Robespierre, should be suc- ceeded by one of mildness, mercy, and justice. This intelligence had the happiest effects upon the captives, and, although their situation was physically unaltered, their minds were relieved to such an extent, that cheer- fulness rested, for the first time during eighteen months of imprisonment, upon the faded features of the aged Conti, and he almost hourly congratulated his nephews upon their escape from assassination, either by the hands of their visitors, or those of the public execu- tioner. The happiness of the princes was still further increased, by the receipt of letters from relatives and friends, confirming the reports which had reached them, and bidding them hope for better days. None was so ARREST OF THE JACOBINS. welcome as that of their virtuous mother, who had been for some time a prisoner in the palace of the Luxem- bourg, at Paris, in which she stated " that her sufferings had been severe, her health much impaired, but that she was resigned to the will of Heaven, and waited patiently for the return of whatever share of happiness was reserved for her." The prophecy of Gamache that those who had placed his innocent master in the dark cell of the tower, would themselves, one day, taste similar sorrows, had now arrived. At an early hour in the morning before the princes had risen, Largurier came to their door, and exclaimed " Citizens ! citizens ! Heaven is just, come and see retributive chastisement inflicted on our persecutors !" The fall of Robespierre having left his coadjutors in murder unprotected, a whole band of jacobins, accused of a conspiracy for the restoration of the reign of terror, was arrested, and dragged into the fortress by the military and municipal authorities. Amongst these were the president, the public accuser, and the recorder of the revolutionary tribunal, before whom Montpensier had been brought, rather for the gratification of insulting the fallen prince than for the ends of justice or necessity, and who had, by his in- famous decisions, inundated Marseilles with blood. Many other miscreants equally notorious by their crimes, were now dragged or driven into the fort, and committed to the noisome dungeon, of which the princes of the blood-royal had so recently been the tenants. The infamous president of the jacobins, when the poli- tical tide began to turn, endeavoured to escape from his pursuers, and, ascending the roof of his house, had nearly succeeded in eluding their vigilance, but making a false step he fell from a great height and broke his neck. C 238 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. His death was not instantaneous, so that he lived to become the prisoner of his enemies, who, even in his dying moments, had the barbarity to carry him into the fort and throw his shattered frame upon the cold floor of a dungeon, where he soon after expired. The sudden alteration that had taken place in the government, in the public sentiments, the extraordinary return of those feelings of humanity, which, for eighteen months, appeared to be unknown to the French people, encouraged Montpensier to renew his appeals for in- dulgence, and even to hint at the injustice of the late magistrates, who had confiscated the funds forwarded to their care by his mother. In this latter project he was materially assisted by Largurier, whose profes- sional experience enabled him to dictate cautious letters, and such as would feel the pulses of the magistrates, upon this delicate question. The petition which he drew up was so cautiously and cleverly done, that if the least sense of shame existed in the bosoms of the officials, they would acknowledge the receipt of the money, and express a desire that restitution should be made ; and, in order to render the restitution less oppressive to the plunderers themselves, Largurier suggested the prudence of only asking for one-fourth of the sum of which they had so fraudulently become pos- sessed. It was not long after this instance of good fortune, this first effectual appeal to the administration, that the princes received a letter from Madame de B , informing them of her unabated efforts to obtain an al- leviation of their sufferings ; she had repeatedly applied to the Convention, to special committees of that body, and to individual members, over whom she had in- fluence, to accompish her humane purposes, but in vain. FORTITUDE OF THE DUCHESS OF BOURBON. At length, after Robespierre's fall, and the odium that had spread abroad against all reigns of terror, a decree was passed, directing, "that the members of the Orleans family should have the outer walls of the fort as the limits of their captivity, the privilege of ranging about, within those bounds, wherever they pleased, and, in future, were not to be locked up in their chambers." The first use the young princes made of the new privilege was to seek out their aunt, whom they had not been permitted to see for some months, and inform her of the altered sentiments of the Convention to- wards the captive Bourbons. They had experienced the most wretched apprehensions for her safety, all along, but particularly during the latter part of Robes- pierre's reign, and their delight was the more increased by finding her in excellent health, and totally free from the least fear of danger or violence. Notwithstand- ing the public assassination of the Queen, the Princess Elizabeth, and other female victims, the Duchess of Bourbon persisted in believing, that as she never meddled in politics, the government could not be so unjust as to destroy her ; and, besides, her sex would be a sufficient protection. From this infatuated view of the subject her nephews differed, but they did not persist in any attempt to dissipate the delusion of her mind. Montpensier and Beaujolais continued the tour of their miniature kingdom, receiving the congratula- tions of all their old fellow-prisoners, and enduring the sneers and scoffs of those recently arrived, until they came round again to the chamber of the Prince of Conti. Their visits to him had become less frequent than at first, their intimacy less cordial, changes partly originating in pecuniary matters ; they were, however, not less anxious to acquaint him with the gratifying LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. news of the relaxation of prison-discipline in favour of their persecuted family. Coolly and pompously thanking them for their attention, he assured them that he did not participate in their joy, as he looked even on the favours of the Convention with suspicion. In these suspicions he continued to indulge himself, and a paragraph which he met in one of the newspapers, only a few days after, gave him an opportunity, he imagined, of establishing his claim to foresight, and to a perfect knowledge of the character of the Conventionalists. Seizing the occasion with a sort of childish eagerness, he hastened to the apartments of the princes, and, in a solemn and tragic tone, began '* Gentlemen, notwith- standing the little confidence, which, for some time past, has existed between us, I have thought I should do wrong in delaying for a single moment to acquaint you with the calamitous tidings which I have just received, and which concern you equally with myself. You must know then, gentlemen, that a decree has just passed the Convention dooming us to perpetual impri- sonment." This intelligence fell with an awful and sudden weight upon the young princes, who had so lately been elated beyond all reasonable bounds by their recent indulgence. They had been aware that their fate was just then about to become the subject of dis- cussion in the Convention, but took the late kindness as a proof of altered sentiments towards their unhappy family. Their worst and most gloomy forebodings, therefore, did not exceed the severity of banishment for ever from the territory of the republic. As to this new version of their views, the prisoners declared the guillotine, with all its horrors and ignominy, would be infinitely preferable. The prince, to make his story appear more exactly coincident with his timid prophecy, HEARTLESS BREACH OF TRUST. 24)1 at first retained the newspaper in his pocket, but, on its production, a very different and less painful inter- pretation appeared applicable to the passage. It stated "That a report had been presented relative to the pro- position of transporting all Bourbons then detained in France," after which it was decreed " That, considering the imminent danger to the state which might arise from setting those individuals at liberty, they should be detained in prison as long as the general safety should require it." Although by no means as dis- tressing as the Prince of Conti had represented, still the information was sufficiently melancholy to throw the young princes into deep dejection, from which they only recovered by reflecting, that having the free range of the fortress, and being on their parole, escape, with- out dishonour, might yet be practicable ; one difficulty alone presented itself, which was, the procuring of a vessel to carry them to Genoa, and even this might be surmounted by the little supply of money which they had recently received, through the instrumentality of Largurier. There were two young men, prisoners in the fort, one of whom had been a page to Louis XVI., and both had been brought in there as royalists. These sup- posed gentlemen made the warmest protestations of friendship, zeal, attachment to the captive princes and their family, and volunteered their assistance, should Montpensier resolve to attempt an escape. But how little are we able to foresee the smallest events, how humiliating to the character of our species the violations of confidence every day presents. The princes' new friends took charge of their little stock of money, pro- mising to employ one part in facilitating the contem- plated project, and to retain the remainder for their LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. use, but, instead of fulfilling their engagement, decamped with the money, the moment they secured the posses- sion ; leaving the princes in a more hopeless, helpless condition than before, and subjected to the bitterness of disappointment, where liberty was the fruit which had been placed within their reach, and so suddenly, and cruelly snatched from them. The buoyant spirits that sustain our youth under the severest trials, and restore us to the activity and energy that characterize that period of life, enabled Montpensier and his brother to resume their daily occupations and amusements. They renewed their acquaintance with those of their fellow-prisoners, whose manners in any degree suited their own, and played with them at a variety of games. They could not, however, associate with the jacobins, who had begun to be imprisoned at this time, and were brought in daily in large numbers. These men showed as little inclination as the Bourbons to break the line of demar- cation, which the wickedness of the age had drawn between them, and those who were kept in close con- finement resembled tigers in their demeanour. When- ever the princes passed near the grating of their cages, the culprits never failed to bestow a thousand impreca- tions on the whole royal family, and on all the ci-devants, to whom they pretended they had been infinitely too merciful, when they had the power in their hands. The total reform in the executive, by which the jacobins were expelled, and men of mercy substituted, encouraged the Orleans family to endure their sufferings with resignation, from an idea, that the light of liberty was once more dawning on their persecuted race. Their old friend Largurier had been set at large along with those republicans who had been incarcerated THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS SET AT LIBERTY, under the reign of terror, and the airy apartments, vacated by them, were now added to the accommoda- tions of the Prince of Conti and his nephews. Mont- pensier and Beaujolais, now obtained two small, light, clean rooms, with a closet for their servant, Louis, and a kitchen. The windows had no grating, and com- manded a view of the sea ; but no uneasiness was felt on that account, because, independently of their great height, it was not to be supposed that persons who had the whole range of the fortress for their prison, would ever think of availing themselves of so perilous a mode of escape. Besides, just at that period the Orleans family, in their extraordinary position, seldom formed any part of the contemplations of government ; the administration was of a better composition than before ; the commissioners of the Convention were no longer ferocious or inhuman characters ; the reign of terror was extinct, or, if any of its machinery was in existence, it was only employed against those who had so long- fostered its criminal conduct the jacobins themselves. The Duchess of Orleans had experienced the ad- vantages of this change of ministers, being removed from the Luxembourg, where she had been closely confined, to a maison de sante, in the rue Charonne ; there she had the benefit of pure air, opportunity of attending to her imparied health, and was in fact placed on her parole. In this new residence she was permitted to correspond with her children, whom she gratified by the intelligence of her improved health, and by the prospect which she began to discover of once more pressing them to her heart. The value of these maternal emanations was much enhanced from their having been heartlessly prohibited, during two tedious years of almost solitary confinement ; and, the encourage- 244 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. merit which Montpensier and Beaujolais received from various friends, had nearly obliterated all recollection of their past sorrows, by the creation of high hopes for the future. In addition to the removal of all restraint, consistently with securing their persons within the precincts of the fortress, which now took place, the princes succeeded in recovering the balance of that remittance, of which they had been deprived by the jacobin magistrates. Notwithstanding that the depreciation of assignats had considerably reduced the value of the orignal deposit, still the remnant was sufficient, in conjunction with the prison allowance, to supply them with everything neces- sary for their comfort and convenience. Seventy-two louis, also, which Montpensier had left at Nice, at the period of his arrest, were now honourably restored, by the person in whose hands they had been deposited ; and, to fill up their sum of happiness, under such circum- stances as the privation of liberty, Madame de B continued to send them innumerable trifles calculated to amuse and occupy them. The monotonous scene had been revolving for some months, without the occurrence of anything to excite hopes, or occasion apprehension, when a party of young royalists was brought into the fortress, to undergo the chastening of a prison-house, for rioting at the theatre, and speaking too loudly and too freely against the Con- vention. Equality in age, unanimity of feeling, soon pro- duced a boyish intimacy between the princes and these young gentlemen, and they held merry meetings, occa- sionally in their respective apartments. On one of these occasions, royalist zeal becoming influenced by wine, anti-republican songs were introduced, and the noisy party all joined in the chorus. This display of royalist FALSE ACCUSATION AGAINST THE PRINCES. 24,5 principles was denounced by the jacobin prisoners in the fort, who were annoyed by the hilarity of their enemies, and they affected to regard the meeting as a proof that some great plot was in agitation for the restitution of the old order of things. Their information was forwarded to the magistrates, accompanied by the confirmatory intelligence, that the princes had arms concealed in their apartments. That they had two or three sabres, which they had purchased from the soldiers of the fortress, was perfectly true, but the informants had omitted to state the object with which they were retained, and for which they were purchased by the princes, which was to defend themselves against the jacobin prisoners in the fort, whose numbers were alarming, and menaces still more so. Fortunately for the princes, the magistrate, or repre- sentative, Mariette, before whom these informations were laid, was a moderate, humane, and impartial man. Sending for the commandant of the fort, he desired him to acquaint the prisoners with the accusation made against them, to assure them that it should not be followed by any distressing consequences, for that he despised the source whence it proceeded, and thought no one could be either surprised or offended at the persecuted princes of Orleans being royalists. With respect to the arms which they were said to retain for the worst purposes, he requested that they should be given up, but would be content with their word for the entire performance of his wishes on that point. It was hardly possible for any governor, commandant, or person to whom state prisoners were entrusted, to have acted with more humanity, consideration, or courtesy, and his conduct was met in the spirit of which it was LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. deserving, by the immediate surrender of the old swords which the princes had concealed under their beds. The conduct of Mariette was in every respect the reverse of his ferocious predecessors in office ; while he discharged the ungrateful duty of a jailor, he never forgot the manners of a gentleman, a precept which cannot be too strongly recommended for imitation. One day as he passed in a boat before the fortress he observed the captives at their window, and, taking off his hat, in an unaffected manner, politely saluted them. This respectable man had never been con- spicuous as a politician, and can hardly be identified with any party ; he had escaped the fury of the jacobins, whose implacable hatred he had incurred at Marseilles, at the same time that he acquired the esteem of all good men. It was fortunate for the jacobins, who were now daily lodged in the fort, that their lives were placed in the hands of so generous an enemy, for had it been otherwise, the fate that pursued them would have been more expeditious as well as more cruel. Severity towards them was carried to a considerable length ; they were not permitted to hold any communication personally with their friends or relatives ; at first food was sup- plied to them by their partisans outside the prison, but of this indulgence they were now deprived, the result of which was, that those who were pennyless, were reduced literally to the jail allowance, bread and water. It was thus that these ferocious monsters, who had once inspired so much terror in the rapid transitions of a political revolution, became in turn the victims of cruelty and persecution. Their disappointment was only equalled by their rage, at perceiving the respect shown to the suffering royalists, whose extermination THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN. had constituted the chief object of every jacobin in France ; nor was their chargin diminished by the necessity under which they were placed, of concealing it from their fellow-prisoners and their keepers. About this period there arose in France two societies, the sole motive of whose actions was the gratification of vengeance. They were called " The companions of Jesus," and " The children of the Sun," and consisted of young men whose fathers, brothers, or relatives, had been sacrificed by the jacobins, and who had persuaded themselves that they were justified in assassinating those miserable and infamous wretches wherever they were to be found. Following this great moral error, when- ever they fell in with a number of jacobin prisoners, under escort, proceeding to the fort, they dispersed the guard, and hewed the ill-fated victims in pieces with their sabres. Such scenes were now of daily occur- rence at the entrance of the fort, and uniformly closed with the most horrible denunciations against their enemies detained within, whom, should the governor hesitate to bring to punishment, they declared they would themselves dispose of in a manner equally sum- mary. Had threats been the limit of their violence the cause of liberalism would have had less to blush for, and those who released France from a reign of terror would not have been themselves censured as terrorists by posterity. But, who can fix the limits of the people's anger ? On the 6th of June, in the year 1796, while Mont- pensier and his brother were engaged, the former in drawing, the latter reading, in their apartments, they were alarmed by the loud and sudden cries of "To arms ! raise the draw-bridge !" Hastening to the window that overlooked the court they saw the soldiers on guard 248 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. runnipg to their posts, snatching up their muskets, and then proceeding with the utmost expedition towards the barbacan. After a few minutes more the soldiers were seen returning in the greatest disorder, mixed with, and followed by a crowd of men in coloured clothes, but all armed with pistols and sabres, and most of them prepared for murder, in the fashion of those days, with their shirt-sleeves turned up above the elbows. In the midst of the melee was an officer, apparently wounded, and borne on a litter, whom all, however, seemed to regard with as much attention as such an assemblage was capable of bestowing on any object. As they advanced they sang, in strains loud and enthusiastic, a rerse from the air, called " The Waking of the People,"* which removed all doubt, from spectators and auditors, of their horrible intentions. It was evident that the garrison offered a mere show of resistance, for the rioters, whether they were literally madmen, or infuriated with wine, rushed onward to the slaughter, and loudly called for the production of their victims. The princes becoming alarmed, and appre- hensive that they might be confounded with the jacobin prisoners, and share in their approaching fate, remained within their apartments, having barricaded the door with furniture, irons, billets of wood, and every moveable commodity ; and, in the event of this rampart proving insufficient, they had decided upon having recourse to the dangerous alternative of lowering themselves from * " Le reveil du peuple," which concludes in these words : " Plaintive shades of innocence Rest quiet in your tombs ! The tardy day of vengeance Makes your assassins turn pale." VIOLENT ATTACK ON THE FORT. 249 the window that overlooked the sea, rather than fall by the sword of an assassin. Scarcely were the defences completed when a knocking was heard at their door, to which they returned no answer. The knocking was repeated, accompanied by an entreaty to open the door, and an assurance that no injury was intended to the prisoners. The applicants explained that they brought with them the assistant-commandant of the fort who was dying, and against whom all other ,doors were closed. Montpensier answered that he would be happy to receive and relieve the assistant, but begged to remind the citizens who brought him to their door, that they had not been imprisoned for jacobinism, but precisely for the contrary. He was immediately in- formed that the cause and object of his imprisonment were well known, and they promised that his compas- sionate assent to their request should not be forgotten by them. Satisfied, by the tone of the applicants, that no mischief was intended towards the royalists in the fort, the prince removed his barriers and opened the door, when a number of turbulent looking young men entered, all furnished with sabres, carrying the almost lifeless assistant, whom they laid on Montpensier's bed. One of the most respectable in appearance, and respectful in manner, addressing the captives, said " We know you are the princes of Orleans, and so far from wishing to offer violence, or make any attempt on your lives, we will be ready to defend you against danger. We are only about to perform an act of justice, calculated to contribute equally to your safety and our own, and at which all honest men must rejoice." Having closed this exposition of their sentiments, they earnestly asked for brandy, but were obliged to be content with a bottle I. 2 K LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. of aniseed, which they poured into soup-plates, and actually lapped like dogs. Less intoxicated with strong drinks than infuriated by an insatiable desire of revenge, the party took leave respectfully of the princes, having recommended the assistant to their care ; and, to pre- vent a fatal mistake being committed, by any other party of their comrades that might desire to enter the apartment of the princes, they took the precaution of placing of some their own number as sentinels at the door. The assistant, although presenting the pallid hue of a dying man, in reality had not sustained the slightest injury, in the melee that occurred at the bursting in of the gates, his alarming and alarmed appearance resulted entirely from actual present fright added to apprehen- sion of the personal consequences of the whole trans- action. As soon as he felt sufficiently restored he wished to return once more to his duty, and endeavour to prevent, as far as he was capable, the tragedy which was too surely about to be enacted, but he found two sentinels posted at the door, who had been ordered to prevent him from resuming the command of the guard. While he vainly endeavoured to induce the sentinels to let him pass out, the piercing cries of the wretches in the cells of the second court reached him, followed by fiendish shouts of exultation. For upwards of twenty minutes, during which the dreadful butchery lasted, the princes and the assistant remained silently observing each other, after which the assassins were seen, from the window of the apartment, returning into the court, literally bathed in blood. Twenty-five jacobins had been slain in the cell which the avengers had just left, but, not yet satiated with slaughter, they proceeded to a second cell, against the door of which they beat DREADFUL SCENE OF CARNAGE. Q5{ ineffectually for about a quarter of an hour. Unable to break in they discharged a few pistols through the bars ; and, having invoked, iniquitously, the punish- ment of Heaven upon those that were within, went off to another part of the fortress. In the course of the evening another prisoner was entrusted to the care and companionship of the princes ; this was the commandant of the fort, who, as soon as he had learned that the prison was broken into, hastened to the drawbridge, but finding it raised, he had the address to scale it by the ditch. His exertions were wholly useless, the moment he entered the court he was arrested, disarmed, and furnished merely with the sheath of his sword, was conducted to the apartment of Montpensier and his brother, where he found his assistant also in close confinement. His first ebullitions of rage having subsided, he reproached his assistant for the cowardly part he had acted, and rightly concluded from the paleness that still sat upon his countenance, that fear alone had rendered him incapable of checking the progress of the "children of the sun." During the delivery of this indignant remonstrance the commandant himself was not a little startled by the sound of a cannon shot within the very walls of the fortress ; this sound of death was occasioned by an attack of the rioters upon a cell in which upwards of thirty of their victims were immured. Unable to burst in the door, yet impatient of interruption in their bloody career, they thrust large quantities of straw through the grating into the cell, then directing a piece of ordnance against the door drove it in, set fire to the straw, and put all, who escaped suffocation, to the sword. This scene of horrible destruction was continued until about nine o'clock ; nor would the darkness of LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. night have stayed the hand of the assassin, and even at that late hour, had not providential assistance arrived from the city. The mob in the outer court shouted in a loud and intimidating manner " Here are the repre- sentatives of the people ! We had better let down the drawbridge, for they threaten to treat us all as rebels if we delay a single moment." Whether this counsel was the result of timidity, obedience to the authorities, or a surfeit of the work of assassination, it was not assented to by the leaders, one of whom declared that he would blow out the brains of the first coward who submitted to the civic authorities, for, that the work would soon be finished, when the magistrates should be admitted, and not before. While this dispute was in progress the soldiers of the guard, who had recovered part of their self-posses- sion and authority, succeeded in letting down the drawbridge, and admitting the magistrates. Entering the inner court, accompanied by a grenadier force, and a party of dismounted hussars, whose strength and military aspect were displayed by the light of a number of torches ; the chief magistrate called out " Wretches, cease from carnage ! In the name of the law, I command you no longer indulge your cruel desire of vengeance." " If the law," replied the leader, " had done justice upon those jacobins, we should not have been reduced to the dreadful necessity of steeping our hands in their blood. Now the cup is filled, they must swallow its contents." And having concluded his barbarous explanation, he directed his myrmidons to resume their murderous occupation. As they retired from the interview, Isnard and Cadroy, the representatives, exclaimed " Grenadiers, arrest these madmen, and bring the commandant of MASSACRE OF THE JACOBIN PRISONERS. the fortress before us." Their orders were not obeyed, the assassins were permitted to resume their horrid employment ; and the representatives, proceeding to the apartments of the princes, found the commandant confined there, and unable to assist in stopping the dreadful carnage. Several persons connected with the municipal government, and friends of better order, now entered, and the room being found inconveniently small, an adjournment took place to an adjoining chamber, where the representatives and the commandant deli- berated upon the most prudent measures to be adopted under the difficulties that pressed on them. While thus engaged, some of the principal actors in the tragedy, rushed into the room, exhibiting a most horrid spectacle, and begged to be allowed to finish their work, adding " it will soon be over, and you will all be the better for it ! We have done nothing but avenge our fathers, brothers, friends, and you yourselves have urged us to.it !" " Execrable villains !" replied Isnard, " You shall atone for your guilt. Guards, seize those villains and put them in chains in the darkest dungeon of the tower." Fourteen of them were actually arrested, but the representatives, alarmed by the menaces of the mob, thought it advisable to release them after a deten- tion of only a few hours. Eighty helpless victims fell during this vindictive immolation ; amongst those that were innocent was a poor shoe-maker, who had been imprisoned merely for crying out -" Vive le roi ;" but, of the guilty, the most conspicuous for their villainy escaped. These monsters happened to be confined in the tower, a place which possessed the double merit of keeping in prisoners securely, and excluding, as inevitably, all assailants. The fortress, next day, presented a frightful appearance, LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the courts were strewn with dead and dying, like a battle-field ; pools of blood were formed in numerous places, and the very air was infected by the smell that proceeded from the half-burnt bodies in the cells that had been set on fire. The wounded were left to welter in their blood, without the relief of a drink of water in the last feverish moments of their existence. As Mont- pensier crossed the yard amidst the dead bodies, he heard his name pronounced by a weak and plaintive voice, which seemed to proceed from the recesses of a dungeon, and, directing his steps that way, recognized in the sufferer, a man who had been a municipal officer, and, in that capacity, had guarded the princes at the Palace of Justice. He was known to have been a most furious jacobin, but he had never personally offended the princes, besides, he was in misery. " Citizen," said he to Mon. de Montpensier, " I am dying ; I was in the dungeon when it was set fire to ; and I do not know how I have happened to survive the cruel death of my companions. Would I had perished with them, rather than endure the agonies under which I labour ; my torture is so excessive, that I beg of you either to bring me some assistance, or end my sufferings by putting me to death at once." Montpensier did not hesitate as to the adoption of a course, and, proceeding instantly to the commandant requested that a surgeon might be sent to the miserable being whom he had just left. The commandant received the application coldly, stated that a surgeon had been sent for, but that those wretches had put so many honest men to death they might themselves, he thought, be left to die unpitied. The prince, however, persevered in his importunities, re- minded the commandant that there might be some inno- cent persons amongst the sufferers ; besides, by leaving ESCAPE OF AN ENGLISH PRISONER. 255 them to perish in that deplorable manner, he actually became a participator in the assassination. The latter argument produced a salutary result, and the com- mandant consented to send for a surgeon, but added " That if he had to attend them himself they would probably be cured in a very different manner." The surgeon was sent for at length, but death had released the poor sufferer before his arrival. Amongst the prisoners in the fort was an English- man, the supercargo of a merchant vessel, which had been captured by a privateer ; he had been brought into the fort only two days before, as a prisoner of war, and, totally unable to comprehend the meaning of this wholesale massacre, terror had almost deprived him of his senses. The only conclusion which he was enabled to form was, that they were jacobins, whose chief pleasure seemed to be the destruction of their own species, and to whom the slaughter of an Englishman would afford a peculiar gratification. He neither understood nor spoke the French language, which helped to increase his perplexity, and, until he reached the chamber of the princes, who spoke English fluently, he laboured under the most dreadful apprehensions for his fate. As soon as his mind had recovered its primitive calmness, by the explanation which Montpensier had given him of the horrible tragedy which he had just witnessed, he pro- ceeded to lay before the prince the hardship of his case, the cruelty with which he had been treated, and the gross violation of justice which his detention illustrated. Montpensier heard with attention and sympathy, and at the poor fellow's request drew up several petitions to the administration. These were all faithfully delivered, and obtained promises of redress, yet month after month passed away without any fulfilment, and the 256 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. merchant was left to pine for the loss of liberty, under the bitter reflection that his property would all be dis- sipated, and his family perhaps reduced from affluence to want. Touched by the anguish under which their fellow-prisoner laboured, the princes proposed to him the project of an escape from the fort, which, as life was becoming almost insupportable to him, he accepted with the most extravagant delight. As he had money in a banker's hands at Marseilles, Montpensier advised him to secure his passage, under a feigned name, on board a Danish vessel, about to sail from the harbour in a few days. An old prisoner, who had acquired an affection for the Princes of Orleans, and had discharged many little commissions for them with the utmost fidelity, undertook to convey the Englishman's port- manteau on board, and also to provide a rope by which he was to lower himself from the rampart to the sea- shore. Joliot performed every part of his duty with prompt- ness and success ; the prisoner having secured one end of the rope to a ring in the ramparts, let himself down into a boat which was in waiting under the walls, and was conveyed safely on board. The next day the vessel sailed for Denmark, and the princes watched its white sails flapping in the breeze, but dared not venture to cheer their English friend, who was indebted to their generosity for his liberty, but of whose future fortunes they never after heard anything. The municipal authorities hearing of the English- man's escape, immediately visited the fort, and caused a strict inquiry to be made into the manner in which it had been effected, and by whose instrumentality. Some suspicion at first attached to the Princes of Orleans, but as there was not a particle of evidence LIBERATION OF THE PRINCE OF CONTI. against them, it was impossible to turn those suspicions to any injurious account, and the jailer having received a grave reprimand the inquiry closed. Several, and those very sufficient reasons, influenced the judgment of Montpensier, and prevented him from becoming a partner in the Englishman's flight from prison ; his situation had been rendered infinitely more tolerable than at first ; he could have escaped with facility, whenever he pleased, but, it was uncertain where he and his brother could find a safe asylum ; the princes received frequent communications from their mother, giving them the most positive assurances that they would soon be set at liberty by a decree of the Convention. These hopes and prospects diverted the princes from a determination, which they felt it was in their power to adopt at pleasure, and, an apprehension of interfering with the wishes of their mother in the least degree, operated as a restraint upon all their actions, for never was there a stronger instance of filial affection than that which the princes of Orleans manifested during the course of their brief, but eventful lives, for their virtuous and excellent mother. Such considerations acting on minds full of tenderness, benevolence, and honour, completely controlled the princes' eagerness to break their chains ; but, an event, humane and equitable in itself, which soon after oc- curred, dissipated their equanimity and exhausted their patience under captivity. This was the liberation of the Prince of Conti and the Duchess of Bourbon,* the * The Prince of Conti proceeded at first to Nevers, near Melun. His fondest object was to return to Lalande, his ancestral residence, and there terminate his chequered life, but, being included in the decree that banished all Bourbons, he was compelled to go into .5 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. former being restricted to a residence at Moulins, the princess at Autun, until the further pleasure of the Convention should be made known to them. The painful reflection, upon the omission of their names from the decree which gave liberty to the other members of Spain. Preserving all the pomp and etiquette, to which he so tenaciously adhered in his dungeon at Marseilles, he exhibited the utmost contempt and abhorrence of the gens d'armes by whom he was escorted on his way to the frontiers. At every stage, and when- ever he was about to re-enter his carriage, in any town or public place, he never failed to repeat aloud the following declaration " I here publicly declare that nothing but main force could compel me to quit my native land, that my banishment is against my inclina- tion, and contrary to law." Having taken up his residence at Barcelona, he was found there by the French imperial army some years after, and had the happiness of receiving the most marked attention from every officer of rank attached to that expedition. In this city he expired on the 10th of March, 1814, in the 80th year of his age. The Duchess of Bourbon also selected Barcelona as her asylum in exile, and dwelt there undisturbed, until the restoration of her family, when she returned and breathed her last sigh in the land of her birth. After her return to Paris, where she continued to reside even during the hundred days, she devoted herself to acts of benevolence and utility. In honour of a son, whose untimely fate she never ceased to deplore, she founded the Hospice d'Enghien, where indigence and misfortune find alleviation ; and, to ensure, to that work of humanity, that patronage, which a truly virtuous mind is alone capable of extending, the founderess bequeathed this insti- tution to Madamoiselle d'Orleans. The Duchess of Bourbon had a literary taste, and has written several fragments that sufficiently establish her reputation. The fine arts, however, enjoyed the largest share of her attention, during her leisure hours, and some clever and interesting paintings by her hand, amongst them a view of Fort St. Jean, at Marseilles, are preserved in the gallery of the Palais Royal. Having reached the age of 72 years, this excellent lady was suddenly arrested by the hand of death, as she was in the act and attitude of prayer, in the beautiful church of St. Genevieve. REVIVAL OF JACOBINISM. 259 the royal family, now occupied their thoughts ; they saw the drawbridge raised to permit their venerable relatives to return to the world, while they were consigned to the silence and solitude of a prison. Even the reasoning of their mother had now begun to lose that influence, which it exercised over their patience under insult, privation, and captivity. Montpensier ventured to remonstrate with his parent upon the cruelty, or indifference, of the government to their sufferings in particular ; but she endeavoured to soothe their sorrows, and support their hopes, by a variety of arguments. She urged the dif- ference that existed between two princes, in the bloom of youth, possessing ardour and enthusiasm, sharpened into a dangerous character, by bitter feelings of venge- ance for the loss of a father whom they most fondly loved, and an aged prince, whose frivolity only excited the ridicule of the republicans ; with respect to the Duchess of Bourbon, both her age and her sex rendered her an object of disregard to the Convention, and they were totally indifferent as to her existence or place of re- sidence. The Duchess of Orleans also held out hopes that the case of her sons would not be postponed beyond the conclusion of the " great work of the Con- stitution." In this respect also the princes were deceived, for the solemn day arrived, the Constitution was formally accepted, the phantom, and the excitation which its appearance produced, passed away, and left the guiltless Princes of Orleans to pine in captivity. In addition to these symptoms of indifference, if not contempt, with which the situation of the prisoners was treated by the Convention, the cause of jacobinism appeared to recover rapidly from its prostration, and the root of the tree that had been cut down, began to throw out shoots again, giving indications of renewed 260 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. vitality. Orders were issued for the release of all jacobin prisoners in every part of France, and the triumph of the horrid party seemed complete, by the disarming of the sections in Paris, a master-stroke of policy on the part of the Convention. Freron was now appointed to the chief magistracy at Marseilles, and agent of the government, and the partiality, which he extended to the partisans of jacobinism, justly alarmed the princes. His protection of these desperate men was open and undisguised, and the worst, and most determined characters amongst them, he raised, at once, to places of trust, responsibility, and rank, from which he had expelled citizens of the highest respectability. To such an extreme length did he carry his animosity towards the moderate party, that those who had found safety in voluntary exile only, during the reign of Robespierre, .thought it prudent to adopt a similar precaution, during the magistracy of Freron at Mar- seilles, proceedings having been actually commenced against several, as enemies of the new order of things, while their real offence was anti-jacobinism. By some extraordinary oversight the government of Robespierre had promoted a humane, virtuous, and courageous man to the command of the fort at Mar- seilles. This fine fellow, whose name was Betemps, having accepted place under a party, felt bound in honour to be faithful to its members ; but his aversion to the sanguinary code of jacobinism was undisguised. He was not present at the massacre of the jacobins, his services being required elsewhere, but, soon after the close of that horrible tragedy, he was recalled, and re- stored to the command. Although it is more than pro- bable that he never would have permitted the "Children of the Sun" to outrage human nature by their vindictive CHARACTER OF BETEMPS. and blood-thirsty conduct, yet he kept the jacobin pri- soners under the most rigid discipline, and granted them no species of indulgence, beyond that which the regulations of the fort extended to orderly persons, while he endeavoured to alleviate the captivity of the princes by kindness of every description. He even per- mitted the royal youths to bathe in the sea, and, on one occasion, to extend their little tour to the opposite side of the harbour, where they passed the greater portion of a day. The conduct of this benevolent man excited the envy, or indignation, probably both, of Freron, and his rage was still further inflamed by the calm indifference, with which Betemps treated his frequent orders to desist from all further exercises of humanity towards his pri- soners. At length, unable to endure the mortification of witnessing Betemps' increasing popularity, he directed his hated rival to appear before him, and answer to several charges ; but his commissaries met the usual unceremonious treatment from the commandant, who called them a set of vile dogs, the groveling slaves of a beggarly sultan, and dismissed them with a direct refusal to obey the summons of their master. Not less slow in avenging an insult than in inflicting one, Freron gave immediate orders for his arrest, and, his emissaries were actually within a few yards of his apartment before Betemps was aware of his danger. Finding the enemy so near, he turned to his attendant, and, with the most perfect coolness, said " Hand me my pistols, and then bring a boat under my window ; if the scoundrels take me, it will cost them dear !" Withdrawing with the same quiet, but determined manner, he reached the boat, escaped to a vessel, then riding in the roadstead, and, the day following sailed for Leghorn. LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. - The gens d'armes having acquainted Freron with the fruitless consequences of their labours, and the flight of his intended victim, he named Grippe, a furious jacobin, to succeed him in the command. This man had never risen beyond the grade of corporal, and was notorious in the regiment for drunkenness and general irregularity. Such an appointment, at once disgraceful to the administration, and alarming to the royalist prisoners, led the princes to the resolution of attempting their escape. Delay might frustrate their best efforts, for, from the known ferocity of Grippe, and the inhumanity of Freron, the princes hourly expected the arrival of orders for the suspension of all further indulgence, and a much more strict enforcement of prison regulations in their case. Independent of the renewal of that incarceration, which ultimately broke down their constitutions, and brought them prematurely to the grave, they perceived that a new order might totally deprive them of all hopes of effecting their escape, through the assistance of their servants or friends. Their apprehension did not prove groundless, for, one of Grippe's first acts was the non- admission into the fort of any person unconnected with their service, so that the princes' servants alone now formed their only link, or medium of communication, with the world without, from which they had been so long and so unjustly cut off. By means of such ambassadors, however, Montpen- sier opened a negociation with the captain of a Tuscan vessel, and this mercenary man agreed to convey two young men, and their servant, to Leghorn, provided they were supplied with passports, for a reasonable fare, but, without passports his price would be nothing less than a mountain of gold. Even this difficulty, the MONTPENSIEIl OBTAINS PASSPORTS. %C)3 prince found means to surmount. There was a corrupt fellow, a clerk of the municipality, who carried on a secret traffic in blank passports, for each of which he received about three louis ; the prince applied to this faithless functionary, and easily obtained from him what he required. Filling up the blanks with an accurate description of their persons, a wrong statement of their ages, and with fictitious names, the captain was induced to consent to the more reasonable charge for their passage, and preliminaries were completely arranged. For the success of their plan, so far, they were indebted to the same individual who had been instrumental in saving Be temps from the fury of Freron, and who now, from a terror of returning jacobinism, resolved to ac- company the Princes of Orleans in their flight. From the relaxation in the order for guarding the princes, they felt confident of being able to evade the sentinels' notice and pass the drawbridge, by waiting until it was dark, and taking the precaution to en- velop themselves in cloaks. It was agreed upon that Beaujolais should make the first attempt, and, lest Montpensier should be recognised and prevented from passing, a rope was provided and concealed in his chamber, by which he might lower himself from the window to the sea, and trust to the chance of Beaujolais coming to his assistance with a boat. Nothing could have been more cautiously or prudently contrived, events fully justified the wisdom of their plan, but events also frustrated it. The day of the vessel's de- parture being fixed, the princes prepared everything necessary for their project, so as to leave the fort at night-fall, proceed to a cottage on the sea-side, where they meant to pass the night, and embark at day -break of the morning following. LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. On the 18th of November, 1795, about half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, Beaujolais, wrapped in a cloak, and accompanied by Louis, the prince's servant, proceeded toward the drawbridge of the fort ; and the latter having reconnoitred and found all safe, they passed the drawbridge and directed their steps towards the appointed rendezvous on the beach. For some minutes after their departure Montpensier stood motion- less, absorbed in the painful feeling of separating from one so young, so amiable, so deeply wronged, and who had so long and patiently shared his sorrows. Animated, however, by the desire as well as hope of soon rejoining him, he now prepared to deceive the watch, and draw- ing his hat over his face, folding his large cloak around him, he passed four sentinels without being challenged. He had actually crossed the fatal drawbridge, and recovered that liberty of which he had been so long deprived, when the fate of his unhappy race overtook him. Here he was accosted by the fierce commandant of the fortress, then returning home, who immediately inquired who he was, and where he was going. At first the prince spoke in a feigned voice, and endea- voured to deceive Grippe, but finding that he was recognized, excused himself by stating, that he was only going to the theatre, where he had frequently gone before without the knowledge of the commandant. The jacobin jailer was inexorable, insisted upon the prince returning to his apartments, at the door of which he ordered a corporal and a fusilier to be stationed. So completely had the commandant's rage blinded his judgment, that he overlooked the circumstance of the princes' chamber being on the sea- ward side of the fort, and, having an migrated window at an elevation of only thirty feet from the shore. These errors of judgment MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT TO MONTPENSIKR. 2G5 were not neglected by Montpensier, who, calling his female servant, Frances, to his assistance, had now recourse to the alternative which had been provided, in the event of his being interrupted in attempting to pass the drawbridge. Assisted by Frances he made fast one end of a rope to a pin for securing the window, and, passing the remainder of its length through the window, he commenced his perilous descent ; but scarcely had he accomplished half the dizzy height when the rope broke, and the unhappy prince fell sense- less to the shore. Here he remained, perfectly uncon- scious of everything that passed around him, for about half an hour, when his returning senses enabled him to behold the clear bright moon whose tremulous beams then played upon the surface of the silent sea. He was soon, however, rendered alarmingly and pain- fully alive to his miserable situation, finding that he was immersed up to his waist in the sea, and that one of his legs was broken. Crawling a few yards from the spot where he fell, he succeeded in reaching the harbour chain, and laying hold of it, drew himself up and reclined upon it. Having about thirty louis in his purse he calculated upon obtaining relief from some of the passing boats, as the harbour was not then shut ; but, in this also he was miserably mistaken, for although seven boats passed within hail, during two hours of torture that he endured hanging on the chain, there was not an individual of their companies who had not become wholly callous to all appeals of humanity, and his cries of agony found no response save that of some horrible imprecation. The chilling cold of November would have been alone sufficient to have congealed the suf- ferer's blood and produced dissolution, and immersion in the open sea must have accelerated the fatal process ; but i. SM #66 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the fever and inflammation that ensued from a sprained ankle, broken leg, and other injuries, counteracted the benumbing effects of the cold air and water, and were instrumental in preserving the sufferer's life. An eighth boat at length arrived, manned by men of nobler hearts, and better instructed in those Christian precepts which teach us our duty to our neighbour. These fine fellows, as they pulled into the harbour to reach their homes at their hour of promise, heard the faltering voice of a fellow-creature in distress, and instantly called out to him to hold on for a little until they had apprised their friends of their arrival, and that they would return without further delay to his relief. After the expiration of about twenty minutes the boat returned, and the honest fellows who brought it taking the unfortunate prince, then stiff, cold, and unable to describe his situation, on board, steered out into the channel. As soon as he was capable of ex- pressing his wishes, he begged that they would not press him with unnecessary questions, but kindly convey him to the cottage of Maugin, a poor hair-dresser, to whom he was known, and in whose humanity he had every confidence, and that they should be handsomely rewarded for their generosity and trouble. This re- quest, of course, at once excited suspicion, and one of the boatmen looking at him attentively, said "Ah, Monsieur, I know who you are, having frequently seen you in the fortress, when I have been on duty there with the national guard ; but do not be alarmed, I shall take no advantage of your distressing situation ; I am myself a staunch royalist, and shall feel pleasure in conveying you to the cottage of Maugin, who is also a friend of mine." Montpensier's mind was calmed for a moment bv these kind assurances, and, as the MONTPENSIER RECOGNISED BY A JACOBIN. conversation ended the boat reached the shore. The cautious arrangements, necessary for his removal from the boat, occasioned some delay, during which a num- ber of idlers had collected, and began to inquire what was the matter what accident had occurred. The faithful royalist made light of the business, by telling them they were mistaken, that the man was not wounded, nor had he met with any accident, that he was only intoxicated and had got beaten in a quarrel. But, at that moment one of the spectators approaching the prince, and looking at him closely, exclaimed in loud and savage language " That he was one of the Orleans' princes, that he knew him well, and no doubt must have met some accident in attempting to escape." Thus, in one instant, by the ferocity of a remorseless wretch, were the hopes of the prince dissipated, his sufferings increased to a still more agonising degree, and con- tinued captivity appeared now to be the sole result of continued life. The same fierce jacobin who pro- claimed the discovery, consummated his villany by calling the guard, and despatching a messenger to Freron, informing him of the capture of the prisoner, and desiring to know his wishes respecting him. The prince, meantime, remained at Maugin's, a sentinel being placed at the door, and, under the care of a village sur- geon, who was of opinion that the violent inflammation in the patient's leg rendered the application of remedies, or any attempt to reduce the fracture and set the bone, impracticable. The prince passed one whole night of pain and sorrow, the former produced much less effect upon a mind so noble and determined, but the idea that solitary imprisonment would henceforth be his lot, that he was inevitably cut off from all chance of again beholding Beaujolais, the innocent and youthful victim 268 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. of jacobin rage, these reflections rendered the anguish of his situation almost insupportable. Freron, insolent from office, did not condescend to visit the sufferer, but to humble him if possible, still further, directed three courtiers of his to proceed, as commissioners, to Maugin's cottage, and put a series of interrogatories, both foolish and insulting, to the pri- soner. These obedient citizens, having sagaciously asked the prince his name, what he was doing at the foot of the tower when he was found there, at length had the assurance to inquire why he desired to escape ? to which Montpensier indignantly answered " To extricate myself from the tyranny under which I have been groaning for two years and a half, and to recover that liberty of which I have been so unjustly deprived !" They next inquired for little Beaujolais, and anxiously pressed to know how the passport, which they took from the prince's pocket, had been obtained. To the first of these questions he replied by expressing a hope, that they should never see his injured brother again ; and, as for the rest, said he " I am determined never to tell you. I know and feel that I am completely at your mercy, and that you will extend little of that quality towards me ; but I know, also, that I have nothing more in this life to lose or to be anxious for." Then the pain of his fractured limb quite overcame him, he was unable to articulate, and the inhuman commis- sioners at length quitted their victim, uttering empty threats as to future severity, muttering something about his manner exhibiting delirium; if so, said one of them, when that symptom shall abate, we may, possibly, be able to extract from him the information we require relative to the passport. Monsieur de Montpensier was not as insensible as THE VESSEL SAILS WITHOUT THE PRINCES. 269 the commissaries imagined, nor as incapable of satisfying their curiosity, but he had resolved never to disclose the secret of the passport, nor betray those who had assisted him in his escape. His own account, however, of his situation and sufferings, leaves no doubt as to the desperation of his mind, and the extreme of misery to which he was reduced : " Poor Maugin, in whose house I was, was in the utmost despair, but continued to pay me every possible attention. I complained that my leg was frozen, for the blood did not circulate in it ; upon which he applied bricks almost heated to burning, to my feet, but in vain, I could not feel them. I then said to Maugin You see it is all useless, release me at once from my sufferings by shooting me through the head. Nobody will be displeased with you for it ; the Convention will be happy at being saved the dis- grace of my death, and, it is the greatest service you can now render me. The poor fellow was melted to tears, and his sensibility provoking mine, served in some measure to give birth to new hopes."* When day returned, Maugin brought a more skilful surgeon, who bled the patient copiously, set the broken limb, and administered such medicines as the circumstances of the sufferer required, either to render him less sensible to pain, or check the feverish symptoms. The Count de Beaujolais, having reached the shore in safety, introduced himself to the captain of the vessel, and informed him that he might expect his companion in an hour's time or less. That hour was often counted, but Montpensier did not appear. Touched by the earnest entreaties of the youth, the captain postponed his departure for a few hours, but commercial bonds * Autobiography of the Duke de Montpensier, 270 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. compelled him to sail, and Beaujolais to deplore his own and his brother's fate. Convinced now that some accident must have prevented Montpensier's escape, he did not hesitate to sacrifice his own liberty, and even risk his life to be permitted to rejoin him ; and wan- dering along the shore, in search of any clue that might lead to a knowledge of the facts, he met with honest Maugin. Learning from him the history of Mont- pensier's misfortunes, his first resolution was to hasten to his bed-side and administer to his wants. This Maugin resisted, assuring him that it would endanger the lives, at all events the future treatment of himself and Montpensier, and that he, Maugin, would be at once suspected of being privy to the plot of their escaping from prison. Influenced by these reasons, Beaujolais returned to the fort, and voluntarily surren- dered himself to the authorities ; a magnanimity rarely illustrated at any age, but perhaps never at that period, the spring of life, when all objects are new, and the love of inquiry renders the love of liberty the chief motive of existence. Shortly after Maugin had communicated to the patient the return of his brother to voluntary captivity rather than be separated from him, Grippe, the fierce commandant, arrived, to insult and triumph over the poor sufferer. " So, citizen," said he, " this is the way you wanted to go to the theatre ? Your object was to have me guillotined, for you knew that I was responsible for you ; but I thank God you have been frustrated in your design ; and, as to the future, leave that to me. You shall never have an opportunity of repeating the trick." The prince told him, " He did not credit a syllable he uttered, so he might spare himself the dis- grace of falsifying ; besides, as he had no motive in MEETING OF MONTPENS1ER AND BEAUJOLAIS. 271 visiting him but to triumph over fallen royalty, his mission was more contemptible, because his disappoint- ment, injustice, mental agony, and bodily pain, could not have been exceeded, in any instance of persecution which the commandant had ever witnessed." Startled, perhaps softened by this picture of his inhumanity, Grippe ap- peared to relent, and in a more subdued tone addressed the prince " Hear me, citizen, your young brother is now my prisoner in the fortress, and burns with anxiety to see you. You are henceforth to be confined separately, and will no longer have any opportunity to communicate with each other ; it is now in my power to allow you to see each other for a few moments, before you shall be separated, most probably for ever: do you desire it ?" " Ah," said the prince, " the con- viction of having relieved a breaking heart will yet reward you for such an act of kindness ; let me see him, were it only for an instant." Grippe retired with an assurance that he would permit the brothers to meet again, and shortly after- wards the chamber door opened, and Beaujolais, bathed in tears, came running to the bed-side. " Ah, Mont- pensier !" said he, " My poor Montpensier ! how dread- fully you must have suffered." The patient assured the affectionate boy, that his bodily pain was insigni- ficant in comparison with the mental agony he sustained, and which that interview would much alleviate, although he had sincerely wished never to have seen him again. The brothers for some minutes indulged in outpourings of regard for each other, the sincerity of which were attested by the noble generosity displayed in their actions ; and history scarcely supplies a more affecting picture, one more adorned with truth and virtue, than the meeting of the injured Princes of Orleans, after AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPF'E. their fruitless attempt to escape from prison. The remark of Beaujolais, upon his brother's grateful ac- knowledgments, is one of the most beautiful com- mentaries upon the scene, that could ever have been composed : it was dictated by generosity, and urged in entire truth : " Ah, brother, said he, I fear we shall derive no benefit from what I have done, for we are to be confined separately ; but without you, it was im- possible for me to enjoy liberty." During this interchange of brotherly affection, the fierce commandant entered, and, his uncouth nature returning, declared the impossibility of allowing the interview to be prolonged ; the entreaties of Montpen- sier, whom he believed to be then laid on the couch of death, and the tears of the orphan boy, were employed equally in vain. Beaujolais being removed, and con- ducted back to the fort, one of Freron's commissioners arrived, followed by a corporal's guard bearing a litter, " My orders, citizen," said the commissary, " are, to remove you hence to the hospital, and I have provided a mode of conveyance, which I trust will not be pro- ductive of any injury to you." The surgeon, who was seated at the bed-side, protested not only against the inhumanity of such conduct, but added also that the prisoner's life would be endangered by his removal, for which consequence citizen Freron would be held respon- sible to the Convention. The last word of the surgeon's admonition fell, with fatal effect, upon the soldier's ear, and although he had before stated " That he knew nothing but his orders," he was so completely awoke to a sense of danger, by the mere name of the Conven- tion, that he begged, in a subdued tone of voice, for a certificate from the surgeon to be delivered to Freron. The cruel citizen also experienced some unpleasant MONTPENSIER REMOVED TO THE FORT. ^7- sensations at the idea of accounting to that dire tribunal, and, with a boasting air declared his indifference to all consequences, but that the prisoner might select his own place of confinement during his illness. As the fort was considerably nearer, and a solitary chamber more consonant to his former life than the crowded wards of a military hospital, and as all hopes of again seeing his high-hearted brother would not be extin- guished, while both were confined within the same prison, he at once made choice of his old apartment in the fort. The painful ceremony of removal took place under the superintendence of his surgeon, and, although he was escorted by a guard of twenty resolute men, he could not escape the intrusion of a curious and insolent populace who pressed in upon the guard, and acted with so much violence, while the litter was being borne over the drawbridge, as to inflict both pain and injury on the prisoner. But the Princes of Orleans were now accus- tomed to jacobin taunts, and endured those griefs to which Providence had subjected them, with a resigna- tion and fortitude resulting from a religious education, fine natural understandings, and a comparative view of their own sufferings, with those of their illustrious relatives, who had been first tortured, and then assassi- nated, by the persecutors of their race. As the procession entered the court-yard of the fortress it was joined by Beaujolais, who, in perfect transports of delight, informed the poor sufferer that he believed they would not be separated in future, but were to be lodged in the small suite of apartments, to which they were first removed, after their liberation from the dungeon in the tower. Left to the enjoyment of each other's society their sorrow experienced much i. 2 N LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. alleviation, but, during the night the torture which the patient endured from his fractured limb, became ex- cruciating, and he begged that the surgeon might be sent for. It was in vain that Beaujolais supplicated the commandant to compassionate the sufferings of his injured brother, and permit the surgeon to be called, he received only the most insulting replies, accompanied by threats and horrible oaths, intended to corroborate the denial of the commandant to all his requests. The kind attention of the surgeon, the affectionate watchfulness of Beaujolais, and the faithful services of Louis and Frances, who had not been even suspected by Freron as privy to the plot, succeeded, ultimately, in restoring the prince to health. Some suspicion of Louis' loyalty to the republic was at first excited, but the firmness, which he exhibited before his interrogators, completely removed them. The only individual impli- cated, and punished for participation, was one who had no connection with the plot, and was literally as guilt- less of participation as Freron himself, this was the secretary of the municipality. As his name was signed to the blank passports, which had been purchased for four louis, and were afterwards found in Montpensier's pocket, he was arrested, tried, and condemned to solitary imprisonment. He remained, however, only three months in jail, for it was then discovered that his clerk, who had effected his escape, was the guilty person, and that the secretary's greatest culpability did not exceed negligence of duty. Betemps' friend, who had laid the plan of escape, and conducted it to the last with so much address, found that fortune to which his fidelity and energy had given him a sufficient title, and escaped in the vessel that was also to have borne the unhappy princes to a land of 275 liberty. " I shall never forget," writes Monsieur de Montpensier, " the painful sensations I experienced, when, after the night of excruciating bodily and mental agony I had passed at Maugin's, that fine-hearted fellow came to the cottage in the morning, and putting his head in at the window, said ' There is a vessel under sail ! What flag ? The Tuscan.' That was our vessel ! Oh, God ! I thought by this time to have my freedom secured ! I thought now to have been with my poor brother, indulging in the brilliant transports of joy ! What a cruel contrast I" After forty days of patient suffering Montpensier was able to leave his bed, and to walk a few paces with the aid of crutches ; and at the expiration of a year and half he had perfectly recovered the use of the broken limb. During all this period, however, no improvement took place in the treatment of the princes, on the contrary, as the jail allowance was only paid in assignats, and, as that species of security was gradually depreciated until it was altogether worthless, the prisoners might have perished from want, had not their mother found means to transmit small sums to them occasionally. Heart- sick, after three years of youth consumed in captivity, the princes importuned their mother to press for their liberation, pointing to the opportunity which presented itself, by the decree just passed for exchanging the members of the Bourbon family for the representatives of the people then detained in Vienna. The same indifference, however, was evinced towards the princes in this instance as in all that preceded, for Madame, the daughter of Louis XVI., was permitted to with- draw from France, upon which the representatives were immediately allowed to return to their country. The exchange was evidently unequal, and had the 276 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. royalists possessed moral courage enough to state the case of the princes, in its true light, to the Convention, their liberation, most probably, would have been the consequence ; but France, and the rest of Europe also, had not recovered from the shock which they had received from the unnatural conduct of Egalite, in voting for the death of his relative, and, it is to this circumstance that the lengthened captivity of these much injured princes is to be attributed. The Duchess of Orleans, who had herself gone through the dreadful treatment which jacobin rulers prescribed for their captives, advised her sons to remain tranquil, not to remind the Convention of their exist- ence, and to present no more petitions. Finding that her maternal counsel, dutifully obeyed in all other instances, was unheeded in this, and that petitions from the captive princes were almost weekly delivered to the government ; she sent her friend, Madame de la Charce, to Marseilles with money and presents, for the purpose of obtaining that obedience to her wishes which she believed indispensable to the recovery of their liberty, and the preservation of their lives. The princes listened with attention to the narrative of the sufferings of their presecuted race, and were strongly affected by the account of the humiliation to which their virtuous mother had been subjected ; but, notwithstanding the happiness they experienced in the society of their friend, it was impossible for them to conceal the disappoint- ment they sustained at finding, that she came unac- companied by an order for their liberation, or by any information calculated to inspire hopes, that the day of freedom would not be postponed until grief had established her dominion over them. One morning, in the month of June, in the third IMPRISONMENT OF PAGES. 277 year of the princes' captivity, the officer who had been commandant of the fort at the period of the massacre, was brought in -as a prisoner. The jacobins demanded his death, and declared that if government attempted to delay the gratification of their vengeance they would themselves perform the sacrifice. Pages, the ex-com- mandant, had overheard, amongst other denunciations, a threat to include " the infamous Capets" in the pro- scription, and being a brave, just, and generous man, sent private information to the princes, and an earnest caution to be prepared for such an attempt. Whether Pages' kindly feeling towards the captives, and his suspicion of the jacobins, had magnified the danger, the princes felt, that if their destruction was resolved on, false witnesses would not be wanting, to implicate them in the charge of being abettors of the massacre, and, that judges d-la- Robespierre, would not hesitate to send them to the scaffold. This combination of circumstances argued unhappily for their fate, but still the jacobins had not recovered that uncontrolled power which they had once possessed, and so monstrously abused ; they had a con- siderable preponderance in the legislature, but had not a decided majority in any of the administrations. Some protection was still to be expected from the government, some forbearance from the jacobins ; still it was seriously to be apprehended that, frustration, in accomplishing a judicial assassination, would only add fuel to their rage, and urge them to outrage justice and slay their victims in cold blood. The prisoners, prepared for the attack by the friendly warning of Pages, were neither surprised nor alarmed, at seeing Maugin, the hair-dresser enter the apart- ment, his face streaming with perspiration and as pallid as death. " I have just heard," said this faithful 278 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. attache, " some of the most ferocious jacobins talking about you and Pages, in language not to be misunder- stood. They have agreed ivpay you a visit after night- fall, and I have lost no time in apprizing you that you may be prepared to repulse them. I have also informed the keeper, a person on whose fidelity you may rely, and if you will only barricade your door and defend yourselves for a short time, the alarm will be given, and assistance will arrive." Scarcely had Maugin retired when Louis arrived in breathless haste, calling out " Quick ! quick ! the iron bar to the door ! the murderous jacobins have got into the fort, I have seen them ! Louis' commands were obeyed with the utmost expedition, the bar was placed across the door, seconded by a spit disposed obliquely, so that a defence of some twenty minutes might be relied on, and then an anxious state of sus- pense ensued. It appeared that Louis, who had been tippling in the canteen, saw a party of jacobins enter and throw themselves on the keeper, in order to wrest from him the keys of the fort. The guard looked on with perfect indifference, but the keeper was a powerful man and frustrated the attempts of the assassins. Without waiting to ascertain to which side the victory ultimately fell, Louis escaped, and communicated the circumstance of the attempt to obtain the keys to his master, which led to the defensive operations described. The prisoners, resolved upon selling their lives as dearly as possible, applied themselves to the best means of per- sonal defence within their reach, and, arming themselves with a pair of pistols which Louis had purchased for them shortly before, and placing a large kitchen knife in their valet's hand, they awaited in breathless silence the attack of the jacobins. Almost the next moment after FALSE ALARMS. 279 the completion of these defensive measures, a noise was heard in the outer court, which continued for several minutes and then entirely died away. With the sub- sidence of these sounds of violence the anxiety of the prisoners abated, but they dared not send a messenger to reconnoitre and report, as it was now dark, after which limit the sentinels had orders not to permit any one to pass out, besides, they did not deem it a safe experiment to remove the fastenings from their door. Thankful for the mercy that had been extended to them, they felt released from further anxiety, and all soon fell into a sound refreshing sleep. But midnight brought back those sounds of terror, which they believed to have sub- sided for ever, and now they were awoke by tremendous knocking at their door, and a demand that it should be instantly thrown open. Jumping from his hard couch, Montpensier inquired who was there, what they wanted, and how they had passed the sentinel ? but was answered that he had no right to shut himself up in that secure manner, and that it was the night-watch that required admission. Montpensier replied that such a disturbance, even by the night-watch was not usual, that he would not open the door, but was pre- pared to defend himself against the applicant, whom he believed to be an impostor, if not a cut- throat. Solici- tations and demands became exchanged for threats, with which the pretended watch withdrew, and the silence of night once more returned. At the expiration of an hour more, however, a similar disturbance oc- curred, accompanied by a similar parley, after which the inconvenience entirely abated. This unseasonable visit, under ordinary circumstances, would not have occa- sioned any alarm to the prisoners, but, having received information from Pages, of the sanguinary designs of 280 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the jacobins, information corroborated by the relation of Louis, of the scene that took place in the canteen, there were very sufficient grounds for the precautions, observed by the princes, in barricading their door, and preparing for a determined resistance. When, however, Mont- pensier was made acquainted with the real character of the putative enemy, who was only a drunken corporal, seeking shelter for the night where he could obtain admission, he placed the adventure amongst those of his life which he would remember with any feelings rather than those of anger. One day in the month of August, Moriancourt, the commandant of the fort, a moderate jacobin, if such could exist, came to the princes' apartment to pay them a visit of ceremony. He entered into conversation with them upon the length of their imprisonment, their hopes of liberation and their late attempt to escape from the fort. He expressed considerable regret at seeing them so miserably lodged, and his readiness to alleviate their sufferings by every means within his power. More spacious and airy apartments, and liberty to range over the fortress, unattended by a sentinel, were at once offered, on condition that the prisoners w r ould pledge their honour not to attempt an escape. The condition was certainly the most painful that could have accom- panied the favour of the commandant, but, so much confidence was now reposed in the promises of their mother, that they accepted the terms with thankfulness and gratitude. Soon again they found themselves in an airy apartment, commanding a view of the deep blue sea, and were not a little gratified at perceiving that their new lodgings were the best in the fort, and appropriated hitherto to the commandant. These new privileges were rendered acceptable by several considerations. The com- GENERAL WILLOT ARRIVES AT MARSEILLES. mandant would hardly have ventured to grant them, had he not been authorized by higher functionaries. Such a relaxation of rigorous treatment seemed intended to prepare them for a still greater blessing, unexpected free- dom ; and, although the presents which they had made to the commandant, might have influenced his conduct in the. execution of orders, yet they were not of such value, that a total alteration in their treatment could have originated in that source alone; besides, other commandants had received considerably larger bribes without condescending to acknowledge them. The greatest indulgence now granted to the prisoners was permission to bathe in the sea, just below the windows of their apartment, but the commandant did not pre- tend that the princes were indebted to him for this kindness, he informed them, that they were allowed to do so by the direction of General Willot, who had then arrived at Marseilles with extensive powers. Moriancourt, finding the new governor a determined enemy to jacobinism, from his having only a leaning to the moderate party previously, he now came entirely over, and spoke to the princes about his principles, and his political consistency. In consequence of the severity which he saw daily exercised towards the jacobins of Marseilles, he dilated, perhaps, a little more than he would otherwise have done, upon the virtues of the governor's party. The cries of these demons for royalist blood were no longer heard ; those who adhered to their principles found it necessary to withdraw, or to conceal themselves ; those who had been guilty of excesses were imprisoned in the darkest dungeons of the fort. Notwithstanding the obviously favourable change in the sentiments of government towards the unfor- tunate Bourbon Princes, the mitiated character of the LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. treatment extended to them in prison, and the approach- ing prospect of liberation, they still felt the grevious weight of slavery's chains. Although it might be the intention of the government to release them on certain conditions, and, at the solicitation of their mother, still, who could say, how long that government might be in existence, what description of men might succeed them within an hour ? and then the keys of the fort might be held by the bitterest enemies of the Orleans family. The princes resolved upon communicating their own view of their situation to their affectionate parent, who, while she never ceased to importune the legislature for her childrens* freedom, could not be in- duced to assent to the condition of their going to America. Exile, to any part of the globe, if accom- panied with liberty, would have been welcome to the captives, who now ventured to remonstrate with their mother, upon the hardship of withholding her assent to a condition advantageous to her children, while she acceded to others that were unimportant. The delay which this very negociation occasioned, might again expose them to the jacobin daggers, or to a fate which they dreaded even more, perpetual captivity. To the remonstrance of the princes was added the testimony of Madame de la Charce, who had actually witnessed the attempt of the jacobins against the lives of the prisoners, and this urgent despatch was committed to the hands of the trusty Maugin to be carried to Paris and delivered to the Duchess of Orleans. During a whole month of anxious suspense the captives awaited the return of Maugin, who, when he did arrive, brought little more than promises of liberty ; so positive, however, and expressed in terms of so much confidence, that, notwithstanding the continued disap- ORDER FOR THE PRINCES* LIBERATION. 283 pointments of nearly three whole years, they were now induced to think, that the days of their captivity were numbered. The duchess assured her children, that no sacrifice, which she was capable of making, except that of consenting to their death, could exceed her assent to their crossing the Atlantic ; but, their happiness being dearer to her than her own, she had, at length, agreed to the melancholy alternative, since that was the only condition through which their liberty could be obtained. Having received the consent of the duchess to the expatriation of her younger sons, the Directory gave orders for their removal from Fort St. Jean, and imme- diate embarkation for America. Another stipulation, however, was annexed to the treaty for their liberation, this was the departure of their eldest brother, Louis Philippe, for the same distant destination ; and the order of the Directory for the liberation of the prisoners was suspended, until official intelligence of the em- barkation of Louis Philippe, at Hamburgh, should have reached Paris.* The news of that event having at length arrived, the decree was signed by the proper authorities, and General Willot undertook the grateful duty of commu- nicating to the princes that their fetters were about to be struck off. The joy which these injured princes experienced, upon the receipt of this intelligence, was almost as insupportable as the paroxyisms of grief that had so often preceded it, and, during the month that elapsed between their liberation and departure, their impatience exhibited an anxiety almost painful. Those to whom the duty of conveying them on board had been entrusted, acted with courtesy, and with some * Vide page 196. LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. little appearance of feeling, towards these victims of Jaco- binical rabidness, and, the foremost, in these late-shown attentions, was the new commissary of marine. This functionary, in one of his ceremonious visits to the princes, disclosed the primary restrictions imposed on him by the executive, in making arrangements for their voyage, which betrayed a degree of meanness, on the part of the Directory, that casts a lasting contempt upon their history. The commissary stated " That his orders were to pay for the princes' passage on board a vessel, which the government of the United States had freighted to convey home their citizens, who had been recovered from slavery at Algiers, exceeding eighty in number. That the vessel was small, dirty, and inconvenient, and that, with such a number of fellow passengers, the voyage would necessarily prove most uncomfortable." Monsieur de Montpensier, however, entreated the com- missary to accelerate the preparations for their de- parture, assured him that any place would be preferable to the fort of St. Jean, and any companions to the jacobins immured there ; that the lowest depths of the hold, accompanied by the feeling of liberty, would be more acceptable to them than the best accommodations in Marseilles, as prisoners of the Directory. The com- misary promised to employ his best exertions, both to expedite the arrangements for embarkation, and to im- prove the accommodations on board, but his assiduity was rendered useless by the necessity, which the Americans were still under, of performing three weeks quarantine, and the vessel that w r as chartered to convey them to their country, could not sail, therefore, before the expiration of that period. The arrival of the decree terminated, virtually, the captivity of the princes, and from that moment the VIRULENCE OF THE JACOBIN PARTY. 285 restraints of prison-discipline were removed. Still the name of slavery remained, and poisoned the cup of joy which was raised to the lip, for, as long as they were within the grasp of jacobin power, they could not believe their emancipation secure, notwithstanding the official document that granted it. At perfect liberty to pass the drawbridge and promenade the public walks, the magis- trates recommended them to observe much caution in that respect, as the jacobin party would not hesitate to lay violent hands on them, even in the broad light of day. Evening, therefore, was their chosen time for enjoying the new gift of freedom, and Moriancourt was directed by General Willot to disguise himself perfectly, and accompany the destined exiles. Sometimes the little party went to the theatre, where a private box had been provided for them ; sometimes they ventured to sup with Madame de la Charce at her hotel, but, on all these occasions, their pleasure was not unattended by anxiety on account of the jacobin party. Whenever Moriancourt perceived one of these demons approach- ing, he almost lost his presence of mind, and protested that he would be chashiered, denounced, guillotined ! In the midst of the irmirth at Madame de la Charce's, every knock that came to the door of her hotel, was, for the moment, believed to demand admission for some administrator or municipal officer, who wished to gratify his curiosity, and ascertain the fact that so much indul- gence was extended to the " detested Capets." Although the princes had not been detected by the jacobins at any public exhibition, or private entertainment, yet the report of their nightly perambulations reached these inexorable enemies, who had the meanness to remon- strate with General Willot, upon his humanity and supineness. The general pleaded ignorance of the 286 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. whole affair, assumed the appearance of indignation at the infidelity of the commandant and his assistants, and assured the jacohin informers, that such indulgence should be prohibited in future. In the mean time, how- ever, he requested that the princes would not go out of the fort as frequently as before, since it occasioned so much inconvenience, and even danger, to themselves and the authorities of Marseilles, and he would himself take care that no time should be lost in removing them from the fort on board their ship. The princes of Orleans, in all their long, but in- voluntary, association with men of the most immoral and cruel habits, neither forgot the lessons of virtue imbibed in their youth, nor received any infection from the corrupt atmosphere of prison society. On the contrary, they became more firmly convinced of the blessings that await a just exercise of authority, a due spirit of submission, and a considerate extension of humanity. Moriancourt, the commandant, being accused as an accomplice in allowing two notorious jacobins to escape from prison, was arrested, and desired to prepare him- self for a court-martial. The proceedings of military courts, constituted as they were in France at that period, would necessarily have been summary, as they were almost uniformly fatal, and Moriancourt had no ex- pectation of surviving the ordeal. Although he had shown some attentions to the princes of Orleans, yet his civilities were constrained, and originated altogether in the apprehension of displeasing General Willot, whom he knew to be a humane man, and whom he perceived to be kindly disposed to the state-prisoners. The perilous position of one, from whom they had experienced any species of courtesy, was a powerful incitement to Montpensier and his brother to plead MORIANCOURT PARDONED. 28? for his pardon, but, their impression that the prisoners would not receive an impartial trial, acting still more powerfully on their minds, they solicited General Willot, in the most earnest manner, not to subject the unfortunate commandant to such inevitable ruin. " I can refuse you nothing," replied the generous soldier, " and I willingly accede to your request ; but, be assured, that no other application would have induced me to spare a wretch, whom I could easily have convicted of the basest venality. He has been singularly fortunate in procuring your intercession by his conduct towards you, and, although I am aware that in this he was not always disinterested, yet I pledge you my word that he shall be pardoned. I shall take care also to let him know to whom it is that he is indebted for so great a favour." The princes acknow- ledged their obligations to the general, for the value he appeared to place on their gratitude and esteem, but requested that he would not disclose, to Moriancourt, the circumstance of their intercession having saved his life. The termination of the quarantine, which the liberated Americans were obliged to perform, having arrived, Mr. Cathalan, the American consul, waited on the princes to apprize them of the fact, and express his desire to promote their wishes as far as he possessed the means. In the name of his government, he declined to accept payment for their passage to America ; and he politely, and generously, undertook to see all the details of the arrangements, necessary for their embarka- tion, performed, positively refusing to allow the princes to take any further trouble in providing for their voyage. He even proposed that they should remove from the fort, and accept of accommodation in his own 288 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. house, offering- to become responsible for their security, from that moment until the departure of the vessel ; but to this proposition, the commissary, who was entrusted with the execution of the decree which sent them into exile, was so violently opposed, that General Willot thought it would be imprudent to grant permission, and advised their continuance in the fort while they remained in France. To reduce that period to the shortest practicable limit, he added " Since the com- missary insists on their not leaving the fort until they are ready to embark, they shall be embarked imme- diately ; and, as to placing a guard of fifty grenadiers on board, until the vessel shall set sail, that is my duty, I shall see to that." At the close of this discussion, of which the princes were not then cognizant, General Willot sent one of his aides-de-camp to request that the princes would allow him to come and dine with them on that day, that they would excuse his apparent want of courtesy in such a request, but circumstances did not permit him to receive them at his own house. This message was evidently a favourable omen, and, although ignorant of his object, they acceded joyfully to the general's request. At three o'clock. General Willot arrived, and, having apologized for the liberty he had taken by inviting himself to dinner, asked the princes whether they were not prepared to hear something favourable to their fortunes. They replied that they were, that they had been assured the vessel would soon be ready to receive them, but they had often heard the same tale and still remained in that melancholy prison. " What would you say, young gentlemen, said the general, if I came to release you this moment," " Oh ! that is impossible !" " Very well then, I have come for the purpose of telling THE PRINCES' LIBERATION. you myself, that you are this evening to quit this prison, which you have so much reason to remember with painful sensations." "What! quit it for ever ?" "Cer- tainly, unless you shall desire to return." As the general pronounced these unexpected, happy sounds, which the prisoners at first could scarcely credit, they looked steadfastly at each other, then, throwing them- selves into each other's arms, began to cry, laugh, leap about the room, and for several minutes continued to exhibit a temporary derangement. When these trans- ports had somewhat abated, the general stated, that, although they could not be completely prepared for sea for a few days, he was about to convey them on board, along with the commissary of government, who wished to be present at their embarkation. This form having been gone through, in less than a quarter of an hour afterwards he would send a boat to carry them to shore, when they would proceed to the house of Mr. Cathalan ; and once under his charge, they were no longer prisoners of the French republic. After this gratifying explanation, the party sat down to dinner, for which the candidates for liberty had but little appetite ; and scarcely had the simple repast been finished, when the arrival of the commissary was announced. Entering the princes' apartment without condescend- ing to salute any one, the commissary walked up to General Willot, and, in a tone of insolence, which he evidently mistook for an official dignity, observed, " General, I did not expect to find you here I" The general did not take the trouble to reflect upon the motives of this contemptible functionary, and merely replied, " that soldiers were accustomed to punctuality, and that, on this occasion in particular, he had resolved 290 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. upon observing a rule of so much value." The keeper of the prison was then called in, and the princes saw, with feelings of emotion, their names erased from the list of state-criminals, where, to the shame of the revolutionary government, they had remained enrolled, with the most infamous of mankind, for nearly three whole years. The act of liberation being duly registered, and all the requisite forms being complied with, the injured princes of Orleans were informed, that they might return to the enjoyment of that freedom, of which they had once vainly supposed no power in France was strong enough to have deprived them. "It is impossible to describe," says Monsieur de Montpensier,* "the sensation I experienced in crossing the drawbridge, and contrasting the present moment with the frightful occasions on which I passed it before ; the first time, on my entrance into that dismal fortress, where I had been immured for nearly three years of my life ; and the second, on my unfortunate attempt to escape from it and recover my liberty. The gratifying reflection that I now trod on it for the last time, could with difficulty impress itself on my mind, and I could not avoid fancying that the whole was a sleeping vision, the illusion of which I was every moment apprehensive of seeing dissipated. On our exit from the fort, we found we were received by a strong detachment of grenadiers, who accompanied us to the sloop, on board of which we embarked along with General Willot and the commissary. The directions and arrangements of the general having been observed with the utmost accuracy, the commissary's occupation was gone, and, having remained only a quarter of an hour on board our vessel, we repaired to the house of Mr. Cathalan, * Autobiography, p. 300. EMBARKATION OF THE PRINCES FOR AMERICA. who received us with affection, and where we found Madame de la Charce and General Willot. Here we passed, very agreeably, the few days that remained before the departure of the vessel for America. We were indeed true birds of the night, only venturing out after dusk, when we generally visited the theatre, but our days were passed happily enough. Still we were too near that abode of misery, the fort, which we never ceased to think of without feelings of anguish ; and so apprehensive were we of a sudden change in the senti- ments of the existing government, or an actual revolu- tion in the government itself, that our anxiety to depart was almost insupportable. " At last we were informed that the vessel would sail the following day, and that we must be ready to embark accordingly. The effect of this joyous news was the total loss of our rest during the night ; and seven o'clock at morn, on the 5th of November, 1796, found us awake, and in transports of delight, at being permitted * to take wings and fly' into some land of toleration and liberty, since our own had ceased to be so. The consul, Cathalan, and Madame de la Charce, accompanied us on board ; and our trusty followers, Maugin and Frances, came to bid us farewell. " The citizens of Marseilles, being informed of our in- tended departure, assembled in crowds to see us embark ; the ramparts of the fort were lined, the windows filled ; almost all congratulated us upon the recovery of our liberty ; some envied us our lot, while a few, undoubtedly, wished that the sea might ingulph us where its depth was greatest, and rid France of two members, at all events, of the proscribed and hated race. The har- bour, however, presented an agreeable picture, being LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. covered with boats filled with all the fashionables of the city, the gay colours of the ladies dresses imparting an animated character to the scene. Hats were raised, handkerchiefs waved, and oars drawn into their rests, as our boat shot rapidly between the others ; but neither sounds of joy, nor sighs of regret, escaped from any ; 'twas a scene of deathlike silence. " General Willot, hastily but kindly, expressed his best wishes for our fortunate voyage, and more fortu- nate return, his devotion to the good cause, and his hopes that he might be spared to promote it. Madame de la Charce appeared quite heart-broken ; she could not undergo the pain of parting for ever with the children of her bosom friend, and was obliged to leave the vessel without pronouncing that one fond word, ' farewell.' As for Frances and Maugin, the one wept bitterly, the other exhibited grief as strongly, although in a different manner. The anchor was weighed, and the sails were bent, all visitors got hastily into their boats and returned to shore, and a thousand adieus were uttered at once. A favourable breeze springing up, we soon lost sight of that country in which we had been the victims of a persecution so relentless, but for whose happiness and prosperity we never ceased to offer up our prayers to Heaven." The wind, however, soon proved faithless, and, after beating about in the Mediterranean for three and twenty days, the voyagers were obliged to put into Gibraltar. As the " Jupiter," which carried the royal exiles, was a Swedish vessel, and chartered by an American sub- ject, she was received hospitably in a port belonging to England, and the exiled princes were treated not merely with urbanity, but with the most flattering attentions, GENERAL O'HARA. 293 by General O'Hara,* who was then governor of the Rock, and to whose military tastes and talents Gibraltar is indebted for much of its artificial defences. The reception which the princes found from the English, affected them not merely by contrast with that which they endured from their own countrymen, but contri- buted to create in their own minds, and in that of their eldest brother, at a future period, a desire to cultivate the friendship of this nation. After a tedious passage of ninety-three days, the u Jupiter" reached her destination, and the sufferings of Montpensier and Beaujolais, if not quite forgotten, were assuredly considerably alleviated by the idea, that they were once again in a land of freedom, and that a benign Providence had spared them, to behold, and once more press to their bosom, a brother who was entitled to their love, by the generosity of his conduct towards every member of his injured family. * He was much attached to his government, a passionate admirer of the beauties and the glories of " The Rock," and caused a con- siderable sum to be expended upon its improvements. Having once visited the depths of St. Michael's cave, he there deposited a valuable sword, to be the reward of some future adventurer who should have courage enough to recover it. Vide Analysis of the Mediterranean., by the Author. CHAP. V. From the arrival of the Duke de Montpensier and Count Beaujolais at Philadelphia, in February, 1797, to the Embarkation of the three Princes for Havannah, in Cuba, in 1798. THE Duke de Montpensier, and the Count Beau- jolais, were less fortunate than their brother, having been tossed on the billows for so many months ; but all their griefs, all their sufferings on sea and land, in the preceding days of their probationary lives, were forgot- ten, when the happy moment arrived that they were again to be united to a much-loved brother, after a separation of four years, which had brought such heavy calamities upon their family. From this hour they resolved to unite their destinies, and make any sacrifice rather than ever be again separated a pledge that was never violated a promise never broken for it was death alone that at last dis- solved their earthly union. Louis Philippe's first residence in Philadelphia, was the basement story of a house belonging to the Rev. Mr. Marshal, adjoining the church, in Walnut Street, and between Fourth and Fifth Streets. His humble home long continued to be an object of curiosity to ivisiters, whose eagerness to inspect it increased, as the fortune of the generous prince, who once occupied it, became more eminent.j Here he awaited, with an im- patience and anxiety natural to his age and peculiar situation, the arrival of his brothers, feelings that found no alleviation from the suspicion that attended the long GENERAL WASHINGTON. delay of their arrival. He was apprehensive that some calamity had befallen them at sea, or that some counter- revolution had occurred in France, which deprived the late government of the ability to fulfil the promise they had made to his mother and himself. From this painful suspense, however, he was relieved by the safe arrival of the princes, who took up their residence in Sixth Street, in a house which they rented from the Spanish consul, and to which the Duke of Orleans immediately removed. They now resolved on passing the winter at Philadelphia, then the seat of the federal govern- ment, of which General Washington was the head, and the affability and kindness of their manners sopn^ endeared them to the principal inhabitants. * This was an epoch in Louis Philippe's life ; he aiicl his family had been the victims of a revolution, from which neither national nor individual happiness had resulted ; he had seen, however, a palpable instance of the practicability of that great political doctrine, that the people were capable of governing themselvesj Intro- duced to the modern Cincinnatus, the princes cultivated his friendship, had the gratification of hearing that great and good man deliver his farewell address to the congress, and, amidst the applause and wonder of a nation which he had freed, saw him descend from the throne - y of a kingdom into the ranks of a private citizen. [The value of such an example could not have been lost upon a prince of such magnanimity as the exiled Duke of Orleans. The princes also witnessed a ceremony less affecting, but not without its instructive importance, the inauguration of the second citizen-king, Mr. Adams, * Messrs. Bingham, Willing, Dallas, Gallatin, and Mrs. Powell, were frequently spoken of, in the most affectionate terms, by Louis Philippe, after his accession to the throne of France. 296 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. a still further demonstration of the stability of those institutions which the Americans had erected for them- selvesU The young princes had brought back to the Duke of Orleans many a hope for the future, but very feeble resources for the present. Enough, however, remained to enable them to extend the intercourse commenced in Philadelphia, by visiting the principal places in the States, and making themselves intimately acquainted with the free country in which they had arrived. Setting out from Philadelphia on horseback, accom- panied by a single domestic, the affectionate Baudoin, who had accompanied the duke to Mount St. Gothard, the three princes proceeded first to Baltimore, where they were hospitably received by General Smith, with whom they had formed an acquaintance at Phila- delphia ; thence, crossing the site of the present city of Washington, visited Mr. Law, another Philadelphian friend, at whose house they met the republican General Mason, of Georgetown. At Mr. Law's hands the princes experienced a degree of attention of which the king of France always retained the liveliest recollection. He has been frequently heard to speak of that kind-hearted man and his hospitable mansion, and describe, with some emotion, the visit of himself and his brothers to the falls of the Potomac, Mr. Law acting as guide on the occasion. Passing through Alexandria, they now took the road to Mount Vernon, where they had been invited to pass a few days with one of the greatest men that modern ages have produced, or which their ostentation can oppose to all that antiquity has offered, of illustrious citizens, to the admiration and example of posterity. The character which Louis Philippe subsequently drew of the American MOUNT VERNON. 297 patriot, corresponds, minutely, with that which the historians of the republic have given him. He repre- sents him as silent and reserved, methodical in the division of time, economical in the use of it. His household arrangements resembled those of a wealthy Virginian merchant ; they were unostentatious, com- fortable, without restraint, his guests being left at liberty to employ the intervals of meeting according .to their particular tastes, while every attention was at the same time paid to their gratification. The public press had, perhaps, abused its privilege, by indulging in some slanderous observations on the ex-president, which Louis Philippe had noticed ; and, in order to ascertain the general's feelings under such a circumstance, as he entered the breakfast-parlour, the morning after the publication, he inquired how his distinguished host had slept the preceding night. " I always," answered the hero, " sleep well, for I never wrote a word in my life which I had afterwards occasion to regret." Washington evidently took an anxious interest in the royal exiles ; their candid dispositions, varied acquirements, and heroic fortitude, could not have escaped his penetration, and the venerable man under- took to be their philosopher and friend, his age pre- vented him from discharging the more active part of guide. Having furnished them with letters of intro- duction, he next undertook to draw up for them an itinerary of a journey to the far- west, and to mark on their map the most convenient stations and remarkable objects. Louis Philippe, when king of the French, with a feeling of pardonable pride, exhibited to an American citizen the copy of Bradley's Map of the United States, which he. had carried along with him 298 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. during his travels in North America, and from its worn appearance it had evidently seen hard service. The various routes of the young travellers were depicted in red ink, and their direction and extent indicate the enterprise and perseverance of the princes. At that period, and in those half-civilized regions, travelling, under any circumstances, must have been attended with much difficulty, and not wholly free from danger ; the country itself was but imperfectly known, and the inhabitants in many places treacherous and vindictive. When King Louis Philippe showed his old travelling map to his American guest, he accompanied this cour- tesy with observations, that deserve the best attention of those who are attached to order in the details of life, and believe that there can be no true independence or lasting usefulness without it. "He mentioned that he possessed an accurate account, showing the expenditure of every dollar he disbursed during his residence and travels in the United States." This is an example of business habits worthy of all praise and imitation. The same attention to personal expenditure was one of the characteristic features of General Washington, and both these distinguished republican monarchs, were doubtless penetrated with the conviction, that punc- tuality is the essence of prosperity^ Placing their saddle-bags, containing their wearing apparel, money, fire-arms, and everything requisite for a lengthened journey, on their horses, the princes took leave of their honoured host, and selecting the road from Mount Vernon, by Leesburg and Harper's Ferry, reached Winchester. Here the travellers alighted and became the guests of Mr. Bush, who kept the com- fortable little inn at that place, and who was himself a THE INN AT WINCHESTER. 299 well-known character in the playful history of the times. "I have him," says an American writer,* "in my mind's eye, as he was then, portly, ruddy, though ad- vanced in life, with a large broad-brimmed hat, and with his full clothes of the olden time, looking the very patriarch of his establishment. He had two houses, one for his family, the other for his guests 5 and there was no resting-place in all that rich valley, more fre- quented by travellers than this. It was a model of neatness and comfort, and the excellent man who built it up, and who continued it more for the desire of em- ployment than the love of gain, seemed to consider the relations subsisting between the traveller and himself as a favour to the former rather than to the latter. " I devoutly hope that no spirit of improvement has cut down the willow tree, nor turned away the little brook upon whose banks it grew ; immediately in front of this primitive establishment, for many a time under the shadow of the one, and by the murmur of the other, I have sat and listened to this interesting man, while he related the perils and trials of the inhabitants of Winchester, while it was a frontier post, and the moun- tains beyond it the abode of hostile indians. But my attention was awakened into enthusiasm when he took up the story of Washington, and drew from his memory many a fact which he had seen and known of the youthful days of the hero ; for Washington was stationed at Winchester during a part of the contest between the English and French for supremacy upon the North American Continent, and when the Indians were let loose, incited to acts of terrible cruelty, upon the ex- posed border. For part of the time he was an inmate of Bush's house, and it was evident that his whole * France, by an American. 300 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. conduct and bearing had left the most favourable and profound impression upon the worthy landlord. And I recollect he adverted to a distinguishing trait in the characteristic habits of Washington, that of the power he acquired over all around him ; observing, that though he was young, his officers, while they loved their commander, still were controlled and restrained by his presence." Bush had once visited Manheim, and there acquired some facility in the German language. Louis Philippe had also recently visited that city, and, as he spoke German as fluently as he did English, this coinci- dence immediately produced a community of feeling between. the traveller and the landlord, and led to a long and interesting conversation at their first meeting. This lengthened parley occasioned no little disappoint- ment to the numerous guests that waited upon the culinary arrangements of Bush's tavern ; nor did the hungry expectants' venture to remonstrate upon the in- considerateness of their host, for he felt the ultimate nature of his power in that secluded land and exercised it without mercy. The length of the journey and the rudeness of the road had shaken the enfeebled frame of the youngest brother, and, with that parental anxiety which he manifested for his charge, Louis Philippe requested that the landlord would permit himself and his wearied companions to dine in a separate apart- ment. The same unintelligible dignity which seems to be awarded to innkeepers generally in the United States, existed in its full force at the period here spoken of, and was fixed in the pompous conceptions of the master of this little hostelry. Such a request had never been heard in the fair and fertile vale of Shenandoah, or at all events within the walls of Bush's Winchester A LOG-CABIN HOTEL. 301 hotel it infringed his rules, it wounded his professional pride, it assailed his very honour. The recollections of Manheim, and the pleasant days he passed there, the agreeable opportunity of living those hours over again in the conversation of the Duke of Orleans, the gentle conduct of the three young strangers, were all, in a moment of extravagant folly, passion, and intractable- ness, forgotten, flung to the winds, when with a scorn- ful air he addressed Louis Philippe 4< Since then you are too good to eat at the same table with my guests, you are too good to eat in my house, I desire, there- fore, that you leave it instantly." In vain did Louis Philippe assure the offended citi- zen, that he had never intended to offer the smallest insult, that such a conclusion was an absurd one ; that since he had fallen into a mistake he was ready to cor- rect it, and would cheerfully partake of the general mess ; the publican was inexorable, the sinner unpardoned, and the travellers were obliged to quit the comfortable inn of Winchester, and look for charity, forbearance, and hospitality elsewhere. Without one farewell at parting, the travellers quitted Winchester, and passing through Staunton and Abing- don, reached Knoxville, and proceeded to Nashville. Louisville, Lexington, Maysville, Chilicothe, Lancaster, Zanesville, Wheeling, and Washington, were all visited in succession, and reaching Pittsburg, they there made a halt for a season. Traversing the Barrens of Kentucky, the princes arrived at a little inn, the show-board over which pro- mised " entertainment for man and horse," although the whole building did not appear capable of containing the group that then appeared at its door. The host of this miserable hut exhibited a very unusual solicitude 302 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. as to the travellers objects in visiting that country, not possibly, or apparently, from motives of mere idle curiosity, but from a sudden, indescribable, and sincere feeling which he took in their interests. The Duke of Orleans calmly acquainted him with the only motives that actuated himself and his brothers, the only object they ever entertained in their journey, that of seeing the country, and acquiring a practical knowledge of human nature in all climates and governments, without any reference to purchase or settlement. Such motives, unacompanied by all others, seemed quite unintelligible to the landlord ; the idea, that travellers so young, so intelligent, should have wandered so far from home in search of knowledge, was beyond the limited sphere of his speculation, and he concluded, therefore, that either the duke desired to conceal his real intentions, or that he was really deficient in that wisdom which he appeared to possess, and was deserving of less esteem than he had at first entertained towards the party. " In the night," writes an American biographer of Louis Philippe, " all the travellers were stowed away upon the floor of the cabin, with their feet to a prodigious fire, (they did not sell wood by the pound as they do in Paris), and I can vouch for the fact, whatever may be thought of it in those degenerate days of steam-boats, railroads, splendid taverns, and feather beds, that no man need desire a more comfortable sleepy than a long day's ride, a hearty supper, and what was called the soft side of a plank, with the appliance of a good fire, formerly given to the traveller in the infancy of our settlements in the trans- Alleghany regions. This Green-, river cabin, like all its congeners, had but one room, and while the guests were stretched upon the floor, the landlord and his wife occupied the puncheon bedstead, ADVENTURE AT BAIRDSTOWN. 303 which was pinned to the logs forming the side of the mansion. 9 ' Louis Philippe did not sleep, perhaps, as soundly as his transatlantic biographer has concluded, for, " in the stilly hour of night," he overheard the good man of the house expressing his regret to the partner of his cares, that these interesting youths should he engaged in so wild, so profitless a project, as running over the face of the country, in preference to purchasing land and establishing themselves in a manner infinitely more creditable. During their stay at Bairdstown, the Duke of Orleans experienced a slight attack of indisposition, which rendered it advisable that the party should remain rather longer than had been intended. At the most painful period of his illness, the house was perceived to be in confusion ; and, finally, the whole family, including father, mother, children, and servants, actually fled from their home. No explanation of this extraordinary scene could be obtained until the return of the landlady, whom the patient, in a tone of surprise, asked how she could think of neglecting her customers, and not even leaving a servant to wait upon him when he so much required attendance; she replied with considerable warmth, that a show had arrived, the first that had ever appeared in that town, and that nothing should have prevented her from attending it herself, and permitting her family to do likewise. This inci- dent could not have left any feeling of anger behind it in the prince's mind, for, soon after his elevation to the throne, he presented a handsome clock to Bishop Flaget, to be set up in the cathedral church of Bairdstown. A man of the name of M 'Donald kept the public- house at Chilicothe when the princes of Orleans visited that place ; and his name and character are well 30 t LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. remembered by the early settlers of that district. It does not precisely appear that^ was a quarrelsome, or inhospitable landlord ; but, while the princes were at his house a violent conflict occurred between him and a person who frequented his inn. In the streets of Vendome, Louis Philippe had saved the lives of the poor recusant priests, at the hazard of his own, he did not, therefore, hesitate in his new country, to exercise his physical powers in the cause of humanity, and seizing the combatants, then bent on mortal strife, he separated them, and held them asunder until assistance arrived to secure them. M 'In tire, who kept one of those primi- tive hotels at Zanesville, was remembered by the Duke of Orleans with more respect than some others of his brethren. He was a man of considerable humour, although wholly uneducated ; and the kindness of his manner, aided by his known integrity, attracted the majority of travellers, through these wild regions, to his cheerful log-cabin hotel. Pittsburg at length was reached, the goal of the first projected journey ; and here a halt of several days had been previously decided on. Here also the Duke of Orleans formed an acquaintance with several public characters, amongst others with General Neville and Judge Brackenbridge. The latter was a man of genius and probity, but both were disfigured by numerous eccentricities. He exhibited these opposite qualities in his rambling satire of " Modern Chivalry," and several anecdotes of his wit, humour, and whimsicality, have been preserved in the traditionary history of the west-country j urisprudence. This was the j udge who had the boldness to desire, that he too might be impeached before the house of representatives, because his judicial brethren had been publicly accused, and had the ANECDOTE OF GENERAL EATON. 305 good fortune to escape the effects of his temerity ; but, two-thirds of the legislature recommended his removal. Few persons with whom the Duke of Orleans came in contact, in America, were more accurately understood, and appreciated by him, than Judge Brackenbridge, whose character he has since frequently and faithfully drawn for his American visiters. It was while the princes were at Pittsburg that a circumstance occurred, which, translated into various forms, and applied to a number of persons, is narrated generally of American hotels. Amongst the guests then resident in the house was General Eaton, an officer who had signalized himself by his firmness and ability in conducting a large force from Egypt to Derne in Barca, to co-operate with an American naval force in an attack upon that city. One morning, when this gallant soldier had seated himself at the breakfast- table, at which the Duke of Orleans and his brothers, with other guests, were present, he called the female attendant to him, and said, in a loud and severe tone of voice, " You gave me a dirty room and a dirty bed last night." The landlord, who overheard the obser- vation, without making any defence, or offering the least explanation, walked over to the general, and told him, " Since you have had such a dirty room and bed, my house is evidently too dirty for you, you shall leave it this instant ;" an order executed almost as expeditiously as it was given. Curiosity being now in some degree gratified, a detour was contemplated; and, Jtrom Pittsburg the tra- vellers bent their way towards the waters of Erie, and, keeping close to the margin of the lake, arrived at Buffalo. Reaching Cattaraugus, they were compelled to become the guests of a company of the Seneca Indians, 306 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. of whose hospitality they partook for one night only. Few other inhabitants then dwelt upon the shores of these great inland seas, and few vessels, save birchen canoes, a species of coracle, had, before that period, floated on their waves. Amongst the Indians there was an aged woman, who had been made a prisoner many years before, and had long since become reconciled to her new country and singular fate. A native of Germany, she retained some recollection of its language ; and the faint, though still abiding feeling, which connected her present with her past condition, induced her to take an anxious interest in the three young strangers, who spoke to her of her early home and language. * As night began to fall, the travellers exhibited an anxiety for the security of their luggage against accident or dishonesty, which, the chief perceiving, instantly assured them, that he would him- self be personally responsible for every article they should think proper to commit to his care ; but that if this precaution were not observed, he should equally feel himself released from all obligation as to their safety. Relying implicitly on the honour of the chief, the Duke of Orleans resolved upon entrusting ail their valuables to his guardianship saddles, bridles, blan- kets, clothes, and money. Day returned, but disclosed no treachery or breach of faith on the part of the Indian chief, every article entrusted to him having been faithfully restored. Resuming their journey, they had not proceeded far, when the Count de Beau- jolais missed his favourite dog, which his brother, not supposing to be included in the inventory of contra- band goods, nor requiring to be deposited in the abori- ginal custom-house, had suffered to remain at liberty, The animal was remarkably beautiful ; and had he THK CHIPPEWA INDIANS. 30? been otherwise, the circumstance of his having been the companion of the two younger princes in Fort St. Jean, would have been alone sufficient to give him a permanent value in their estimation. With all the calm dignity of his character, and moved by affection for the fond boy who had lost his favourite, Louis Philippe immediately returned to the Indian village, and, with a decision of manner that indicated his purpose, reclaimed the dog. The chief, assuming the sangfroid of an accomplished thief, in an apparently unembarrassed manner, told him, " that if he had given the dog into his care the preceding night, it would have been wait- ing his departure with the rest of his property, but that he would still undertake to recover and restore him. Conducting the prince to a hovel, closed in front with a large plank, he exposed the shabby artifice to which he had lent himself, for, upon removing the board, Beaujolais* faithful companion leaped out upon his master. In Africa the propensity to theft amongst the natives is proverbial ; and, ill-fated Park provided himself, by various stratagems, against the inconveni- ence : in America, the aborigines look upon the plun- der of a white man as a meritorious act. The laws of Lycurgus were not peculiar to Sparta other fierce people adopted them. In their route, the princes visited Buffalo, crossed over to Fort Erie, and then proceeded to the Canadian side of the Falls of Niagara ; the state of the country, on the American side, completely prohibiting all com- munication between Buffalo and the cataract. It was during their approach to Niagara that the princes visited the Chippewa Indians, and passed a night in their primitive village. This place the Americans consider as immortalized in history, by the advantage 308 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. which they claim to have gained over British arms here on the fifth of July, 1814. The river St. Laurence, or Niagara, contracted by the rocks on its right, separates into two branches : one follows the line of these rocks, which is here thrown far forward ; the other, the most considerable, sepa- rated from the former by a small island, turns abruptly to the left, forming for itself, amidst the rocks, a species of basin, which it fills with its ebullitions, its foam, and its noise ; at last, impeded by other rocks onits left, it changes its course more suddenly than before, (almost at a right angle,) and precipitates itself, simultaneously with the right branch of the river, from a height of a hundred and sixty feet, upon a plateau of rocks, form- ing a regular semicircle, levelled, no doubt, by the violent action of the immense volume of water, which has been rolling on since the commencement of the world. The fall preserves a remarkable equality in its volume, or mass, in all its extent, and its uniformity is only interrupted by the little island that separates the two branches. This speck of land remains immove- able upon the rock, suspended, as it were, between these two great torrents that pour together, into the immense gulf beneath them, all the surplus waters of lakes Erie, Michigan, St. Clair, Huron, and Superior, besides those of the numerous rivers which maintain these inland seas, and furnish, without relaxation, the supply for their great consummation. The waters of both cataracts fall perpendicularly upon the rocks. The colour of the falling waters is often a dark green, again a frothy white, and some- times perfectly transparent. These varied appearances again receive a thousand modifications, according as THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 30[) they are acted on by the rays of the sun, the hour of the day, the state of the atmosphere, and the strength of the winds. Precipitated upon the smooth- worn rocks, the waters partially rise in thick vapour, which often ascends far above the highest level of the fall, and, in their misty character, mingle with the clouds. The waters that beat upon the ledge of rocks are kept in eternal agitation : for a while in a frothy form, for a while again revolving in a whirlpool, throwing out upon the shore trunks of trees, wrecked boats, and shattered fragments of every kind, which they have received or hurried along with them in their turbulent course* It is difficult to describe with fidelity the effect this great cataract produces upon an imagination fed with the expectation of beholding it an effect which all parties have been accused of exaggerating, although their descriptive efforts are infinitely inferior to the reality. The Duke of Montpensier, who cultivated the fine arts successfully, made a careful drawing of the cata- ract, which he had intended, before it was commenced, as a present for his sister, Mademoiselle d'Orleans ; a fact which the following affectionate letter to that princess, dated the 14th of August, 1797> from Phil- adelphia, sufficiently explains : " I hope you received the letters which we wrote to you from Pittsburg, about two months since. We were then in the midst of a long journey, which we have terminated only fifteen days since. It occupied us four months. We journeyed, during that, time a thousand leagues, and always upon the same horses, except the last hundred leagues, which we performed partly by water, partly on foot, partly on hired horses, and partly by the stage, or public con- veyance. We have seen many Indians, and we even remained 310 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. several days in their country. They are in general the best people in the world, except when they are intoxicated, or inflamed with passion. They received us with great kindness ; arid our being Frenchmen contributed not a little to this reception, for they are very fond of our nation. The most interesting object we visited, after the Indian villages, was certainly the Cataract of Niagara, which I wrote you word from Pittsburg that we were going to see. It is the most astonishing and majestic spectacle I have ever witnessed. Its height is 137 (French) feet, and the volume of water is immense, since it is the whole river St. Laurence which falls over the rocks at this place. I have made a sketch of it, from which I intend making a water-colour drawing, which my dear little sister shall certainly see at our beloved mother's home ; but it is not yet commenced, and will occupy me for some time, for it is not, I can assure you, a trifling undertaking. " To give you an idea of the agreeable manner in which they travel in this country, I must tell you, dear sister, that we passed fourteen nights in the woods, devoured by all kinds of insects, often wet to the bone, without being able to dry ourselves, and our only food being pork, a little salt beef, and maize bread ; independently of this adventure, we were forty or fifty nights in miserable huts, where we were obliged to lie upon a floor made of rough timber, and to endure all the taunts and murmurings of the inhabitants, who often turned us out of doors, often refused us admission altogether, and whose hospitality was always defective. I declare I should never recommend a similar journey to any friend of mine, yet we are far from repenting what we have done, since we have all three brought back with us excellent health and more experience. " Adieu, beloved and cherished sister, so tenderly loved ; receive the embraces of three brothers, whose thoughts are constantly with you." The three brothers endured, without regret, the fatigues of this lengthened journey across uninhabited regions, sometimes through immense forests which spread over a vast extent, sometimes in those extensive plains of herbage called savannas. They were young ; they had been united after long separation and suffer- ings ; they travelled together, and without impediment, LORD ASHBUR.TOJf. 311 in a country, new, and full of interest to Europeans. These motives diminished the bitterness which was mingled with the strangeness of their destinies. Proceeding from Buffalo to Canandaigua, they passed across a country of such a rude and difficult nature, that the duke always related this adventure as the most fatiguing of his w r andering life. Here, as he traversed the untamed domains of nature, he met Mr. Alexander Baring, (after wards Lord Ashburton,) with whom he had been acquainted at Philadelphia, where he had married a Miss Bingham. The English traveller was prosecuting a tour to Niagara, from which the princes were then returning, and, having well-nigh exhausted even the long-enduring patience of his native character, on the rugged roads and broken surface he had encountered, expressed a doubt whether Niagara would compensate for the fatigue and privation necessary to approach it. American Jefferson having employed all the beauties of language to describe the windings of the Potomac through the Blue Ridges, at Harper's Ferry, observes, as he closes his impassioned description, that many have lived, and within a short distance of the picture, without ever having had the curiosity to visit it. It is asserted, possibly with equal truth, that others have been so insensible as to close their dull lives, not only within the reach, but the roaring of this great cataract without ever beholding the origin of the sounds. Such lazy souls exist in every climate, no very few of them in our own, but nature, who always provides compensative quantities, has endowed a sufficient number of beings with propensities of the most restless and inquisitive description. Mr. Baring must have been endued eminently with these persevering qualities, or he never would have accomplished such a pilgrimage, and under 31 V 2 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. such circumstances, as a visit to Niagara in the days when the royal exiles were wandering in the newly discovered world. Having conversed upon their respec- tive difficulties, and the objects of their travels, in the dismal swamp where they halted, both parties resumed their routes, the English traveller informing the duke that he had left behind him a savage and almost im- passable country ; the duke repaying his courtesy by the assurance, that he should find no improvement in that through which he had yet to pass. Continuing their route, they soon after reached Geneva, where a boat was provided in which they embarked, ascended the Seneca Lake to its head, and crossed over thence to Tioga Point, on the Susquehannah. The last twenty -five miles of their journey was made on foot, each traveller carrying his baggage on his back. " The load was no doubt heavy, and the task laborious, but I am strongly inclined to believe that the burden which the king of the French now bears, and luckily for his country and for Europe, is more oppressive than the weight which the Duke of Orleans carried through the forest and over the hills of Susquehannah."* Descending the river from Tioga, the party arrived at Wilkesbarre, and thence crossing the country in a direct line, regardless of public paths, they returned to Philadelphia. Having visited the American Cincinnatus, travelled through several of the States, admiring the wonders of civilization and of agriculture, they did not neglect to study the character of those who lived in a more savage state, formerly the sole masters of those boundless regions that then were trod upon by covetous Europeans. They passed some days amongst the Cherokee Indians, " France by an American. YELLOW FEVER AT PHILADELPHIA. 313 who esteem the French beyond every other nation, These primitive inhabitants possess generosity, in- tegrity, and benevolence ; and, at the same time, so much firmness, that even when addressing the English, they say " You are our brothers, but the French were our fathers." This souvenir had not been so long effaced from amongst the Indians, that they had no longer anything in common with the French nation. The Cherokees, like the Creeks, have no connection with the Spaniards ; they detest the Georgians and Carolinians, and continue to call Florida " The French country." The Dukes of Orleans and Montpensier and the Count Beaujolais joined in the fetes of these savage tribes, and, with a remarkable boldness, pene- trated the thickest forests, and pursued their inquiries into the deserts of the Six Nations. A short time after their return to Philadelphia, in the month of July, 1797> the yellow fever broke out with great violence in that city. All the inhabitants who were in independent circumstances, removed to a distance ; but the three French princes, who, at their entrance into life had been called to such vast possessions and elevated rank, from the exhausted state of their re- sources were unable to withdraw during the prevalence of this pestilential sickness. It was not until the month of September following that their sorrowing mother, having been unexpectedly reinstated in the enjoyment of her property, was enabled to send them a remit- tance, which would permit them to leave Philadelphia. Supplied with fresh resources, they decided on journey- ing towards the Eastern States, and, proceeding first to New York, thence to Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the Maine, reached Boston. In this, the metropolis of New England, they were i. 2s 314 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. received with hospitality and kindness, and here also they displayed a remarkable sensitiveness, by their great admiration of the simple but affecting monument to the memory of General Warren, who commanded at the celebrated action at Bunker's Hill an action in which the English suffered severely, and first learned not to despise the valour of the patriot armies. In order to evade the French cruisers, and English corsairs, as well as the Spanish royal marine, which were then navigating the western seas, only one course remained to be adopted, that was, to repair to Louisiana, through the States, and by means of river navigation. This province still belonged to Spain, so that some com- munication must have existed between it and the island of Cuba, and, once arrived at the Havannah, from whence Spanish vessels were despatched from time to time to Europe, they hoped to be able to obtain a passage in one of them to the mother-country. Setting out from Philadelphia on the tenth of December, 1797, m a sea- son of unusual severity, they descended the Ohio and the Mississippi, amidst islands of ice, and arrived at New Orleans, on the seventeenth of February, 1798. It was during their sojourn at New York that the princes learned, from the public papers, that, after the eighteenth Fructidor, a law had passed for the expulsion of all members of the Bourbon family from France who were still there, in which their beloved mother was included. The Duchess of Orleans was, accordingly, transported into Spain, along with the Prince of Conti and the Duchess of Bourbon. Her sons immediately resolved upon joining her ; but this design presented difficulties not easy to be overcome, arising from the reduced state of their finances, and the interruption to communication occasioned by the war between England and Spain. AUTO-PHLEBOTOMY. 315 As they advanced towards the banks of the great rivers which they purposed to descend, finding the fatigue of travelling on horseback for so many days, too much for their younger brother, the duke now pur- chased one of the rude country-waggons, and, harnessing their horses to it, and placing their luggage inside, the journey was pursued with much less labour. It was on a Saturday, when the people were assembled in the market-place, that the travellers entered Carlisle, and, driving up to a public-house, in front of which was a trough, for corn or water, as might be required, without withdrawing the horses from the shafts, the duke called for corn, and had it thown before his horses, having first removed the bits from their mouths, and thrown the headstalls on their necks, and then, ascending his waggon, he begun to enjoy the busy scene around him. Scarcely had he seated himself, when his horses, sud- denly frightened, taking advantage of their unbridled situation, ran away with the waggon, which, in passing over the stump of a tree, was overturned and broken. The duke being thrown out, received some injury, and, on his return to the public-house, he perceived that bleeding would be the best mode of relieving himself from the effects of the bruises he had received by the fall. Calling for linen to make a bandage, and a basin of water, he took his lancet from his pocket, and proceeded to perform the operation of auto-phlebotomy. The landlord and his family afforded him the kindest atten- tions, supplied him with everything requisite for the operation, and expressed the utmost admiration at the courage and manly resolution of the sufferer. The circumstance soon became known in the town and vicinity ; and one of the rustic savans, who came to chide the youths for their want of caution in removing the 31(3 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. bridles from their horses' heads, and leaving them un- guarded, a most reprehensible practice, was so much surprised at the firm demeanour of the eldest brother, that, forgetting the first object of his visit, he professed the highest regard for the young men ; he declared, that should they think proper to remain at Carlisle, they might calculate on his steadfast friendship, adding, that the locality was not one to be despised by young men so poor as they were, although evidently pos- sessing abilities and courage to settle successfully any- where. L A crowd had collected around the little tavern, anxious to learn the result of the operation, and much interested in the recovery of the young traveller, whose accident they had all heard of; and, when intelligence was communicated to them, their astonishment was only exceeded by the pleasure which they also evinced. J When the patient was sufficiently recovered, numerous visiters arrived to congratulate him on his escape and ascertain his profession, which they all began to sus- pect was sufficiently obvious from the recent operation. As the duke spoke English fluently, and the New Eng- land States then sent forward their emigrants to Ohio, to lay down the forests and raise up their fortunes in the far-country, it was concluded that Louis Philippe must be a Yankee doctor, either sent there secretly by government, or coming voluntarily to settle himself amongst a new people in a new country, anticipating all his brethren in the art of medicine. Admiring the ability of this young disciple of ^Escu- lapius, his country friend proposed to him to take up his residence in a place, where a wise Providence had created for him an opportunity of distinction that the accident he had met with was intended for his benefit LOUIS PHILIPPE BLEEDS AN INDIAN CHIEF. 317 that he should embrace the omen, and here end all his wanderings. The duke assured him that he did not possess skill sufficient for such an object, that he had not been brought up to the profession, all the knowledge, practical or otherwise, which he possessed, was the result of a discipline adopted by his early instructor. Bleeding- was one of the useful practices, in which he had been instructed by the invaluable care of a loved friend and tutor, with whom the merit of whatever he should accomplish, for the benefit of his fellow-creatures, was to be divided. ^The fame of his medical talents had spread far into the aboriginal districts, where a chief lay ill from some fall, blow, or other accident. The duke being applied to in his professional capacity, readily undertook the humane duty, and proceeded to the wigwam of the invalid. During the performance of the operation, there were many who looked on the white man with suspicion ; some who feared that he might never be able to stanch the blood-flow he had occasioned ; but others whose belief was without alloy, having seen him bleed himself. He was, however, detained, on some pretext or other, in the Indian village, until the effects of the blood-letting were ascertained ; but when they saw the happy consequences of the doctor's skill, their rejoicings and their gratitude exceeded in extravagance any admiration the duke had ever before received. Now every honour in their court-roll was lavished on the white man ; and that favour, which is reserved for those in whom the highest confidence is reposed, was now to be extended to him. It was cus- tomary in this tribe, that the whole family, however illustrious, should sleep upon one spacious mat, the relations being all ranged according to proximity, rank, 318 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. age, and other discriminating circumstances. In ac- knowledgment of the services rendered by the duke to the grandfather of the chief's family, he was permitted to pass the night upon the family mat, between the grandmother and grandaunt, the highest honour ever conferred by that tribe, upon an individual of any age or colour, It may seem premature to notice here, but its ap- propriateness sufficiently explains the reason, another instance of Louis Philippe's exercise of the surgical art, which occurred since his accession to the throne. He still, as he always has done, carries a case of lancets with him, and, when one of his couriers, some few years since, was thrown from his horse and much bruised, the king alighted, took his lancet from his pocket, and proceeded at once to bleed him. This adventure is com- memorated by a painting, subsequently engraved from, representing the king in the act of bleeding his courier, whom the young Duke of Orleans is supporting, while his majesty's suite form a group around : some of them are assisting in the operation, others looking on, ap- parently with an anxious interest in the whole affair. Amongst the distinguished spectators are Marshal Soult and General Bernard, who had once been in the American service. The ladies of the royal family and suite occupy the carriages in the back -ground, and seem to regard the scene with all that solicitude which their sex never fails to display in questions of human suffering. The high honour conferred upon the duke by the Indian chief and his family, the importunities of the people of Carlisle, the privations under which he laboured, and the dangers that he must still inevitably encounter, could not shake his firm resolve to return to Europe, and there await that destiny for which he NAVIGATION OF THE OHIO. 3l ( J was reserved, a destiny so very different from that of the great conqueror who soon after occupied the throne of the Bourbons yet not less extraordinary, and little less eventful. Having arrived at Pittsburg, they found the Monon- gahela frozen over, but the Alleghany still open, and, purchasing a keel-boat, then lying on the ice, with incredible industry contrived to transport it to the point; there, with only three attendants, they launched their little bark, and, embarking, commenced the descent of the Ohio. Above Wheeling the navigation was in- terrupted by a compact mass of ice, so that it was deemed advisable to land, draw up the boat, and con- tent themselves with a delay of a few days. An American officer, entrusted with government despatches, was detained there at the same time and by the same cause. Louis Philippe, impatient of delay, and accustomed to leave no rational means untried for the accomplishment of the object of his journey, ascended a neighbouring hill, surveyed the windings of the river, and discovered that the obstruction only extended for about three miles, beyond which the river appeared perfectly clear. He now desired his party to keep everything in readiness, that advantage might be taken of the first opening in the ice; and, the expected opportunity occurring in the course of a few days, they resumed their voyage, and passed through some miles of broken ice, which appeared to close as they escaped through it, and block up the military courier,* who did not reach the lower part of the river until three weeks after Louis Philippe and his party had completed the voyage. * " He merited, if not the same reward, one of a similar kind, as that suggested for his commander, General Wilkinson, when that officer was despatched by General Gates, to carry to Congress the 320 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Landing at Marietta, the princes there passed a few days, not in mere idle curiosity, but in examining objects of instruction, and providing necessaries for the continuance of their voyage. In speaking of the adven- tures of the young travellers in this vicinity, the author of " France," takes occasion to allude to the very tenacious quality of Louis Philippe's memory ; a valuable property, which was undoubtedly strengthened, if not originally formed, by the methodic principles of his early education ; he had been reared by his governess, not as the heir to a title, estate, and life of leisure, but as a citizen of the world. " I have heard," writes the anonymous author alluded to, " from many persons entitled to all credit, instances of the exercise of this power (memory) to an extent rarely to be found in life. Louis Philippe visited many places, and was brought in contact with many people in America. These circumstances occurred many years ago, and when many of those towns had been only recently laid out, and consisted of but a few sorry huts. Add to this, that there is not a tithe of the manners of men and places given in this volume which the king of the French pre- served in his recollections of America. Yet in speaking of the United States, in the year 1841, and relating what he had seen and done there, Louis Philippe never news of the capitulation of Saratoga ; and who loitered on the way until the whole country had heard of the event, and until Congress lost itself in conjectures, wondering that the general had not trans- mitted an official report of his success: when the tardy messenger did arrive, there was a question as to conferring upon him a reward, agreeably to established usage. In the discussion, a member pro- posed to award him a pair of leaden spurs. Louis Philippe's com- panion at Wheeling might have claimed a leaden paddle.'' France, by an American. A TENACIOUS MEMORY. 321 hesitated a moment, but spoke with as much familiarity and accuracy, as if he had a written memorandum before him. Amongst other questions, his American visiter asked the French king at what time he had arrived in the United States from Hamburg ; to which he instantly replied, "On the 24th of September, 1796, on board the * America,' Captain Ewing; and I was twenty-seven days on the passage." My informant confesses that he listened with astonishment. I have heard from a per- fectly authentic source, another anecdote proving his possession of a most tenacious memory. Mr. Hughes, the American charge d'affaires at Stockholm, was pre- sented to Louis Philippe in July, 1839. The applica- tion for this purpose was made by the minister, in the usual way in a letter to the proper officer. His Majesty, of course, knew only that Mr. Hughes, the American charge in Sweden, was about to be presented to him. As the American minister, followed by Mr. Hughes, entered the saloon of reception, the king advanced to- wards them, and, after exchanging a few words of ceremony, said "I am very glad to see you, Mr. Hughes, but I regret to learn that my old friend, General Smith is dead." The minister, although he knew that Mr. Hughes was the son-in-law of General Smith, was at a loss to conjecture, by what association the name of the worthy veteran was recalled at that moment, never presuming that the connection was known to the king; but when the party retired, and an explanation given by Mr. Hughes, the mystery was cleared up. It appeared, that just nine years before, when Louis Philippe was Duke of Orleans, Mr. Hughes had been introduced to him at the Palais Royal, and there mentioned the fact of his being the general's son- in-law. During those nine years, what events had not LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. happened to the monarch to blot such a circumstance from his recollection ?" Louis Philippe once asked the same transatlantic visitant of his court, "If he had ever been at Marietta ? and, as that gentleman had spent several years there in the early part of his life, he was able to answer in the affirmative. " Did you know," said the king, " a French baker there, named Thiery ?" The gentleman knew him perfectly well, and replied accordingly. " Well," said Louis Philippe, " I once carried him away from his family ;" and he then proceeded to explain, that in descending the Ohio, he had stopped at Marietta, and went into the town in search of bread. He was re- ferred to this same Thiery, and the baker, not having a sufficient supply on hand, set himself to work to heat his oven in order to complete the contract, While this process was going forward, Louis Philippe and his brothers walked through the streets of the town, and visited the interesting ancient remains, which are to be found in the western part of it, near to the banks of the Muskingum, whose history and objects have given rise to such various and unsatisfactory speculations. The Duke of Montpensier made a sketch of the remains, which are indeed amongst the most extensive of their class to be, found in the vast basin of the Mississippi. On his return he found the ice in the Muskingum on the eve of breaking up, and Thiery so tardy in his operations, that he had barely time to leap into the boat, with the bread, before they were compelled to leave the shore, that they might precede the mass of ice which was entering the Ohio. Their French friend bore his misfortune like a philosopher ; and, though he mourned over the imagined grief of his faithful wife, he still urged the oars-men to exert themselves, in order ARRIVAL AT NEW ORLEANS. 323 to place his young countrymen beyond the chance of injury. Their efforts were finally successful, " Possunt quia posse videntur" and, after some trifling delay, the good old man was taken ashore by a canoe which they hailed, perfectly delighted with his expedition." Con- tinuing their voyage, their further course was inter- rupted but by a single adventure of any importance, until their destination was reached. By the very culpable negligence of the helmsman, the boat struck against a branch of a tree, and had her bows stove in ; the accident did not disconcert the duke, who, setting his little crew to work, and calling in the aid of a few hired hands, in twenty-four hours succeeded in repair- ing the damage. Resuming their descent, with a courage that seemed superior to every obstruction and misfortune, the three royal exiles arrived safely at New Orleans, on the seventeenth of February, 1798. Here they experienced a kind reception, not only from the governor, Don Gayoso, but from the inhabitants of the colony, a cir- cumstance that considerably alleviated their feelings of disappointment at not being able to obtain an immediate passage to Cuba. Five weeks they awaited the ex- pected arrival of a Spanish corvette from Havannah, engaged in carrying passengers and light goods between New Orleans and that port, but their patience becoming exhausted, they at length decided upon embarking on board an American vessel, bound for the same destina- tion, and brave all risks of the sea and the enemy, if fortune would only spare their lives until they should once more embrace their fond but unhappy mother. As they crossed the gulf of Mexico, they were met by an English frigate sailing under the tricolour flag ; after the discharge of several guns, it was thought ad- LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. visable to come to, when a party instantly boarded the American. The Duke of Orleans and his brothers had a natural terror of the republican standard, and were much alarmed at the idea of again falling into the hands of the French government. Having retired into the cabin, the princes were there concerting operations both as to their language and conduct, when they heard a voice from the deck call aloud in English " Come, my lads, you must follow us !" This rude invitation being conveyed in the English tongue, somewhat encouraged the exiles. However, the Duke de Montpensier, despairing rather more than his brothers, said " God knows where they are now going to conduct us ; perhaps we shall make a voyage round the world." At first the young princes felt little cause to congratulate themselves on the polite- ness of the captors, being tainted so deeply with the bluntness of the British tar. But the Duke of Orleans, with his accustomed self-possession, advancing to the lieutenant of the frigate, said " Sir, go and tell your captain that I am the Duke of Orleans, and that my companions are my brothers, the Duke of Montpen- sier, and the Count Beaujolais." Astonished at the commission with which he was entrusted, he imme- diately delivered the message to Captain Cochrane, who, with all the generosity of his profession, and the politeness of a British gentleman, hastened to assure the princes, that they need be under no apprehension as to the character of their reception on board his vessel. The deck of the English frigate being considerably above the level of the American, a rope was lowered, to enable the princes to ascend her side ; but, being awkwardly launched, the duke missed his hold, and fell into the sea. Beyond the inconve- FORCIBLE ABDUCTION OF SAILORS. nience of a wetting, he sustained no injury, encountered no risk, for, being an expert swimmer, an art the practice of which formed part of his early education, he swam round to the stern of the frigate, where a boat was lowered to assist him, and was received on board with the greatest kindness. " I understand, gentlemen, that you are going to Havannah," said Captain Cochrane, " and I shall have the pleasure of conveying you thither without disem- barking myself ; I owe you at least this service, for the inconvenience I have occasioned by interrupting your voyage in the American." Mutual confidence being established, the princes had the happiness of reaching Havannah without further impediment, and of being safely landed there, from a British frigate, on the thirty-first of March, 1798. Before the princes quitted the American vessel, in which they had taken their passage to the Havannah, they had an opportunity of witnessing one of those viola- tions of international law, which not only marked but degraded the maritime history of that period, by the gross sacrifice of public law and private liberty. This was the seizure and impressment of men employed on board neutral vessels, and compelling them to enter the navy of a foreign country. The crew being mustered on the deck, Captain Cochrane selected the ablest hands from amongst them, and, taking them on board his frigate, attached them to a service in which they not only had no interest, but with which some of them were actually at variance, and might therefore be com- pelled to fight against their own country. It is not the least strange of all the strange events which have occurred in those days of change, that a young man, a passenger on board an American ship, and who was 326 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. brought by circumstances into contact with the practical operation of the iniquitous claim which Great Britain set up, of taking out of vessels sailing under the American flag, any person they pleased, should have been called upon, many years after, by the English government, when upon the throne of France, to dis- avow the forcible abduction of a seaman from a British ship. During the naval operations of the French before the port of Vera Cruz, in later years, an English packet ship, as she sailed from the harbour, was boarded by an officer and boat's crew from one of the blockading squadron, and a Mexican pilot taken out of her. Never did any act of aggression, any violation of the laws of nations or neutrality, create in England a greater burst of indig- nation. The sentiments of the British people on the great question of personal liberty, might then be read in the impassioned orations of their most eloquent states- men ; and now republics, and republican monarchies, were to learn a lesson in freedom from the aristocracy of Great Britain. Both houses of parliament con- curred in the doctrine, that such an act was a gross outrage, that the British flag equally protected all who sailed under it, either in our military or mercantile marine ; and that not a moment should be lost in demanding of Louis Philippe and the French people, a distinct acknowledgment of their misconduct. Lord Lyndhurst said " The pilot had come on board under the protection of the British flag, looking to that flag as a protection, but in this instance it was no protection. A more grave, a more serious outrage or insult was never committed against our country." It was Lord Ellenborough's opinion, "That no French officer had a right to board a British merchantman, RESPECT DUE TO NEUTRAL FLAGS. 327 and take a man from her, in any part of the world." Lord Brougham declared that " Any man on board a British merchantman was as much under the pro- tection of the queen's flag, as if he were on board the queen's ship. That there was no difference, if a man was taken from a merchantman or queen's ship, if it were an English vessel. The gravamen of the charge was, not that a man had been taken, but that he had been taken from an English ship." It was the clear conviction of Sir James Graham, that " If the officer gave up his pilot, without striking his colours to a superior force, the proper course was to put him on his trial." All these matured judgments of the most eminent British statesmen, and of both political parties in the country, received the sanction of Sir Robert Peel, in these pointed, pithy sentences, " That if for no other purpose, yet I hope for that of preventing the principles of international law from being unsettled by any rash or unwarrantable act, and to prevent the enor- mous evils which must ensue if the British flag, or any other neutral flag, were not considered a safe protec- tion to those who sail under it occupied for instance in delivering the ship from peril in the capacity of pilots all the circumstances of this transaction would remain upon record." Louis Philippe, when a wandering exile, felt disgust at the inhumanity of the act in the British nation ; when seated on the throne of France, he disavowed it in the name of his country, yet forebore to taunt us with former arbitrary domination, or even to congratulate Great Britain upon the happy change of sentiment that had come over her people. Notwithstanding the sorrow which Louis Philippe experienced at every recollection of the land of his 328 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. fathers, finding all effort to pass into Europe vain, he determined to fall back upon a life of retirement in a foreign country, provided he could procure an honourable occupation for his brothers and himself. The reception which they met with from the Spanish authorities and principal inhabitants in Cuba, afforded them the highest hopes ; but the government of Ma- drid threw every impediment in their way. It was devoted to emigration ; and to that description of illiberal royalty, which felt a secret pleasure in com- pelling the exiled prince, Louis Philippe, to expiate the crime of his known attachment to the cause of liberty. Such a government could not lend protection to the exiles. Besides, being of a suspicious nature, and uneasy at the political sentiments which just then agitated the public mind at Havannah, it saw with umbrage a French prince, whose sword had once been drawn in the cause of liberty, fix his residence in a country which was daily becoming jealous of its inde- pendence. An order, dated from Aranjuez, the twenty- first of May, 1799, directed the captain-general of the island of Cuba, not to permit any longer the presence of the Dukes of Orleans and Montpensier, and of their brother, Count Beaujolais, but to send them imme- diately to New Orleans, and without any regard to their future mode or means of subsistence. 329 CHAP. VI. From the embarkation of Louis Philippe and his brother for Fal- mouth, in England, 1798, to the birth of the present Duke of Orleans, at Palermo, on the second of September, 1810. THE infamous persecution, to which the royal wander- ers were subjected at Havannah, only served to excite their indignation against the despotism of the Spanish court, and they at once refused to allow themselves to be thus disposed of according to the tyrannical orders of that government. It was at this moment, and under these painful circumstances, that the exiles turned their eyes towards the shores of England, the only asylum which then appeared open to their misfortunes. Taking advantage of a recent Spanish enactment, they repaired in the first instance to the Bahama islands, which belonged to the English, thence passing over to Halifax, where the Duke of Kent, a son of the king of England, (George III.,) and father of Queen Victoria, received them in the most gracious manner, but did not feel himself authorized to grant them a free passage to England in a vessel of war. Not discouraged by the refusal of the royal duke, the princes embarked on board a small vessel bound for New York ; and, arriving safely at that city, succeeded in obtaining a passage for England in a regular packet ship. Arriving in Falmouth harbour in the first week of February, 1810, a request was forwared to his Ma- jesty, George III., by the Princes of Orleans, to be permitted to land and proceed to the capital of the 330 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. British dominions. The king graciously, and gener- ously, granted their petition ; and, on Thursday, the sixth of the same month, they reached London. The agreeable situation on the banks of the Thames, and the delightful scenery in the vicinity of Richmond, was a very natural inducement to young men, who were no mean proficients in the fine arts, to select Twickenham as their place of residence ; besides, the site is sheltered and salubrious, qualities of peculiar value to the two younger princes, whose constitutions had been much broken by confinement and the most barbarous inhu- manity. There might have been another reason, less obvious to others, but gravely considered by Louis Philippe, for making this particular locality his perma- nent abode in England. Here many of the aristocracy had their family seats, several members of the English royal family resided around Richmond, Kew, and else- where, and Windsor Castle was the chief and ancient palace of the kings. By placing himself in the centre of this society he voluntarily exposed the manner of his life, and the associates of his leisure hours, by which all suspicion as to his motives and actions was at once allayed. If this was amongst the objects of the prince his end was fully attained, for his active, instructive, and virtuous example, every day added some eminent or amiable character to the long catalogue of his friends. Before the arrival of the Duke of Montpensier in England his health had obviously began to decay, and scarcely had he reached his new residence at Twicken- ham, when his physician recommended him to visit Clifton, near Bristol, and make trial of the milder climate of that locality during the remainder of the winter. In his tour to this favourite watering-place, he was accompanied by the affectionate Beaujolais, the MACHINATIONS OF THE ROYALISTS. 331 sharer of all his previous sufferings and sorrows ; Louis Philippe remained at Twickenham, occasionally coming to London ; and, so correct had his judgment been as to the policy of residing where his life would he wrapped in no mystery, veiled in no cloud of ambiguity, that on the seventh day after he had come to London, the machinations of the royalist emigres, for the purpose of making him a proselyte to the cause of absolutism, were put in operation against him. The Dukes of Orleans and Montpensier, and the Count Beaujolais, were gradually approaching to a reconciliation with the princes of the elder branch of the Bourbons, whose exile they shared ; yet, from their having pursued an opposite political direction, it arose more from the accident of being partners in adversity than from any genuine feelings of affection towards each other. Of ten Bourbons who had been successively welcomed on the free shores of England, the two who survived the misfortunes of their race were the Duke D'Angouleme and Louis Philippe, one who, did expect it, never wore the crown, the other, contrary to expecta- tion, has submitted to its weight. Louis XVIII. then held his wandering and solitary court at Mittau ; the Prince of Conde sought to avenge, in war, the wrongs of his family ; Count D'Artois then resided in London, where in his inter- views with Louis Philippe and his brothers, all the etiquette of court was strictly observed. Taking advantage of the absence of the younger princes, whom the Duke of Orleans uniformly con- sulted upon every question, in which the wishes and happiness of their much beloved mother were involved, Monsieur invited the duke to come to London, assuring him of the most affectionate welcome both from himself 33% LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and the Duke of Bourbon. Fully confident of his own firmness, and integrity of purpose, he did not hesitate to accept the invitation, and, on the thirteenth of February, he was kindly received and entertained with sumptuousness by the ex-heir apparent of the Bourbon throne, at his house in Welbeck-street, Cavendish- square. "The king," said Monsieur, " will be delighted to see you, but it will be proper and necessary that you should first write to him." Louis Philippe at once consented to subscribe to all the forms suggested by his cousin, but his letter, breathing that nobleness and simplicity which characterised him, did not disown any of the principles which he had maintained all his life, and which had involved him in such grievous sufferings. This was not precisely what Monsieur desired, and having learned the contents of the young man's corres- pondence, he remonstrated with him on the subject. "You should have spoken to the king of your errors." "Errors!" said Louis Philippe, "I certainly may have committed some ; but you, have you not been guilty of some also ? In which case I should have said our errors,* and that would neither have been courteous to others, nor independent as to myself." * Fouche gives the following notice of the errors of the counter- revolution : " The curate, Bernier, and two viscountesses were in- strumental in wishing to sanction the opinion which prevailed, that Buonaparte was endeavouring to restore the Bourbons to the throne. The delusion was so great that Louis XVIII, then at Mittau, deceived by his Parisian correspondents, thinking that moment favourable for reclaiming his inheritance, caused a letter to be con- veyed to the consul, Lebrun, by the hand of the Abbot Montesquieu, his secret agent, which was addressed to Buonaparte. In this com- munication, and in high-minded language, he endeavoured to show POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 333 Possessed of considerable tact and judgment, Louis XVIII., more magnanimous than Monsieur, replied to Louis Philippe's letter without making use of a single expression calculated to hurt the feelings of the gallant youth. The Count D'Artois' object was not yet attained ; his design was to enlist the Duke of Orleans and his brothers under the standard of emigration, but his efforts proved wholly unprofitable. Not disheartened or deterred by the frequent refusals which he received, he yet never ceased to importune the princes, to entreat them to remember the injuries inflicted on themselves, and, by joining the army of Conde,* to seek redress. " This ! this was the only mode, whereby they could escape the species of persecution organized against them, and carry into execution the plan, which they had formed of joining their august mother, and of concerting with her some means of repairing their ruined fortunes." When intelligence of the arrival of Louis Philippe and his brothers on the coast of Great Britain, reached the French journalists, they occupied the greater portion of their columns, during the month of February, with elaborate political disquisitions on the objects of their him how much he would do honour to himself by replacing him upon the throne of his ancestors. " I can do nothing with France without you? said the exiled monarch, " and you yourself cannot make France happy without me : hasten therefore." * Fauche-Borel recites the numerous solicitations which Louis Philippe received from Louis XVIII., and from the King of Sweden, to accept a command in the army then fighting against France. " The elder branch," says he, " did not wish to be separated from the Duke of Orleans, but the party which favoured that prince, might prove an obstacle to the restoration of the legitimate sovereign." 334 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. visit. One portion suspected that it was connected with the supposed views of Sieyes, the rival of Buona- parte ; another that they had been kidnapped by the English, and were about to become the victims of the royalist party in England. How vain and groundless both suspicions were the bright biography of the eldest brother proclaims. The "Bien Informee" of that date, alluding to the first conjectural argument, observed, " Further information may explain the great enigma of the mysterious combination of certain powerful geniuses who did not expect Buonaparte in France, and who still less expected that he would remain in Paris after the eighteenth Brumaire, instead of going to command an army, the ruin of which the contractors and others had secretly prepared." These sapient writers, while they attributed Louis Philippe's residence in England to one motive only, were, at that moment, wholly ignorant of the reconciliation that had taken place between the modern Ulysses and the principal members of his family, a reconciliation, which from the well-known character of the former, (however he might have been misled by those who directed his early education, or by those who were the companions of his military life) could not have been suspected of insincerity on his part at least. The character of General Dumouriez need not here be analyzed, and even if it were, perhaps, when the difficult circumstances by which he was surrounded have been fairly estimated, it would have passed through the ordeal without sustaining much injury or loss. If he had been wanting in many other qualities he was assuredly possessed of fidelity to the house of Bourbon- Orleans, and, no danger seemed too great to be en- countered by him, for their honour or restoration. It DUMOURIEZ* FIDELITY. 335 can hardly be supposed that he felt an equal affection or indissoluble allegiance to the elder branch, but, to promote the fortunes of those he loved he even con- descended to serve under a standard to which he owed but an equivocal duty. Having bade adieu to Jaco- binical France, while he was yet an ardent lover of liberty, an ignominious death alone awaited his return. Mounting, therefore the white cockade, he bent his course towards Mittau, in Courland, and there paid homage at the court of the exiled monarch, Louis XVIII. Here the single object of his adventurous life, the sole motive of all his political speculations, the restoration of Louis Philippe to his rank and fortune, occupied his anxious thoughts, and, day after day he solicited the indolent ex-king to receive the Princes of Orleans, who personally never offended or injured him, to his grace again. It was to this interference, this importunate supplication, and persevering reasoning of Dumouriez, that Louis Philippe, although uncon- scious of the fact, was indebted for the kind reception which he met from Monsieur in London, and for the reconciliation, which was, so readily and unexpectedly, effected between their august relative and the Princes of Orleans. It was somewhat publicly stated that the Duchess of Orleans was decidedly averse to this reconciliation of her children with the elder Bourbons, that she dis- approved of their joining the royal confederacy, and, of bearing arms perhaps against their country ; she rather wished that they should continue in that privacy to which her eldest son had, with so much propriety, retired. Thankful for the mitigation of the decree against her race, she felt a species of gratitude to the government, for the benefits which she and her children 336 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. were permitted to enjoy, and, this wise and resigned spirit contributed materially to ensure a continuance of that respect, in which this excellent lady had always been held by the French people generally. After the return of Buonaparte to Paris the most marked attention had been shown to her, and the sum of 160,000 livres transmitted to her as part produce of her vast estates. She had been assured, but she remained unconvinced by the as- surance, that the forgiveness of these interesting young men was a fair test of the spirit of mercy and benevo- lence which would characterize the return of Louis XVIII. to the throne of his ancestors. The royalist journals, however, offended her just pride, and excited her indignation by the disgusting sycophancy of their style. " If," said those servile partisans, "such great delinquents have experienced such facility of reconcilia- tion, little is to be apprehended by those of an inferior class." Such language as the factious royalist journals in- dulged in, at the expense of these young princes' feelings, was neither consonant to the wishes of their employers, nor calculated to promote the cause they had under- taken to serve. They had themselves but imperfectly understood the true nature of the term reconciliation, when they took care that the pardoned should be taunted by the pardoners, with their past delinquency, and that sentiments, which had given life to dissension, should not be permitted to sink into oblivion, but on the contrary have new rigour and fresh virulence imparted to them. This was anything but the language and course of conciliation, and could have produced but one sentiment in the mind of the illustrious parent of the young princes. What could have been more malignant than to style these boys, these infants, in CALUMNIES OF THE PRESS. the correct parlance of continental courts, whose father rather than themselves, had been guilty of any error, great delinquents ? where then were terms to be found sufficiently forcible to describe the enormity of their guilt, who had actually taken up arms in the republican cause, and fought against royalty ? The same malignant writers, having once dipped their pen in gall, were unable to extricate it totally from the bitterness it had acquired, and, not satiated with the torrent of taunts which they poured forth upon all the descendants of the ill-fated Egalite, directed special shafts of calumny against his eldest son. The leading ministerial journals in London, declared openly that they suspected the sincerity of the young Duke of Orleans in his late repentance, and that his past exemplary conduct should not be accepted as any security against his future treachery. Had the slan- dered prince succeeded in deceiving men so deeply versed in the workings of the human heart, and, who judged of other men's conscience by that infallible crite- rion, their own, he would indeed have displayed a tact seldom found in one so young, but, he had never then, nor in his preceding life, employed any arts but those of candour, manliness, and generosity. The acknow- ledged jacobinism of his old companion in arms, Dum- ouriez, had, at first, involved the Duke of Orleans in these meshes of suspicion ; but, when the gallant soldier understood the wretched consequences which his fidelity had entailed upon those whom he so sincerely loved, he instantly separated himself from French connection, and, withdrawing from the court of Louis XVIII. at Mittau, entered the Russian service, where he was treated with the highest consideration. As the calumnies of the press were as senseless as LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. injurious to the cause which that venal party supported, they could not have produced the least change of senti- ment in Monsieur ; he placed the most entire reliance on the honour of the princes, helieved the reconciliation perfect, and entertained hopes of bringing them over still further to the royalist cause, when occasion for attemp- ing the project should present itself. On the twentieth of February, a few days after the return of the younger princes from Clifton, the three brothers had the honour of dining with Monsieur at his town mansion, where they met Mr. Pitt for the first time. The acquaintance of the princes with the celebrated statesman, William Pitt, was soon followed by addi- tional friendships amongst the aristocracy of England ; Lord Grenville took notice of the royal exiles, at an early period of their sojourn here, and entertained the Count D'Artois, the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, with the Counts Descars, Vaudreuil, and other distin- guished emigrants, at his mansion, in Cleveland-row, on the the first day of March, 1800, when Mr. Pitt and Mr. Wyndham, also formed part of the company. It would appear that the conduct and courtly manners of the French princes completely conciliated the regard of the chief public characters in this country, men who shed a lustre on the age they lived in ; for, on the Sunday following Lord Grenville, by the king's per- mission, introduced the royal exiles to his majesty at a levee held for the purpose, at the queen's house. Their reception was in the highest degree gratifying to their feelings, and the king held a conference of more than two hours length with the Count D'Artois, and the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon. The condesension and kindness of George III. to the banished Bourbons, was the signal for their general THE MARCHIONESS OF SALISBURY. 339 welcome throughout the land. The Russian ambas- sador, Count Woronzow, was amongst the first to extend to them the rights of hospitality, by inviting them to a banquet at his house in Harley-street, and on the 13th of March, the French princes were honoured by an invitation to Carlton House, by his Royal High- ness the Prince of Wales, (afterwards George IV.) at which Lord Grenville and the foreign ambassador were present. The Duke of Orleans was now initiated in fashion- able life in London, and, no grand soiree or sumptuous banquet was complete if it wanted the presence of the three princes. Reminiscences of the Orleans family were eagerly sought after, and recollections revived of a somewhat painful nature to the young men them- selves. Amongst these was an exhibition, advertised in the public journals, of a beautiful portrait of Madame Buffon, which had been painted for the gallery of the late Duke of Orleans, the luckless Egalite. This untimely exhibition was got up at the European mu- seum in St. James's- square, and, although sufficiently distressing to the princes, who were devotedly fond of their wretched father, such an Orleans' mania pervaded society at* the west-end v that the announcement proved attractive and lucrative to the proprietor of the portrait. The leader of the fashionable circle, at that period, was the Marchioness of Salisbury, a lady eminently qualified to be the arbitress of elegance by her beauty, wit, and varied accomplishments ; perceiving that the Orleans family were eminently entitled to the kind attentions of the beau monde, she generously invited upwards of four hundred persons of rank, title, and distinction, to her mansion, and gave the Princes a very ample opportunity of estimating the hospitality 3iO LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and refinement of the highest classes in this kingdom. The marchioness, a memher of an Irish family, selected the festival of St. Patrick for the day of her grand entertainment, and the Prince of Wales, who had always evinced a marked attachment to the Irish character and people, honoured the assemblage with his pre- sence. The influence of example continued to extend, the lady mayoress, (Lady Harvey Combe,) decided upon throwing open the Egyptian Hall to the gay, glittering world, and having the royal family of France amongst her guests ; and scarcely had the princes rested from the agreeable fatigue of the splendid civic entertain- ment, when they received an invitation to dine with the Duke of Clarence, (afterwards William IV.) at his residence in the Stable-yard. This was perhaps the most sumptuous of all the state dinners to which the Bourbons had been invited, and Monsieur had the misfortune not to be able to attend, being prevented by an accident, a blow from a ball which struck him on the head, while playing at the Tennis-court, in the Hay- market. The table was decorated with princely mag- nificence, and in a style peculiarly elegant, having large vases of confectionary and China figures, the frame thrown en parterre, it displayed the royal arms of England and Hanover, besides, at the lower end the arms of France, the order of St. Louis, and the order of the Holy Ghost, all admirably executed. It is unnecessary to pursue these details of generosity ; it will be equally fruitless to renew any account of each scene of festivity ; the hospitality and unqualified accep- tance which the Duke of Orleans and his brothers met with in England, from the highest, noblest, and most wealthy individuals in the kingdom, distinctly proved the PROJECTED INVASION OF FRANCE. 314 esteem in which the character of these exiles was held, even by those who completely dissented from those liberal political views, in which the princes had been educated by Madame de Genlis, which they almost inhe- rited from their luckless father, and were now supposed to have been confirmed in through the influence and persuasion of Dumouriez. It will be perceived, how- ever, that the attentions of the nobility were not limited to the three Princes of Orleans, but extended to their august relatives, and to many of the noble emigrants then in England. The king had welcomed the whole party to the palace of his royal consort, the heir to the throne and his brother Clarence, both of whom subse- quently ruled these realms, entertained the exiles at the festive board, and the ministers of state imitated the generous example. The hospitality became at last so unconfined, that the royalist journals, chagrined at the warm reception given to the" children of Egalite, invidiously observed, " that the dethroned royal family had been entertained by the aristocracy of England, with a splendour equal to the most brilliant periods of French history." Shortly after this scene of revelry and feasting, pro- jects for the invasion of France were proposed, and a descent on the southern coast of that country very generally spoken of. The report was accompanied by a statement, evidently inserted by those alone who desired to see the object effected, that the three Princes of Orleans were about to set up the white standard, and lead an expedition against their country. There could not have been any truth in the statement, and even the very report must have contributed to remind the Duke of Orleans of his mother's wishes, and call to mind her admonitions on that delicate question of 3 MFE ANH 'HMKS nl- I.OHS IMIII.iriT.. reached Lille on the twenty-second, on the next day lie Hod with indecent haste towards the frontier, not remaining long enough, oven if his faculties had heen sufficiently collected to do so, to give final or farther instructions to the lieutenant-general. Terror of Napo- leon occupied his every thought, and the wings of the wind were unequal to keep pace with the eagerness of his mind to escape from the iron grasp of the mortal enemy of his race. Louis Philippe had lent the pro- tection and encouragement of companionship to his majesty to a distance of only live miles from Lille, yet the timid monarch never delivered to him any instruc- tion, or command, as to the operations of the army, nor confessed his fugitive project. It was obvious that the cause of Napoleon would prove triumphant, hut the permanence of that success was even then very questionable ; his former deposition had dissolved that charm which never-failing triumph appears to acquire, and invincibility was no longer pecu- liarly his own. Amongst those who were ever affec- tionately attached to him, and who had always regretted the restlessness of his ambition, there was one, Rev, of Grenoble, who was president of the civil tribunal at Rumilly, when the emperor entered that place, who had the courage to tell the truth. " If the Bourbons have fallen," said he, " do not imagine, Napoleon, that it is by the force of your arm, but by the result of that war, waged, under the new reign, against liberal ideas, the powerful re-action of which places you once more upon the throne. Had they not struck terror into the heart of every citizen by a thousand ill-considered acts ; had they not trifled with the most sacred pro- mises ; had they not represented themselves as the chiefs of the only privileged class ; had they been the ROYALIST HEAD-QUARTERS BROKEN n. 4-1 7 true and faithful fathers of their country, do you imagine that a mere handful of brave men would have been sufficient for the accomplishment of your designs ? A hundred thousand gallant fellows would have pre- sented themselves as a rampart for those very princes, whom they hafe" now so easily abandoned. Let not your soldiers apply to you that saying which they have employed towards the Bourbons, ( that they have neither forgotten nor learned anything in their exile.' Xo, let the French people enjoy a national representation, and based upon public guarantees." Had the ex-emperor received such sincere and sound advice, either during his exile, or before his abdication, it might have influ- enced his own fortunes and those of France ; but it was given when he had contracted the enmity of Europe, and forfeited a large share of domestic popularity, when, in fact, he had lost both the means and oppor- tunity of persuading his subjects that his future polity should be based on the principles which Key of Rumilly had recommended. Deserted by his king and country, it was neither cowardice nor treason to desert them in turn ; and calling on the commandants of the different town he passed along, he told them that he should have no further instructions to transmit, that his majesty had quitted France without expressing his pleasure ; and that the sword, of course, had at the same instant fallen from his hands. On the twenty-fourth of March he broke up his establishment, at head-quarters, which was the most central point in the department of the North, and prepared to set out for England, and rejoin his anxious family. Before he abandoned hi* military post, he felt the necessity of making some public pro- clamation of his conduct and motives ; and, conceiving a, 3 H 418 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. that this object would be more becoming and more effectually accomplished by a direct communication with Marshal Mortier, he addressed the following patriotic document to that officer : " My dear Marshal, " I have just resigned to you the whole command, which I should have been happy to exercise, in conjunction with you, in the depart- ment of the North. 1 am too good a Frenchman to sacrifice the interests of my country, because fresh misfortunes oblige me to leave it, I go to bury myself in retirement and oblivion. The king being no longer in France, I cannot transmit you any further orders in his name, and it only remains for me to release you from the observation of all the orders which I have already transmitted to you, and to recommend you to do everything that your excellent judgment, and your pure patriotism will suggest to you, most bene- ficial to the interests of France, and most suited to all the duties you have to fulfil. Farewell, my dear marshal my heart is oppressed in writing this word. Preserve your friendship for me wherever fortune shall lead me ; and depend upon mine for ever. I shall never forget what I have seen of your character during the too short period we passed together. I admire your loyalty and your noble disposition, as much as I esteem and love you ; and it is with all my heart, my dear marshal, that I wish you all the prosperity of which you are worthy, and which I still hope may attend you. L. P. D'ORLEANS." "Lille, 23d March, 1S15." The prince did not confine his expression of the tender regret, which he experienced on leaving France, to the sentiments contained in the preceding letter ; he informed Colonel Athalin, his aide-de-camp, " that he should dispense with his crossing the frontier and accompanying him into exile ; that he ought to consider himself fortunate in being able to remain on the soil of his native country, and of there preserving the glorious emblems he had borne at Jemappes." THE ORLEANS FAMILY AT TWICKENHAM. Having discharged his sole remaining duties, those of friendship and patriotism, the duke again reluctantly bade adieu to la belle France, with but faint hopes of being ever again restored to it. The events which led to his first exile had approached gradually, and were met by a state of mind proportioned to the great weight of affliction that attended them. Having received wholesome lessons of wisdom in adversity's service, the prince felt the great bounty of Providence more grate- fully when the sun of sorrow was eclipsed by the light of joy, and his race was restored to their home again. The disappointment of his fond hopes, that he had at length found shelter in the bosom of his country, must have been truly agonizing, the frustration a second time of all his manly efforts to rescue the throne from usurpation, must have been a source of bitter regret ; and the feeling of deprivation and dependence which accompanied him on his voyage to England, to rejoin his family, could not have been less painful and humi- liating than any that he had experienced in his keenest moments of suffering. Returning to the hospitable shores of England, Louis Philippe bent his way to the beautiful and sequestered locality of Twickenham, a spot hallowed by early recollections as the sanctuary of suffering inno- cence, endeared by the remembrance of boyhood's years, and associated with the memory of two fondly loved brothers a spot then also possessing the greatest attrac- tion to him of any other on earth, next after his native country, as it was the safe home of his wife and children.* The triumph of legitimacy which dethroned Napo- leon, inspired its followers in foreign lands with new * The Duke de Nemours, Louis Philippe's second son, was born at Paris on the twenty-fifth of October, 1814. 420 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. zeal, fresh devotion, and increased prospects of ascend- ency. In England the most servile of that faction had the malignity to invent, and publish, by means of the dishonest portion of the daily press, the grossest and most painful calumnies against the Duke of Orleans ; a conduct more ungenerous and inexcusable while he was our guest, and unsuspectingly committed his princess and her children to our hospitality and honour. But the whole merit or meanness of this disreputable conduct is not chargeable to the malignity of London journalists ; the Bourbon faction, expert at calumny and intrigue, employed every means their art supplied to accomplish their darling object, which was the still further separation of the elder from the younger branch of the royal family. It was now, for the first time, that the persecutors of the Duke of Orleans hit upon the scheme of defaming him by forgery, almost the only expedient that had been forgotten in their long con- tinued labours of malignity. Becoming impressed with the belief that this project would involve him in diffi- culties, from which he never could emerge without some suspicion of criminality, they forged various pro- testations and professions of faith, which they subscribed with the name of Louis Philippe, and procured their publication in the English journals ; the tendency of which was, to place him in a false position with respect to the elder branch of his family. From the pain of defending himself, the duke was happily spared by the sudden termination of Napoleon's second reign, which lasted only for a hundred days ; and the defeat of that great man at Waterloo, by the English, under Welling- ton, restored Louis XVIII. to the throne, with a more certain prospect of retaining its possession than on his first restoration. ORLEANS LODGE. 421 Thrice had Louis Philippe fled for refuge to Eng- land, and on each occasion enjoyed the protection of our free institutions ; he could not, therefore, forget the gratitude that was due either to the nation, or to the individuals from whom he had experienced friend- ship, hospitality, sympathy, and attention. Had any opportunity existed of evincing that feeling in a greater or more public manner, he would, judging from other parts of his character, have gladly availed himself of it ; but the nation could not accept of any return, the society he moved in did not require it ; no mode, there- fore, remained but that of distributing the gifts of benevolence and charity amongst the labouring poor who had been in his service at Twickenham. Before his departure from that picturesque spot, he desired an inquiry to be made into the propriety of such an offering, and those who were proper objects of it to be named to him, and granted annuities of twenty pounds per annum each to twenty of the neighbouring poor, The condescension, benevolence, and exemplary con- duct of the Orleans family endeared them to all ranks and classes in this wealthy vicinity, and even those who had participated in their parting bounty were sensibly affected at their departure. The venerable mansion in which the family had resided was formerly the seat of General Pocock, and the octagon room in one of the wings, was originally built for the reception and entertainment of royalty. Some years after its occu- pancy by the Queen of France and her children, it was completely re-edified, called Orleans Lodge, and became the residence of Mr. Mackenzie, member for a Scotch county. Louis XVIII. once more returned to the capital of France, and the movements of majesty were of course LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. to be the signal for all members of the royal family. On the fifteenth of July, 1815, Louis Philippe pre- sented himself amongst the happy crowd of pure emi- grants, on whom fortune again had deigned to smile, bud did not receive that cordial welcome which a mens conscia recti had led him to expect. The king was cold and reserved towards him, making no secret, in the presence of a full court, of his limited confidence in the Duke of Orleans. One of the first claims pressed upon the prince at his return was the amount of seques- tration, which, during the hundred days, had been laid on the Palais Royal and his other property, and which they had sustained up to that moment, and this neces- sary business occupied him fully for some weeks. The reception of Louis Philippe by the chamber, after the battle of Waterloo, the enthusiasm displayed towards him in unequivocal terms and overt acts, by a large portion of the deputies and the people, contri- buted to increase that feeling of jealousy which the king evidently entertained towards the duke. Fcuche, Duke of Otranto, in a letter addressed to the Duke of Wellington at this period, says" the personal qualities of' the Duke of Orleans, the remembrance ofJemappes, the possibility of making a treaty which would con- ciliate all interests, the name of Bourbon, which might serve outside, but not be pronounced within ; all these motives, and many others that might be mentioned, present in this last choice a perspective of repose and security, even to those who could not perceive in them an omen of happiness." Weak indeed would have been the foundation on which the character of Louis Philippe was built, had it rested only on such testimony as this of Fouche, a man so notoriously faithless, that there is no pos- CHARACTER OF FOUCHE. 423 sibility of ascertaining what his real sentiments, upon the mighty events that were passing, actually were, or what was the distinct and definite end of his intrigues and fabrications ; he is here quoted, to establish a fact that even the professed revolutionaries, the noisiest advocates for the idol Freedom, were enrolled amongst the admirers of Louis Philippe's character, along with the first and firmest public men of Europe. However artful, Fouche was a man of deep penetration, and never would have eulogized the Duke of Orleans, at the moment his jealous kinsman had just reached the footsteps of the throne, had he not seen the rising reputation of the prince, and felt impressed with the conviction that he would at one time prove a bene- factor to his country. He was acquainted with the high estimate which the Duke of Wellington formed of the prince, for he was known to have corresponded with the hero on several occasions ; his correspondence, however, was more general than could have been consistent with fidelity to his masters. During the hundred days, he continued at the head of the police department ; and, in this short period contrived to add considerably to the guilt and treachery of his past life : " in private he caressed the revolutionists, who wished to have in Napoleon, not an emperor, but a republican general ; he corresponded with Metternich and Talleyrand as to the best mode of subverting the emperor's government ; he communicated with the ministers of Louis XVIII. at Ghent, to secure the support of that monarch, in case the Bourbon dynasty should be a second time restored ; and he gave secret information to the Duke of Wellington as to the military plans of Napoleon. His correspondents in London, Vienna, and Ghent, faithfully obeyed his LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. instructions, and represented him as one of the hest supports of the royal cause ; while he himself was busily engaged at Paris, in exciting the hopes and efforts of every party, from the military creatures of the emperor, down to the lowest dregs of the revolu- tion. On the return of Louis XVIII. as a reward for the services he was supposed to have rendered to the cause of royalty, Fouche was continued in his dignity. But he soon perceived that his character was too well known, his revolutionary deeds too well remembered, for him to enjoy the confidence of the king. The election of a new r chamber of deputies, of whom nearly all were royalists, and the clamour daily raised against his profligacy and treachery, convinced him that it would be dangerous to continue in his post. He resigned, and was appointed ambassador at Dresden. The public vengeance pursued him : in January, 1816, he was denounced as a regicide by both chambers, and condemned to death in case he re-entered the French territory. He settled first at Prague, and afterwards, with the consent of the Austrian government, at Lintz and Trieste : in the latter city he sickened and died in the year 1820." The sequestration on the property of Louis Philippe being raised, and the king having declined his assist- ance in consolidating a government, the prince once more crossed the British channel, and proceeded to Twickenham, to conduct his family back again to their country; and, on his return in the month of September, availed himself of the royal ordinance, commanding all the princes of the blood-royal to take their seats in the chamber of peers. And now the terreur blanche prevailed ; this was the epoch of proscriptions en masse, of the judiciary INHUMANITY OF THE ROYALISTS. assassinations of Ney, Labedoyere, de Chartran, Mou- ton-Duverney, the two Fauchers, and many others : the spirit of revenge was abroad ; and of foreign countries, England more especially, entailed a lasting disgrace upon her name, by not prohibiting the execu- tion of a vengeance so long delayed, by not claiming as her victims those brave men whom the glory of her arms had unfortunately placed at the mercy of the Bourbons, and by allowing the French king to put those fine fellows to death on the scaffold, whose mili- tary prowess was honourable to France, whose conquest, therefore, was more glorious to England. But the Count Bourdonnaie (the man of categories), demanded the immediate infliction of judgment upon every French- man, who, since the year 1789, had not followed the direct path ; Duplessis-Grenedan undertook to show- that the re-establishment of the gibbet was not only necessary, but just ; and the Viscount Bonald did not hesitate to explain the fair demand of retribution to which the royalists were entitled ; in his opinion, those who then should fall in conformity with the sentence of retaliation, were merely " sent from this world, to appear before their natural judges." As to the pure emigrants, those who had never deviated from the path of royalty, from the royal road, from that strict allegiance which they had professed for themselves, and received as a species of inheritance, these Recti- linears declared that the most necessary public func- tionary in the state, the only one who should be kept in constant occupation, was the executioner. Louis XVIII. said his brother Monsieur " ne saitpas regner, il ne fait que regnoter." The chamber of peers resolved not to be far behind the chamber of deputies, in manifesting their zeal for i. 3 i LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the royal cause, in some instances perhaps stimulated by a desire of personal vengeance ; they seemed also to be affected by a paroxysm of re-actionary devotion and energy. Several members, more bold than the rest, demanded an immediate weeding, a total purifi- cation of the ministers of the crown, and the exemplary chastisement of all political delinquents. The com- mittee, entrusted with the preparation of an address to the throne, incurred the infamy of adopting this base sentiment " Without depriving the crown of its pre- rogative of mercy, we venture to recommend the rights of justice ; we venture to solicit from its equity the necessary retribution of rewards and punishments, and a complete purifying of the public administration." The reading of this paragraph, at the sitting of the thirteenth of October, 1815, was followed by a warm, animated, and rather angry debate, between the men of blood and the honourable, generous, and merciful men, who alone were worthy of the title of peers of France. The party and admirers of Barbe-Marbois, Broglie, Tracy, and Lanjuinais, repudiated indignantly, and in the name of justice, humanity, and wisdom, any participa- tion in these detestable insinuations ; they declared the whole paragraph to be unworthy of that assembly, and unfit for the eyes or ears of a meek and merciful master, such as they fully believed they then served under ; besides, it was a direct infringement of the royal prerogative. The Duke de Fitzjames, resolved upon publishing the infamy of his own principles indi- vidually, reminded the chamber " that the whole elec- toral college demanded the punishment of the guilty ; that the nation was disgusted at the impunity they enjoyed ; that the people required that great examples should be made, thev wished this, and he was per- LOUIS PHILIPPE IN THE CHAMBER OF PEERS. 4^7 suaded there was not a person within those walls who would dare to protect the guilty from the punishment they justly merited." Various amendments were pro- posed, some openly evasive, others negativing the sanguinary clause. Perceiving the violence of the terrorists rather to increase by opposition, and the door of that assembly, styling itself noble, about to be closed against humanity, the Duke of Orleans immediately advanced, and confined the arms of the executioner. Extravagant praise defeats the objects of its author, and not unfrequently ends in utter disappointment ; silence, or even detraction, before the day of trial, often proves more advantageous. It had been the prevailing practice of the emigrant courtiers to detract from the character of Louis Philippe, and even to calumniate him frequently in the public press ; while his own party, if he ever had any beyond the small circle of a few devoted friends, awaited in silence that day when the principle of rectification, on which a just Pro- vidence uniformly works, would afford this injured prince an opportunity of refuting calumny, and aggran- dizing himself. That hour, that moment had at length arrived ; the outcast, wanderer, exile, the hated of his race, and persecuted victim of a sanguinary govern- ment, having endured an ordeal of the most painful character for a number of years, now at length reached that shore to which his voyage had been directed, and, the tempest over, was just entering the haven of happi- ness. His person being as little known to the majority, as his heart and mind, when he ascended the tribune, the whole assembly were struck with the nobleness of his appearance ; his figure tall, well-proportioned, and exhibiting the appearance of great physical power ; his countenance solemn, thoughtful, and dignified ; his 428 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. manner calm, conciliating, yet resolute, formed a con- centration of qualities which to many, never having heard anything laudatory of this prince before, now appeared in a light more advantageous to the speaker for that very reason ; but when to the graces of a com- manding person, the rank of a royal prince, the reputa- tion of an extended intercourse with mankind in every region, they were now called on to add the possession of those qualities that ennoble our nature, the triumph of Louis Philippe over his countrymen was complete, and the impression was never afterwards effaced. While the prince stood for a moment on the tribune, awaiting the fixed attention of the peers, a strong feel- ing of indignation was observed upon his countenance, which he vainly endeavoured to conceal ; and having obtained permission to proceed, he spoke nearly to this effect: "All that I have heard only confirms me in the opinion, that it would be preferable to propose to the chamber something much more decisive than any of the amendments that have hitherto been submitted ; I propose the total suppression of the obnoxious clause. Let us leave to his majesty's parental care the charge of providing constitutionally for the maintenance of public order, and let us not make demands which malevolence may possibly convert into weapons for disturbing the repose of the nation. Our capacity as judges of appeal, over those very individuals towards whom you recommend the exercise of justice rather than clemency, imposes an absolute silence upon us with respect to them. Every previous declaration of opinion appears to me to be an actual prevarication in the exercise of our judicial functions, making us at once accusers and judges." The effect of this speech, under all the existing THE TERREUR BLANCHE. 429 circumstances connected with its delivery, was truly electric : a number of peers, affected by these noble sentiments, exclaimed in loud and rapturous tones " Support ! Support I" amongst whom the voice of the Duke de Richelieu was distinctly audible. The pre- vious question was adopted ; and the ministers, who had voted against it, carried away by the momentary im- pulse, forgot their servile duty, and gave their votes to the cause of humanity. Louis Philippe would appear either to have forgotten, or disregarded, the jealousy with which the king and royal family regarded every public step he took, when he ventured to plead the cause of honour and gene- rosity ; or to be really gifted with a heart so candid and noble, that he thought nothing of the personal sacrifice, if he could only contribute to the happiness of his country, the whole tenour of his virtuous life suffi- ciently attests, that the latter was one motive of action on this occasion, perhaps the other spring also was not inoperative. The terreur blanche had the effect of silencing all the journals of the restoration on this interesting debate ; but the English papers gave a lengthened report of the debate, condemning in the strongest language of disgust the conduct of the sanguinary heroes, and applauding the magnanimity of the Duke of Orleans, who alone, above all the Bourbons in the world, they said, was " entitled to the respect or admiration of foreign countries." However the French may pretend to despise the cold and selfish character of a Briton, they have shown, by frequent examples, the high reverence they entertain for our national principle of honour, and, taking the signal from our journals, the popularity of the Duke of Orleans was rapidly increased by accessions in every part of the 430 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. kingdom ; translations from the English papers form- ing the judgment of those who had now learned to estimate his value truly. The king and his coterie were as loud in their con- demnation of the prince's generosity, as the people were in lauding it to the skies ; and with that per- verseness, for which some generations of that luckless family were conspicuous, his majesty recalled that ordinance, in virtue of which princes of the blood-royal sat in the chamber of peers. They were not to appear in the chamber in future, unless by a special authority for each individual, and delivered to him for each par- ticular sitting. This contemptible policy, this studied insult,* added to the duke's popularity in every part of * The following very interesting letter from the Duke of Wellington to the Duke of Orleans, written only twelve days previous to the day of Waterloo, proves incontestably that, although the former was fully aware of the conduct, principles, abilities, and position of Louis Philippe amongst the royal families of Europe, and of his own coun- try, yet his Grace did not perceive, at least, he did not mark out in this letter, that peculiar policy, which would have led to the pro- motion of his Highness's interests, and the protection of his happiness, against the invasions frequently made on both by Louis XVIII., and his adherents. "Brussels, 6th June, 1815. " SIR, I received your Highness's in due course, and I should have answered it sooner, if I had not wished to give to the subject to which it relates all the consideration which it deserves. " In my opinion, the King was driven from his throne because he never had the real command over his army. This is a fact with which your Highness and I were well acquainted, and which we have frequently lamented ; and if the trivial faults, or even follies of his civil administration had not been committed, I believe the same results would have been produced. We must consider the King then as the victim of a successful revolt of his army, and of his army only WELLINGTON ADVISES LOUIS PHILIPPE. 431 his native country, the court and the saloons of the Faubourg St. Germain excepted, where the voice of majesty always enjoyed an echo. As might have been expected, the clamours of those sycophants who had so continually misconstrued the actions of the Duke of Orleans, were now redoubled. They accused him of for whatever may be the opinions and feelings of some who took a prominent part in the revolution, and whatever the apathy of the great mass of the people of France, we may, I think, set it down as certain, that even the first do not like the existing order of things, and that the last would, if they dared, oppose it in arms. " Now, then, this being the case, what ought to be the conduct of the King? First, he ought to call for his allies to enable him to oppose himself to his rebellious army ; and he ought by his personal countenance, and the activity of his servants and adherents, to do everything in his power to facilitate their operations, and to diminish, by good order and management, the termination of the war upon his faithful subjects, and to induce them to receive his allies as friends and deliverers. The king should give an interest to the allies to support his cause ; and this can be done only by his coming forward himself in it. So far your Highness will see, that I differ with you regarding the conduct of the King. In regard to your Highness, I do not see how your Highness could have acted in a different manner, up to the present period. " It is not necessary that I should recite the different reasons you had for keeping at a distance from the court, since it has been at Ghent : but I feel them all, and I believe the King is not insensible of the weight of some of them. " But if, as may be expected, the entrance and first successes of the allies in France should induce the people to come forward, and a great party should appear in favour of the King in different parts of the kingdom, surely your Highness would then consider it your duty to come forward in his Majesty's service. I venture to suggest this conduct to your Highness, telling you, at the same time, that I have not had any conversation with the King upon it, &c. " WELLINGTON." " To his Royal Highness, the Duke of Orleans." LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. seeking for, and of rallying round him the malcontents ; of forming them into a regularly organized party, and of hunting after popularity ; and, to consummate their venomous rancour against the prince, exhumed the bugbear of " the Orleans 9 faction" To give those guilty passions time to cool, to allow the pretended alarm of his illustrious relatives to subside, and to refute the calumnious accusations of the minister, the prince imposed a voluntary exile upon himself, and once more returned to his English residence at Twickenham. It afforded the court no moderate gratification to circulate a report, that the exile of the duke was not precisely as voluntary as his highness wished the world to suppose ; but that it was in obedience to a secret letter. In this way they represented that the first prince of the blood, controlled by a letter de cachet, had been deprived of the power of inflicting injury on his country, by the employment of an army of which the royal authority had opportunely deprived him. It is morally certain, notwithstanding these assertions, that the Duke of Orleans withdrew to England of his own free will ; since he returned to France, influenced by the same agency only, at the commencement of the year 18iy. One fact, however, seems obvious, it is that if he banished himself on this occasion, through any motive of complaisance or consideration for the popularity of the king, he had resolved that he should not again become the victim of so much ingratitude in a similar way. Louis Philippe was not ignorant of his real position in his own country, of the insecure tenure by which the elder Bourbons held their throne, and of the facility with which they could be superseded when- ever the allies should have retired from France. The TALLEYRAND'S DUPLICITY. 433 despotism of the monarch made the people his impla- cable enemies, and his pusillanimity led him to imagine that cruelty must necessarily produce such a dread of his power as would stifle rebellion. In Louis Philippe the French saw a prince of the blood opposed to the hated branch, through their own extravagant folly ; and supported by a connection with events, which, in the preceding thirty years, had given a new aspect, a new way of thinking, new manners, new wants to France ; so that, while he belonged to the old regime, he was also identified with the new orderof things. These were the feelings which influenced him in the desire he formed of retiring from court ; this policy alone could have saved him from becoming an instrument in the hands of either party, or from exciting their anger and hostility. The Duke of Wellington recommended him to give in his military adhesion to the king at Ghent, before the battle of Waterloo ; but no independent mind could have again submitted to the service of that weak monarch, after his contemptible escape from Louis Philippe at Lille, without one syllable of conversation, one word of written instruction. The reasonable inference was, therefore, that the king distrusted his lieutenant-gene- ral, left him to join Napoleon if he thought proper, and, what adds to the presumption is, that he deceived him totally as to his real destination ; for he allowed him to suppose that he was about to seek an asylum in England. Wellington's advice, when he recommended him to approach the king, was founded solely on the desire to attain the greater end, the conquest of Napo- leon, and peace of Europe. Talleyrand's counsel, in suggesting an estrangement and distance between the same illustrious persons, was narrow, artful, despicable, and to prevent the exposure and discovery of his own i. 3 K 434 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. duplicity and baseness, to which a sincere friendship between them must necessarily have led. That the Duke of Orleans was not looked upon as intriguing, or too ambitious, while he resided either in Paris, or at Neuilly, just after the restoration, appears from the assemblage of leaders and members of all poli- tical parties at his sumptuous entertainments. It was in dressing for one of his highness' s banquets, that the young, beautiful, and witty Princess of Leon, daughter of the Duke of Rohan, lost her life. This very inte- resting lady, the ornament of the fashionable saloons in Paris, was cut off in the flower of her youth, and by a most painful death. A lighted taper attracted her crape robe while she stood in full dress at the toilet, and set it in flames, and before assistance could be pro- cured, the merciless element had reached the vital parts. This melancholy accident spread a gloom over the circle of court and fashion for some time. Nor had the Orleans family fallen into any degree of unpo- pularity in England, or disfavour with the court ; on the contrary, when the wisdom, caution, and magnani- mity of Louis Philippe led him to decide upon with- drawing from Paris, rather than endanger the peace of his country, by being involuntarily made the head of the liberal party, he was received with cordiality at Carlton House by one of the most devoted adherents to the doctrine of legitimacy, one of the most unfor- giving men to those who had in the least degree slighted the divine right of kings. Blenheim House was thrown open to the Duchess of Orleans by its noble proprietor, and these hospitalities were returned with equal splendour and liberality, at the residence of his serene highness at Twickenham. Completely deceived by the cautious policy of Louis INTRIGUES OF TALLEYRAND DEFEATED. Philippe, who had publicly declared in Paris, that rather than countenance the cruelties which he per- ceived were now about to be exercised by the restored royalists, he would retire from France, and fix his resi- dence at Naples, Talleyrand thought, that after the prince had passed a little time in England, he would have no objection to visit the native country of his princess. This happy idea occupied his attention, and he urged it upon the king's with much earnestness. To the artful stratagem Louis Philippe was fully awake, and replied in a tone of firmness that put all the visions of Talleyrand and his master to flight " I shall never hereafter expatriate myself. If my royal master con- ceives that my presence in France is dangerous to the public peace, or that my conduct is deserving of any degree of punishment or admonition, I am prepared to defend myself before the tribunals ; but I shall only submit to a legal trial." Having shown the utmost deference and submission to the wishes of Louis XVIII. the reply of the Duke of Orleans disconcerted all the projects of the wily minister as to the future chastise- ment of the regicide party ; and, it is but a reasonable conclusion, that this decisive resistance to the tyranny of the king checked the intended sacrifices to ven- geance, which were about to be made by the pure emi- grants in Paris. It certainly did not contribute to produce a better understanding between the king and the first prince of the blood-royal, that the latter was known openly to sympathize with the brave soldier, whom the intrica- cies of a series of revolutions had involved in the charge of violated allegiance. While the right to the throne was disputed by an elected emperor and a prince 436 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. of a deposed family, what allegiance could exist except to the country ? and who had the prescience and sagacity to define its precise character ? Justice and humanity were therefore inseparable in demanding an account of the soldier's conduct in such an unexampled state of national confusion. Yet neither was respected by the king of France. The military murder of Ney being decided upon, that splendid soldier addressed an affect- ing letter to the Duke of Orleans at Twickenham, supplicating his intercession with the prince-regent of England, on behalf of his afflicted wife, who had been summoned to attend before the chamber of peers. His wishes were warmly complied with ; but the regent could never forgive the smallest deviation from duty to a legitimate sovereign ; and, any appeal, therefore, relative to the family of Ney, must necessarily have proved ineffectual and abortive. Whatever may have been the opinion of Louis Philippe as to the guilt attached to Ney's memory, he never would have been a participator in the extreme measures of the restored government. But his generous and humane dispo- sition, combined with the universal admiration of the marshal's military talents, were sufficient incentives to the exercise of all the influence he possessed in contri- buting to his peace of mind at such a period. The Restoration, however, thirsted for the remainder of that blood which had been shed in so many battles, for the glory of the French arms ; and, to the eternal disgrace of that wretched government, " the bravest of the brave" was sacrificed, less to appease the injured feel- ings of the imbecile prince who occupied the throne, than to relieve the royalists from apprehensions of the future. The true source of Ney's cruel fate, was the FAMILY OF MARSHAL NEY. 437 dread and the envy which his talents excited in the breast of the coward and the despot " Largus et exundans letho dedit ingeniifons" The unhappy wife of Marshal Ney had been reared in the court of Louis XVI. and had also adorned that of the Emperor.* Cultivated in her mind, accomplished in her manners, and elegant in all she said or did, her society was courted on all sides. Her habits were expensive ; luxury reigned throughout her chateau, and presided at her board ; and, to all this display of elegance and pomp of show, the military simplicity, not to say the coarseness, of the marshal, furnished a striking contrast, though his good -nature offered no other obstacle to the gratification of her wishes, than the occasional expression of a fear that his circumstances might prove unequal to the maintenance of so much state. His affection for this interesting woman was unbounded, and his attachment to his children equal. It is said by those who almost witnessed the melancholy spectacle, that his last interview with his wife and children was more painful to this brave soldier than the prospect of the agonies of death, which were then so near.t The generosity and interest which Louis Philippe exhibited for the family of Marshal Ney did not die with the gallant soldier, but, on the contrary, that iniquitous deed gave a new stimulus to his huma- nity. Two of Ney's sons having retired from France, entered the Swedish service, where they succeeded to the inheritance of Bernadotte's affection for their father. The widow and her two younger sons being left to the world's cold charity, were at once protected, and pro- * Vide " Wright's Life and Campaigns of Wellington," vol. iv p. 37, et seq. t " The Court and Camp of Napoleon." 438 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. vided for, by the Duke of Orleans. How magnificent does the possession of power appear, when applied to objects of so much weakness ! What a noble use of wealth is the sharing of it with the most destitute and unfortunate ! Unstained by the crimes that were committed at the restoration, Louis Philippe returned to his country in the year 181 r /> without any invitation or command of the king, or special regard for his minister, but volun- tarily ; and, he selected that period for his return, as the first that was marked by moderation on the part of the government. Having abstained so long and so resolutely from any interference in the political position of France, the king rightly concluded that he was capable of continuing that conduct ; and, the well-known resources of his cultivated mind left no reason to apprehend that any listlessness or apathy would enslave him. The duke now devoted himself to those duties which are frequently difficult and unsuccessful, but still generally afford gratification in their progress the rearing of a numerous family. He had besides a second duty, equally onerous the orderly administration of his sumptuous household ; for, from a variety of concurring events, such a vast accumulation of wealth had accrued, that he then became the richest subject in the kingdom. His exten- sive domains not having been sold under the republican or imperial governments, were now recovered, and res- tored to him ; and, millions were assigned to him under the indemnity act. The circumstances in which the estates of the Orleans family were placed are somewhat curious, and from the vicissitudes of fortune, to which its proprietors were subjected, particularly interesting. It was sup- ESTATES OF THE ORLEANS FAMILY. 439 posed, that upon the first return of Louis Philippe to France, he succeeded to the possession of the largest fortune in Europe, but this assertion must receive considerable qualifications. He succeeded to all the paternal estates, that had not been sold and conveyed to others for a pecuniary consideration, but the inhe- ritance was encumbered with enormous debts. The systematic liquidation of these debts commenced in the lifetime of Egalite, under trustees appointed by the creditors, an arrangement continued by the state, after the execution of that prince. After a large amount of claims had been discharged, on terms of advantage to the state, rather than to the creditors, the revenue was enriched by the overplus or disencumbered pro- perty. The estates to which Louis Philippe succeeded in the first instance, were of two descriptions the un- sold patrimony, which was to be divided equally between his sister and co-heiress, the princess Adelaide, and himself ; and the estates of appanage, belonging to the dignity to which he succeeded, and which descended therefore to him alone. These estates, inalienable by their nature of being the primary appanage, had been held by the state, and were, therefore, not only exempt from the late duke's personal debts, were not liable to mortgage, could not have been made over in trust, for the benefit of creditors, and therefore remained unfettered by any legal bonds. The creditors of Ega- lite, therefore, had no right to claim against any other than the patrimonial property, and, such were the dilapidations which this estate had suffered during the revolutionary governments, that they were now found, upon accurate survey, to be reduced to one-half that value for which they would have been security to the credi- tors, had any care been employed in maintaining and 440 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. improving them. On the other hand, with respect to the estates of appanage, or fiefs of the dukedom, such were the mischievous consequences to those domains, by the total revolution of the government, such the inju- ries of dilapidation here also, that they were found, in 1814, to he reduced to less than half their value, when the head of the house of Bourbon-Orleans, Monsieur, brother of Louis XIV., received them as part of the inheritance of the king his father : it was also ascer- tained, that neglect and abuse had, in like manner, reduced them far below the value they were reckoned at in 1791, when an iniquitous law had directed their seizure and appropriation to the uses of the republic. The Duke of Orleans was compelled, by the pecu- liar circumstances of the case, to accept of the suc- cession to his father's, as well as to his patrimonial estates, as an heir not bound to responsibility for the debts of his predecessor, beyond the value of whatever descended to him, and to declare himself, along with his sister, as entitled to the equity of redemption, or any beneficial inheritance that might ensue over and above the amount of debts. Two projects presented themselves for his selection one was, to abandon to the creditors the bulk of the patrimonial property to which he had succeeded, without exercising the smallest interference in its administration, for the payment of debts ; restricting himself to the use and enjoyment of his estates of appanage, which were wholly exempt from all claims, demands, or debts on account of any of his predecessors. The other plan consisted in under- taking to indemnify the creditors, upon their total resignation of his patrimonial property, undertaking to liquidate their liens, not only from the produce of the estate on which he had a legal claim, but also from DISHONESTY OF CHARLES X. 441 the ducal property, which was placed by law beyond their reach. In adopting the first of these propositions, the prince would have instantly released himself from all the debts contracted by his father, and the creditors would have experienced much difficulty in ever recovering half the amount of their claims. Such, nevertheless, were the means approved and recommended by the prince's advisers, alarmed, no doubt, at the frightful burden of liquidation. His own magnanimous opinion was in favour of the princely conduct of paying off all his wretched father's engagements ; and that noble project was instantly undertaken by his agents. The reader of his biography will rejoice to learn, that this generous scheme was attended with the most entire success. By the honourable and active exertions of his agents, he had the satisfaction of being enabled to liquidate every demand upon the Orleans' estates, to which they were justly liable at his succession ; whilst Charles X., with a civil list of twenty-five millions, and the large resources which the ready compliance of M. de Villele left at his disposal, was incapable, dur- ing the whole course of his reign, to defray the debts contracted by himself. His majesty, however, adopted one mode, which led to rapid results ; it consisted in rejecting all creditors who were too importunate, by simply denying the debt. Amidst the cares and the occupation of this exten- sive liquidation, which continued during ten whole years, and to effect which, so much perseverance and so many sacrifices were required, the Duke of Orleans always found the means of exercising the most active benevolence. How many warriors, disabled by their wounds, or reduced to the utmost poverty, the noble i. 3 L 442 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. wreck of the once celebrated army of France how many poor rejected men, whose fortunes had been eri- gulphed in the political vortex how many unhappy persons, of all classes of society, had recourse to his benevolence for their existence, at the very moment when he was so nobly taking responsibility upon himself, to which his counsellors apprehended his boundless pos- sessions were unequal ! yet none were ever repulsed from his palace door. The number of applicants for protection, patronage, and pecuniary relief became so great, that his highness had a bureau des secours, an office of relief, opened in his house, for the more effectual distribution of his bounty. Here, one day a secretary entered the duke's private office, and stated that he recommended assist- ance to the amount of 500 francs, for a literary cha- racter who had a large family, and was then reduced to extreme indigence ; the prince, who was pre-occu- pied, addressed him immediately upon the politics of the day, and the conversation was protracted until a messenger arrived to inform his highness, that it was the hour at which he was to attend his counsel "Oh, very well," said the prince, " but first, Mr. Secretary, let me ask you, did you not say something about a draft for 1000 francs for an unfortunate family ?" " A thousand francs I" exclaimed the secretary, " no, no 5 that is a serious mistake, which I beg you will be cautious to correct in the check." " You are right, my friend," replied his highness, "the errors of princes often cost so dearly, that I am not sorry mine will be attended with some benefit to this poor family;" and, instead of writing a second order, or correcting the first, handed a draft for 1000-francs to the secre- tary. . NEUILLY THE REFUGE OF LITERARY MEN. 443 In early life, but particularly during his wanderings in northern Europe and in America, literature had afforded him consolation, and its votaries were now assembled around him. His excellent judgment en- abled him to select those whose principles were inde- pendent, whose talents were of a high and noble order ; and, to the palace of Louis Philippe these gifted men fled for shelter, against the persecution and the injus- tice of absolute power. Many men, celebrated subse- quently in the world of letters, continued during after years to tell, with no common sentiments of pride, that they had once been the pensioned literaires of the Duke of Orleans. The duke was the president and patron of many learned and literary societies, such as the Asiatic. He enjoyed the personal friendship of many distin- guished citizens, who devoted their eloquence and splendid talents to the defence of their country's liber- ties : Foy, Girardin, Lafitte, and Cassimir Perrier, were reckoned amongst his constant associates. With these patriotic men he discussed continually those sub- jects that were most likely to contribute to the happi- ness and glory of France j but he most scrupulously rejected the approaches of all those, however eminent their talents, who openly denounced the arbitrary measures of the government, and employed the press to call together the discontented, and rally them around the standard of revolution. So decided was his conduct in this particular instance, that the most factious, enraged by his repudiation of their flattery, proclaimed that which he most desired, " that he was not of their party." During the reign of Louis XVIII. the Duke of Orleans seldom appeared at court, took no part in 444 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. public affairs, and, secluding himself in his splendid palace, passed his hours in the distribution of benefits to a large circle of dependents, and in the education of his children. His family presented a happy model of unity, amiable habits, and private virtues. Himself superintending the care of his young and numerous offspring, he saw them educated in the principles and practice of those high qualities, of which he and his benevolent duchess had never ceased to present the example. As to the efficacy of his system, there cannot be more valuable testimony, if the competence of the witness be sufficient to secure it, than that which Madame de Genlis has left. " I continued," says this venerable lady, " tp pay my respects to Mademoiselle d' Orleans, who is still as kind and affectionate towards me as ever. I saw the young Prince de Joinville, who was only two years old, but who spoke as distinctly as a child of six or seven ; he was also as polite as he was handsome and intelligent ; in fact, the whole family of the Duke of Orleans is truly the most interesting I ever knew ; the members of it are charming by their per- sonal attractions, their natural qualities, and education, and the reciprocal attachment of parents and children. I am greatly pleased with having proposed Madame Mallet to the Duke of Orleans, as a teacher to the young princesses, his daughters. Madame Mallet is highly deserving, by her virtues and accomplishments of being under the superintendence of a princess of such uncommon merit as her Royal Highness the Duchess of Orleans ; she possesses every qualification to com- prehend fully the orders she receives, and to fulfil them with extreme exactness. It is Mademoiselle d' Orleans who teaches the eldest of her nieces, the Princess Louise, to play on the harp ; she thought it due to A PICTURE OF DOMESTIC HAPPINESS. 445 her old teacher of the harp to invite her to hear her young pupil, and I was delighed with one of her lessons, at which I was present." The testimony of Madame de Genlis will be received with some qualification, her attachment to the house of Orleans, and the susceptibility of her character, may have insensibly drawn her into a too flattering repre- sentation of the domestic virtues, and felicity, of this family ; but, every event connected with their private history, which has transpired since the publication of her autobiography, confirms the absolute fidelity of the picture she has painted. The conduct of Louis Philippe at this period, and the exemplary manner of bis life, were matter of notoriety in England, for, the most liberal, high-minded, and high-born of our own nobility, were in habits of the closest friendship with the Orleans family during their dignified and happy seclu- sion. Here Madame de Genlis was in the habit of meet- ing the Duchess of Devonshire, a lady distinguished for her talents and disposition ; and here also, she became acquainted with a British prince, the Duke of Gloucester, whose uninterfering, benevolent, and re- tired life presented no unapt parallel to that of Louis Philippe. Deeply impressed with a conviction of the benefits, which he had himself derived from a free and unre- stricted intercourse with the world, Louis Philippe resolved upon allowing his sons every opportunity of studying mankind, which circumstances should afford. Education at the public schools of their country appeared to him the only mode of accomplishing his object, and without any hesitation he sent them to the national lyceums. There, undistinguished from the children of other citizens, they felt, like them, a desire of partici- 446 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. pating in the public rewards of ambition ; but, to obtain these prizes, it was necessary, even for princes, to deserve them. For this exercise of parental authority and individual judgment, Louis Philippe was visited with the indignation of the court a court, however, from which he was virtually excluded : one part of the nobility thought that the princes of the blood-royal underwent little less than contamination by associating with the children of citizens ; while another could only see in such condescension a stratagem, worthy of his unfortunate father, to catch popularity at any sacri- fice. Even the king himself partook of the equivocal feeling which this circumstance had created, and ven- tured to remonstrate with the Duke upon the impro- priety and mistake of such a system, for children so highly born ; but Louis Philippe reminded his majesty, that their great ancestor, Henri Quatre, had been similarly brought up, having been sent to the public schools at Bearne, by his august parent. The king had no feeling on the subject beyond that of acceding to the wishes of his courtiers, and checking any advances, which he was told the Orleans family were making, in public favour the improvement of the young princes in their studies, or the happiness of the Orleans family never entered into his consideration. Public men, however, noticed the circumstance, and the press applauded and condemned the liberal conduct of Louis Philippe, according to the respective political creeds of each journal. The remarks of Paul Louis, a writer of considerable talent, who appealed to the public for their decision on the question, cannot be passed unnoticed, they express the sentiments of the majority of the French nation " Our youths grow up amongst us, and see the princes of the nation grow up PUBLIC EDUCATION. 44/7 along with them. I say with them, and I speak advisedly : our children, more fortunate than ourselves, will know their princes, with whom they have been educated, and will be known to them. Already has the Duke of Chartres, the eldest son of the Duke of Orleans, entered at a college in Paris, a natural thing it may be said, provided he is only old enough to com- prehend the course of study. Natural, perhaps, bufc undoubtedly new for persons of his rank. Princes havg not hitherto been seen in public colleges, since princes and colleges have been in existence ; and this noble youth is the first who has been educated in this man- ner, or who has derived benefit from the course of public national instruction ; and, in an age so fertile in novelties, this is not of the description that should sur- prise us the least, that a prince should be studious, should join an academic class ! that a prince should have companions and school-fellows ! Hitherto they have had only attendants, and never passed through any other school than that of adversity, whose too severe lessons were often lost ; polluted at every age, out of reach of the voice of truth, ignorant of things and of men, they were born and died in the chains of etiquette and ceremony, seeing only the false and tinselled colours displayed before them ; they walked in the dazzling light, above our heads, nor ever per- ceived us until, by some accident, they fell. At length discovering the error which has separated them from nations, like the key of a vault, which although outside the door, had not been used ; they wish to see men, know what they know, and supersede all further neces- sity for lessons of misfortune to instruct them. Oh, late resolve ! which, had it been earlier formed, would have saved them from the commission of so many faults ; 448 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. France from the infliction of so many misfortunes The Duke of Chartres at college, educated in the prin- ples of Christianity, and of monarchy, but also in those of the constitution, will soon learn that of which, to the irreparable loss of the country, his ancestors were ignorant simple notions of plain truths, which the court conceals from princes, and cause them to err at the expense of their people. The Dragonnades and day of St. Bartholomew had never been known, had the kings been educated in the midst of their people, spoken the same language, and conversed with them without interpreters or mediators of any sort ; jacobinism, clubs, and barricades, would never have had existence. " The example left by the young Duke of Chartres to the inheritors of thrones, will no doubt be attended with advantageous results to them, it will be a happy as well as novel instance. What would that great king, Louis the Superb say, he who could not tolerate the idea even of his illegitimate children being confounded with the nobility of the kingdom, such was his sensitive- ness at the degradation of the blood-royal, if he beheld his grand nephew without page, or Jesuit, at a public school, mixing with the common herd of the human race, observing all the prescribed rules, and disputing with them for prizes, sometimes conqueror, sometimes conquered ; never, it is firmly asserted, favoured or flattered beyond his competitors ? This latter assertion there is little reason to discredit, the publicity of the examination rendering all such vile attempts difficult, if not impossible ; besides, that description of com- placency, which would induce a willing surrender of the rewards of ambition, seldom exists amongst youth ; they have not yet learned those arts of dissimulation, miscalled condescension, respect, and discretion, which MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE OF DERRI. 449 at later periods, and under different circumstances, pro- duce in some men a horror of truth. In the cloistered walks of these halls of learning everything is described by its proper name, every communication is one of instruction, nor are the best lessons those of the profes- sors. Here is no Abbe Dubois, no Meniers, no one to tell the prince that everything there belongs to him, time itself should be at his command, he is lord of all around. Such were not the circumstances attendant upon the collegiate life of the Duke of Chartres, he was treated without distinction or difference, he contended with the sons of lawyers, merchants, bankers, and others, not in superiority of accidental rank, but in legitimate ol/jects of youthful ambition, mastery of mind. Having completed his academic studies, the Duke of Chartres cannot fail to have derived an education superior to that of his contemporaries of rank, in the same degree, or extent, in which the discipline of a college exceeds that of a court." The seperation, coolness, and distrust that were created, by intriguing statesmen, between the king and the Orleans family, were in some degree dimi- nished by the marriage of the Duke of Berri with a niece of the Duchess of Orleans. After this event Louis Philippe appeared more frequently at court, although never received with cordiality by the king. The jealousy of his majesty was clearly evinced by his obstinacy in refusing the title of royal highness to the Prince of Orleans, a concession which would only have been in accordance with the ancient usage, of the court. But, in that imbecile monarch's memoirs, he is represented as having entertained the utmost, and most continual alarm, at the growing popularity of the duke. " I perceive," says he, " that although Louis Philippe i. 3 M 450 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. does not stir, he advances. How must I manage to prevent a man from walking, who appears as if he did not make a step ? It is a prohlem which remains for me to solve, and I should be glad not to leave it for solution to my successors." His majesty might have used the last term of his soliloquy in the singular number, and have left the solution of the problem to time, which gave an explanation of the enigma in the year 1830. 451 CHAP. VIII. From the death of Louis XVIII. to the revolution of 1830. THE silence and inactivity that pervaded the last year of Louis XVIII.'s reign, contributed to render the accession of any prince acceptable. Confined to the bed of sickness, he had ceased to rule de facto ; and, although the reigns had not actually fallen from his feeble hands, they were pulled by those of others, who were less responsible the party of the Pavilion Marsan. The levity with which his approaching end was spoken of, by the fashionable circles in Paris, was literally dis- gusting; jacobin and philosopher were titles hourly applied to him ; and, when at length, this most Chris- tian king passed from the regions of mortality, his remains were denied the usual Christian rites of sepul- ture. To succeed a monarch adored by his people is an inheritance few princes wish to receive one who has been the object of the people's hatred, affords a more favourable opening for the exercise of whatever qualities the successor may possess. Had Charles X. therefore, been gifted with a benevolent or liberal dis- position, or had he been under the direction of a man of such sentiments, he might have acquired, without sacrifice, the affections of his subjects, and given to the current of national history a very different direction from that which it has taken. To Louis Philippe and his family the new monarch LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. evinced some feeling of returning kindness, and, to repair, in some degree, the injustice which had been done to that branch of the royal family, he directed the Duke of Bourbon to resign all the great estates, which he had usurped, to the Duke d'Aumale, one of the sons of Louis Philippe. There was a moderate party in existence then, as at other periods, and these peace- makers, seizing eagerly upon the slight hopes of future freedom, which tho suppression of the censorship of the press held out, lauded extravagantly the principles and practices of the sovereign. The absolutists, however, entertained expectations directly the reverse ; they reck- oned with more certainty on the policy of the roi che- valier, and had they only possessed moral courage enough to have urged the refusal, Charles X. would never have sworn to the observance of the Charter at Rheims. Not daring to recommend this measure openly, they, nevertheless, suggested the acceptance of the oath accompanied by certain mental reservations, unworthy as unwise, and the fatal foundation of their own dis- comfiture. The duplicity of the monarch, however, could not be concealed much longer ; and the history of his brief reign is but a record of arbitrary acts, of attempts to encroach upon the liberties of his subjects, and to effect the complete establishment of absolute power. It was, for these objects, necessary to deprive the national guard of their physical power, as they constituted a formidable protection to national liberty, the various corps being in communication, and thereby capable of acting in concert. To disorganize the system, the privilege of electing their own officers, which the privates enjoyed, was taken away, and those corps, whose acquiescence in this most unreasonable consession was the least suspected, were THE NATIONAL GUARD DISBANDED. 453 unceremoniously disbanded. Less cruel than the stra- tagems of Mohammedan rulers for the destruction of the Janisaries and Mamelukes, the plot for the abolition of the national guard was little less art- ful ; on the third of May, the anniversary of Louis XVIIT/s public entry into Paris, the national guard were complimented by being put on duty at the Tuile- ries, and, Charles X, acknowledging their services to his family at the restoration, desired that the same honour should still be conferred upon them, only changing the day of duty from the original to the 12th of April, the anniversary of his own entrance, as Count d'Artois, into the capital. Pretending to be entirely satisfied with the deportment of this civic corps, his majesty expressed his wish to review the thirteen legions in the champ de Mars, and, proceeding to that spacious area, in presence of two hundred thousand spectators, he passed along the close, well-formed, line of citizen-soldiers. The acclamations of the people were loud and cordial, although some few voices mur- mured against ministers and Jesuits. The latter denun- ciation was more applicable than the authors of the insult imagined, for, in the whole history of French revolutions there never was a more Jesuitical act per- formed than the treatment of the national guard on this memorable occasion. Having personally complimented the several legions his majesty returned to his palace, and there gave directions, that the Moniteur should announce " that the king required riot advice but homage from his people ;" and, the same impression of that Journal contained a royal ordinance for disbanding the National Guard. That this act was not hasty, inconsiderate, the result of a momentary feeling of offended dignity, but a calm, 454 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. deliberate plan for the extinction of this popular na- tional body, to make way for foreign mercenaries, is shown by the preparations made previously to the review, by order of M. de Villele. Behind the Ecole Militaire, which stands at one end of the Champ de Mars, a park of artillery, brought from Vincennes the preceding evening, was kept in readiness, the horses harnessed, and the gunners holding lighted matches, ready to commence the work of destruction. The different court-yards of the Hotel dcs Invalids were filled with Swiss guards under arms, and troops, whose fidelity was relied on, were placed in the Bois de Boulogne; so that, while his most Christian majesty was pronouncing the highest eulogies upon the differ- ent legions of the national guard, instant death awaited them by his contrivance, and would have been inflicted, upon his only holding up his hand, or waving his handkerchief. The next direct invasion of the privilege of the people, was Peyronnet's bill for the restriction, or rather destruction, of the liberty of the press. The hereditary chamber having reputiated this infamous measure, which they called in mockery " The law of Justice and of Love," Villele instantly resolved upon introducing such a number of new peers, seventy-six, as would give him a majority in that house. These creatures of the minister were gazetted, or announced in the Moniteur, as elevated in this unworthy manner to the peerage, a dignity which they only held until the return of freedom ; for, by a clause in the charter of the last revolution, all the peerages of Charles X/s reign were abolished. Forced from their places by the result of a new election to the chamber of deputies, the deplorable ministry voluntarily resigned their DUPLICITY OF CHARLES X. 455 trust to Martignac, Roi, and Caux, men less despised and unpopular than the Villele administration but not less mischievous. Whatever satisfaction the nation might have felt, at the expulsion of the enemies of their liberties, was completely counteracted by the obsti- nacy and fatuity of the king, who, setting public feeling at defiance, raised Villele, Corbiere and Peyronnet to the peerage with pensions, and brought others of the obnoxious ex-ministers into his privy council. Martignac was supported in the lower house by a con- stitutional majority, and, desirous of retaining power, he brought forward measures calculated to acquire popularity and deserve the support of the deputies. The law of elections was amended, in a manner that gave some advantage to the people, and the restric- tion, which imposed a preliminary sanction on the press, was rescinded. The liberal views of the minis- ters, views into which they were forced by the pressure of public opinion, were highly displeasing to the king, who, nevertheless, was such a master of the hypocritic art that he never betrayed the last symptom of disap- pointment, nor uttered a disapproving sentence, during the whole progress of these popular enactments ; but, on the contrary, pursued undeviatingly, his systematic habits of life prayers in the royal chapel every morning his dog and gun after breakfast and cards at night until ten o'clock. Cautiously concealing the intrigues then in progress for the expulsion of the ministry, he received them with apparent cordiality on the seventh of August 1829, and treated Martignac with such marks of respect and consideration, as must have allayed suspicion, had he entertained any ; yet scarcely had they left the royal presence when they received a most con- temptuous dismissal. LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. On the following day, the formation of the Polignac cabinet was publicly announced, in which Labourdon- naye, Courviosier, de Rigny, and Bourmont, were in- cluded. Some of the late ministry had resigned, rather than permit Villele to be restored to his place of presi- dent of the council, and consent to act under Polignac and, of those newly chosen, de Rigny, one of the heroes of Navarino, refused to become the colleague of Bour- mont, the deserter of Waterloo, while the eloquent Chateubriand instantly resigned his dignity of ambas- sador to the court of Rome. Prince Polignac had been ambassador at the court of St. James's, and the intimacy which he was believed to have formed with the aristocratic party in England, but especially with the Duke of Wellington, who will for ever be detested by the French people, rendered him the most excep- tionable member of the nobility to be placed at the head of the administration. But, possibly, this prince's unpo- pularity conferred on him additional claims to favour in the estimate of this arbitrary king, who concluded, that the minister's allegiance to himself would be rivetted more securely by the odium in which he was viewed by the people. A disagreement having occurred between the rival leaders of the new ministry, the prince at once manifested his determination to rule alone, and, asking Labourdonnaye whether he was afraid of the revolu- tionists ? the man of Catagories replied, " neither of them, nor of you." This answer was conclusive ; the prince did not demand, or wait for explanation, and his ovvn appointment, as president of the council, being gazetted the very next day, his rival withdrew from the contest. And now that power, which the courtiers viewed as the only one that could restore the faded brilliancy of THE POLIGNAC ADMINISTRATION. the throne, and recover, from the people, the regal rights which they had violently invaded, and so long usurped, commenced its bold career, the Martignac ministry was little more than a transition state of government an interval in absolutism of which the royalists availed themselves to acquire fresh vigour, to organize their partizans for a campaign against liberty. When the most honourable, liberal, and far-seeing of that ministry, perceived the favourable consideration extended towards Prince Polignac by the king, his singular, yet uncensured conduct in abandoning the duties of the embassy in London, on two separate occasions, and returning to France, without even the form, etiquette, or courtesy of informing the minister for foreign affairs of his intention, when they per- ceived the partiality which his majesty manifested for this distinguished individual, whose political principles were hostile to those of the ministers, and decidedly opposed to the national wishes, they resigned without complaint, and abandoned the royal patient as incur- able. Their conduct in so doing was more dignified, loyal, and considerate, than if they had waited, like their leader, to put the king to the shame of dismissing faithful servants, and themselves to the disgrace of public expulsion from office. It was the extreme of infatuation alone that could have led this imbecile, priest-ridden king, to have selected Prince Polignac for his prime minister and adviser; for, although possessing an accurate know- ledge of mankind, experienced in the school of politics, enjoying influence at the different courts of Europe, and possessed of the most romantic courage, his devo- tion to legitimacy, and the old order of things, com- plely disqualified him for the duties of a statesman i. 3 N 458 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. under the altered sentiments of the French nation. There were other circumstances connected with the individual share he had taken in the revolutionary proceedings of the preceding years, that rendered him obnoxious to the people ; of these, his unremitting opposition to the government of Napoleon, stood fore- most amongst his delinquences. This course, however, posterity will pardon, not only from the justice in which his hostility was founded, but for the chivalrous spirit which he exhibited even under the weight of the captive's chains. Prince Polignac, and his elder brother, Armand, having conspired with Georges and Pichegru against Napoleon's life, effected a landing in France, where they were soon made prisoners, tried, and condemed, the elder to death, Jules to two years' imprisonment. After sentence was pronounced, an example of fraternal affection was presented by these noble youths, such as the exaggerated tales of the olden times alone can pre- tend to equal. Armand demanded the exercise of mercy towards his brother, whose youth should be taken in extenuation ; besides, the whole guilt of the plot, and the seduction of his brother to a participation in it, were entirely his own. Jules, on the other hand, rejected mercy for himself, and entreated the judges to accept his life as the forfeit which the laws claimed, and to spare his brother's. " I," said he, " am a single man, without fortune or station ; my brother is married ; do not drive a virtuous woman to despair ; but, if you do not spare him, at least, let me share his fate/' This affecting spectacle produced such an impression on all present, that it was soon related to the amiable Jose- phine, and to Hortense, who, uniting their tears with those of the disconsolate Madame de Polignac, obtained COUNT JULES DE POLIGNAC. 459 from the emperor, a commutation of the sentence of death passed on Armand, to imprisonment. Eleven years of his life being passed in captivity at Ham, in the Temple, and at Vincennes, Armand escaped ; and, the brothers a second time conspiring against the imperial government, joined in the intrigues of Mallet. The revolution of events, the fall of Napo- leon, and ultimate accession of their old companion, Count d'Artois, to the throne of France, accomplished the objects for which they had so gallantly, but rashly exposed themselves to peril, Jules having resided many years in England, where he espoused Miss Campbell, the heiress of vast possessions in Scotland, had been a constant attendant at the levees of the exiled d'Artois, and, having evinced so much devotion to the cause of royalty, acquired the admiration and affection of that prince. Upon the arrival of the intelligence that Napoleon ceased to reign, Jules was despatched to Paris, by Monsieur, with full powers, where he planted the white colours, on the thirty-first of March, 1814. In the following year he went on an embassy to Rome, and, when the return of the ex-emperor again put the royalists to flight, Count Jules de Polignac gallantly rallied the emigrants round the royalist standard in Saxony : for this fidelity, in addition to his past distinguished life and services, he was created a peer of France. His unshaken attachment to the cause of royalty, or rather of legitimacy, operated effectually against his ever acquiring the confidence of the people ; and his English connection contributed to place him in a less favourable position with a nation writhing under the agonies, which Wellington had inflicted on their vanity at Waterloo. But the firmness and consistency of 4GO LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Prince Polignac were not to be shaken by the terrors of death ; he had encountered that tyrant before, with the calmness of a hero, and, when the new oath was tendered to the peers, in 1815, he was the first to reject it, as being hostile to the interests of religion, and only consented to accept it after the explanations of the charter, contained in the king's speech at the opening of the chamber in 1816. The choice of Prince Polignac, therefore, must necessarily have been an unpopular act, and, although the king rightly concluded that his firmness, principles, and energy, might be confidently relied on, he erred in supposing that that generation of France would ever be reconciled to the associate of Pichegru, and the friend of Wellington. But the political state of Eu- rope at that critical moment, might readily have misled a prince of more profound and contemplative mind than the bon vivant Charles. In England, the govern- ment was committed to the cautious guidance of the Duke of Wellington, whose talents in the cabinet shed a lustre on the reign and the regency under which he served. This illustrious man, viewed with jealousy and chagrin in all his political projects by the French peo- ple was now loudly denounced by them as an enemy to the liberties of his own country, because he resisted parliamentary reform. His grace certainly did oppose that measure with, all his political influence, and sena- torial ability, and he also lived to see the total futility of that political revolution, which actually threw the representation into the hands of the aristocracy more entirely than before. It was also apprehended that the bonds of the Holy Alliance were about to be drawn more closely, by which kingly power would derive an overwhelming preponderance. In Spain the constitu- REMONSTRANCE OF THE DEPUTIES. 461 tional government was terminated by French interven- tion, suggested by Villele; and Don Miguel, supported by Austria, trampled brutally upon the constitution and the liberties of the Portuguese, without receiving either check or admonition from England. Finally, the absolutism threatened by the Van Maneen admi- nistration in the Netherlands, seemed likely to extin- guish the last spark of freedom in that country. After nine months of nominating, dismissing, and intriguing on the part of this anti-national ministry, it was at length resolved to call the deputies together, and the opening of the chambers was accordingly pro- claimed. The king's speech was precisely of that unconciliatory character which his subjects had anti- cipated, and contributed, of course, to feed the flame of discontent to swell the current of national feeling. " If guilty mano3uvres," said the monarch, " will con- tinue to oppose obstacles to my government, I shall find the strength to overcome them in my resolution." The deputies evinced a noble firmness in their address in answer to the royal speech : it was signed by a majority of the members of the chamber, and included this memorable passage " The intervention of the country renders some permanent concurrence of the political views of your government with the wishes of the people a condition inseparable from the regular advance of public affairs. Sire, our loyalty, our devo- tion, oblige us to inform you that, this concurrence cannot exist between those who disown a country so calm, so faithful, and us, who, from a deep conviction are come to lay in your bosom the grief of a whole nation." Having concluded in the usual language of etiquette, by demanding the decision of his majesty's 4<2 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. profound wisdom, that affected sagacity delivered itself in words to this effect " I had calculated upon the concurrence of the two chambers, for the benefits which I had contemplated in order to consolidate the happi- ness of my people. I regret to hear the deputies say that this concurrence does not exist on their part. I have announced my resolution to you in my speech, it is unalterable. The interests of my subjects render my abandonment of it impossible. My ministers will acquaint you with my further wishes." The chamber being prorogued to the first of Sep- tember, the nation at once assumed an attitude of defence, and exhibited a firm resolution to protect its menanced rights and liberties ; associations were formed for the purpose of resisting payment of taxes, and a regular organized system of opposition to government propagated throughout the provinces. The minister, however, thought proper to try the chances of an election, and an ordinance for the dissolution of the chamber was accordingly published on the seventeenth of May, 1830. It was on the thirty-first of May that the Duke of Orleans gave that celebrated ball, in honour of his father-in-law, the king of Naples, which was so long remembered by the fashionable circles of Paris. The decorations adopted on the occasion were of the most costly and graceful character ; the duke's splendid for- tune permitted the former, his excellent taste ensured the latter regulation. There were amphitheatres of flowers -those immense colonades, those lengthened terraces of the palais royal were filled with orange trees, those interminable roofs of glass, sparkling with so many thousand lights, presented, in the midst of BALL AT THE PALAIS-ROYAL. 463 one of the lovliest spring-tide nights, a scene as gor- geous, and splendid, as the enchanter's palace in the fairy tales, or the princes' palaces in Oriental fables. It was described by the public press of the period, as " a kingly fete," a phrase that may be variously interpreted ; it may have referred to the splendour of the festival, the actual presence of the monarch, or even of him who gave the pageant, and would be " king hereafter." This may be a more comprehen- sive interpretation than the descriptive epithet ever aspired to ; but, the coincidence of circumstances is somewhat remarkable, as one of those occasions in the destiny of Louis Philippe, which cannot fail to have presented themselves to the reader of his eventful career. This evening was the first occasion on which Charles X. and his family had visited the Palais-royal in regal state, and the public of Paris augured happier consequences, than those that did result, from the re- turning favour of the monarch to the injured Prince of Orleans. While the duke was receiving the congra- tulations of his guests upon the magnificence, taste, and hospitality which his palace presented, Mon. Salvandy observed" It is quite a Neapolitan fete, 'your high- ness,' for we dance upon a volcano." " That there is a volcano here," replied Louis Philippe, " I believe as firmly as you do, but I know that the fault at least is not mine. I shall not have any occasion hereafter to reproach myself for not having endeavoured to open the king's eyes ; but, what could be expected when nothing is listened to ? God knows where all this will end ! I certainly do not foresee what is about to hap- pen. I cannot tell where all those, who are producing this state of things, will be in six months hence ; but, one thing I do know, which is where I shall be myself. 464 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Under all circumstances, or changes, that may occur, my family and myself will remain in this palace this is our throne. Whatever may be the peril of so doing, I shall not move from my father's home ; I shall never again consent to separate the fate and the fortune of myself and children from those of my country. This is my fixed, unchangeable determination. Even recently, at Rosny, I spoke fully, freely, undisguisedly, what were my sentiments about the present alarming crisis." In the course of the evening the Prince of Salerno asked the duke why he allowed the paintings of the battles of Montmirail and Champ- Aubert* to remain in his gallery. " Because," replied his highness, " I like everything French." The electoral defeat sustained by ministers was complete, the two hundred and twenty-one were every- where returned. The new depositories of power an- nounced, through the medium of the journals sub- servient to them, their intention of appearing before both houses ; and, even ventured to boast confidently of^obtaining a majority in those august assemblies. The memorable ordinances destined to destroy the liberties of the people, by the abolition of the charter, had been previously digested; and ministers only awaited a confirmation of the intelligence of the cap- ture of Algiers, to strike the final, fatal blow. They certainly did not set any value on popularity, and felt little compunction in trampling upon the political rights of the nation. Polignac had once been a victim to the frenzy of revolution, and the exercise of the most unmitigated severity towards his family, by the votaries of republicanism, had, probably, inclined him to the * Two towns in France, near to which the allies were defeated, by Napoleon, in 1814. CONQUEST OF ALGIERS. 4(>5 feeling, that the day of retribution was arrived. But, besides this principle of conduct, which rests on mere assertion, for, Napoleon, the creature of revolution, had shown mercy to his family, the minister had a still stronger motive for the policy he appeared to pursue in his allegiance to his royal master. Inheriting the obstinacy, and absolutism, of his ancestors, the bigoted king of France was inflexible in his purpose a diminution of the people's prerogatives and augmentation of the sovereign's, engrossed his attention, and he had drawn the too-faithful Polignac into the same gulph of error, in which he was absorbed, by persuading him, that the immediate object of the people's complaints, was a restriction of monarchical power, and the ultimate, the total extinction of the title. These were the false, and foolish impressions of the monarch's feeble mind, when he directed " that the canaille should be swept away from the highways they polluted, like the sands by the whirlwind in the desert, like the spray by the storm over the ocean ;" that the days of 1823, the fusillades of the Rue de St. Denis, had blinded them. To prepare the public mind for this coup d'etat, Madrolles and Cottu were employed to present memorials to the government, praying for the total annihilation of the charter, and the restoration of monarchy in all its primitive purity. The thunder of artillery at length announced the coveted conquest of Algiers, and the enthusiasm of the nation was awoke by those sounds of triumph, to which it had been accustomed under the brilliant reign of Napoleon. Thanksgiving was directed in the cathe- dral of Notre-Dame, on which occasion, after the chanting of the Te Deurn, the archbishop, addressing the king, said " May this victory be the presage to i. 3 o 466 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. your majesty of one still more important." As his grace dared not have alluded to the conquest of the king's evil passions, and thirst for arbitrary sway ; he must necessarily have meant the approaching triumph which he anticipated of absolutism over liberty. Although the hopes of this reverend politician rose so high as to overflow in public, and pour upon the wakeful ears of the multitude; yet, either doubting his sincerity, or vainly imagining that the king would still relent, they remained perfectly tranquil during the whole of Sunday, the twenty-fifth of July ; besides, as the deputies had received their lettres closes, the royal sitting on the third of August, seemed now tolerably certain. That calm, however, concealed the depths of destruction that lay beneath ; that tranquillity was like the awful stillness that immediately precedes the burst- ing of a volcano. The peers, it was true, re-echoed the speech from the throne, and avowed their adhesion to arbitrary government, which produced a momentary pause ; but the rolling of artillery, that proclaimed the fall of Algerine tyranny,* was not more electric in its effects than the eloquence of Chateaubriand in defence of the liberties of the press and the people. This powerful writer's denunciation of the king's high-toned speech was the signal for renewed activity on the part of the jour- nalists. The royalists and Jesuitical papers exulted in the conduct of the king, and lauded the ministry for its * Repeated insults having been offered to the French flag, by the Algerines, and the Dey having struck the French consul at a public audience, the long projected conquest of Algiers was resolved on. On the fifth of July that piratical city having surrendered at dis- cretion, their conquerors entered and got possession of ninety millions of francs in money, ten millions in gold and silver bullion and plate, besideds thirty millions more not inventoried. PRINTING ASSOCIATION. firmness ; while the liberal journals boldly predicted the events that soon after took place. These were con- ducted in general with great decorum ; while the ministerial journals were filled with calumnies and reproaches of their political opponents, whom, not content with vilifying in the coarsest language, they denounced as traitors and enemies of the throne. A society was formed in Paris for publishing journals in such districts as were unsupplied with correct in- formation of the affairs of the country, and for pro- tecting and indemnifying those printers who had hesitated to employ their presses in printing anti- ministerial paragraphs. The members of this associa- tion were denounced and brought before the court-royal at Paris, but the king's advocate was unable to obtain their conviction. This abortive attempt only exhibited the despotism of the government in a broader light, and led, of course, to increased opposition and annoy- ance from popular assemblies. The names of the two hundred and twenty-one deputies, who had voted for the spirited answer to the king's speech, were now printed in hand-bills, and distributed all over France ; the same magic number was to be seen upon snuff- boxes ; and un des two hundred and twenty-two became a title of patriotism and popularity. These attacks were replied to by a prohibition of the sale of all snuff- boxes so distinguished, and the publication of a list of prefects, who had been either dismissed or transferred to other departments. Government declared that they were proceeding to purify every branch of the adminis- tration, and to effect this more perfectly, appointed the most servile of their partisans to the offices that re- quired the utmost purity the tribunals of justice. This last base proceeding was for a purpose that proved 468 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. fatal to the monarchy the prosecution, conviction, and suppression of the liberal journals, and the ultimate extinction of the liberty of the press. Having secured the services of corrupt judges, the Globe, National, and other journals were prosecuted; men of letters, whose abilities and patriotism had acquired for them a degree of favour amounting to affection from their countrymen, were dragged before this mock tribunal ; and ministers, although in a considerable minority, proceeded to treat their opponents as traitors, and to insult the nation, with a degree of cold deliberation that aggravated their misconduct. Two hundred and twenty of the sacred number being re-elected, by which the liberal party in the chamber secured a working, anti-ministerial, majority of one hundred and forty votes, ministers decided upon making a report to the king calculated to convert impending measures into open ruptures. This laboured, lengthened document, set forth in the most injudicious manner, the dangers of a free press, asserting that " at all epochs the periodical press has only been, and from its nature, must ever be an instrument of disorder and sedition. It proceeded, in accordance with this false theory, to call upon the king to suspend the liberty of this licentious power, a step authorized, as it asserted, by the fourteenth article of the charter which declares, that the king has the power to make all regulations and ordinances for the execution of the laws, and the safety of the state. The state, the report continued, is in danger, and your majesty has the right to provide for its safety. No government can stand if it has not the right to provide for its own safety ; besides, Jhe eighth article of the charter only gives every French- man the right of publishing his own opinions ; but not THE THREE ORDINANCES. as the journals do the opinions of others ; the charter does not expressly allow journals and the liberty of the press. The journals misrepresent the best intentions of the government ; and the liberty of the press pro- duces the very contrary of publicity, because ill-inten- tioned writers misconstrue everything, and the public never knows the truth." This report, to which its consequences have im- parted an historical importance, is one of the shallowest and most preposterous state papers on record. It com- bines unconstitutionality with miserable sophistry, and the threadbare verbiage of despotism. Despotism must never argue, or it is lost. The ministers of Charles X., in obedience to the infatuation of their contemptible master, had resolved upon violating the constitution, but wanted those peculiar talents that are requisite to play the despot. History has shown that nothing is so violent and so blind as bigotry, religious or political ; and this was the characteristic of the whole party, both priests and laymen, who supported, or rather ministered to the bad passions of the monarch. Three ordinances accompanied the report, one dis- solving the chamber according to the fiftieth article of the charter (this was obviously annulling the election rather than dissolving the chamber, because the new chamber had not been organized) ; a second, sus- pending the liberty of the periodical press, although, according to law, the liberty of the press, even if suspended, revives of itself, on the dissolution of the chambers. The third ordinance prescribed a new law of election, from which ministers augured more favour- able returns. To this last act of tyranny, the objects of its cruelty refused to submit ; the Constitutionel, National, Courrier Francais, Temps, Globe, Journal 470 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. de Commerce, Messager, Figaro, and other liberal journals resolved to appear without the authorization of government, required by the new ordinance. Two journals, the Journal des Debats, and La Nouvelle Finance, adopted the meaner course of passive obedi- ence to this usurpation of authority. The literary men connected with the liberal journals whose exis- tence was menaced, drew up a spirited protest, embody- ing the whole of the question at issue between the crown and the people, and pointing out, in what par- ticular respect, ministers had violated the constitutional charter. In addition to this incipient measure of re- sistance to the throne, an opinion, given by eminent lawyers, was published, declaring that the property in a journal was like any other property, and could only be attacked by regular judicial process. But remon- strance was vain, the king had chosen the path of obstinacy, despotism, and folly ; and his retainers were so blindly devoted to royalty, in any, and every shape, that they wanted moral courage to point out to their royal master the unconstitutional character of his views, or to separate themselves from him, having found that the arts of persuasion were incapable of convincing him of the approach of danger. The liberal papers were accordingly suppressed, and the M6?iiteur, Quotidienne, Gazette des France, and Drapeau Blanc alone allowed appear. The gloom, which the publication of the ordinances had diffused over the city, soon began to be exchanged for a feeling of resentment, and this was in time suc- ceeded by a determination to resist with violence their execution. The Palais-royal became the rallying point for the discontented ; and the cry of " vive la Charte " continued to issue, during the day of the twenty-sixth ESCAPE OF PRINCE POLIGNAC. 4/1 of July, from the crowd that assembled around the office of the Marquis de Chabanne, in the Orleans gallery, which traverses the centre of the Palais-royal. A party of gens-d'armes rushed through the crowd, and endeavoured to force an entrance into the shop, whence the political brochures of the marquis issued, but the shout offermez ! fermez ! causing the door to be closed, and the crowd advancing steadily in a com- pact phalanx, the agents of tyranny were frustrated in their attempt. Encouraged by this successful manoeuvre, and irri- tated still further against the king's advisers by this unpopular act, the crowd proceeded towards the Champs Elysees, with the intention of interrupting Prince Polignac on his return from St. Cloud, and of avenging on the spot the crime which the nation im- puted to him. While the mob deliberated, an equipage with armorial bearings and liveried servants came up, which being at once concluded to belong to the object of their hatred, was sudddenly stopped in its progress. An explanation ensued, during which the carriage of the prince drove up, and his coachman, comprehending the nature of the emeute, whipped on so dexterously, that he reached his master's hotel, on the Boulevard des Capucines, without injury, although pursued by an infuriated multitude at their utmost speed, just in time to close the solid gates against them. The example of the proprietors and contributors of the public journals was now followed by the middle and higher classes ; and, a meeting of the constitutional deputies, then in Paris, was convened at the hotel of Cassimir Perrier, to deliberate upon the measures adopted by the advisers of the crown. At this meet- ing a committee was nominated to prepare an address LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. against the same violations of which the journalists had complained. A number of students of the public schools, attracted to the locality of Perrier's hotel, for the purpose of ascertaining the decision of the deputies, were attacked by the police with sabres ; and, in the very presence of the assembled deputies, the emissaries of the crown dared to spill the blood of unarmed citizens, for an offence which the least legal chastise- ment would have sufficiently vindicated. Monsieur Mangin, in conformity with instructions, despatched strong bodies of gens-d'armes to seize and destroy the type, presses, and other materials connected with the refractory journals ; and, notwithstanding the protest of the deputies, these orders were executed to the utmost letter. An accumulation of circumstances contributed to bring the question of freedom or slavery to issue on the twenty-seventh. The prefect of police had distri- buted his emissaries throughout the city to excite the people to open acts of rebellion, that there chastise- ment might be summary and signal ; but, being dis- covered, they were treated so roughly, that few returned with a report of their progress. The Places Carousel, Bourse, and Vendome, were occupied by troops of the line, but, being unattended by civil functionaries, the people did not apprehend any danger from their presence. Instead, therefore, of retiring as the military advanced, numbers ran towards them, and, in attitudes and accents of earnest supplica- tion, adjured them to spare the lives of their fellow- citizens, and reserve their bayonets for the enemies of their country. The officers instantly communicated with General Walsh ; but instead of receiving any further instructions, the troops of the line were distri- CRUEL CONDUCT OF THE LANCERS. 473 buted in patrols, and the royal guards, with a detach- ment of lancers ordered to occupy their former posi- tions. More subservient to the ruling power, the lancers did not hesitate to do the bidding of the gene- ral officers ; and having fired a volley, charged amongst the defenceless multitude, vociferating "Vive le Roi! Vive Charles X. !" Pursuing their bloody and inhu- man orders, they cut down all they could overtake ; while many a victim was heard to exclaim in the last agonies of death, " Vive la liber te ! vive la Charte !" It was in this scene of the horrid tragedy, that a fine young woman was killed by a musket-ball, which entered her forehead. A journeyman baker, who wit- nessed the sad spectacle, being a man of gigantic stature and great personal strength, snatched up the body, and holding it at arm's length above his head, carried it in this way to the Place des Victoires, calling aloud for vengeance as he passed. This terrible expedient pro- duced the most important results to the cause of free- dom. It confirmed the troops of the line in their refusal to engage in civil war, and worked up the enraged multitude to acts of still more widely extended vengeance. The guard-house at the exchange was set on fire, the street-lamps were broken ; the theatres, gunsmiths' shops, and all other depositories of weapons, however inferior in quality, were broken open ; and the military, unable to act in the dark and narrow streets, literally resigned the city to the insurgents, confining themselves to the great squares, in which they had established their bivouacs. Having obtained secure possession of the streets, the people proceeded to construct barricades of waggons, cars, carriages, and every species of object that could be put in requisition for the purpose. For some short time this species of 474 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. jampart was considered to be effectual ; but before any trial of its value could be made, a new idea arose, that of unpaving the streets, and employing these more solid and more public materials to military defensive objects. The mercurial character of the French nation is pro- verbial ; the slight nature of the impulse, which has urged them to the performance of their most remark- able exploits, is almost matter of curiosity : but, perhaps their exertions were never stimulated, their movements never regulated, by a spring of such delicate structure as on this occasion ; the inspiring tones of the Mar- sellaise, which was sung in full chorus by thousands, constituting their chief solace, and encouragement, during the anxious moments of the night. The words written for this purpose by Rouget de Lisle have been much admired since the revolution ; and one of the first acts of Louis Philippe, on his accession to the throne, was to confer a handsome pension upon their author, from his private fortune. The morning of the twenty-eighth disclosed a scene which struck terror to the hearts of the whole court party of those who had either urged the bigot Charles to his arbitrary conduct, or were the servile instru- ments of his grovelling passions. Few of the men who had boasted of their courage in the hour of danger, before the flames of civil war had burst out, were to be seen either in the capacity of leaders of their own party, or mediators between both. The national guard, which had been disbanded, from jealousy and distrust, just three years before, reorganized themselves, and as they proceeded to their place of rendezvous, were loudly cheered by the people* A feeling of hostility to the king and royal family began also to be openly displayed, by the obliteration of all emblems of royalty over public CHARACTER OF LOUIS PHILIPPE RESPECTED. offices, or private houses. Portraits, names, arms, of any of the royal race, that had been employed as signs by tradespeople, were torn from their places, and trampled under foot. From this studied mark of contempt the family of Orleans was exempt ; the only infringement, upon Louis Philippe's dignity, wherever he graced a sign-board was the obliteration of the epithet " royal highness," which had grown disgracious in the city's eyes. It is not probable that the future elevation of the Duke of Orleans was the motive that actuated the patriots in this natural, but childish, mode of express- ing their disgust for royalty in both branches of the Bourbons, in conjunction with their rooted animosity towards the elder line ; but, it is morally certain that, even then, as coming events cast their shadows before them, the exemplary life of Louis Philippe, his abstin- ence from factious proceedings, his unpopularity with the court party, and his reputation for learning, liberality, and justice, had pointed public expectation towards him, as an anchor which would steady their forlorn country when reeling under the whirlwind of revolution. Although, they did not look upon the Duke of Orleans as their future king, nor in fact was the idea of a monarchy acceptable to the revolu- tionists, yet there must have been a feeling prevalent, that he would be at least their protector, during the interregnum that must precede the expulsion of king Charles. Whatever was the origin of the con- sideration shown for the portrait of Louis Philippe, the respect paid to his name and title, the fact must have had its dueinfluence upon the royalists at the moment. It is difficult to ascertain with certainty in what precise part of the city the conflict commenced on th^ 476 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. morning of the twenty -eighth, for, being general in all quarters, and not originating from any preconcerted plan of an individual, or of an organized assembly, no accurate statement of the order of events can be now collected. It is, however, more than probable that the faubourg Saint Antoine, of revolutionary celebrity, was the scene of the first mortal strife on the morning of Wednesday ; and it is quite certain, that in this quarter the tricoloured standard had been first dis- played on that morning, as well as on that of the pre- ceding day. A strong body, consisting of a party of tirailleurs, a regiment of infantry, a squadron of lancers, and a detachment of cuirassiers, with several pieces of artillery, were directed to take up their position in the Place de Greve. As they passed along the streets, they exhibited sufficient indication of their devotion to their royal master, by discharging their muskets into the windows, and striking down every object that appeared to belong to the popular cause, or was in the least degree expressive of liberal sentiments. Being reinforced by a battalion of infantry, and supported by two pieces of artillery, that had arrived at the rendez- vous from Vincences, the work of death commenced. Against a force so strong, well disciplined and pro- vided, resistance must necessarily have proved vain, and, after a brief, but bloody struggle at the upper end of the Rue St. Antoine, the people were compelled to give way. A young man, who bore the flag of free- dom, disdaining to fly before the royal guard, remained alone and unsupported in the middle of the street, while the lancers pursued and cut down his companions who fled for shelter towards the porch of the Protestant church ; but, on the return of the soldiers, he was literally hewn in pieces, and, with a ferocity degrading to the profession of arms, these cowardly assassins INTREPIDITY OF AUGUSTIN THOMAS. 477 made their horses tread his dead body under their feet. Lower down, in the same long avenue, the fortune of the day was favourable to the revolutionists ; there the workmen of the faubourg had securely entrenched themselves, and, from their little citadel took such deadly, aim that the guards were compelled to retire, leaving behind them a considerable number of wounded. It was at first resolved that all prisoners should be put to death without remorse, as traitors to their country ; but, through the humane intercession of M. Bardel, a retired officer, the horrible idea was abandoned, and the same kind treatment extended towards them as if they had been prisoners of war. It was near to the scene of this awful conflict, that a bomb-shell fell through the chimney of a house ; but the inmates, with an extraordinary presence of mind, and singular good fortune, succeeded in extinguishing the fusee, saving themselves, most probably, from a violent death. In commemoration of the exploit this dreadful visiter was suspended across this street, in the usual manner of the public lamps in Paris, surmounted by a tricoloured flag, and bearing the inscription in large letters of " Charles X. to his people." This memento continued to distinguish the scene of the occurrence for some years afterwards. Through the intrepidity of Augustin Thomas, a haircloth manufacturer, the guards were defeated with great slaughter, near the Porte St. Martin. This bold man having succeeded, by a close fire of small arms, in dismounting a party of cuirassiers, called to his ad- herents to spring into the emptied saddles; follow- ing the gallant example of their leader, the patriots were seen, in the next moment, charging the remnant of the beaten cavalry, and driving the enemies of liberty 478 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. before them in all directions. The gen- (Tanneries from the adjacent barracks would have come to the aid of the cuirassiers, but they were checked by a partj- supplied with paving-stones, and securely lodged in the balcony of a great carrying establishment, that com* manded the only egress of the barrack. But th& Parisians say that the battle raged more furiously near the Porte St. Denis, during this memorable day, than elsewhere in the city. The royal guard manifested a devotion honourable to those who believed themselves solemnly bound to defend the standard of monarchy ; and the patriots offered a resistance such as none but a military people, long used to the clamour and the triumph of war, could have given to a disciplined army. Here Thierry, an old soldier under the emperor, directed operations against the guards, and, even after he had been wounded in the arm, continued to cheer his followers, and lead them to victory. In the passage de ITndustrie, an artisan took his stand as at the loop- hole of a fortress ; and, while a tempest of bullets whistled around him, coolly and steadily loaded his piece, and took the most unerring aim at the officers and most distinguished men in the royal guard. He was a perfect marksman, and from the calmness with which he beheld the ruin his hands had wrought, must have been familiar with the well-fought field. In another instance, humanity, sensibility, and the most tender mental temperament, produced beneficial conse- quences to the revolutionary forces. A magistrate of Nanci, who had ventured forth from his lodging in the Rue du Faubourg du Temple, was so much affected at the sight of the havoc made amongst the unarmed crowd, by the fire of artillery from the Boulevard, that He ran UD to the artillery officer, and, in the most PARIS IN A STATE OF SIEGE, 479 earnest language of remonstrance and supplication, reminded him of the guilt and barbarity of butchering his fellow-citizens in such a cause : the battery was instantly silenced. The utmost activity prevailed in the councils of the leaders, the most unceasing activity in the operations of those who gave submission to them. On Wednesday morning a royal ordinance was issued from St. Cloud, declaring Paris in a state of siege, but the Moniteur not having appeared on that morning, no official publication of that instrument ever took place. Such a declaration was consistent with the folly and pomposity of the monarch. When he had lost the means of proclaiming his intentions, he decided upon publishing them, and he resolved on telling his citizen -subjects that he meditated laying siege to their homes, just two days after that iniquitous and treasonable resolve had been inhumanly acted upon. On this morning, however, Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, who had assumed the command of the royalist forces, entered Paris by the left bank of the Seine, occupied the Pont Neuf, and directed an attack upon the Hotel de Ville, for the purpose of dislodging the national guards. The posi- tion which Marmont ultimately took up was the Place des Victoires, from which he led several attacks in person, but was repulsed in every instance with loss ; and he had also occasion to apprehend defection amongst his men, some of whom were observed to fraternize with a party of the national guards. The Bourse now became alternately a prison and an hospital, in which a number of the household troops were confined. As one of the contributors of the Gazette des Tribunaux passed near the entrance, he overheard the men on guard saying, that they had not tasted food for twelve 480 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. hours. Sharing in the patriotism of the hour, he instantly presented them with a five-franc piece, desiring them to go to the nearest place, and refresh themselves. For a moment they hesitated, remarking upon the impropriety of abandoning their post ; but, when their benefactor added " that he would become sentinel in their absence," they cheerfully accepted his kindness. Although poor and humble, they insisted upon return - ing to their generous substitute the balance that remained after paying for what they required. Little respect was shown to the hotels of the aris- tocracy, or public offices, with the exeption of that of the Marquis de Pastorel, Chancellor of France, which was spared amidst the universal destruction. His character was revered by the people, his example held up by the press generally, for imitation ; and when the lyclmoc- lasts were giving the supremacy to darkness, a voice was heard to exclaim " Spare the lamp at the chan- cellor's door, it has given light by which bread was dis- tributed to the poor all the last winter." The prisons were visited by a party appointed for the purpose, but their instructions did not extend to a general jail-delivery, by which the most debased crimi- nals would be inconsiderately let loose upon society, but solely to the liberation of the revolutionists, whom Mangin, the prefect of police, had caused to be arrested during the preceding day. The reasonableness and moderation of the demand obtained a ready compliance on the part of the turnkeys ; and, it is not improbable that this very judicious step saved considerable effusion of blood, while it relieved some public functionaries from the most painful responsibility. In every part of Paris the havoc continued during the whole of Wed- nesday with unabated fury 5 in fact, the success which 481 attended the patriots' efforts had so fed their enthusiasm, that they now felt confident of victory. Whether their growing spirit, their renewed energies, or a real disin- clination to the cause they defended, first sapped the loyalty of the army is uncertain, but they now began to desert to the people, or else to exhibit unequivocal symptoms of dislike to the duty imposed on them. Amongst the officers of the royal army, the first who declared his sentiments openly, was Dupin, captain of the guard, and it would have been well for king Charles and his minister, had they condescended to take a lesson of humanity from this gallant soldier's letter of resignation. The left bank of the river is the locale of booksellers, printers, publishers, and others connected with litera- ture in all its various forms ; these poor people felt the ruinous consequences of the destruction of the free- dom of the press, and without the least hesitation, pre- ferred the melancholy alternative of death, in defence of their rights, to the more deplorable fate starvation, surrounded by their families. During the whole night of the twenty-seventh, they were employed in casting bullets, at day -break powder arrived from Deux- Moulins, which had been surprised and plundered; and, the whole mass of literary revolutionists now placed themselves under the command of the pupils of the Polytechnic school. The example of this institution produced an electric effect law and medical students immediately rallied round the flag of liberty, and the revolution at once assumed a more elevated character. Remembering the gallant and chivalrous resistance of the Swiss guards in the first revolution, the patriots of 1830 had a just apprehension of the bravery of the corps that LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. formed the palace-guard of Charles X., and, after the Polytechnic pupils had assumed the command, the current of courage was swollen so high, that the annihilation of that body of mercenaries was instantly resolved on. Equally lavish of their life-blood, the Swiss accepted the challenge, and with the devotion of their national character, hoisted the black flag beside the white Bourbon standard, indicative of their resolu- tion to give no quarter. Making to the Rue de Babylone, where the Swiss barrack was situated, the college of Jesuits was made to supply arms and ammuni- tion, and a nunnery was broken into and pillaged of its bedding ; these and some further acts of violence being perpetrated, the barrack was attacked with all the enthusiasm that belongs to the French character at the commencement of a battle. Protected by their mattresses, being expert marksmen, and possessed of the most uncompromising fidelity to their trust, the slaughter made by the discharge of musquetry, from the barrack by the Swiss was terrific. Already had the fervour of the patriots somewhat cooled, when the horrid idea of setting fire to the building, and shooting the Swiss singly as they should endeavour to escape from the flames, was suggested, This desperate design was executed with extraordinary expedition ; but the mon- sters who had anticipated such a bloody festival were completely frustrated, the guard having escaped amidst the smoke, with comparatively moderate loss, and in such compact order that the infuriated multitude were not able to make any impression on their dense phalanx. While these tragic scenes were being enacted in one quarter of the city, others, not less momentous, were taking place elsewhere. One of the most decisive in DESTRUCTION OF THE ARCHIEP1SCOPAL PALACE. 483 its character and objects was the attack upon the Archiepiscopal palace. A barrister, named Petit-Jean led the revolutionists in this instance, and his followers, enraged at the conduct of his grace in abetting the cause of despotism, resolved to make a terrible example in his case for the instruction of those that were to succeed to his high and holy office. Petit- Jean was distinguished by a tricoloured scarf, which he after- wards unfurled as a banner of freedom on the highest tower of Notre-Dame. Directing the efforts of his followers he assailed the palace, which was filled with armed men, drove the defenders from their position, and gave up the apartments to pillage. As there was no time for the commission of theft, the costly furniture of the state-rooms was broken up and thrown into the streets, and the plate and other valuables cast into the Seine, whence they were fished up a few days after- wards, and, by order of the provisional government, re- moved to the Hotel de Ville. Political clergymen are in all countries deserving of contempt, and the Pari- sians only entertained a just indignation against the diosesan for his partizanship ; but surely the vengeance was ill-directed, which ended in the destruction of so much public property, as a punishment of the indivi- dual who was a mere trustee for its administration, and never was a conclusion more illogical, or narrow-prin- cipled, than that which inferred the culpability of the whole body of the clergy from the defection of the Archbishop alone. Notre-Dame being taken, the metropolitan palace levelled with the ground, the Hotel de Viile became the chief object of attack, and, from its central position, as well as civic importance, being the most suitable place for the assemblage and sitting of a provisional government, several columns of patriots moved against 484 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. it at the same instant. During the course of Wed- nesday the 28th, this contested position was taken and retaken repeatedly, and the most heroic courage evinced, both by the regular troops and national guard, in its attack and defence. It is supposed that hesitation amongst the officers damped the ardour of the royalist troops, so that their energies fading as those of their adversaries acquired strength, the morning of Thurs- day saw the tricoloured flag float from the belfry-tower of the Hotel de Ville. The Swiss defended the suspension bridge with their usual bravery, and the people would have vainly attempted to repulse them, had not the chivalry of an individual given such a sudden stimulus to their enthusiasm as rendered it almost irresistible. A youth of prepossessing appearance, looking steadfastly for a while upon the havoc committed on the bridge by the musquetry of the Swiss, sprang suddenly forward, exclaiming " Follow me, lads, and, should I too fall, remember that my name is Areole." The first volley laid him amongst the dead, and his followers beholding in his lifeless body, the relics of a martyr, with frenzied shouts of " Gloire a d'Arcole," rushed across the bridge, and drove the Swiss from their position with tremendous slaughter. It was in one of the meditated attacks against the Town-hall that the following interesting circumstance occurred, the tendency of which was more injurious to the cause of the king than has hitherto been imagined. As the contending parties stood arrayed in the Rue de la Monnaie, with their pieces le veiled at each other, a soldier of the line fell down in a fainting fit. Upon his recovery he rushed forward from the ranks, and threw himself into the arms of his brother, who had escaped the close fire of his own fellow-soldiers. This affect- THE ARMY WAVER IN THEIR ALLEGIANCE. 48<5 ing scene produced a sensation that could not be con- cealed, both parties beheld an illustration of the horrors of civil war, and the soldiers of the line were from this moment shaken in their judgment as to the justice of making war upon their fellow-citizens. One regiment of the line entered into a parley with the people, the citizens and soldiers embraced each other, and the fidelity of the troops became so uncertain, that even Marmont felt the force of the contagion, and hesitated for a moment as to his future course. But the gallantry of the Swiss, the military discipline of the lancers, and the devotion of the royal guards pleaded too strongly with the veteran, and reminded him of the honour, as well as courage, that mark the soldier; recovering from the reverie into which he had lapsed, he returned to his place at the head of his columns. It was, however, too late to restore the advantage which had been lost by hesitation and delay ; the people were everywhere suc- cessful ; besides, the eloquence of the lawyer had been employed as a new instrument in the revolution, to weaken the ranks of the royalists. In one remarkable instance M. Cassonais, of the royal court, during the fire which was continually poured upon the people, perse- vered in addressing the troops of the line, exhorting them to spare the lives of their relations and friends, not to shed the blood of their countrymen in such an un- righteous cause, and at least to grant a truce until terms might be proposed, a boon that would not be denied to a foreign foe. It was in vain that their colonel reminded them of the oath they had taken to the king, they replied simultaneously " that they also owed an allegiance to the nation, that the latter was present to enforce the engagement, but the king hid himself from his people." 186 LIFE AND TIMES OF J GUIS PHILIPPE. It is undoubtedly true, that his majesty enjoyed the most perfect mental composure, in his palace of St. Cloud, during these two days of incessant slaughter, and of lamentable civil war in his capital. He was either actually ignorant of the fact that every chief avenue, or public place in the city, was a scene of bloodshed ; or, knowing this fact, had so little feeling of humanity, that the reality did not affect him, so long as he was confi- dent that his arms would ultimately prove victorious. It can hardly be credited that his majesty was wholly ignorant of the collission that had taken place between his guards and the people. On the evening of the twenty-eighth, a royal order was issued, in the name of Marmont, granting a month- and-a-half's pay to the soldiers of the line who had distinguished themselves in the defence of royalty ; and the hotel of Prince Polignac stood open all day, for the admission of mes- sengers from the various scenes of battle. Here, how- ever, false friends occasionally entered, who exclaimed, " My Lord, we triumph honour to the royal guards glory awaits your party, misfortune that of the liberals leave the remainder to Marshal Marmont I" This fallacious representation being forwarded to St. Cloud, contributed to deceive the royal family as to their true position, and confirm the infatuation of the king. One person only, the Duchess of Berri, doubted the truth of these reports, and suspected that the tran- quility which reigned at St. Cloud would excite not only the ridicule, but disgust of the French nation. Having obtained from Count de Menens a more truth- ful narrative than he dared to deliver to his royal master, the duchess sought an interview with the king, and disclosed the secret sentiments of her mind. Mistaking obstinacy for genuine courage and true INSENSIBILITY OF CHARLES X. 487 nobility, the silly monarch desired her to be composed, that her fears were womanish were natural, that the approach of danger was not to be apprehended. At this moment a young artist entered, who had been commanded to attend that morning, his majesty being desirous to sit for his portrait. The state of excite- ment and agitation visible in his countenance, at once attracted the attention of the duchess, who demanded from him a true recital of the scenes he had witnessed. The artist obeyed, and in the horrible narrative which he delivered, occasionally pointed to the blood with which his clothes were bespattered as he escaped through the streets, on his way to St. Cloud. The king still pretended to be incredulous, assured the duchess, that it was a thing of no consequence, at all events it would be over that evening, and deliberately seated himself in a position suited to the object of the painter's visit. If his majesty was really acquainted with the facts, he must have been either a most con- summate hypocrite, or a most inhuman monster, for the complacency and immobility which he maintained, actually unnerved the artist, and disqualified him for his task ; and, having made several ineffectual attempts to commence, he supplicated his majesty's pardon and permission to retire. His request was granted with the same insensibility as to causes, his majesty merely observing, " Very well, come to-morrow morning." The retirement of the artist, gave the Duchess of Berri another opportunity of reiterating her entreaties, that the king would, even at the eleventh hour, lay aside his apathy and incredulity, and cease to be deaf to the entreaties of his people ; she assured the king that those who would persuade him that his throne 488 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and person were secure, were either ignorant or wicked, that the city was a scene of slaughter, and the national guard again in arms. At first Charles appeared to affect surprise at the grief and anxiety exhibited by the duchess ; but, finding her mind firmly imbued with the sense of approaching danger, he endea- voured to calm her fears, by ridiculing the species and degree of opposition which " a handful of journalists, and a few hundred operative printers, could give to the royal guard and the faithful Swiss ; and, " with respect to the reorganization of the national guard, that was impossible, as he had himself disbanded them, and prohibited their future existence." Not to be diverted from her purpose, this interesting and sensible woman continued to urge on the monarch's attention, the circumstances by which her own mind had been impressed ; and, finding all other arguments strike like leaden shafts, upon the impenetrable shield which his inhumanity presented, she had recourse to entreaties and prayers, that he would, at least, remember the hopes of his innocent grandson, and not compromise the interests of that young prince by his obduracy and indifference. This appeal produced, as might naturally be expected, an effect directly contrary to the anticipations of the duchess. An amiable, affec- tionate, generous mind might have yielded to such reasons, and granted, for the sake of his children, what he would have died rather than consent to in his individual case ; but, from a contracted, selfish, and obdurate heart, no such sentiments could have flowed. Coldly recommending the duchess to leave the cares of government to stronger heads and firmer minds, he somewhat sternly dismissed her from the royal pre- INCREDULITY OF THE KING. sence. In this instance he undoubtedly played an hypocritical part ; for, although he pretended to think that no grounds existed for the apprehension of dan- ger, he shortly after desired the dauphin to visit her royal highness, calm her womanish fears, and endea- vour to persuade her that she had been completely misinformed, as to the result of the collision between the royalists and republicans. It was nightfall of Wednesday before authentic intelligence was received at St. Cloud of the progress of the revolution, the proba- ble downfall of absolutism, and the triumph of freedom ; yet, even then, his majesty refused to be cured of his delusion ; a few of his faithful Swiss preferred death to dishonour, and the royal guards might have fallen back in mercy to a misguided mob, but victory, he believed, would ultimately and inevitably declare for the reigning government. His majesty remained com- posed while terror and consternation pervaded every part of his palace. As if confiding in the divine cha- racter of kingly delegation, he continued his usual occupations and amusements, he slept soundly after dinner, awoke and took his wonted seat at the card- table, and spoke of the pleasures of the chase which he purposed enjoying on the morrow. Occasionally during the relaxation of the card- table, the sound of artillery came booming across the plains, and told the tale of death that had occurred that moment. All others understood and felt its ill-boding language, the king alone was insensible to its appeals. It is said that he did sometimes, as the palace windows shook with the vibration of the external air, look up and with a smile of satisfied vengeance, scan the coun- tenances of his courtiers, and endeavoured to ascertain how far their feelings sympathized with his own. How i. 3 R 490 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. different would have been his sentiments and the ex- expression of his royal visage had he known that, at that moment, the whole of his troops were blocked up by the " operative printers" in the palaces of the Louvre and Tuileries! From its connection with the literature and the press of the metropolis, the revolution spread with more than the anticipated rapidity, so that the protest prepared by Mr. Guizot, against the three arbitrary ordinances, and meant for publication on Wednesday, when that day came was not suited to circumstances. The ripple that the revolutionists rode on, the first day of the contest, had swoln into a billow on the second, and, the artificial aid which the tide of freedom required, had varied in an inverse ratio. A point of central union was now requisite, some systematic control neces- sary, and accordingly, instead of a supplication to the throne for mercy, for some little alleviation of the strongest conditions of the ordinances, a proclamation was issued on Thursday morning, purporting to ema- nate from the deputies of the nation, announcing the formation of a provisional government of which General Lafayette, the Duke de Choiseul, and Count Gerard were the heads. The distinguished persons here named, were not themselves privy to the composition, or publi- cation of this decisive document, the Duke de Choiseul most assuredly did not know that he was selected, by the revolutionists, as a trustee of their liberties and lives, until he read his name and title in the following printed edict. " Brave Citizens of Paris Your conduct during these days of dis- aster is above all praise. When Charles X. abandoning his capital, had given you up to gen-d'armes and Swiss, you defended your homes with courage truly heroic. Let us but presevere, and redouble our PROCL AM AVION OF THE DEPUTIES. 49 1 ardour. Let us only put forth a few more efforts and our enemies will be overcome. A general panic has already taken possession of them. We have stopped the courier they dispatched to Dijon for reinforcements, and to recommend the Duchess d'Angouleme not to return. A provisional government is established : three most honourable citizens have undertaken its important functions. These are MM. Lafayette, Choiseul, and Gerard, in whom you will find courage, firmness and prudence. This day will put an end to all your anxi- eties and crown you with glory," (signed) " Les Deputes de la France." This ill-written but spirited document, had a most serious effect upon the progress of the revolution, and it is in the highest degree probable, that the very ope- rative printers, whom King Charles so immeasurably despised, were the authors of an instrument, that in- flicted a more fatal wound upon tyranny than the san- guinary conflicts of the two first days of the revolution. Although signed, "the deputies," these public func- tionaries were wholly ignorant of its invention or publi- cation, yet, with the same passiveness that marked the conduct of the triumvirate, named in the second para- graph of the proclamation, they yielded a silent sub- mission to the fortune which this unauthorized instru- ment " buckled on their backs," One of the first acts of their administration was the appointment of a depu- tation, consisting of M. M. Gerard, Lobau, Lafitte, Casimir Perrier, and Mauguin, to wait on the Duke of Ragusa, remonstrate with him upon his unconsti- tutional conduct, and threaten him with the responsibi- lity of all the atrocities that had been committed by the royalists. Lafitte undertook to express the wishes of his coadjutors, and his eloquent representations of the heinousness of making war upon the liberties of the people, was combated by the common-place maxim of LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. every soldier, " that military honour consisted in obe- dience," to which Lafitte replied " civil honour forbids the massacre of the citizens." Fully sensible that he abused the soldiers motto in obeying an arbitrary king, who had violated the charter of his people's liberties, Marmont inquired what conditions the deputies were prepared to propose, should he suspend hostilities, and was informed that, if the ordinances were recalled, the ministers dismissed, and the chamber convoked for the third of August, good order should instantly be restored. Having listened with respect to the conditions, Marmont withdrew into an adjoining apartment and submitted them to Prince Polignac and the other minis- ters, adding, that the deputation prayed the privilege of a conference ; but he returned in a quarter of an hour with the Prince's answer " that the nature of the conditions rendered any conference vain." Upon the return of the deputation and the announcement of its complete failure, an extraordinary number cf the Moniteur appeared, containing a more authentic proclamation than had hitherto been put forth, by which a committee of public safety was appointed, the national guard declared to be masters of Paris at all points, and Lafayette named their commander-in-chief. Bayeux, the advocate-general, at the hazard of his life, made his way to the Tuileries on Thursday morn- ing, and laid this announcement in the Moniteur before the ministers, adding his own conviction of the expediency of timely concession. Passing by a subte- raneous communication from the Tuileries to the head-quarters of Marmont, on the other side of the Place Carrousel, a second conference was held in the presence of that veteran, but with similar or e\en less PROCLAMATION OF MARMONT. conciliatory consequences. Scarcely had Bayeux con- cluded his impassioned description of the feeling that animated and pervaded the French people, when the ministers rose, stating that, " their attendance was required, by command, at St. Cloud, by eleven o'clock," while Chanteleuze formally delivered to the advocate an order for the assemblage of the Royal Court of Paris at the Tuileries. This last act was so dramatic, that the learned functionary could not control or com- mand his sensations, and plainly told the minister " that if he wished to meet the court, he must go to their place of sitting." Chanteleuze never after could have forgotten the cold, haughty, official reply he made to an honourable, learned, and faithful public servant " Sir, you are the deputy of the procureur- general, I deliver to you the mandate duly signed, take care that you execute it accordingly." The ministers set out for St. Cloud ; Bayeux had the good fortune to reach his home in safety, amidst scenes of carnage and desolation. The hopelessness of the royal cause was known, perhaps, to the Duke of Ragusa alone ; he only was aware of the weakness of his numbers, he only felt that even that weakness was likely to be extended by the defection of the regiments of the line. In this crisis, he sought to supply by stratagem, and art, that deficiency which could not otherwise be remedied ; and making a virtue of necessity, issued a proclamation, on the morning of Thursday, calling on all good citizens to return to their homes and occupations, declaring a suspension of hostilities for the sake of humanity solely, and regretting the blood that had been already too lavishly shed. But this artifice was employed too late ; it was with little difficulty seen through by the leaders 494< LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. of the people ; Marshal Gerard, an officer of known virtue and well-tried ability, was appointed to the com- mand of the popular forces, and he understood suffi- ciently the object of such a proclamation as that of Marmont's, at such a period of a siege. The appear- ance of Lafayette at the Hotel de Ville, and the belief, which d'Orsigny had most industriously circulated, that a provisional government had been regular 1) established, inspired the victorious citizens with confidence, so that when Gerard undertook the command, his numbers were not only formidable, but received hourly augmen- tations, and their enthusiasm appeared to know no limits. The principal municipal buildings were now in pos- session of the people, and the royalists' forces were driven into the gardens and grounds of the Tuileries and the Louvre ; in the latter building the Swiss sought shelter, in the former the royal guard entrenched themselves. A detachment of republicans, headed by a student of the polytechnic school, attacked the Louvre, under cover of the fire of two pieces of artillery, placed in front of the Church of St. Germain 1'Aux- errois, and, after sustaining a destructive fire from the enemy, placed on the roof and in the windows, effected an entrance. Assailed on the other side, and perceiv- ing the momentary addition to the numbers of the patriots, the gallant Swiss concluded farther resistance vain, and at length surrendered at discretion. As the contest was not one of vengeance but of freedom, as the Swiss had shown not only an example of fidelity to their master, but the most noble heroism, they found that treatment to which their extraordinary courage had entitled them,in the sympathy of a generous people, distinguished also for their love of military glory. A PATRIOT JEW. 49-5 Many anecdotes are related of individual bravery, patriotism, and suffering, but, in a cause that was sus- tained so entirely by enthusiasm, that originated chiefly in oppression, yet partly in imaginary griefs, such instances must necessarily have been of frequent occur- rence. It is recorded, amongst other memorable events, that a member of the Hebrew tribe, which had hitherto been deemed devoid of patriotism, and not identified with any nation, signalized himself in the attack on the Louvre, and was the fifth man who rushed into the gate. When Abraham was introduced at the mayor- alty of his arrondisement, after the victory, he was pre- sented with ten francs, which he at first refused ; but the instinct of his race prevailed over his patriotism, and he at length accepted a pecuniary reward for his military virtue. Perhaps there was no event more remarkable during the storming of this great depository of art, than the respect with which its contents were treated, not only by the irritated soldiery who occupied it as a citadel, but by the rude rabble that drove them from their strong position. With the exception of particular pictures such as Charles X. swearing to the observance of the Charter which he had so fla- grantly broken, the portrait of some unpopular cha- racter, or the statue of some enemy to liberty not a single act of violence was committed to this magnificent collection of the products of genius preserved in this cabinet. Those pictures that excited political feeling were defaced in an instant, before the better-informed, more enlightened, and dispassionate of the republicans could interpose in behalf of the art of painting ; but, with the exception of tying a rope round the neck of king Charles' statue, no specimen of sculpture was violated. 496 LIVE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Even before the final capture of the Louvre, the troops of the light infantry had not only faltered in fealty, but fraternized in numbers with the foes of royalty. The privates of the fifth and the fiftieth regi- ments first refused to fire on their fellow-citizens, and, immediately after, passed over to their standard j while the officers, with a decision that did honour to their principles, at once resigned their commissions, and proceeding to the Hotel de Ville, entered into the service of the provisional government, and placed themselves under the command of General Lafayette. These conclusive operations were progressing simul- taneously with others of equal importance to the success of the revolution. General Gerard was em- ployed in directing an attack on the Tuileries, at the very moment that Polignac had ordered the court royal to assemble there ; the Rue Rivoli was occupied by a column of republicans moving against the palace of their kings, a second force had found entrance O ' through the picture-gallery, and a third body crossed the pont royal under a close and murderous shower of musketry from the windows of the pavilion. Here a stratagem, not new in civil war, was practised by a party of officers of the Swiss and royal guards. Dressed en bourgeois, and armed with pistols and poniards, they issued from their ambush at the bridge-head, and, falling in amongst the republicans, put many to death before the disguise and artifice were detected. If these daring and devoted men adopted the Trojan policy " let fraud supply the want of force in war" they paid a truly Trojan penalty, for soon " The patriots rally, and their powers unite, With fury charge them, and renew the fight." The indignation of those who had been deceived SURRENDER OF THE PALACES. 497 assumed such a frenzied form, that the victims of their anger were thrown into the river, whether living or dead ; and intelligence of the stratagem reaching the columns advancing in the rear, tended to quicken their movements, and accelerate the approaching catastrophe. Attacked on three sides at the same instant, and defend- ed by troops dispirited by defeat, deserted by their chiefs, and destitute of food, resistance could not be either long or successful ; and, having made a sufficient de- monstration, that they would have been faithful to royalty had that cause only been faithful to itself, the guards withdrew into the gardens, and commenced to take refreshment, which they had not tasted for thirty hours, previous to their final evacuation of the city. Vain of victory, and flushed with the renown of their exploits, the rabble resolved on routing the regulars, and taking possession of their camp-kettles. In this fierce frolic they soon succeeded ; the guard having calculated more on the forbearance and generosity of their enemies, when they attempted to bivouac in the garden, than on their own claims to consideration, or ability to defend themselves, should the attack be renewed. The dislodgment of the royalists from the western gardens of the Tuileries was almost the last act of force and violence committed in the accom- plishment of the revolution of 1830. Immediately after this event, the national standard was seen to wave over the dome that covers the Salle des Marechaux, and appeared agitated by every shout of acclamation that arose, each volley of musketry that was discharged, and every peal of dread artillery that resounded to its honour through the streets, and squares, and gardens of the city. After the siege and capture of the palace of th0 i. 3s 4Q8 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Tuileries, and the consummation of the objects of the revolutionists, excesses, the result of triumph and of intoxication, were committed, fewer in number and less heinous in character than are usuallyfound to accompany such scenes of violence and bloodshed. The cellars were broken open, and the delicious wines, stored for royal repasts, converted to the uses of the enemies of kingly power, and quaffed to the downfall of tyranny all over the world. It was in the treasonable act of emptying the cellars, that a number of unfortunate patriots, who had been arrested during the two previous days, and thrown into the damp vaults beneath the palace, were discovered, and rescued from a lingering and merciless death. The inhuman conduct of the government in consigning these unhappy persons to a fate so miserable, would almost lead to the conclusion, that they did not sincerely rely on the defeat of the revolutionists, and therefore resolved to gratify a dog- ged malignity, by inflicting the most terrible chastise- ment upon every republican who fell into their power ; for surely, the gibbet, the guillotine, or the bow-string, would have been preferable to death induced by the slow but sure means of pestilence, famine, and want of ventilation. Had the royalists been victorious, a series of retributive assassinations would have been the con- sequences of their inhumanity having failed, it of course, could not be forgotten in adjusting the different degrees of criminality and vengeance. Sated with anarchy and bloodshed, and alarmed for the result to their country, the people of Paris stopped suddenly when the Tuileries fell into their hands ; and, turning the eye of public reflection inward upon itself, seemed to ask what government had been substituted for that which had been overthrown ? who REORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD. 499 was to be president of the new republic? To whom were they henceforward to look for the administration of the laws, and protection of life and property ? An- other question, not less momentous, suggested itself at the same instant What part would the Holy Alliance take in the quarrel between Charles X. and his people? The English had before forced them to accept a Bour- bon, might they not again insist upon submission to their power ? The circumstances were by no means similar ; the Bourbon race were restored to the throne as the necessary consequence of a war with Napoleon, who had invaded the realms of the allies ; but that restora- tion did not imply any future intervention between the king of France and his subjects. Had Napoleon been content with the imperial crown of France, and the wide limits of that fine country, he might have reigned undisturbed, and perhaps transmitted the sceptre to his nominee ; for he had not originated the revolution that placed him on the throne, his greatness grew out of the events that attended it. But there was no lei- sure to reflect upon international policy, their fears raised up monsters of iniquity in the persons of royalty wherever they existed, and multiplied their obsequious- ness to a provisional government. It was to these and similar reasons, the members of the new government were indebted for the ready acquiescence in their orders, for the extraordinary unanimity which appeared to accompany their elevation to power. They were selected, proclaimed, installed, by they knew not whom ; they were enthusiastically recognized, and servilely obeyed, they knew not why. On the 29th of July a proclamation was issued announcing the reorganization of the national guard, and announcing a meeting of the senior officers at the Hotel 500 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. de Ville, to deliberate upon the first steps to be taken for the restoration of order and the public service. To this document as well to the " order of the day," which accompanied it, the name of the venerable Lafayette was attached ; but the manifesto published by the municipal commission was signed by four repre- sentatives of the people Lobau, Mauguin, Puyraveau, and DC Schonen, and countersigned by Odillon Barrot, as secretary. The aged patriot Lafayette avoided the example of the Pylian king, and alluded but briefly to the deeds of his youth ; and the manifesto to which Barrot affixed his name was an eloquent penegyric on the heroism of the citizens, and the virtues of the French nation generally : both therefore were accept- table to the people, and contributed to gratify and compose their feelings. How different the scene then enacting at St Cloud, where tyranny sat sullenly enthroned, and refused to be convinced that the foundations of that throne were tot- tering, that its canopy was in the act of falling. Having deserted his capital, and fled from the vicinity of danger, Charles relied upon the firmness of Polignac to resist every demand of the people ; and it was not within the power of that brave but mistaken man, to have bent the obstinate mind of his royal master by any arguments or entreaties. It is one of the inseparable characteristics of weak minds, to be incapable of con- viction by the most powerful reasoning ; and another, to be inflexible by prayer : from the first they hope to derive the reputation of superior wisdom ; from the second, of more than common firmness and resolution : hence the difficulty of dealing with narrow minds. Hav- ing listened too long to the arbitrary orders of his master, the prince endeavoured to perform them until it FIDELITY OF POLIGNAC. 501 became too late to retract, and, to this mistaken idea of loyalty, an error, which, however his enemies may deny, undoubtedly leaned to virtue's side, the subsequent fall of Prince Polignac is wholly attributable. It has long been the pleasure, as well as the policy, of French chroniclers of the events of 1830, to place all the misfortunes of that revolution to the account of the Polignac ministry, but it has, at calmer moments, been discovered, that those unfortunate men would not have been ministers one moment longer than they obeyed the despotic instructions of the king. It is probable, therefore, that with such a king as Charles X. such a revolution would have eventually taken place, for, had one ministry resigned, another would have succeeded, until the power that created them should have been itself annihilated. Not wholly insensible to the critical situation of impending events, the dauphin manifested considerable uneasiness at the very indefinite information trans- mitted to St. Cloud. During the morning of Thursday, and notwithstanding the intense heat that prevailed, he watched earnestly with the telescope every move- ment that could be discovered in the locality of the contest ; and, when at last he saw the tricoloured flag unfurled above the great dome of the Tuileries, he grew deadly pale, and exclaimed, " Then all is lost, the royal guard is defeated !" Some hours before the telegraph indicated the triumph of freedom, Polignac and his coadjutors had arrived at St. Cloud, and had an audience of his majesty, in which the minister defended himself against want of zeal, loyalty, obedi- ence, or courage ; and expressed an opinion, that had the Duke of Ragusa been warmer in the cause of royalty, the tide of victory might have been turned. This representation of Polignac's conduct, however, may 502 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. very reasonably be doubted ; he had remained in Paris during the contest, and endeavoured " to do the bidding " of the king ; he knew that the talents of Marmont were not only crippled by the peculiar cha- racter of the field of battle, and the number of batteries that hung over every street, but that the troops of the line were not faithful to the king ; he could not, there- fore, with justice or truth, have accused the Duke of Ragusa of having failed in accomplishing a victory, which, had his army been faithful to the last, might not have fallen to his lot. Having laid the true state- ment of his losses before the king, and represented to him the necessity of consulting his safety by removing to a greater distance from the capital, king Charles at length awoke to the appalling vision of fallen majesty ; he assented to conditions of a conciliatory nature, and, relinquishing the haughty tones, in which he had directed his ministers to reject the propositions of the insurgents, now expressed his willingness to accept those very terms. The Duke de Mortemart was entrusted with the transmission of these despatches to the municipal commissioners at the Hotel de Ville ; but, before he reached their place of sitting, the mem- bers of that body had committed themselves to revolu- tion, by signing the manifesto. The public were conscious of the danger to which they had exposed themselves by rebellion, and the members of the provisional government felt that the vindictive character which the Bourbons evinced at their second restoration, would leave little hope of pardon for them, in the event of reconciliation ; both parties, the governed and governing, concurred in re- jecting propositions that, probably, would not have been accepted, had they been made much earlier. It is DIFFICULTY OF POLIGNAC's POSITION. 508 known that before the fall of the Louvre and Tuileries, a proclamation was issued by Prince Polignac, announ- cing the sorrow of the royal breast at the sufferings of his people, and ordering " the firing to cease." But this manifestation of humanity was represented as an artifice to which the king had condescended, to induce the citizens to lay aside their arms, that they might be taken by surprise, and more easily vanquished. From the policy of the provisional government it would appear tolerably evident, that, although the members did not openly seek the distinctions to which they were raised, they were not indisposed to accept them ; that, although they had not struck the first blow at des- potism, when the triumph was secured, they gladly participated in its honour and advantages. It is not extraordinary, therefore, that Polignac failed ulti- mately in obtaining terms, and was unsuccessful in his attempts to dissuade the citizens from further blood- shed on the morning of Thursday, since the majority of the nation had, from the very first day of the revolu- tion, resolved to accede to no conditions, but the expulsion of the lethargic tyrant and bigot, who had ^o wantonly violated the charter of their liberties. When time shall permit a full measure of justice to be given to the memory of Prince Polignac, it will proba- bly be discovered, that the revolution of 1830 was not the result of his individual, independent actions ; and even farther, that he was deficient in none of the qualities requisite to form an illustrious statesman, save fortune only. The peers had made no effort to save the king, and the representatives in the lower house had almost una- nimously espoused the cause of the people ; reconcilia- tion, therefore, was hopeless from the commencement of 504 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the contest, and the sole prospect of victory lay in the fidelity of the royal troops ; their resistance, however, only postponed the expulsion of the king for forty-eight hours. On Thursday morning, M. de Semonville reached St. Cloud, and, when reconciliation was utterly impossible, and not before, he ventured to suggest the propriety of concession. This dilatory mediator being informed, that the hand of friendship had been held forth by the king to his insurgent people, next advised a measure of an ultimate description the abdication of King Charles, and resignation, at the same time, of the Dauphin's pretensions, in favour of the Duke of Bourdeaux. Had Semonville not been convinced that nothing less than the death or abdication of Charles would satisfy the nation, he would certainly have appeared at St. Cloud before Thursday morning ; and, had he seriously sup- posed reconciliation to have been still practicable, he never could have suggested, so rapidly, the painful alter- native of the double resignation. Besides, he probably knew perfectly well, that a people who had shed their blood so lavishly in the cause of freedom, and from a determination to govern themselves henceforth, would not readily accept as ruler a boy of tender age, and of no experience in the government of men. Jt was at this critical moment that Marmont arrived, and, being admitted to an interview with the Duke d'Angouleme, was about to justify his conduct, and prove that he only yielded to inevitable fate, in with- drawing from further resistance to the republicans. Having formerly served under the mortal enemy of the Bourbons, there was but little cause of dissatisfaction required, to render him not only.suspected, but rejected by that family ; and, his hesitation, during the three days of July, was more than sufficient to induce the VIOLENT CONDUCT OF THE DAUPHIN. 505 Dauphin to conclude that Marmont had betrayed his sovereign. Defence therefore was vain, and the perse- verance of the general only inflamed the indignation and anger of the prince to such a height, that he de- manded the resignation of that sword which he was accused of having dishonoured ; and, impatient of a moment's delay, he drew it from the scabbard with his own hand, and broke it into pieces. In the perform- ance of this act of folly, insult, and passion, the Dau- phin inflicted so severe a wound upon his hand, that the attendants, for a moment, mistook the real circum- stances of the case, called in the assistance of a guard, to whom the enraged prince instantly gave Marmont in charge as a traitor to his sovereign. Marmont had been trained in that most excellent school over which Adversity presides ; and, patiently enduring the pettish rashness of this scion of royalty, submitted, without further remonstrance, to the captivity so inconsider- ately imposed on him. The king, now fully awake to the danger that menaced his throne, felt with equal sensitiveness the great outrage offered to the feelings of Marmont, and the violation of liberty of which his impetuous son had been guilty, and instantly directed that the Marshal Duke of Ragusa should be set at liberty, at the expiration of one hour from the time of his arrest, and conducted to the royal table, where a cover would be laid for him by the king's command. Having completely evacuated the city, the royalists took the road to Neuilly. They had previously rallied in the Champs Elysees, and moving thence as far as the triumphal arch of Napoleon le Grand, seemed once more determined to halt, reorganize, and return to the contest. It was but an apparent resolution, the check to their further progress being occasioned by the i. 3 T 506 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. intelligence, that escape had been prevented by an insurrection at Neuilly, where the noble bridge that crosses the Seine had been barricaded, and the whole population of that district in arms, and prepared to dis- pute their march in that direction. It was advisable therefore to diverge from the original route, and, enfi- lading the village of Neuilly with grape-shot, they entered the Bois de Boulogne, and marched towards the bridges of communication between Sevres and St. Cloud. This was the last act of violence and cowardice com- mitted by the army, in their exit from that city which they were unable to retain for their royal master : and, it is unquestionably but fair to allow, that they had received more than provocation, in the cruelties exer- cised towards them by the fanatics to whom they were occasionally exposed, to commit still more violent out- rages ; although no palliation can be pleaded by history for compromising the glory of their profession. Abandoned to the reckless multitude, the gilded salons of the Tuileries re-echoed to the coarse ribaldry of the republicans, and their costly furniture and ornaments became the objects of wanton wickedness, or nefarious theft. In the triumphant desecration of the gorgeous decorations of the apartments of state and ceremony, the very throne of their kings was not spared from in- sult ; but, distinctions were observed, both in the extent and character of violence exercised, in the rooms occu- pied by different members of the royal family. It is not improbable but that the peculiar contents of each, in conjunction with the general character of every re- spective occupant, may have very materially contributed to influence the depredators to either malice or mercy. Books of heraldry, peerages, and almanacs constituted the chief part of the Dauphin's library, a course of THE TUILERIES PILLAGED. 50? study possessing no value whatever in plebeian minds ; the whole of this silly collection was thrown into the garden, while the plate of their once haughty owner was carried away. An illuminated missal, in the king's closet, recalled to mind the hateful intrigues of Jesuitism, and nerved the arms of the spoilers in each sumptuous salon, once honoured by the presence of majesty ; while the gay, light literature of the day, that lay with all that elegant negligence of high life in France, scattered through the neat, simply furnished suits of rooms belonging to the Duchess of Berri, saved the property of their romantic owner from violation. Gallantry might be pleaded in explanation of this courtesy, did not the cruel fate of Marie Antoinette forbid its admis- sion in delineating the character of a Parisian emeute. Installed in office, and confident of having the sup- port of the majority, the provisional government no longer hesitated to undertake the responsibility that attached to their high duties. A proclamation, signed Gerard, was issued, as early as the restoration of order permitted, inviting the troops of the line to repair to the republican camp at Vaugirard, and promising, on the part of the people, a general amnesty. The effect of this artifice was still further ruinous to the cause of Charles ; for numbers, then actually in arms, deserted to the standard of liberty, and many who had lost their accoutrements, ventured from their place of concealment, relying on the pledged faith of the government. In some instances the defenceless soldiers would have fallen victims to the fury of the citizens, in whom grief and vengeance had extinguished mercy and justice ; but, men of the higher classes nobly risked their personal safety in rescuing them. The melancholy funeral processions that passed along every street, rekindled the vengeance 508 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. of the citizens against the very men whom they had invited to take shelter under the tricoloured flag ; hut, the terrible spectable of barges laden with dead bodies overstrewn with lime, with a mourning flag that drooped over each, indicating its sad duty, while it floated along the ensanguined water of the Seine to the Champ de Mars, " lashed them into madness.' 1 Apprehensive of an unfavourable impression being made on the minds of the army by the outrageous conduct of a few violent citizens, subsequent to the first proclamation of amnesty, Lafayette resolved upon issuing a second invitation to the royalist forces, couched in still less equivocal terms. " Brave Soldiers ! The inhabitants of Paris do not make you responsible for the orders which have been given to you. Come to us : we will receive you as brethren ; come and range yourselves under the command of one of those brave generals, who have so often shed their blood in the defence of the country. The cause of the army cannot well be separated from that of the nation, and of liberty ; its glory is our dearest patrimony. But the army will never forget, that the defence of our independence, and our liberties, ought to be its first duty. Let us then be friends, since our interests and our rights are the same. General Lafayette declares in the name of the whole population of Paris, that no feeling of hostility is retained towards the soldiers of France ; the inhabitants are ready to fraternize with all those who will return to the cause of the country and of liberty, and they long for the moment when soldiers and citizens, united by the same sentiments and assembled under the same banner, may at length realize the welfare and the glorious destinies of our common country, Vive la France!' (Signed) Le General LAFAYETTE. In the early period of these memoirs, the name of this distinguished soldier and patriot, has occurred, in conjunction with that of M. Egalite ; after a lapse of many years, he again unites himself with a member of the same family, under feelings and circumstances totally different, although directed also to the service EARLY LIFE OF LAFAYETTE. 509 of his country. The conspicuous share which this venerable republican took in the elevation of Louis Philippe to the throne, demands a brief account of the individual himself, in order that the purity of the motives which actuated him may be clearly perceived, and the coronation of the Duke of Orleans may present that absolute freedom from compact, collusion, or con- spiracy, which truth and justice demand for that re- markable event. By birth the Marquis de Lafayette belonged to the highest rank of society a rank to which his title was still further confirmed by his marriage with the grand- daughter of the Duke de Noailles. At the early age of seventeen, after he had received an accomplished education at the college of Louis le Grand, in Paris, he was appointed to a commission in the guard of honour, and invited to appear frequently at court. But republican principles had taken deep root in the bosom of this interesting young nobleman, nor could all the charms of the most fascinating court in the world eradicate them, or even check their rapid growth. Too honourable to continue in a service, to which he could not give that full allegiance which gratitude might claim, he retired secretly from France, and, at the age of nineteen years (in 1777) visited North Ame- rica, where the seeds had been sown that subsequently grew up into the tree of liberty. From the enthusiasm and love of liberty which he evinced at the close of a protracted life, similar feelings were to be expected from him in the bloom of youth ; and, when he was in- formed at Paris by the American agents, that they were unable to furnish him with a passage to their country, he instantly replied "that he would fit out a vessel himself." When the Marquis de Lafayette 510 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. arrived in America, the republican army was ill-clothed, hadly equipped, and the resources of the patriots al- most exhausted ; his appearance, therefore, at such a crisis, was of the utmost value, by encouraging the belief that France sympathized with their sufferings, and sent some of her most distinguished citizens to aid them in acquiring their independence. This impression was confirmed by the generous conduct of Lafayette, who declined the command which was offered to him, requesting permission to raise a regiment at his own expense, and then join the patriot army as a volunteer, without pay. This magnanimity was duly appreciated ; the marquis became the con- stant guest of the commander-in-chief, acquired the affections of the patriots generally, and, at Brandy wine, where he was wounded, displayed a degree of conspi- cuous bravery which gave him an enduring reputation as a soldier : he had been appointed to the rank of major-general in the American service about a month previous to this action. Having served subsequently, with equal credit, in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, in 1778, he was honoured with the thanks of the republicans ; and, embarking at Boston, the year follow- ing, returned to France, where it was supposed his abilities, experience, and influence, would materially contribute to promote the American struggle for free- dom. Having pleaded the cause of America success- fully, with his own government and country, he re- crossed the Atlantic, bearing the gratifying intelligence that a French auxiliary force might soon be expected to follow him. These great services were rewarded by his immediate appointment to the command of 2,000 men, whom he clothed and equipped at his own expense, and whom he subsequently led to victory. LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 511 Having raised money on his own responsibility, at Baltimore, to support his soldiers, he entered Virginia, proceeded to the relief of Richmond, but signalized himself more particularly at the siege of Yorktown. He gave an obstinate and lengthened resistance to the veteran Cornwallis, who was often heard to declare that " the boy Lafayette should not escape him." The fame of his actions had preceded him to Europe, and, on his return to France, he was received with the highest marks of public admiration. The American congress had not only thanked him, in the name of their fellow-citizens, for his courage, patriotism, and devotion to their cause, but directed their European agents and envoys to consult, and act in concert with the heroic Frenchman. It was his conviction that nego- tiation, seconded by the presence of a strong armament, would be most likely to prove successful ; and his advice being received, when he reached Cadiz to embark for America, he found a fleet of forty-nine transports in readiness, to convey 20,000 effective men along with him to America, had not the return of peace superseded any necessity for their sailing. With the return of peace the occasion for military distinction was obviated, but the Americans, con- tradicting the well-known proverb that nations know nothing of gratitude, invited their benefactor to visit their shores as an honoured guest, and be himself a witness to the sentiments of affection towards him which pervaded every breast. Yielding to these warm solicitations, the Marquis de Lafayette a third time landed in the North American States, on the fourth of August, 17S4 ; and, having passed a few days at Mount Vernon, the seat of General Washington, made a public tour of the States, receiving the most enthusiastic con- LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. gratulations as he passed along. Having completed his circuit of visits, and expressed his intention of re- turning to his native land, Congress appointed a depu- tation, consisting of one member from each State, " to take leave of him on behalf of the country, and assure him, " that the United States of America regarded him with particular affection, and would not cease to feel an interest in whatever concerned his prosperity and honour." His duty to the cause of freedom in a distant land being discharged, Lafayette now directed his energies to the restoration of equal blessings to his own enslaved countrymen ; and, had both parties in the approaching struggle, paid a greater reverence to the upright senti- ments of this patriotic man, the current of French history had, probably, never been discoloured with the blood of their princes and citizens. Belonging to no political party, bigoted to no particular creed, but the friend of the human race generally, one of his first efforts, after his return from America, was to obtain a mitigation of the stringent laws affecting Protestants, and the total abolition of slavery in every form and country. In the assembly of notables in 1787> he pro- posed the discontinuance of lettres de cachet, the sup- pression of state-prisons, the emancipation of Protestants, and convocation of the representatives of the nation ; and, when the Count d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.) asked whether the Marquis demanded the States- General, he boldly replied " Yes, and something better." In 1789, the States-General were convened under the name of the National Assembly, and Lafa- yette being chosen a member, exhibited the same fear- lessness of deportment, the same independent bearing, in urging his broad views of government upon his CLUB OF FEUILLANS FOUNDED. 513 countrymen. Here he proposed a declaration of rights, and a decree providing for the responsibility of the officers of the crown. It is not one of the least extraordinary coincidences in his long and useful life, that he was chosen to fill the same office, comrnander- in-chief of the national guard, after the revolution of 1830, to which he had been elected, under similar cir- cumstances, just forty-two years before ; in both instances he showed himself the friend of humanity and order. When the national guard clamoured to be led to Ver- sailles, he refused to comply until he had received proper authority ; and, having reached the scene of con- fusion, he earnestly entreated to have the charge of the inner posts of the chateau. This request was refused, and the monsters who had been the occasion of this insult, taking advantage of his exclusion, murdered two of the Queen's servants, and were in the act of extend- ing their violence further, when Lafayette, at the head of the national guards, entered the palace, expelled the assassins, restored order, and saved the lives of the royal family. Possessing the confidence both of the royal family and the revolutionists, to him alone would the former entrust themselves on their return to Paris, and no one else had influence enough to repress the vio- lence of the mob. The independence of Lafayette's character, and the unbending integrity of his principles, often exposed him to the risk of displeasing both parties, and to a momen- tary charge of inconsistency; but, as virtue must ulti- mately triumph, the purity of his character has survived impeachment, and the charge of inconsistency has been retorted. The Jacobins vainly sought the sanction of his name, but he so completely spurned that infamous association, that, in conjunction with Bailly, mayor of i. 3 u LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Paris, lie instituted the club of Feuillans, in direct opposition to those wicked and profligate wretches. On the twentieth of June, 1790, a motion was made for the abolition of the titles of nobility, which, to the amazement of the Jacobins, Lafayette supported, by renouncing his own, and never after resuming it. On the thirteenth of July, 1790, the constitution of a repre- sentative monarchy was proposed to the king and the nation, and, in the name and on the behalf of four mil- lions of men composing the national guard, he swore fidelity to this his favourite form of government. His subsequent disinterestedness has been exemplified by few, very few, great men in the history of nations :- Sylla voluntarily resigned his power Wellington ab- stained from placing the crown of Spain or of Portugal on his own head, and, having subdued the French, returned to his country, and retired into the rank of a British subject : remorse, probably, influenced the former, a strict sense of justice alone actuated the British conqueror. Having subdued the passions of his countrymen, Lafayette deemed his victory complete, and, declining the dangerous power of constable of France, or generalissimo of the national guards of the kingdom, and content with the reorganization of the militia, and protection of the king from violence, he resigned all civil and military authority, and withdrew to his parental estates at Lagrange. In 1792 the first coalition against France was formed, when the services of his country again drew Lafayette from his retirement: appointed one of the three major-generals, he restored discipline in the army, and, engaging the enemies of France at Philippe, Maubeuge, and Florence, obtained decided victories over them in every instance. From this career of LAFAYETTE'S CAPTIVITY. 51,5 glory he was recalled by the factious spirit that rent his unhappy country ; he had previously, by letter, denounced the Jacobins, as secret enemies of liberty, which they stifled under the excesses of licentiousness ; and, on his arrival in Paris, he appeared at the bar of the national assembly, there defended the sincerity of his sentiments, and called for punishment upon the guilty authors of the violence. His appeal, however, was too late to be effectual, the mountain party had previously overthrown the constitution, and there was nothing left for him to perform for the renovation of his country's peace and happiness. Addressing himself immediately to the king, whose perilous position he perceived, he offered to escort him and the royal family toCompiegne ; but his proposal being declined, he returned to the army, which he endeavoured to influence and bring over to the constitutional party. The strict impartiality of his conduct rendered him not only an object of suspicion, but aversion also, to the Jacobinical party, by whom he was burnt in effigy, in the Palais Royal, and accused of treason before the assembly. Unsupported by the army in his political views, and finding that virtue had ceased to be respected by the adherents of the dominant party, he concluded that voluntary exile was his only alternative. As he wandered in search of an asylum, he was made prisoner by the Austrians, and confined at Olmutz for two years, his wife and daughter sharing the sorrows of his prison- house. The Austrians were meanly unrelenting in their severity towards this gallant soldier, and refused to listen to the intercession and entreaties of General Washington in his favour ; but the victories of Buona- parte in North Italy, taught them to make those con- cessions to humanity, which, in the pride of power, M3 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. they could not be induced to grant. Although Lafay- ette owed his liberty to the genius and generosity of Buonaparte, he could never be induced to compromise his principles, by lending to that great man the counte- nance of his support. He withheld all acquiescence in the events of the eighteenth Fructidor, or the eight- eenth Brumaire ; he refused the dignity of senator offered him by Buonaparte, voted against vesting in him the consulate for life, and, disgusted at the return to absolute monarchy in the person of Napoleon, retired to Lagrange, and devoted himself to agricultural pur- suits. In this peaceful occupation he was found when the waywardness of fortune restored the Bourbons to the throne ; but, perceiving that these benighted princes had learned nothing from adversity, on the contrary, that they brought back a larger store of bigotry and prejudice than they had exported, he saw no advantage in forsaking his retirement. He perceived clearly that their principles were not such as France required, or to which that enlightened people could ever be reconciled. Napoleon being re-seated on the imperial throne, en- deavoured to conciliate and retain popularity by pro- fessions of liberality ; but, many doubted his sincerity, and gave him credit only for a prudent policy. Lafay- ette refused the urgent solicitations of Joseph Buona- parte to visit the emperor, protested against the acte additionnel, declined the peerage offered to him by Napoleon, but accepted the place of representative, to which the choice of his fellow-citizens had called him. At the opening of the chambers he first met the empe- ror, and was treated by him with marked attention and kindness, but he did not give his support to that extra- ordinary man's projects for enslaving his country. It is true he voted in favour of all necessary supplies ; but this LAFAYETTE THE ENEMY OF NAPOLEON. 517 was on the ground that France was invaded, and that it therefore became the duty of every citizen to defend his country. When Napoleon returned from Waterloo, it was his determination to dissolve the house of repre- sentatives, and erect a dictatorship. Lafayette being informed by the councillors of Napoleon, that in two hours the chamber would cease to exist, proceeded instantly to that assembly, and, ascending the tribune, spoke as follows :- " When, for the first time, after an interval of many years, I raise a voice which all the old friends of liberty will still recognize, it is to speak of the dangers of the country, which you only can avert. This, then, is the moment to rally round the old tricoloured stan- dard, the standard of Eighty-nine, of liberty, of equality, of public order, which we have now to defend against foreign violence, and domestic usurpation." He then moved that the house declare itself in permanent ses- sion, and all attempts to dissolve it high treason. In the afternoon of that day, Lucien Buonaparte presented himself to the house, and, in a strain of impassioned eloquence, implored the representatives not to compro- mise the honour of the French nation, by inconstancy to the emperor. At these words, Lafayette rose in his place, and interrupting the speaker, to whom he addressed himself directly, exclaimed, " Who dares accuse the French nation of inconstancy to the emperor ? Through the sands of Egypt, and the wastes of Russia, over fifty fields of battle, this nation has followed him devotedly ; and, it is for this that we now mourn the blood of three millions of Frenchmen." The effect of this spirited appeal was decisive ; Lucien perceived the general sentiment, and, believing further solicitation useless, resumed his seat without finishing his intended discourse. A committee of five members from ach 5 IS LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE* house, in which number Lafayette was included, was appointed to deliberate with the council of ministers ; here he suggested that a deputation should proceed forthwith to the emperor, and demand his abdication. The arch-chancellor refused to put the motion, but the emperor terminated the dispute himself the following morning, by his voluntary resignation of the crown. As member also of the provisional government, Lafay- ette was one of the deputies sent to ask a suspension of hostilities from the allies : the request was refused, and, on their return, they found Paris in possession of the enemy, and Prussian soldiers guarding the closed doors of the chamber of representatives. Resistance being vain, remonstrance alone was left ; and, convening a meeting of the deputies at the private residence of Lanjuinais the president, Lafayette drew up a protest against this act of violence ; and having seen the names of his coadjutors attached to it, he once more took leave of public life, and retired to his seat of Lagrange. In 1818 he was returned to the house of representatives, where he steadfastly maintained those principles which have associated him lastingly with the advocates of uni- versal freedom. He opposed the law of exceptions, the establishment of the censorship of the press, and the suspension of personal liberty ; while, on the other hand, he urged the cause of public instruction, the organization of a national militia, and the inviolability of the charter. Accepting an invitation from the President of the United States of America in 1 824, he was received in every part of that country with the warmest expressions of gratitude and enthusiasm, and was proclaimed by the popular voice " the guest of the nation." Passing in triumphal procession through twenty-four of the EXAMPLE OF PUBLIC GRATITUDE. 519 States, party distinctions were buried, that happiness alone might reign ; the veteran forgot his years, the youth professed a knowledge of the age that had passed away, all parties and persons combined to render the visit of the patriot worthy of an emancipated people. At Bunker's Hill the anniversary of the first conflict of the revolution was celebrated ; and, at York town, of its closing scene, in which the marquis himself had given a great example of military prowess. Having seen four ex-presidents around him, and received a flattering- address from the nation, delivered by the ruling presi- dent, he embarked on board an American frigate, named in compliment to him " The Brandywine," and landed at Havre, in Sept., 1825, where the people would have hailed his safe return with the most joyous demonstrations, had they not been rudely dispersed by the gendarmerie. Upon the retirement of Lafayette from the United States, his public services to America became the subject of discussion in the national assembly, a discussion which was closed by a grant of 200,000 francs, " in consideration of the general's important services, and expenditures, during the revolutionary war." The reign of tyranny could not have derived aid from the services of Lafayette ; while the elder Bourbons ruled, therefore, he continued in retirement, and, with the exception of the funeral obsequies of Manuel, at which he was present, and over whose remains he pro- nounced an eloquent eulogy, the voice of this uncom- promising patriot had not been heard for years. Having occasion to visit Lyons in the year 1827, he was recog- nized by the citizens, and enthusiastically cheered whenever he appeared in the streets. Soon after this period, the chamber of deputies being dissolved, the 520 LIFE AKD TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. state of public feeling was betrayed to the royalists by the unsolicited return of Lafayette to serve amongst the deputies of the nation. When the insurrection broke out in 1830, the nation looked towards Lafayette as a man of the early days of their revolution a man who understood the precise principles on which that great measure was based a man who had never been an apostate from his political opinions. His undeviat- ing consistency was acknowledged by all, even by those who denied him the possession of first-rate talents. His theory of republicanism was undoubtedly visionary, but the fidelity with which he adhered to it, " through good report and through evil report," induced his fellow-citizens to respect and confide in his integrity. No individual in France possessed equal influence over the public feelings at the period of the last revolution ; none would have employed that popularity more entirely, and devotedly, for the happiness of the country. While revolution raged in Paris, and the throne of King Charles was tottering to its fall, the Duke of Orleans remained at Neuilly, his favourite residence, with his duchess and their children, the Duke of Chartres excepted, who was with his regiment at Joigny. As this amiable family sat around a rustic table, in the pleasure-grounds that slope from the front of the chateau to the Seine, they heard the awful thunder of artillery incessantly rolling, and it was in vain that the illustrious duke endeavoured to suppress the grief, and the agonies, that rent his susceptible heart. His family and friends endeavoured to tranquillize him, but he turned from them, exclaiming " No I no ! I have tears and blood in my heart. Poor Paris ! poor France !" On Thursday, at eleven o'clock, it was announced at Neuilly that the cause of liberty was lost ; at three, ATTEMPT TO ARREST THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. 521 M. Badouin arrived with intelligence of their glorious triumph ; and, the arrival of the royal guards in the village, wounded, dying of want, confirmed sufficiently the truth of his despatches. Although no idea of ascending the throne might, possibly, have occupied the thoughts of Louis Philippe, even during the two days of desperate conflict between the army and the people, yet he must, undoubtedly, have felt the delicacy of his situation, and this, not from his near relationship to the reigning family, but from the actual accidental locality of his residence. Placed between Paris in a state of insurrection, and St. Cloud, where orders issued hourly for the destruction of any- thing, everything, in order to reduce the rebels to sub- mission, he fortunately escaped the favour or the insults of both parties. He has been congratulated on his good fortune in not having been invited to St. Cloud to assist the king by his counsels, and being detained there as a hostage ; but, it is also supposed he is indebted to his own great caution for having escaped that snare. Truly informed on Wednesday night of the inclination of the balance of fate, he withdrew secretly on Thursday morning from Neuilly, just one hour before the arrival of a squadron of the royal guard from St. Cloud, to conduct him thither as a state- prisoner. Nor was this the only visitation he had the good fortune to evade ; on the evening of the same day, and before the doom of tyranny was finally sealed, M. Mechin arrived at Neuilly, to invite the duke to Paris, for the purpose of undertaking the high duties of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Actuated b\' his own excellent feeling and judicious views, he wisely withdrew, until further delicacy or hesitation would have been timid, if not absurd ; and, on Friday morning i. 3 x 5Q2 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. he visited the Palais Royal, on foot and not finding Mechin there, returned to Neuilly without ever having learned the object of his mission on the previous day. This fact, if all others were inaccessible, is sufficient to prove the purity of Louis Philippe's intention, the absence of ambitious expectation, complete disconnec- tion from the leaders of the revolution, total ignorance of their designs upon himself, and, therefore, his entire innocence of the charge of having endeavoured to sup- plant the reigning family, or procure their expulsion from the throne ; were not the folly, bigotry, and despotism of Charles X. sufficient justification of the revolution of 1830, without any reference to the acts of a prince, the whole tenor of whose life directly nega- tives such unjust suspicions ? On Friday morning, M.M. Dupin and Persil were entrusted with authority by the provisional government to invite the Duke of Orleans to place himself at their head ; they felt that the other parts and members, however active and healthy, were inoperative without a head, to will and direct ; and they also entertained the notion, that the appointment of the junior branch of the Bourbons to the highest situation in the republic, would, while it satisfied the people, mitigate the wrath of the allied sovereigns at seeing Charles X. exiled from his dominions. Arriving at Neuilly, the com- missioners were introduced to the Duchess of Orleans, to whom they communicated the nature of their mis- sion ; but her royal highness immediately assured them that her husband was not then at home, nor in the vicinity of Neuilly. But Dupin had undertaken a serious duty ; his country had entrusted to him the consummation of her efforts to recover her freedom, and he was fully conscious of the obligation and the DUPIN VISITS NEUILLY. honour conferred upon him. " Madam," said the enthusiastic patriot, " it is time the duke should decide ; any uncertainty must prove fatal. The three uncon- stitutional ordinances having broken all contract with the elder branch of your illustrious house, reconcilia- tion or compromise between Charles X. and the people has now become impossible ; besides, the most virtuous portion of the nation have ever sympathized with the duke in all the neglect and disappointment to which he has been exposed, and felt the highest admiration for his shining abilities and exemplary private cha- racter. But, madam, it is above all things neces- sary that his royal highness be prompt and decisive in his present conduct, under the penalty of seeing the revolution of 1830 lose itself in vain theories, which would have no other result than that of introducing anarchy in France, to terminate probably in another disgusting and tyrannical restoration. The Duke of Orleans alone can save his country from the horrors of anarchy and the violence of foreign invasion ; for no monarchy, or fraternity of monarchs, would dare to attack France peaceable, powerful, and united, govern- ed by a constitutional sovereign, freely elected, and whose interests never can be separated from the na- tional cause ; and, after all, madam, France can and will defend herself." Before Dupin withdrew from the presence of the duchess, he urged the necessity of the duke's early return, and supplicated her royal highness to expedite it by every means in her power. The arrival of M. Thiers, however, not long after the departure of Dupin and Persil, did not find the duke at Neuilly ; he still most judiciously kept out of view. Having repeated the communication from the provisional government, and added his own personal LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHlLIfPE. intreaties that the duke would hasten to save his coun- try from inevitable slavery, he was interrupted by the Princess Adelaide, who observed, " But, Sir, you must take care that France and all Europe shall not suppose that Louis Philippe ever encouraged this revolution in the government, or shall attribute the fall of Charles X. to any intrigues of his." " Madam," said Thiers, " all the world knows that the Duke of Orleans has not sought for, or aspired to the crown of France ; but Charles X. having become an object of aversion to the people, it was very natural for them to turn their eyes towards the duke, whose previous exemplary life offers so much security for the preservation of their future liberties.'* These explanations having passed, and the deputies having returned to Paris, the duke came forth from his concealment, which was at. Raincy, and reached his chateau on the evening of Friday. In the park of Neuilly, the proclamation was handed to him, inviting him to accept the lieutenant-generalship of the king- dom ; and, calling his family around him on the spot, by the light of a torch he read to them its contents. "Inhabitants of Paris! The assembly of peers now in Paris, have thought it expedient to invite his royal highness the Duke of Orleans to repair to the capital, and there exercise the office of jieutenant-general of the kingdom ; at the same time expressing their wish that the national colours should be retained. They also feel it incumbent on them to assure France, that all securities requi- site for the full and complete execution of the charter shall be pro- vided in the next sitting of the chambers. 30th July, 1830."* * This document was signed : " Corcelles, E. Salverte, J. Lafitte, Berard, Benjamin, Delessert, Guizot, Caumartin, Horace Sebastiani, Mechin, Dupin the eldest, Paixhans, Ch. Dupin, Bertin de Vaux, Vassal, Odier, Andre Gallot, Louis Keratry, Girod de 1'Aiu, THE DUKE RECEIVES THE DEPUTIES. 5*25 Early on Saturday morning deputies from the pro- visional government appeared at Neuilly, to receive the duke's reply; and, being admitted to an interview, he asked one hour's time for deliberation, and to have the advice of his own private council. This request being at once acceded to, the prince retired, and re- turning, at the appointed moment, expressed his will- ingness to accept the trust which his country was satisfied to repose in him. It was now decided that he should proceed to Paris ; and, to render his pre- sence more acceptable, more in character with the excited feelings of the people, he dressed himself en bourgeois, and, decked with the three ribbons, which the Princess Adelaide had attached to a button-hole of his coat, and which he subsequently exchanged, at the Palais Royal, with Dupin, for a cockade, he set out on his expedition, accompanied by M. M. Berthois, Heymes, and Oudard. As they passed each station, or assemblage of people, they were greeted with shouts of Vive la charfe I which they acknowledged in return, and, at eleven o'clock at night reached the Palais Royal. From the confusion of the previous days, and obstruc- tions in the principal streets, as well as from a desire of escaping public observation, the duke entered the palace through the house No. 216, in the Rue St. Honore ; but, the object he sought was partly frustrated by the means taken to effect it, for it was here only that he was distinctly recognized, since he had left Neuilly. Mathieu Dumas, Bignon, Baillot, Duchaffaut, Bernard de Rennes, Ternaux, Persil, Dugas Montbell, Alex. Delaborde, Champlouis, B. Constant, Pompierre, General Minot, Tiolet, Lobau, Count de Bondy, Camille Perrier, Prevot-Leygonie, Casimir Perrier, Firmin Didot, Schonen. 526 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. The necessary secrecy observed in treating with the Duke of Orleans, left the people still ignorant of their real situation, but from this painful suspense they were relieved by the following proclamation, which was posted in the most public places in Paris on the follow- ing morning "Paris, July 31, Noon. " Inhabitants of Paris ! The deputies of France, at this moment assembled in Paris, have expressed their wish that I should repair to this city to exercise the functions of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. I have not hesitated to come and share your dangers, to place myself in the midst of your heroic population, and exert all my efforts to preserve you from civil war and anarchy. On re-enter- ing Paris, I wear with pride the glorious colours which you have resumed, and which I have myself for a long time worn. " The chambers are now about to assemble ; they will advise you as to the best means of securing the reign of your laws, and the maintenance of the rights of nations. The charter will henceforth be a reality. "Louis PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS." This brief explanation of the duke's sentiments was succeeded by a more full and explanatory document, addressed to the people by the deputies of the depart- ments assembled at Paris. In this piece of political declamation, a passage occurs which must have sensibly affected the Duke of Orleans, and called to mind the abyss from which he was once saved by the calm, cautious counsel of the Duke of Wellington. It was the deli- berate opinion of that great soldier and statesman, that Louis Philippe should never make war upon his coun- try, and he urged this view with much earnestness upon the prince's attention. One of the strongest claims to the affection of the French people, the very chiefest recommendation to republican France, which the deputies now urged in favour of Louis Philippe was LOUIS PHILIPPE AT THE HOTEL DE VILLE. 527 " that he was a Frenchman who had never fought but for France." The address of the deputies having alluded so much and so particularly to the life, principles, and actions of the duke, it was thought prudent and delicate to suhmit a copy to his royal highness previous to its pub- lication. For this purpose these gentlemen proceeded to the Palais Royal, escorted by the national guard, where M. Lafitte read the intended proclamation, and, at the duke's request, presented him with a copy to be placed amongst his most valuable memorials of the events in which he had been an actor. Having ex- pressed a wish to proceed to the Hotel de Ville, the deputies at once consented to accompany him, and, dressed in the uniform of a general officer, and wear- ing the order of the legion of honour, he left the Palais Royal. He was mounted on horseback, and advanced at a quiet pace, returning, with his hat, which all the way he carried in his hand, the saluta- tions and cheers of the multitude. Laborde had pre- ceded the duke, to have a clear way prepared for him, as well as to announce his approach, but it was utterly impossible to control the people ; they broke in upon the lines, advanced close up to the object of their adu- lation, and so completely interrupted his progress, that he was not a little indebted to his great physical powers for reaching his destination, even after such a lengthened journey. In the great hall of the Hotel de Ville he was received by the municipal commissioners, who had descended for that purpose to the foot of the stairs ; there the prince and Lafayette embraced each other, after which the whole procession ascended, and entered the council-chamber. Amongst the assembled specta- LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. tors of this remarkable transaction, were some of the chief authors of its occurrence, the pupils of the Poly- technic School, whom the prince recognizing, advanced towards them, and expressed his admiration of their patriotism and personal courage. M. Viennet now read aloud the proclamation which had been previously submitted to the duke at the Palais Royal ; to which his highness replied in language of the most gratifying character, concluding with words to this effect "As a Frenchman, I have lamented the wrongs of my country, and the blood that has been shed as a prince, I am happy in being able to contribute to the restoration of my country's rights and happiness." Scarcely had the prince ceased, when General Dubourg advanced into the space before him, and said, " Sir, I hope it is your intention to observe your oaths if you forget their obligation, you know the consequence?" Evidently agitated by this ill-timed, injudicious, and indelicate interruption, the prince energetically replied, " Learn, general, that I have never, during my life, failed to do so threats would not secure my fidelity neither is it at the moment when my country claims me, that I should think of betraying her." Dubourg had displayed courage, activity, and zeal, during the three days' struggle for the recovery of the people's rights ; but he was presumptuous, precipitate, and totally deficient in judgment ; he had dressed him- self in the uniform of a general officer, although he had never risen higher than a marechal du camp he had the temerity to issue a proclamation to the citizens, on his own responsibility, on the 29th ; and, to render his last foolish exhibition still more contemptible, the next instant after he had been reproved so sternly by the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, he raised the THE ORLEANS FAMILY IN PARIS. 5'29 cry of " Vive le Due d* Orleans" an exclamation which rang round the hall, and reaching the assembled mul- titude without, was re-echoed through every street and place in Paris. The object of his royal highness's visit to the Hotel de Ville being now completed, he walked out upon the balcony, and there again embracing the venerable La- fayette, he waved the national flag repeatedly over the general's head, amidst the acclamations of the dense multitude that crowded the Place de Greve and its approaches. Descending to the hall, he presented him- self at the grand entrance, when he was saluted by repeated discharges of small-arms, as well as of two pieces of artillery, which had been planted there during the revolution. His highness's return to the Palais Royal was a triumphal procession ; along the quays, and in every street, the people drew up on either side, and he passed between two dense masses of human beings, who, from the rapturous acclamations with which they hailed him, appeared to look on him, rather than on Napoleon, as the " destined one " that was to save and exalt their country. Arriving at the arched entrance to the grand stair- case of the Palais Royal, he was not permitted to dis- mount from his charger, but was literally lifted from his saddle, and carried by an hundred arms to the very door of the state apartments. Numbers pressed for- ward to grasp his hands, embrace his knees, or even have the gratification to touch his clothes. But the triumph of this good man's feelings a species of triumph which none ever valued more sincerely than himself, still awaited Louis Philippe on this memorable day that was the participation by his family in all the lustre of greatness by which he was surrounded. I. 3Y 530 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. About nine o'clock the same evening, a species of conveyance then called Carolines, but from the circum- stances of this night, Orleanaises, arrived at the Palais Royal. A princess descended from it, followed by her i-hildren and her sister it was the Duchess of Orleans. The presence of these exemplary women was soon re- vealed by the acts of beneficence which were imme- diately administered. One hundred thousand francs were distributed amongst the poor the hospitals were visited the wounded waited on. Soon after this happy accession to his republican court, Louis Philippe's eldest son, the Duke of Chartres (now Duke of Or- leans) arrived from Joigny, where his regiment had been quartered ; he had endeavoured to reach Neuilly, after he received the news of the revolution, but was detained by the mayor of Montrouge. Released from confinement by a letter from General Lafayette, he conceived it was his first duty to rejoin his regiment, and accordingly set out upon his journey to Joigny. Upon the heights of Melun his carriage was crossed by that of the Duchess d'Angouleme, on her route from Dijon to Paris. Her royal highness recognized the young soldier, and stopping her equipage, inquired anxiously whether he had come from Paris ? what was going on there ? and where was the king ? " Madame," replied the duke, " I believe the king is at St. Cloud ; as for myself I could not enter Paris ; I saw, from a distance, the tri-coloured flag floating above all the public buildings." " Where then are you going," said the duchess ? "To the head-quarters of my regiment at Joigny." " I trust, sir, you will keep it faithful to us ?" " As for that, Madame, you may rest assured that I shall perform my duty without any apprehension of consequences ?"* * Deux ans de rcgnc. RESUMPTION OF THE NATIONAL COLOURS. 531 The first exercise of Louis Philippe's authority, as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, was an order, dated first of August, 1830, enjoining the resumption of the national colours, and strictly prohibiting the wearing of any other than the tricoloured cockade. A move- able national guard was incorporated, and placed under the orders of Count Gerard, who had previously the command of the troops of the line ; and means of subsistence were at once provided for the working classes that had been thrown out of employment by the revolution. It was one of the conditions proposed by the commissioners to Prince Polignac, that the chamber should be convoked for the third of August ; the grant- ing of that request was also among the first of those healing and considerate remedies which Louis Philippe applied with so much skill to the wounded feelings of the French people. This determination was communicated to the people by a proclamation signed " Lafayette, conceived in the spirit of " liberty, equality, and public order," and expressed in the most delicate and dignified tone. Still, however, dwelling on his own consistency, he alluded pointedly to the character and principles of the illustrious individual to whom he gave his unquali- fied support. " The lieutenant-general of the kingdom appointed by the chamber," said the proclamation of Lafayette, " was one of the young patriots of 1798, and one of the first generals who caused the tri-coloured flag to triumph." Lafayette, conceiving that he had done his duty to his country, up to that point of which patriotism might possibly be the limit, and to which ambition might be suspected to succeed, wished to resign the extraordinary power which his situation, as commander of the muni- cipal guard, reposed in him ; but the Prince declined LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. to accept of his resignation, until the subject had under- gone the calm deliberation of his council. It was the unanimous conclusion of that body, that Lafayette, and the other functionaries who had stood forward in the hour of peril, should be requested still to exercise their offices provisionally, in everything civil and military, in which the safety of the capital was involved. The general having acquiesced in this expression of appro- bation of his own services, renewed his demonstrations of attachment to the new order of things, by appear- ing on the balcony of the Palais Royal along with the Duke of Orleans, whom he frequently embraced, where both displayed the national flag to the assembled crowd. The rapturous transports that burst forth at this extra- ordinary spectacle was such as the streets of Paris had never before witnessed ; it was a scene that recalled the eventful days of 1789, and seemed at length to give reality to the illusions of that epoch. When hopes of victory had been completely dissi- pated, the same king who declared himself ready to lead his troops, and march against the enemies of legi- timacy and absolute power, commenced a confused and hurried flight from his palace of St, Cloud, at three o'clock on the morning of the 31st. Passing through Ville d'Avray, he there received the most unequivocal evidence of the abandonment of the royal cause by the troops, the ground being everywhere strewn with frag- ments of their muskets and other military weapons, which the soldiers had broken up upon their deserting the standard of King Charles. Proceeding to Versailles, his majesty established himself in the beautiful little palace of the Trianon, which was protected by a strong body of troops still faithful to his person. The Dauphin proposed to retain St. Cloud, while the king occupied FLIGHT OF THE KING. 533 Versailles ; and had the fidelity of his guard been more lasting, the misery of the conflict might probably have been prolonged for a day or two ; but the peasantry attacked his position with so much violence, that he set out for Versailles, whence appearances rendered it advi- sable to extend his flight, along with the king and royal family, to Rambouillet. It was night before the party reached the rendezvous of the royal fugitives ; and the Dauphiness, who had been at Dijon, was unable to join them until the following morning. Believing themselves beyond the reach of insult or injury, the fugitives now directed their attention to those means of conciliation which still remained ; and, the king having assented to the following order of the day, the Dauphin caused it to be read on parade to the regiments then quartered at Rambouillet. " The king informs the army, in an official manner, that he has entered into an arrangement with the provisional government, and that every thing leads to the belief that this arrangement is on the point of being concluded. His majesty communicates this intelli- gence to the army, in order to calm the agitation which some regi- ments have displayed. The army will feel that it ought to remain unmoved, and await the progress of events with tranquillity. Louis ANTOINE." On the second of August, Charles X. directed the following precept to the provisional government, evi- dently intended to dispose their minds favourably towards the reception of his abdication, which was no longer a mere voluntary act. " The king being desirous to put an end to the disturbances that exist in the capital, and in a part of France, and reckoning on the sincere attachment of his cousin, the Duke of Orleans, appoints him his lieutenant-general of the kingdom. The king having thought 531 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. proper to recall his ordinances of the twenty-fifth of July, approves of the chambers being convoked for the third of August, and he hopes they will be able to establish the tranquillity of France." This document sought to anticipate the provisional government in the appointment of a lieutenant-general, and to authorize those measures which his majesty was no longer in a condition to prevent. But, Louis Philippe had exercised the functions of that high office for two entire days hefore the receipt of the king's nomination, and justice had been administered during that time in his name only. The generosity of his nature, however, prevented him from taking any advantage of this tardy disposition, on the part of the king, to relieve his coun- try from the awful suspense in which it would have been kept, had no government been authorized to act until the second of August. This politic preface was succeeded by a formal abdication* of the throne, for himself and the dauphin, in favour of his grandson, the Duke of Bourdeaux : which vain production, the lieutenant-general of the kingdom deposited in the archives of the house of peers the very day on which it was received. Act of Abdication." Rambouillet, 2d Aug. 1830. My Cousin, I am too deeply distressed at the evils which afflict and threaten my people, not to seek every means of removing them. I have, in con- sequence, resolved upon abdicating the crown in favour of my grand- son. The dauphin, participating in my sentiments, renounces his rights also in the Duke of Bourdeaux's favour. You will, therefore, in your capacity of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, have the accession of Henry V. to the throne proclaimed. You will take all other necessary measures which concern you, for regulating the form of government during the minority of the new sovereign. I here confine myself to the communication of these particular arrange- ments, in order to avoid a great variety of evils. You will commu- THE CROWN- JEWELS CARRIED OFF. 535 It has never been shown that Charles X. directed the removal of the crown-jewels from St. Cloud ; hut the obvious insufficiency of funds would, very naturally, have suggested to the steward of the household, the wisdom of packing up these valuables ; they would either remain with his royal master, or be ransomed by the country. As soon, however, as their removal was ascertained, the municipal commission appointed three deputies, Maison, Odillon Barrot, and Schonen, to proceed with- out delay to Rambouillet, and demand their restoration. They were also instructed to offer the ex-king safe- conduct to the borders. Labouring under his charac- teristic obstinacy, or, as his advocates have asserted, still clinging to the hope of a rising in favour of royalty in La Vendee, Charles not only refused to surrender the crown-diamonds, but declined granting an interview to the deputies. Returning to Paris, they stated the failure of their mission ; upon which a body of six thousand men was directed to proceed to Rambouillet that day, and enforce the wishes of the municipal com- mission. Intelligence of these decisive steps having preceded the arrival of the republican army, Charles nicate my intentions to the whole diplomatic body ; and you will take the earliest opportunity of making known to me the procla- mation by which my grandson shall be recognized as king, under the title of Henry V. I charge Lieutenant-general Viscount Latour with this letter to you. He has orders to consult with you as to the arrangements to be made in favour of those persons who have accom- panied me, as well as those that may be suitable for myself and the rest of my family. We shall afterwards regulate the other measures that may become necessary in consequence of the change in the reign. I renew to you, my cousin, the assurance of those sentiments with which I am your affectionate cousin. (Signed) CHAKLES Louis AXTOINE." 536 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. yielded to necessity, and reluctantly surrendering the diamonds, left Rambouillet for Maintenon. His army began now to desert, his officers to falter in their fealty, his funds were nearly exhausted. As he approached Dreux, the royal guard received him, returned their colours to their fallen master, and took their last farewell. Overcome by the affectionate and honourable attachment of these brave fellows to his miserable government, a fidelity grounded upon their just sense of the obligation of an oath, he was unable to reply, but, the following day the Duke of Ragusa, by king Charles' order, released them from their alle- giance, and recommended them to return to Paris, and make their submission to Louis Philippe, whom they would find fully sensible of their value ; their fidelity to himself would prove their best recommendation to the lieutenant-general. Passing through Melleraud, Argentan, and St. Lo, the ex-king and his suite reached Cherbourg, where they embarked on board " The Great Britain," com- manded by Captain Dumont Deerville, and that noble vessel immediately sailed for Spithead. The feelings of Charles were by no means outraged by the conduct of the inhabitants as he passed ; the white cockade had everywhere been replaced by the national colours, but he was uniformly saluted by the national guard of each town, and received, if not with respect, at least in silence. He was attended by many of the attaches of St. Cloud ; but, perhaps, so great a desertion of fallen majesty was never witnessed, as occurred in the instance of the courtiers that once flattered king Charles X. The flight of the exiled king produced little sensation amongst the revolutionists ; their own projects so com- pletely, and so enthusiastically, engaged their attention, PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 537 that no leisure was left to express either their contempt of his imbecility, or hatred of his tyranny. The whole truth of the three days' contest in the streets of Paris had not heen revealed, when Charles passed through the provincial towns, or his escape, most probably, would not have been so easily effected ; but, the changes of government, the deposition of one king and elevation of another were all effected in so brief a period, that each individual was fully occupied in considering the propriety of his own conduct, and providing for his personal secu- rity in the general overthrow of established institutions, There were men then known in France, not created by the revolution of 1830, but possessing a reputation for learning, wisdom, and integrity, antecedent to that remarkable event, who did not hesitate to fling them- selves into the foaming torrent, resist its rage, and guide its strength ; they mounted the forlorn hope, and displayed their own high courage, while they unfurled the flag of freedom ; they stayed the plague that tyranny engendered, and to which anarchy would have added fatal virulence. The influence, example, and firmness of these intrepid statesmen and soldiers, seized the reeling ship, and laid her on her course, to pursue her voyage again amongst the nations of the world. The Due de Broglie, son-in-law of Madame de Stael, whose talents and extensive information attracted the favour, and secured for him the patronage of Napoleon, accepted the presidency of the council, and acted as secretary of state. Dupont, Guizot, Gerard, Louis, Mole, Lafitte, Perrier, Dupin, Constant, and Bignon, lent the aid of their genius, energy, and popularity, to control and regulate the tide of public anger during the convulsion, and undertook the responsibility of governing the city, and the country, independently of i. 3z 538 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the authority of the king and his ministers. From the terrible examples which the second restoration pre- sented, of Bourbon inhumanity and revenge, such an experiment required, in the actors, no ordinary degree of firmness and determination. On the third of August, the day originally named for the convocation of both Houses, the expected cere- mony took place. It had been the practice to hold the first meeting of the session in the Louvre, and the Luxembourg was the habitual House of Peers ; but, on this extraordinary occasion, the temporary building erected for the representatives of the people, near the Palais Bourbon, was employed. Here the throne and state-chair were brought from the Louvre ; two tabourets, or stools of privilege, were provided for the Dukes of Chartres and Nemours, whom, by an order of the same day, the lieutenant-general had called to sit in the Chamber of Peers ; and whom he had also decorated with the order of the legion of honour. The arms of the Orleans-Bourbons adorned the throne be- neath the tricoloured banner of the revolution, but the insignia of the elder Bourbons were purposely concealed by velvet drapery. Two galleries had been originally constructed in the building ; on the present occasion, one of them was assigned to the Duchess of Orleans and the princesses, the other appropriated to the accommodation of the corps diplomatique. The lieutenant-general entered the assembly amidst loud plaudits and vivas, and proceeding to a tabouret which had been placed in front of the throne, turned round, put on his hat, and desired the assembly to be seated. After silence was obtained, Louis Philippe rose, and addressed the assembly to the following effect ADDRESS OF THE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. 539 " MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, Paris, disturbed in its repose by a deplorable violation of the charter and the laws, defended them with heroic courage. In the midst of this sanguinary struggle, none of the guarantees of social order existed ; persons, properties, rights, everything that is valuable and dear to men and to citizens, was exposed to the most imminent danger. During this absence of all public power, the wishes of my fellow-citizens were turned towards me ; they have considered me worthy of co-operating with them in saving the country ; they have invited me to exercise the functions of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. This cause appeared to me just the dangers immense the necessity imperative my duty sacred! I have hastened into the midst of this valiant people, followed by my family, and wearing those very colours which, for the second time, have designated amongst us the triumph of liberty. I have come also firmly resolved to devote myself to everything that events may demand of me, in the situation in which I am placed, in order to re-establish the empire of the laws, save the menaced liberty, and render the repetition of such great evils impossible, by securing for ever the power of that charter, the name of which, in- voked during the combat, was reiterated after the victory. For the accomplishment of this noble task, it belongs to this assembly to guide me. Every right ought to be securely protected, all insti- tutions necessary to their complete and free exercise, should receive the developements of which they require. Attached in heart and conviction to the principles of a free constitution, I accept, before- hand, all its consequences. I think it my duty to call your attention to the organization of the national guard, the application of trial by jury to offences by the press, the formation of departmental and municipal administration, but, first of all, to the fourteenth article of the charter, which has been so odiously interpreted. " The past has been painful to me ; I regret misfortunes which I should like to have prevented ; but, in the midst of that magnani- mous plunge of the capital, and of all the French cities, at the pros- pect of reviving order with wonderful promptitude, after an opposition pure from every excess, a just national pride affects my heart, and I look with confidence on the future destiny of my country. " Yes, gentlemen, this France, which is so dear to us all, will be happy and free; it will show to Europe that, intent solely on its 540 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. internal prosperity, it cherishes peace as well as liberty, and only desires the happiness and repose of its neighbours. " Respect for every right, due care for all interests, good faith in the government, are the best means of disarming parties, and of restoring to their feelings that confidence in the institutions, that stability, which are the only firm pledges of the happiness of the people, and of the power of the state." " My Lords and Gentlemen. As soon as the chambers shall be constituted, I shall have the intelligence communicated to you of the act of abdication of His Majesty Charles X. By the same act, His Royal Highness Louis Antoine of France, dauphin, renounces likewise his rights. This act was placed in my hands on the second of August, at eleven o'clock at night. I ordered it to be deposited amongst the archives of the House of Peers this morning, and I shall have it inserted in the official part of the Moniteur." The manly sentiments of the Duke of Orleans, his conciliatory yet firm manner, and the obvious enthu- siasm which he displayed in the popular cause, pro- duced a reiteration of those plaudits at the close of his address, which had hailed his entrance to the Hall. The deputies advancing, crowded around him, each, according to his opportunity, addressing some congratulatory remark to the prince, and receiving his courtly yet pithy acknowledgments, and in this way conducted him to the street, where they again cheered him, as he and the Duke de Nemours rode away, escorted by a squadron of the national guard. The duchess and her children were not without an escort also on their return, being attended by a party of gentlemen on horseback, decorated with tricoloured cockades and scarfs. The private performance of Louis Philippe's new duties called forth the most unqualified admiration: his reception of deputations from the principal towns v.as in all cases gracious; his answers breathed the true SPEECH OF DUKE DE CHOISEUL. 5il spirit of patriotism, and the strongest determination to defend those privileges which had been so dearly pur- chased. Besides, the very popular act of munificence which he performed towards De Lisle, the author of the Marsellaise hymn, the promotion or appointment of the heroic youths of the Polytechnic school to the rank of under-lieutenants, and the presentation of eight decora- tions to the pupils of law and medicine, contributed to confirm, if not augment, that popular enthusiasm which his general conduct had created. It was on the follow- ing day that his highness received the letter of the commissioners from Rambouillet, announcing the success of their labours, and the embarkation of the king. Without the least delay, he caused this docu- ment to appear in the journals, accompanied by his own declaration to the legislative council in full assembly; and, the universal diffusion of tranquillity was one of the first and happiest consequences of this pre- cautionary measure. When the legislative bodies resumed their sittings in their respective chambers, accumulated arrears of business, and appointments of committees, engaged their attention so fully, that one of the first of their motions, an answer to the lieutenant-general's address, was reluctantly, but necessarily, postponed to the sixth of August. Upon this day, a ballot for a committee to prepare the answer being proposed, the Duke of Choiseul, amongst other observations, said " Under the grave circumstances in which we are placed, to waver in our conduct would be culpable and pusil- lanimous. We can no longer confine ourselves to a mere echo of the phrases in the speech from the head of the government, we must express our sentiments with loyalty and frankness. It is to things, not persons, 5 i<2 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. that our attention must hereafter be directed ; and I am prepared to say, that if we must choose between the monarch and the monarchy, it is the latter only that ought to be regarded. But we are called to the exercise of higher duties, to establish the government on a solid basis, and to remove all uncertainty as to the exercise of power. The chamber of peers I con- ceive to be of incontestable necessity, but it must demonstrate that necessity by placing itself at the head of public opinion, and by recalling those glorious and happy days when, instead of ^eing dragged in the train of power, this chamber was honoured in public opinion by the constitutional opposition which it maintained against the measures of a ministry, supported by a chamber of deputies, distinguished by the epithet of introuvable. The title of a peer of France was then synonymous with that of "father of his country." Times have changed ; I shall not state the causes ; they are unfortunately too well known. This day I shall confine myself to the proposition, that in prepar- ing the address in answer to the speech of the lieutenant- general, the committee should abstain from a servile repetition of the phrases of that speech, that it should lay aside those fawning protestations which it has been the practice to introduce, and that it should express itself clearly as to the urgency of the measures to be proposed for insuring the stability of the government, and as to the importance of the laws which are required by the present order of things." The simultaneous proceedings of the chamber of deputies were, if possible, more momentous than those of the house of peers. Casimir Perrier was appointed president by the lieutenant-general, who regretted the investment in his own hands of such an invidious pre- LAFTTTE PRESIDES IN THE CHAMBER. 543 rogative, but being unable, from indisposition, to attend, Lafitte presided, whose duty it became to read the fol- lowing startling proposition of M. Salverte " I accuse of high treason the ex-ministers, authors of the report to the king, and subscribers of the ordinance of the 26th July." The proposer did not proceed at once to sustain his accusation by any arguments, but merely expressed his intention to refer its consideration to a committee. M. Beraud, however, animated by sen- timents equally patriotic and enthusiastic, but less vin- dictive, eagerly ascending the tribune, said " The people of France were united to their monarch by a solemn tie, which has just been rent asunder. The violator of the contract can have no right to claim its execution. It is in vain that Charles X. and his son affect to transmit a crown which no longer belongs to them. That right has been dissolved in the blood of thousands of victims. The deed of abdication com- municated to the legislature is but a new act of perfidy ; the semblance of legality with which it is clothed is a mere deception ; it has been thrown among us, that it may become a brand of discord. We have been called upon by the same law of necessity, which placed arms in the hands of the citizens of Paris for the resistance of oppression, to adopt a prince for our temporary chief, who is a sincere friend to free institutions. We are required by the same necessity, to adopt, without delay, a permanent chief as the head of the government. But, however implicit the confidence with which this prince has inspired us, the rights we have chosen to defend, require that we should fix the conditions on which he is to be admitted to power. Repeatedly and shamefully deceived, we are warranted in stipulating for the strictest terms. In some respects our institu- 544 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. tions are incomplete, in others they are vicious ; it is our duty to extend and purify them. The prince now at our head, has already done more than we have required of him ; the fundamental principles of popular rights have been already propounded and ac- knowledged ; other principles and other rights are equally indispensable, and will be equally acknow- ledged. We are the chosen of the people ; to us they have confided their interests and their wants. Their first want, their dearest interest, is liberty and repose. They have themselves won their liberty from the hands of tyranny by force of arms ; it is for us to secure their repose, by giving them a just and stable government." The orator concluded by moving a series of resolutions relative to the abdication of Charles X., conduct of the ex-ministers, elevation of Louis Philippe, and other exciting topics, which pro- duced a discussion of the most animated character, and adjournments on that and on the succeeding day. During the debates in the chambers, various public bodies, amongst which were the courts of accounts, royal court of Paris, and council of public instruction, obtained permission to present addresses of allegiance and congratulation to the lieutenant-general. The former of these documents collected, with extraordinary care, anything that was calculated to give a significa- tive character to their common reception. They with one consent embodied in their addresses the folio win ff o flattering language of Seguier in his presidental speech, " Sir, although still young, during the early days of the revolution you shared in its victories, you have been instructed by its misfortunes, and you preserved from its operation all that is dear to the honour of the nation. The simple habits of your family, the special THE THRONE DECLARED VACANT. 545 order that reigns in your household, the dignity of your modesty and affability towards all ranks, your rectitude in every transaction, have gained over every heart, without foreseeing the great merit which has prostrated them at your feet. And, how happy are we ! to see you here surrounded by your numerous offspring, who have been educated along with their fellow-citizens." Pursuing their preconceived doctrines of reform, the movement party persevered in pressing on the chamber of deputies the views of Beraud and Salverte, and, after argument, not eloquence, had been exhausted, after a narrow escape from a second emeute, and re- peated but inconsiderate efforts to excite sympathy for the misfortunes of the exiled king, the chamber came to the following resolutions "The deputies, taking into consideration the im- perious necessity which results from the events of July last, and of the general position in which France found itself in consequence of the violations of the constitu- tional charter considering, also, that in consequence of that violation, and of the heroic resistance of the citizens of Paris, the king, dauphin, and every mem- ber of the eldest branch of the royal family quitted the territory of France declare that the throne is vacant de facto and dejure, and that it is indispensable to provide for it. " The chamber of deputies declare, secondly, that, agreeable to the wishes, as well as for the interests, of the French people, the preamble of the constitutional charter is suppressed, as offensive to the national dig- nity, by appearing to grant to the French people rights which belong to them essentially. By means of these propositions, the House is at least enabled to announce, that the universal and urgent interest of the nation i. 4 A 54<6 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. calls to the throne his royal highness the Duke of Orleans, and his descendants for ever, from male to male, in the order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of females and their descendants. " The lieutenant-general of the kingdom will, there- fore, be invited to accept, and secure to the nation, the clauses and engagements now introduced and agreed to the sacred observation of the constitutional charter, and the alterations made by both Houses ; and, having so done, in presence of the assembled chambers, to assume the title of King of the French." Before this determination was formed before the tremendous national inconsistency was committed, of struggling, with the best blood of France, in rescuing their liberty from the hands of Charles, merely for the purpose of placing it in the custody of Louis Philippe, several speeches were delivered of totally different, but equally extraordinary characters. Podenas having observed, with flippant eloquence, upon the private feelings of the ex-king, Martignac had the folly and temerity to defend fallen majesty ; an act amiable and novel in itself, but, in this instance, wholly inexcusable, being performed at the expense of veracity, and with a sacrifice of the reputation of his unhappy ministers. " I feel compelled," said Martignac, "on behalf of a family plunged in misfortune, to raise a voice that defended it in the height of its power. I could not hear the language of the last speaker without the deepest emotions of sorrow. Gentlemen, had you known this prince as I have done, had you been ad- mitted to his intimacy, you could not have heard him accused of ferocity without indignation. No, he was not ferocious ; he has been deceived. It was not his heart which dictated the infamous ordinances. They MARTIGNAC's CHARACTER OF CHARLES X. 54tf were the work of perfidious counsellors, whom I freely abandon to you. Let not your indignation fall upon him. But believe me believe one who has lived in the closest habits of intimacy with him, that his heart was animated by the love of his country. I have not been surprised at the heroic resistance called forth by those iniquitous ordinances \ but I repeat, why should reproaches be uttered after the power that ori- ginated them had fallen, and which will cause an addi- tional pang to a heart already overburdened with mis- fortune. I know not in these remarks whether I have followed the dictates of prudence and moderation j I have consulted only my own heart." Never was a defence more unfounded, never was a time for such defence more indelicately chosen. It has been already shown that King Charles would not listen to the suggestions, or even supplications of his own family ; how, therefore, could he be supposed capable of receiv- ing the advice of ministers, when that counsel ran counter to his arbitrary views ? And, as to the time and place for defending the contemptible character of an imbecile bigot, surely bad taste could not have more entirely violated the dictates of delicacy, than by telling the actors of the revolution, on the very theatre of their exertions, that they only were the heartless, the guilty violators of law. Neglecting this weak, worthless interruption to the prevailing unanimity, Lafayette rose in the assembly, and said, " In ascending this tribune to speak on a subject of such vast importance, I am neither yielding to the impulse of the moment, nor courting an idle popularity, which I should scorn to prefer to the sug- gestions of duty. It is well known that I have all my life professed republican principles ; but they have not 548 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. been such as to prevent me from supporting a consti- tutional throne, created by the will of the people. Under existing circumstances, whereby it is desirable to raise the prince lieutenant-general to a constitu- tional throne, I feel myself animated by the same sen- timents ; and I am bound to avow, that the more I become acquainted with the Duke of Orleans, the more perfectly does the choice fulfil my wishes. On the subject of an hereditary peerage, I do not share the opinion entertained by many of my fellow-citizens. I have always thought it necessary that the legislative body should be divided into two chambers, differently constituted ; but I have never seen the utility of creating legislators who, in some cases, become judges invested with hereditary rights. I have always thought that aristocracy is a bad ingredient to introduce into our public institutions. It is with great satisfaction, there- fore, that I find you occupied with a project which meets the sentiments I have all my life maintained. My conscience now compels me to repeat them, and to declare, that I hope shortly to see the hereditary peer- age suppressed. My fellow-citizens will do me the justice to acknowledge, that if I have always defended the principles of freedom, I supported public order with equal uniformity." Although Lafayette had opposed monarchy in any form, in the American war, and had never been recon- ciled to Napoleon, who was the people's choice, yet his unqualified support of Louis Philippe's election was not objected to as an inconsistent act. The deputies were pleased with his explanation, because they had been previously resolved to approve of it. But the patriot perhaps felt, that there was a debt due to the son of Egalite ; he had seen the difficulties that still THE CROWN OFFERED TO LOUIS PHILIPPE. clogged the political machinery of the transatlantic republic he detested the elder Bourbons from prin- ciple, and from the same motive regarded the younger branch ; so that, notwithstanding his repugnance to hereditary peerage, and his disapproval of the admis- sion of aristocracy although, why should not genius and patriotism co-exist in an aristocratic bosom ? he proposed the erection of a monarchy, the elevation of a prince of the blood-royal, and to render the throne hereditary in his family. The arguments against the existence of an hereditary peerage partake, in no minor degree, of those that would abolish hereditary monarchy. Discussions, relative to the investiture of the judges and other public officers, occupied the deputies for some short time after the adoption of the resolution for calling the Duke of Orleans to the throne ; but these points being disposed of, the assembly rose, and pro- ceeded in a body, and on foot, to the Palais Royal. There they were admitted without hesitation, and re- ceived by his royal highness, surrounded by his family and private friends. It became the duty of Lafayette, as vice-president of the chamber, to read the declara- tion of principles the bill of rights, and invitation of his country to ascend the throne ; and, having discharged that duty with due solemnity, the Duke of Orleans was permitted to deliver the following reply : "I receive with profound emotion the declaration you now present to me. I regard it as the expression of the national will ; and it appears to me to be in conformity with the political principles I have all my life professed. Impressed with recollections which have always made me desire that I might never be destined to ascend the 550 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. throne exempt from ambition, and accustomed to the peaceful life which I led in my family I cannot con- ceal the sentiments which agitate my heart in this great juncture ; hut there is one which predominates over them all, it is the love of my country I feel what it prescribes to me and also feel that I shall not fail in the performance." Louis Philippe was much affected during the de- liverance of these few, but very impressive words \ he was observed to shed tears of joy at the resuscitation of his country ; and, at the bidding of memory, yet shak- ing off every symptom of submission to weak passion, the next moment after the conclusion of his reply, he embraced Lafayette with all the ardour of youthful enthusiasm, amidst reiterated shouts of " Vive le roi, Vive la reine." These an ti- republican exclamations roll- ing through the ample halls of the Bourbons, descended to the crowded courts, and were returned in kindred echoes from their sculptured walls. The populace, who had followed the deputies, and waited in the adjoining avenues, to learn the reply of the lieutenant-general, participating in the joyous impulse, joined in the popular praises of their new king and queen, and loudly demanded the gratification of once more behold- ing them. Feeling that such a request, at such a moment, ought not to be refused, his majesty, accom- panied by the queen and royal family, presented them- selves on the balcony, attended by Lafayette ; the latter, influenced by the enthusiasm of the moment, and deceived by the impression that his early visions of government were at length realized, with the most rapturous gestures grasped the hand of the prince, at the same instant exclaiming aloud, "Citizens! we ELOQUENT SPEECH OF CHATEAUBRIAND. 551 have accomplished a good work here is the prince we required hie est, quern tibi promitti scepius, Augus- tus ! We now have the best description of republic ! It still remained for the peers to record their appro- bation of the conduct of the deputies ; but the very act of the latter body, in at once openly, and independently, calling Louis Philippe to the throne, sufficiently prove that the voices of the Upper House would not have been heard by the nation. Some hesitation existed as to the decree of the deputies for abolishing all the peerages created by Charles X. ; but this faint show of legislative power was soon surrendered. The meeting would have been wholly unworthy of recording amongst the revolutionary events, had not Chateaubriand conferred an immortality upon it by his eloquence. " Gentlemen," said this brilliant orator, " the declaration which has been brought to this chamber, is to me less complicated than it may appear to those of my noble colleagues who profess opinions different from mine. It contains one fact, however, which governs, or rather destroys, all the others. Were we under a regular order of things, I should doubtless carefully examine the various alterations which it is proposed to make in the charter. Many of these changes have been submitted to myself. I am only surprised that the re-actionary measure, rela'ting to the peers created by Charles X., should have been sent up to this chamber. I shall not be suspected of any attachment to that system by which these batches of peers were created ; and you remem- ber that when threatened with them, I combated the very mention ; but to constitute ourselves judges of our colleagues, and to erase whom we please from the peerage, whenever we find ourselves the stronger party, would seem to me to savour of proscription. It is 552 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. thought necessary to annihilate the peerage be it so ; it is more noble to surrender existence than to beg for life. I reproach myself already for the few words I have uttered on a point, which, important as it is, dwindles into insignificance when merged in the great proposition before us. France is without a guide ; and I am now to consider what must be cut away from, or added to, the masts of a vessel that has lost its rudder ! I lay aside, therefore, whatever is of a secondary in- terest in the declaration of the elective chamber ; and fixing on the single enunciated fact of the vacancy of the throne, whether real or pretended, I come at once to my object. " There is a premise, however, which should first be alluded to. If the throne be vacant, we are at liberty to choose the future form of government. Before we offer the crown to any individual, it may be well to ascertain under what political system the social body is to be constituted. Are we to establish a republic, or a new monarchy ? Does a republic or a new mo- narchy present sufficient guarantees to France, of strength, perseverance, and repose ? A republic would, first of all, have the recollections of the old republic to contend with. These recollections are far from being effaced. The time is not yet forgotten when Death made his frightful progress amongst us, with Liberty and Equality for his supporters. When plunged again into anarchy, how are you to reanimate the Hercules on his rock, who alone was able to stifle the monster ? In the history of the world, there have been five or six such men. In the course of a thousand years, your posterity may see another Napoleon ; but you must not expect it. In the present state of our manners, and of our relations with surrounding states, the idea FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 55 3 of a republic seems wholly untenable. The first difficulty would be, to bring the people to an unanimous vote on the subject. What right has the population of Paris to constrain the population of Marseilles to adopt the form of a republic ? Is there to be but one republic, or are we to have an indefinite number ; and are they to be federative or independent? Suppose all these ob- stacles removed, and that there is to be but one repub- lic can you imagine, with the habitual familiarity of our manners, that any president, however grave, talented, and respectable he may be, could remain for a single year at the head of our government, without wishing or endeavouring to retire from it ? Ill pro- tected by the laws, and unsupported by previous recol- lections, insulted and vilified, noon and night, by secret rivals, and by the agents of faction, he would not in- spire the confidence which property and commerce require. He would neither possess becoming dignity in treating with foreign princes, nor the power which is indispensable to the maintenance of internal tran- quillity. If he resorted to revolutionary measures, the republic would become odious, all Europe would become disturbed, would avail itself of the consequent divisions, first to foment them, and afterwards to inter- fere in the quarrel ; and the state would again be in- volved in an interminable struggle. A. representative republic is, perhaps, to be the future condition of the world ; but the period for its establishment has not yet arrived. " I proceed now to the question of a monarchy. A king, named by the chambers, or elected by the people, whatever may be done, will always be a novelty. I take for granted that freedom is sought for, and espe- cially the freedom of the press, by which, and for i. 4 B 554 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. which, the people have obtained so brilliant a triumph. Every new monarchy will, sooner or later, be under a necessity to curb this freedom. Could Napoleon him- self permit it ? The offspring of our misfortunes, and the slave of our glory, the liberty of the press can only enjoy a secure existence under a government whose roots are deeply buried. A monarchy, the illegitimate offspring of one bloody night, must always have some- thing to fear from the free and independent expression of public opinion. While one man proclaims repub- lican opinions, and another some equally Utopian theory, is it not to be apprehended that laws of excep- tion must soon be resorted to, notwithstanding the eight words which have been expunged from the eighth article of the charter ? What will the friends of regu- lated liberty gain by the change now proposed to you ? You must, of necessity, sink at once either into a republic, or into a system of legal slavery. The monarch will be surrounded and overborne by factions, or the monarchy itself will be swept away by a torrent of democratical enactments. In the first moments of success, we imagine that everything is easy -facile credimus quod volumus we expect to satisfy every exigency, interest, and humour ; we persuade and flatter ourselves that every one will lay aside his per- sonal views and vanities ; we believe that the superior intelligence and the wisdom of the government will surmount the innumerable difficulties with which it is surrounded ; but, after the expiration of a few months, we shall find that all our theories have contradicted the event. " I here present a few only of the inconveniences which must attend the formation of a republic, or of a new monarchy. If either has its perils, a third course ADVANTAGES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS. 555 remains, and one which well deserves your considera- tion. The crown has been trampled upon by its savage ministers, who have supported by murder their violation of good faith. They have trifled with oaths made to heaven, and with laws sworn to on earth. " Foreigners, who have twice entered Paris without resistance, hear the true cause of your success ! You presented yourselves in the name of legal authority. If you were not to fly to the assistance of tyranny, do you suppose that the gates of the capital of the civilized world would open so readily before you ? The French race has grown, since your departure, under the influence of constitutional laws ; our children of fourteen years of age are a race of giants ; our conscripts at Algiers, and our schoolboys of Paris, have shown you that they are the sons of the conquerors of Austerlitz, Marengo, and Jena, but sons strengthened by all that liberty adds to glory. Never was a defence more just or more heroic than that of the people of Paris. They rose, not against, but for the land. So long as the social compact was respected, the people were peaceable ; they submitted to insults, provocations, menaces, with- out complaint. Their property, and their blood, were the price they owed for the charter, and both have been lavished abundantly. But when, after a system of falsehood, persevered in to the latest moment, slavery was suddenly proclaimed ; when the conspiracy of folly and hypocrisy was developed ; when the panic of the palace, organized by eunuchs, was prepared as a sub- stitute for the terror of the republic, and the iron yoke of the empire ; then it was that the people armed themselves with their courage and their intelligence. It was then found that these shopkeepers could breathe amidst the smoke of gunpowder, and that it required 556 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. rather more than a corporal and two files of soldiers to subdue them. A century could not have ripened the destinies of a nation so completely as the three last suns that have shone over France. A great crime was committed, which produced the violent explosion of a powerful principle. Was it necessary, in conse- quence of this crime, and the moral and political triumph which resulted from it, that the established order of things should be overthrown ? Let us examine. Charles X. and his son have forfeited, or have abdi- cated, the throne, understand it which way you will ; but the throne is not vacant ; after them came a child, whose innocence ought not to be condemned ; what blood now rises against him ? will you venture to say that it is that of his father ? This orphan, educated in the schools of his country, in the love of a constitu- tional government, and with the ideas of the age, would have become a king well suited to our wants. The guardian of his youth would have sworn to the Declaration on which you are about to vote ; on arriv- ing at his majority, the young monarch would have renewed the oath. In the mean time, the actual and reigning sovereign would have been the Duke of Orleans, as regent of the kingdom a prince who has lived among the people, and who knows that a monarchy, in the present age, can only exist by con- sent and by reason. This natural arrangement, as it appears to me, would have united the means of recon- ciliation, and would have presented the prospect of saving those agitations to France, which are too surely the consequence of all violent changes. To say that this child, when separated from his masters, would not have had time to forget their very names, before arriv- ing at manhood ; to say that he would remain infa- LIBERTY A NATURAL RIGHT. 55J tuated with certain hereditary dignities, after a long course of popular education, and after the terrible lesson which, in two nights, has hurled two kings from the throne, is scarcely credible. It is not from any feeling of sentimental devotedness, transmitted from the swaddling-clothes of St. Louis to the cradle of this young Henry, that I plead a cause where every- thing would again turn against me if it triumphed. I am no believer in chivalry or romance ; I have no faith in the divine right of royalty ; but I believe in the power of facts and of revolutions. I do not even invoke the charter ; I take my ideas from a higher source ; I draw them from the fountain of philosophy, from the period at which my life terminates. I propose the Duke of Bourdeaux, merely as a necessity of a purer kind than that which is now in question. " I know that by passing over this child, it is intended to establish the. people an absurdity of the old school, which proves that our veteran democrats have advanced no farther in political knowledge than our superannuated royalists. There is no absolute sovereignty anywhere ; liberty does not flow from political right, as was supposed in the eighteenth' century, it is derived from natural right, so that it exists under all forms of government, and a monarchy may be free, even more free, than a republic. But this is not the occasion to deliver a political lecture. I shall content myself with observing, that when the people dispose of thrones, they often also dispose of their own liberty. The principle of an hereditary monarchy, however absurd it may appear, has been recognized in practice as preferable to that of one wholly elective ; the reasons of which are so obvious, that I shall not enlarge upon them. You elect one 558 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. king to-day who shall prevent you from calling an- other to the same throne to-morrow ? The law ! you will say : the law ? it is you yourselves who make it ! It would be simpler to say, we repudiate the elder branch of the Bourbons. And why ? Because we are victorious ; we have triumphed in a just and holy cause ; we enjoy a double right of conquest. Granted ! you proclaim the sovereignty of might ; take good care of this same might, for, if in a few months it escape from you, there will be much cause of com- plaint. Such is human nature ! The most enlightened and the purest minds do not always rise above success. Such minds were the first to invoke the principles of right in opposition to violence ; they supported them with all the superiority of talent ; and, at the very moment when the truth of what they had said has been demonstrated by the most abominable abuse of power and by its signal overthrow, the conquerors recur to those arms they had broken ! They will find them to be dangerous weapons, which will wound their hands without protecting their cause. " I have carried the scene of war to the territories of my adversaries. 1 do not mean to bivouac under the banner of the dead ; a banner which has not been inglorious, but which droops by the flag-staff that sup- ports it, because no breath of life is there to raise it. When I disturb the dust of twenty-five Capets, I do not deduce from it an argument which should exclu- sively be listened to. The idolatry of a name is abo- lished ; monarchy is no longer a tenet of religious belief. It is a political form, preferable at this moment to every other, because it has the greatest tendency to reconcile good order with public liberty. Useless Cassandra ! How often have I wearied the throne CHATEAUBRIAND CONSISTENT AND COURAGEOUS, 559 and the peerage with disregarded warnings ! It now only remains for me to sit down upon the last frag- ment of the shipwreck I have so often foretold. In misfortune I acknowledged every species of power, ex- cept that of absolving me from my oath of allegiance. It is my duty to make my life uniform. After all that I have done, said, and written for the Bourbons, I should be the meanest of mankind if I denied them at the moment when, for the third and last time, they are on their road to exile. Fear I leave to those generous royalists who have never sacrificed a coin or a place to their loyalty ; to those champions of the altar and the throne, who lately treated me as a renegade, an apostate, and a revolutionist. Infamous libellers, the renegade now calls upon you ! Come then, and stammer out a single word with him for the unfortunate master you have lost, and who loaded you with benefits. Insti- gators of coups d'etat, and advocates of constituent power, where are you ? You hide yourselves in the mire, from beneath which you raised your heads to calumniate the faithful servants of the king. Your silence to-day is worthy of your language of yesterday. Ye gallant Paladins, whose projected exploits have made the descendants of Henri quatre be driven from their throne at the point of the knife, tremble now as ye crouch under the tricoloured cockade ! The noble colours you display will protect your persons, but will not conceal your cowardice. " In thus frankly expressing my sentiments, I do not profess to perform any act of heroism. Those times are past when opinions were uttered at personal hazard. If such were now the case, I should speak in tones an hundred-fold louder. The best buckler is a breast that 560 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. does not fear to show itself uncovered to the enemy. No, we have neither to fear a people whose reason is equal to their courage, nor that generous rising generation whom I admire, with whom I sympathize with all the faculties of my soul, and to whom, as to my country, I wish honour, glory, and liberty. " Far, very far, be from me the thought of minister- ing to the ends of discord in France. The spirit of this Declaration has been my motive for excluding from what I have said every accent of passion. If I could convince myself that this child should be left in the happy ranks of obscurity, in order to preserve the peace of thirty-three millions of men, I should have regarded every word as criminal which was not consist- ent with the wants of the nation. But I do not feel this conviction. Had I the disposal of a crown, I would willingly lay it at the feet of the Duke of Orleans. But all that I see vacant is not a throne, but a tomb at Saint Denis ! " Whatever destiny may await the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, I shall never be his enemy, if he pro- motes my country's welfare. I only ask to retain my liberty of conscience, and the privilege of going to die where I shall find independence and repose, I vote against the Declaration." Whatever may be the opinion of posterity as to the sincerity of Chateaubriand's motives, or the degree of fortitude evinced by him in opposing the majority at such a crisis, none can withhold their admiration of his genius as an orator. t This beautiful piece of elo- quence produced no effect, the Declaration being adopted with only ten dissentient voices out of one hun- dred and fourteen. The Baron Pasquier led the depu- ACT OF CONFIRMATION. 56 1 tation of peers to the Palais Royal, about eleven o'clock at night, when he delivered the following address to the lieutenant-general- " The Chamber of Peers are come to present to your Royal Highness the Act which is to secure our future destiny. You for- merly defended in arms our new and inexperienced liberties ; to-day you are about to consecrate them by laws and institutions. We have the assurance in your exalted understanding, in your personal feel- ings, in the recollections of your whole life, that in you we shall find a Citizen -King. You will respect our securities, which are yours also. The noble family that we see around you, educated in the love of their country, in justice, in truth, will ensure to our chil- dren the peaceful enjoyment of that charter, to the observance of which you are about to swear, and the advantages of a government at the same time firm and free." At length the ninth of August arrived " the day, the important day, big with the fate of Orleans and of France." The avenues that led from the Palais Royal to the Chamber of Deputies, were crowded from an early hour, although the illustrious objects of their curiosity had appointed precise moments for passing. The doors being opened at noon, the benches were instantly occu- pied ; the rostrum had been removed, and replaced by an estrade overhung by a canopy, adorned with the tricoloured flag. Three low-backed seats were placed before the throne of state, on the left of which stood a writing-table, and on the right another table, on which lay a crown, a sword of justice, and other emblems of sovereignty. It was just two o clock when the Duchess of Orleans and her children took their seats in the gallery reserved for them ; half an hour after which, the roaring of artillery, preceded by the chanting of the Marsellaise 4c LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. hymn, announced the arrival of the lieutenant-general. Four marshals walked before him, his two eldest sons, the Dukes of Chartres and Nemours, followed him ; the former took their stations on one side of the throne, the two princes on the other, while the Duke of Orleans seated himself upon the chair in front. The peers and deputies remained standing and uncovered. And now the most profound silence was obtained, an intense anxiety appeared to suspend every emotion but that of attention, when his royal highness, in a clear unem- barrassed voice, called on the president of the chamber of deputies to read the Declaration of that House. Casimir Perrier having obeyed his royal highness's directions, Pasquier next advanced to the foot of the estrade, and delivered the approbation of the peers into the hands of the lieutenant-general, who then addressed the assembly as follows " I have read the Declaration of the chamber of deputies, and the confirmation of the chamber of peers, with attention ; I have weighed and reflected on every expression ; and I accept, without reservation, the clauses and conditions which they in- clude. I accept the title of King of the French, which this confers upon me, and am ready to swear to its observance." Having pronounced these words, he took off his hat, advanced a few paces on the platform, raised his hands towards heaven, and, in a solemn, firm, and re- solute tone of voice, repeated the oath of observance, the whole assembly standing " In the presence of God, I swear to observe faith- fully the constitutional charter, as well as the changes expressed in the Declaration to govern only by the laws, and according to the laws ; to cause impartial LOUIS PHILIPPE ACCEPTS THE CHARTER. 563 justice to be administered to each, according to his right, and to act in every respect with the sole view of the interest, happiness, and glory of France." The sincerity of the royal duke's manner, tended to raise still higher the enthusiastic feelings of the moment, and " Vive le roi, vive la reine, vive lafamille royale" were reiterated a thousand times. Proceeding to the writing-table on his left, Louis Philippe was there required, by the commissioners of justice, to sign his acceptance of the crown and constitution ; after which, the marshals in waiting presented him with the sword and hand of justice. These ceremonies being- performed, Louis Philippe took his seat upon the throne, and, in the character of an elected king, delivered the following address to the peers and deputies of his kingdom " I have now consummated a memorable transaction, and feel deeply the magnitude of the duties it imposes on me ; yet, I am confident that I shall fulfil them. Impressed with this conviction, I accept the compact of alliance proposed to me. I should have desired never to occupy this throne, to which the people's choice has called me ; but France, her liberties being attacked, saw public order in danger ; the violation of the charter had shaken France to its centre ; it was necessary to restore the operation of the laws, and it became the duty of the chamber of deputies to provide for that restoration. Gentlemen, you have done sc. The wise alterations you have introduced in that public instrument, will guarantee public freedom for the future ; and France, I trust, will become happy at home, respected abroad, while the peace of Europe will be more securely affirmed." Renewed applause followed the deliverance of these LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. few wise and manly expressions ; nothing could have more fully convinced the nation of the prudence of their choice, than the calmness with which this great prince ascended the throne of his ancestors not raised by the claim of heritage or legitimacy, but after a great national convulsion, in which he had not participated, and by the unanimous voice of the people whom he was called to govern. The whole assembly rose simul- taneously as his majesty descended the steps of the throne, and remained standing and uncovered, while he walked slowly towards the principal entrance of the chamber to depart. Not only within the precincts of the parliament, but on his way back to the Palais Royal, Louis Philippe I., king of the French, was received with the strongest manifestation of delight ; and a sympathy and devotion exhibited, of the sincerity of which abundant proofs were given at very many subsequent periods. The question of the elevation of the Bourbon- Orleans family to the throne, in the person of the prudent, politic, and amiable Louis Philippe, has ceased to be agitated ; its propriety was soon acquiesced in by foreign potentates, and by political characters in every country of Europe. The elder branch had not only forgotten, but violated their obligations, and directly opposed rational freedom ; their fall, therefore, was inevitable. " My friends," said Montalivetto his sons, " a revo- lution threatens it may be terrible and, like the first, overturn the best established fortunes ; destroy the most brilliant prospects. Be men ; exert yourselves ; that you may be able to resist adversity when it comes upon you, and protect yourselves by your own resources and abilities. As for myself, I perceive clearly that DEATH OF GIRARDIN. 3,7 the Duke of Orleans alone can restore our distracted affairs ; he will ascend the throne, and in him a con- stitutional government will revive." These prophetic words were uttered some time previous to the accession of Charles X. One of Montalivet's sons, Count Camille Bacharem, was afterwards minister of the interior, and comptroller of the civil list of his majesty Louis Philippe. A still more impressive anecdote is related, and of similar tendency, which occurred in the year 1827- Stanislaus de Girardin, being on his death- bed, was visited by his faithful friend the Duke of Orleans. The presence and confirmatory language of the prince, afforded the greatest consolation to the last moments of Stanislaus, whose strength, like the last flash of an expiring lamp, returning for a moment, he seized the Duke by the hand, and said with energy " I shall at least carry with me to the tomb the happy belief that you will soon be placed upon the throne of our common country." These were the last words he ever uttered. In the previous pages of this volume, this destiny of Louis Philippe has been alluded to, and the extraordinary fact sufficiently attested, that both parties in the state continually laboured under an impression that in his person the dynasty would be changed. 500 CHAP. IX. From the accession of Louis Philippe to the Throne of France, to the establishment of his government, and its unqualified recog- nition by foreign potentates. THE king proceeded to appoint his ministers, and make minor arrangements in the royal establishment, leaving to the excited feelings of the nation some oppor- tunity to subside. He substituted the arms of Orleans for those of the elder branch of the royal family, settled the titles of the princes and princesses ; and directed that in future the style and title of nobility should not be employed in addressing the different ministers of the crown, but the more simple one of "Monsieur the Minis- ter," But party animosity revived and acquired strength in proportion as the firmness of the king conferred secu- rity upon all political institutions. Men of the con- vention party again ventured to speak openly, and a for- midable struggle commenced under the innocent aspect of philological discussions, while serious matter was con- cealed beneath. The revolution of 1830, less sangui- ary in its character, less frenzied in its conduct than that of 17S9, had driven one dynasty from the throne, and seated another in its place. It prevented the return of that despotism which prevailed in the seven- teenth century, and preserved that spark of liberty which had escaped extinction under the charter of 1814. In theory, the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people was established, and a fatal blow dealt to the absurd notion of passive obedience ; but, in prac- THE EX-MINISTERS IMPEACHED. 567 tice, little had been done towards realizing the expecta- tions of those who desired to see a monarchy, surrounded by republican institutions, substituted for the charter of government. "The party of the movement" de- manded the progress of reform, and the investment of still more extended power in the hands of the people ; while the conservative, or juste milieu party, resisted all further innovation, and desired to deviate from legi- timacy as little as possible. The majority of the cham- ber of deputies, which had been elected previous to the revolution, was of the latter party, while the ministry was divided. The ministry of Louis Philippe included men of both parties, and should, therefore, have been calculated to dispense impartial justice to all, and extend mercy where it was due ; but it also included men of extreme political views. Of these, the most pro- minent were, Lafayette, commander of the national guards, Dupont de 1'Eure, keeper of the seals, and Odillon Barrot, prefect of the Seine. In the month of August, four of the unhappy ex-ministers, Polignac, Chantelauze, Peyronnet, and Guernon de Ranville had been arrested ; and, on the twenty-third of the following month a committee, which had been appointed for the purpose, brought up a report in favour of an impeachment for treason, for having falsified the elections changed, arbitrarily, the institutions of the kingdom and excited civil war. The report was accepted, and the impeachment sent to the chamber of peers. The same indecent haste, the same thirst for the blood of these marked-out vic- tims, which actuated the movement party in the lower house, extended to the upper ; and, notwithstanding the excited state of public feeling, and the avowed hostility to the prisoners, a commission was at once 568 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. appointed, and the fifteenth of December fixed for their trial. The friends of justice, moderation, and humanity, perceiving that the blood of the accused alone would satisfy the movement party, endeavoured to avert such catastrophe, by introducing a law for the abolition of capital punishments, before the trial of the prisoners. From the reply of Louis Philippe, there can be little doubt that he would have leaned to the side of mercy ; and that he viewed, with just horror, the idea of bringing these mistaken men, but faithful servants, to the scaffold, so long after the cessation of civil war. His majesty declared that there was no one wish nearer to his heart than the total abolition of capital punish- ments for political offences. In this feeling he had been confirmed by the recollection of the abuses of that power in the first revolution, and the outrages committed upon the cause of religion and humanity by those monsters of iniquity who had obtained, by false- hood and intrigue, the sacred trust of government. The state of parties at this moment, their notions of the origin, character, and extent of their respective powers, were thus described by Odillon Barrot, one of the most popular orators of that revolutionary period. " When that dangerous power was broken, which, instead of for- getting its foreign origin, employed itself, on the contrary, in violating the fundamental law under the shade of which it was established ; when we saw it broken by force, we all felt the want of a political organization, which would satisfy all wants under the protection of which we might realize all the institutions which are necessary to the happiness of our country. " Providence had reserved for France a man who had fought under the national banner who had fought for our revolution, for our liberty who experienced the trials of misfortune who never sought the support of a foreigner who was unconnected with public intrigues who returned to his country pure and more noble, since STATE OF PARTIES. 569 he had elevated his soul, since he only desired existence earned by his labour ; who had sacrificed his personal happiness, his private affections, his tranquillity, from a true devotion to his country. " But we also are entitled to observe, that the government we have established is pure ; that it had no other principles but those of the public interest ; that its mission was not to caress the passions, not to corrupt the hearts and consciences ; that its duty was to make reductions in the administration of the state, to bring back our political organization to elements of simplicity, order, and economy ; the result of which was, that outside the pale of the government there were grouped all the existences which were displaced, every ambitious project of which the individual pretensions had been awakened by our revolution, and which it could not have satisfied. '* These men, in ancient society like ours, at the issue of an over- throw which had bequeathed to us the inheritance of three or four corrupt governments, these men formed a very imposing mass. They never acknowledged the motives of individuality, of selfishness, which guided them. But the first occasion on which they could give the people any offence, they showed themselves ready to seize, to foment, to make it an instrument for the secure establishment of slavery. " To that class of ambitious men, who seek neither by their labour nor industry the means of living honourably in society, but who desire endless confusion, was joined a party which had rallied and re-assembled around the power they had broken, and who had received from it largesses. This party, as they declared, had been surprised rather than conquered : accustomed to place their hopes in the foreigner, they saw with secret joy that foreign policy might still oppose some uncertainty. This party might become dangerous, since it could attach to itself a mass of discontented and ambitious men. " There were others, however, sincerely well-disposed, who were led by the desire of patriotism and the love of liberty ; these it was necessary to warn, that, when they sought to precipitate by force the results of our glorious revolution, they were literally compromis- ing all. It was necessary to tell them, that what they attempted they would not accomplish ; for, although they might be successful for one hour, the second they would be alone, frightened at their isolated situation ; and that all France would rise up in defence of a throne which it had acknowledged, around which it had rallied, 4D 570 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. and to which it looked for shelter as to the only secure citadel. It was necessary to ask these men if they felt themselves sufficiently strong stoical enough to parade the scaffold through every part of France, after the example of the committee of public safety, to prevent by terror the shedding of blood, disuniting the country, and suffering it to become gradually the prey of foreigners ?" This prudent, powerful, and politic discourse, although delivered from the height of the national tribunal, was not heard. The emeute proceeded with extravagance, the mob parading the principal streets, and, in tones of the highest exasperation, uttering menaces against the enemies of further reform. It was on this occasion that Lafitte exclaimed, " Alas ! how little had it been foreseen that the revolution was so soon to degenerate into anarchy, and require the exertion of some new power, to protect the nation against the calamities that threatened it." The pretext for this violent insurrec- tion was an attempt of the conservatives and the king to carry the projet de loi abolishing the punishment of death in cases of treason, which the revolutionists looked on as a conspiracy between the executive and legislative as a ruse, to save the lives of the accused ex-ministers from the vengeance of their persecutors. Mobs assem- bled before the Palais Royal, and, in no measured terms, denounced the government. JThe king and La- fayette exerted all their influence to restore order, dur- ing which they were attended by the national guard and a strong body of trdops of the line ; the latter argument proved convincing for the moment, but the obnoxious bill was also abandoned by the ministers. Odillon Barrot issued a proclamation exhorting his fellow-citizens to obedience, in which he unguardedly designated the proposition of ministers as unseasonable. This term gave offence to his colleagues, who demanded MARSHAL SOULT TAKES OFFICE. 571 his removal ; but the king refused to comply with their wishes, upon which Baron Louis, the Duke de Broglie, Count Mole, and Guizot, resigned office. The movement party came into power by the ministe- rial changes ; but, one of the party, Gerard, who suc- ceeded to the war department, after a tenure of only a few days, resigned to Marshal Soult. The trial of the ex-ministers concluded, as had been anticipated, with their condemnation ; but, as the exist- ing laws prescribed no definite punishment for the crime of treason, the court assumed the privilege of fixing its severity. Polignac was condemned to im- prisonment for life, as well as to civil death ; the three other culprits, to imprisonment for the same term, with the privation of their titles, rank, and orders. The announcement of this decision produced the utmost disappointment, and, had not the precaution of removing the prisoners to Vincennes secretly, before the sentence was pronounced, been adopted, they would either have been assassinated by the mob, or a collision would have taken place between the military and the exasperated revolutionists. Scarcely had this cause of excitation been removed, when the question of extend- ing the elective franchise became a subject of discussion and division, between the chambers arid the ministry, and even divided the cabinet against itself differ- ences which led to the resignations of Dupont de 1'Eure and Odillon Barrot. These changes, added to the triumph of the conservatives in saving the lives of the ex-ministers, inspired the ministry with further confi- dence ; and perceiving the popularity of Lafayette to be rapidly ebbing, from the suppression of the December riots, they now discovered that his services were unne- cessary, that the national guard should be permanently 572 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. organized, and the office of commander-in-chief placed upon a new basis. Perceiving a counter-revolutionary tendency, Lafayette voluntarily resigned, upon which the office of commander-in-chief was abolished, but Lobieu was placed at the head of the national guard of Paris. From this state of parties, the tranquillity of the state was endangered ; the movement party, in- cluding many able and popular men, was thrown into the opposition, while the chamber of deputies looked upon the ministry as partaking too much of revolu- tionary principles. Such was the balance, such were the feelings, and such also the misunderstandings, that existed amongst public men at the close of the memo- rable year of 1830. The king was firm, his authority fully acknowledged by the country, and his wisdom and moderation re- spected ; but the political visions that floated before the frenzied faculties of the ultra-revolutionists, destroyed their confidence in sober legislation. The revolution had not remained pure, undisturbed, and exemplary ; its votaries had exhibited symptoms of discontent, almost of opposition, during the trial of Polignac and his colleagues, but the wrath and fury of the worst portion of the democratic faction were reserved for dis- play and desecration to the thirteenth of February, 1831. As the year opened, conspiracies, plots, and treasons were disclosed, and a faction styled Carlists, in favour of the exiled king and the elder branch of the Bour- bons, arose in the centre of Paris. On the fifteenth of February, an attempt was made to commemorate the cruel assassination of the Duke de Berri ; and a print of his son, the Duke de Bordeaux, crowned with flowers, was publicly exhibited. Those who were THE CHURCH OF ST. GERMAIN PILLAGED. 573 guilty of such rash conduct, should have received the pity, not the punishment, of the adverse party ; but when the irritable character of the nation is remem- bered, as well as the recent agitation of the capital, the authors of these inconsiderate acts appear to deserve but little commiseration, however severe the chastise- ment inflicted on them. These emblems were placed around the entrance of the ancient church of St. Ger> mains T Auxerrois, which was soon assaulted by the idle, the dissolute, and uncontrollable part of the revolu- tionists. This sanctuary, hallowed by the transit of so many centuries of time over its gloomy walls, was entered by an infuriated mob, the high altar was plun- dered, the crucifix broken and trampled under foot, the noble works of art that adorned the little lateral chapels cut into ribands, and the work of sacrilege completed. As the Jleur-de-lys, the historic emblem of France, and which the civilized world had long been taught to re- spect, was also the memento of the royal exiles, it was everywhere prostrated before the tyrant mob, to whom the liberal and patriotic government of July, 1830, was obliged to yield a passive obedience. It was not the ministers of religion solely that excited the rage of these ultra-revolutionists ; for the flight of the curate from St. Germain did not save that aged temple from sacrilegious hands ; nor did the archi- episcopal palace, which the obnoxious prelate had expe- ditiously vacated, escape the most complete and perfect demolition, every stone being carried away from the site of the building by the dilapidators. Besides the removal of \hefleur-de-tys from every public insti- tution, the chambers were compelled to pass a bill for the perpetual exclusion of the exiled family from France ; an enactment carried by a majority of 103 in 57 4< LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. the lower house, and 29 in that of the peers. But the rocking of the revolutionary vessel had not ceased its course had not been steadily laid : the Lafitte cabi- net enjoyed the entire confidence of neither party : and, finding that the fever of reform was not abated, they resigned their portfolios to the leaders of the opposition. Casimir Perrier became minister of the interior, Baron Louis succeeded Lafitte, and Admiral Rigny and d'Argout were appointed to the marine ; Soult retained the war department ; Montalivet, the devoted friend of king Louis Philippe, was removed to the bureau of public instruction. More strong, energetic, and popular than their pre- decessors, the new ministry did not hesitate to declare the principles on which they were determined to govern, which included active measures for the suppression of insubordination at home, and non-intervention in the domestic quarrels of foreign countries. In strict accordance with the first of these precepts, a bill was at once introduced, precisely similar to the English riot-act, and its beneficial effects were experienced as early as the month of April, when mobs assembled in many of the public avenues, rather influenced by recol- lections of anarchy, and thirst for mischief, than from any serious desire to complain of grievances, or suggest remedies for their cure or prevention. A second projet de loi was a species of parliamentary-reform bill : by the old law, the qualifications of an elector were, that he should pay about 12 per annum of direct taxes, and also have attained the age of thirty years. These qua- lifications restricted the electoral body to eighty thou- sand in a population of thirty-two millions. By the new projety the electoral age was lowered to twenty- five ; the qualification to 8 direct taxes ; and, when UNION OF BELGIUM WITH FRANCE PROPOSED. 5J5 the number of electors did not amount to one in every one hundred and fifty, then, those who were taxed next highest in order should be included in the register, to complete the requisite number of voters. These changes raised the constituency from the former limited number to 215,000 voters. Having brought forward the budget, proposed a loan, and obtained the necessary supplies, Casimir Perrier allowed the chambers to be prorogued ; and, by an ordinance of the twenty-fourth of May, they were dissolved. The second fundamental principle of ministers re- ferred to foreign policy, and to this they also adhered with the most uncompromising fidelity. The revolu- tionists, flattered by the humble imitation of their ef- forts in the liliputian state of Belgium, were clamorous for the inconsistent act of uniting that country to France, and inflicting the weight of a new foreign yoke upon men who had just shaken off an old one. Lafayette, however, explained clearly, and succinctly, the opinions of his party upon these serious questions of foreign polity. " When called upon to explain my notions of non-intervention," said the veteran, " I declared, that whenever the right of sovereignty is claimed by the people, every intervention in the affairs of that people should be considered as a declaration of war against France. As to the union of Belgium with France, I would not have stopped to inquire whether it would be displeasing to this or that power ; I would only have asked whether it was the will of a majority of the Belgians to propose, and the will of the representa- tives of the French nation to accede to the union." The popularity of the king and his new ministers was still insufficient to appease anger, remove discon- 576 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. tent, or silence the licentious portion of the press ; Thowret, the editor of the Revolution newspaper, was prosecuted by ministers for an article published by him, calculated to bring his majesty's government into contempt and odium, and a jury was found courage- ous enough to find him guilty ; he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 2000. An attempt being made by the ultra-revolutionists, to consecrate the column in the Place Vendome as an altar to Napoleon, and the enclosed area being actually strewn with books, prints, votive garlands, crowns, and other emblems, the police, supported by the national guard, repaired thither without delay, and swept away the offerings that had been made to the idol of the repub- licans. It was decreed, at this period, that a commemo- rative medal should be struck and presented to those who had most signally distinguished themselves during " the days of July." The decoration was represented as given by the king ; and ministers, in consequence, accompanied its presentation with the exaction of an oath of fidelity to Louis Philippe and the Charter. The conditions, however, proved so unpalatable to the republicans, that, out of 1528 persons who were declared worthy of the honour, 1000 declined to accept it. Foreign influence, which the republicans dreaded, was not exerted against the government of Louis Phi- lippe ; the amiability of his private life, the extent of his learning, his great experience, and his brilliant talents, secured for him, without solicitation, the respect of the crowned heads of Europe. Russia hesitated until the adhesion of Talleyrand to the new order of things was publicly known ; for, the autocrat concluded, that THE CROWN OF BELGIUM REJECTED. 577 this accomplished intriguer would not make his elec- tion in favour of a government that had not acquired stability. Entering upon the duties of royalty with the same calm facility which he displayed in the management of his ducal possessions, Louis Philippe impressed sur- rounding nations with salutary fears of his military power, and within a few months after his accession assembled an army of 150,000 men. The Belgian revo- lution had admonished Europe to beware of France, and detach her from an union which might prove so dangerous to ancient dynasties. It was the exam- ple of France that the Belgians followed, they adopted the principles of their republican neighbours ; and the election of Louis Philippe was so acceptable to the Belgian patriots, that they offered the crown of their newly-erected kingdom to the Duke de Nemours. The wisdom of Louis Philippe, and his peculiar ability for government, are here clearly demonstrated : within the space of a few months, from the date of his elec- tion to the throne of a kingdom convulsed with civil war an election made in direct opposition to those laws by which the thrones of civilized Europe are held he had so firmly established his kingly pow r er, that he felt no reluctance in refusing to accept a second throne, in the name of one of his children : " The thirst of conquest, or the honour of seeing a diadem placed on the brow of my son," said Louis Philippe to the Belgian deputation, " shall never induce me to expose my country to a repetition of those calamities which w^ar entails ; nor could any advantages France might reap from my acceptance of the honour you propose, com- pensate for those evils. The examples of Louis XIV. and of Napoleon are sufficient to save me from the T. 4E 57 8 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. fatal temptation of erecting thrones for my sons ; and to prefer the maintenance of peace in all the brilliancy of victories, to war, in which the arms of France will not fail to acquire fresh glory whenever the defence of her standard shall call forth her people." But the foresight of Louis Philippe consoled him for this noble sacrifice ; he knew that the proximity and power of France would render her alliance an object of paramount value to the king, or president, of Bel- gium ; and, when Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was elected to the new throne, Louis Philippe granted him his daughter in marriage. This arrangement united Bel- gium de facto with France, without exciting the jealousy of the first-rate powers of Europe, who consented to the exclusion of Belgium from the Germanic confede- ration, and to the demolition of the fortresses on the French frontier. Animated by a true sense of philan- thropy, the king of the French offered his mediatory services, to effect the salvation of Poland; but the autocrat of Russia viewed the new government of France with suspicion, and refused to permit any inter- ference from that quarter. Louis Philippe, however, had the gratification of knowing, that he had been instrumental in awaking the sympathy of Europe in the cause of Polish emancipation ; and, the subsequent misfortunes of that brave people show that the remon- strances of the king of the French were just as effectual as those of more favoured monarchs. The Austrian army having crossed the papal frontier, Louis Philippe promptly occupied Ancona ; by which measure France obtained a firm footing in Italy, and the Austrians were compelled to evacuate the Roman states. However the first-rate European powers might have regretted the revolutionary movements of the French THE KING VISITS THE PROVINCES. 579 people, they respected the talents of the prince who filled the throne, and seemed aware that he was resolved to make his country respected also. While the king of the French displayed the most cautious and humane policy in his foreign negociations, he had not overlooked the rising discontents in the provinces of France, and, in order to ascertain the true sentiments of the malecon tents, resolved on making a tour through his dominions. No project could have been more happily devised for working upon the feelings of the nation ; such is and has been the fickle character of the people, not of France peculiarly, but of all countries whose histories are preserved, that the sudden appear- ance of the prince from whom they revolted, amongst the traitors, has often quelled a civil war. Everywhere the king was received with enthusiasm ; from St. Cloud to the boundary of the department of Seine and Oise, the populace lined the high road, while every promi- nent object was adorned with tricoloured banners, branches, and garlands. At Poissy, Nantes, and Dieppe, his majesty reviewed the troops of the line as well as the national guard, and in every instance amid the acclamations of the spectators. But these appearances were deceitful, many a false heart was concealed beneath those joyous faces that welcomed the arrival of the king in his chief towns, and the elements of dissension were only stifled during the moment of excitation and enthusiasm, to flame forth again whenever the opportunity arrived. His majesty, however, was not interrupted in his great plans for the aggrandisement of the French nation, and promotion of her prosperity ; he concluded trading-treaties of reciprocal benefit with the United States of America, and with the republics of Mexico and Hayti ; and, 580 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. ever jealous of French honour and dignity, declared war against Portugal, then under the usurpation of Don Miguel. Insult and injury having been offered to French subjects in Portugal, the declaration of war claimed " liberty to Bonhomme, with 800 indemnity, and the dismissal of his judges ; the recall of Claude Souvinet from banishment ; an indemnity of 240 each to the Gambergs and Vallons detained at Oporto, and 400 to Dubois ; the prohibition of articles reflecting on France in the Portuguese journals, and an apology to the French consul." Supported by a French squa- dron, which captured the Portuguese fleet in the Tagus, and planted the tricoloured flag on the towers of Lisbon, the hard conditions were complied with by the usurper. The stability which these successful measures exhi- bited, did not control the troubled spirit of faction and of party throughout France. Carlists, imperialists, and revolutionists, in turn agitated the country districts, and kept discord constantly awake. A counter-revo- lution had been attempted in the south, without success, but the west exhibited an alarming state of disaffection to the new government. Orders were issued to use the utmost vigilance in Vendee, where the instigators of the riots at Marseilles were expected to appear, and the result proved happy for the peace of the nation. The romantic attempt of the Duchess of Berri was opposed by the wisest of the Carlist party, and, it is to her love of adventure solely that her sufferings and her failure are attributable ; she had been warned, by the following circumstantial document, of the total futility of her mission : " Madam, our preparations are wholly unequal to the nature and difficulty of the project ; we have a few guns, thrown upon the coast by the English THE CARL1STS WITHOUT RESOURCES. 581 during the first revolution, and in the period of the hundred days ; the latter only are fit for service. Besides, from want of care, from the necessity of con- cealing them during the Decazes' ministry, and since the revolution of 1 830, part have been rendered almost useless. Many of those into whose hands they had fallen have sold or exchanged the large guns for fowling- pieces. Powder is even more scarce than arms, the strictness of regulations since 1 830 rendering its acqui- sition a matter of much difficulty. "Patrols and householders combine to detect the smallest collections of powder, so that it is necessary to hide it in hollow trees, out-houses, hay-stacks, or other places, where it is exposed to damp and accident. It is necessary, therefore, that you and your council should be informed, that there is not sufficient ammuni- tion in Vendee to sustain a war for fifteen days. When we took up arms in 1815, we were similarly circum- stanced, but we then depended upon the assistance of England, mistress of the sea, whereas we have now nothing to expect thence. Our officers, and the most devoted of our landholders, are aware how vain any efforts of ours would be, unless the European powers would attack the frontiers of France, and make such a diversion in our favour as would oblige Louis Philippe to withdraw the powerful force now quartered amongst us. Even then, the first movement would be difficult, our enemies being in possession of all the resources of which we have been deprived, so that the royalists retain only the standard of legitimacy, without the means to defend it. If, however, under these dis- couraging circumstances, orders were issued to rally round the royal banner, many men of heroic fortitude, and many who had nothing to lose, would obey, but 582 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. their number would still be insignificant ; whereas, let only foreign arms give us their support, and this coun- try would rise en masse, and present an army not only formidable, but fatal to rebellion ; for the revolutionists are not in a condition to resist a coalition of the Eu- ropean powers. The large towns, no matter what might be the feeling of the inhabitants, would not commit themselves by joining us, unless the prospect of success were morally certain ; experience having taught them how certain the retribution in case of failure. Do not, madam, be misled by flattering pro- mises, when there are no substantial grounds to rest on ! If the exhilarating call of ' France for ever !' shall urge us to take arms, in one month from that date Vendee will be no more ! The last resources of legitimate monarchy will be annihilated, all our leaders will be put to death, and our lands laid waste ! War must first summon the army of observation from the West to the frontiers ; for, 50,000 men, wanting neither arms nor ammunition, would be too much against one- tenth of the number in want of everything." Driven to despair by their reverses and disappoint- ments in the South and West, these persevering foes to freedom, these men who boasted that they would call anarchy to their aid in effecting a counter-revolu- tion, now stretched forth their hands to the enemies of constitutional monarchy. Carlism and republicanism now raised themselves simultaneously, against the throne of July, in the hope of helping each other to a triumph. And now the red standard of rebellion was reared, and challenged the tricoloured flag of liberty. Around the latter, the patriots rallied enthusiastically, and joined in supporting the throne erected by the national FUNERAL OF LAMARQUE. ,583 choice, and in scattering the last fragments of the royal wreck that still held together in the West. It was a coincidence somewhat extraordinary, that the faction should have chosen, for the opening of their criminal attempts, the day of the funeral obsequies of General Lamarque, one of the most distinguished revolutionists, and the pacificator of Vendee. On the second of June, 1832, " The Society of the Friends of the People," made an experiment of their physical powers, on occasion of the funeral of young Gallois, who had fallen in a duel with one who had been his companion and his friend. The funeral of Lamarque presented a more solemn occasion, and they resolved on that day to make the most determined attempts. Numerous secret meetings were held ; stanch supporters were informed of the intended proceeding ; the schools, counting-houses, and workshops, received regular in- vitations. Chosen chiefs prepared a regular programme for the disturbance of order and tranquillity ; they pro- vided themselves with pistols and poniards ; they prevented the removal of the general's remains to the Pantheon, notwithstanding the remonstrances and re- fusals of his family, whose grief was increased by the prospect of a riot insulting to the memory of the deceased. It would evidently produce a collision be- tween the troops and the people, which appeared to be the sole actuating motive of the republicans. Pam- phlets were printed for gratuitous distribution amongst the discontented, in which scandalous libels against the reigning family and the supporters of the constitutional monarchy were introduced. It was even asserted that a movement upon St. Cloud was contemplated, but it can hardly be imagined that so wild a speculation ever 584" LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. formed one of their criminal follies. On their part, the Carlists called all the operatives of that faction to their assistance; and their instructions were, " to co- operate with the republicans in every movement for the disturbance of the public peace." Government issued strict orders for the due preser- vation of the peace, and no appearance of sedition, or of violence, was noticed up to ten o'clock in the morning, at which time the different bodies that were to form the procession were assembled in the Place de la Concorde, and in the Rue St. Honor e. But, in all con- spiracies, braggarts and impetuous characters are found, who either betray, or anticipate, the designs of their leaders. In this instance, several of the latter class, impatient of delay, gratuitously insulted the town- sergeants, who fled for protection to the Tuileries, and then raised the cry of Vive la republique ! At the head of the Place Victoire, the rioters turned the procession from its route, and obliged it to move round the square ; but the authorities submitted to the inconvenience in order to avoid collision, and no further obstruction was given until the Place de Bastile was reached. Here outrages commenced : one party desired to halt, that seditious harangues might be delivered ; another insisted upon advancing ; while banners, caps of liberty, and shouts of Vive la republique, left the object of the conspirators no longer doubtful. The cry " To the Pantheon," was the signal for slaughter, and in a mo- ment of time a volley, discharged amongst the dragoons, wounded the lieutenant -colonel and an inferior officer. The troops returned the fire, and the rioters were dis- persed. Scenes of still greater violence were witnessed in other parts of the capital, but the regular troops received such valuable co-operation and encouragement THE KING HASTENS TO PARIS. 585 from the national guard, that the anarchists were every where defeated. The painful intelligence being brought to St. Cloud, the king did not hesitate in forming a decision, and, addressing the queen in a serious tone, said, " I am going to Paris what are your wishes ? To which she replied, " To go with you there, and everywhere !" Without waiting for the escort, which was got ready as expeditiously as possible, the king, accompanied by a few of his staff, set out on horseback from St. Cloud, about ten o'clock at night; and whenever he happened to be recognized, was saluted with shouts of Vive le rot, while some amongst the crowd were heard to say, "There is one at least in the royal cavalcade who is not afraid." On his way to the Tuileries, he visited the different stations of the troops, and was cheered when- ever he passed any assemblage of persons. " Why then," said he, "should I not go through every street? my presence will do more than the bullets of my sol- diers; they may attack me, but I can defend myself; but still I think the whole affair will prove less serious than we apprehended, for the people are with us." When the rumour of disturbances reached the suburban districts, the guards of the various jurisdictions marched into the city, and gave their support to the national guard of Paris. His majesty now held a general review of these gallant troops in the Place Carousel, and the spectacle proved gratifying to the lovers of order. As the divisions marched from the place of review to their respective positions, and the relieved guard which they replaced entered the area, they were saluted with shouts of Vive la garde nationals ! vive la ligne ! From such decided firmness in the troops, and loyalty i. 4 F 586 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. in the people, there could be but little danger to the constitutional government. A party of republicans, more rash and riotous than their coadjutors, having entrenched themselves in the church of Saint-Mery, were enabled to hold out, when victory reigned every- where else. These anarchists kept that quarter in alarm by the constant and violent tolling of the bells, nor were they brought to submission before the doors were forced open by artillery, and escape rendered imprac- ticable. Louis Philippe, having ascertained by personal inquiry the real feeling of the Parisians, notwithstand- ing the earnest remonstrances of his ministers, and the friendly cautions of his general officers, resolved on visiting the scenes of anarchy, showing himself to his people, and giving them an opportunity of appealing to him against the pressure of any legislative burden. Mounting his charger, he proceeded to the Place Carousel and Champ Elysees, where the troops again passed before him in review, continued his tour of inspection along the boulevards, as far as the Bastile, repaired to the barrier du Trone, passed through the faubourg St. Antoine, and returned, along the quays, to the Tuileries. As the king passed near the head of the street Planche-Mibray, a piece was discharged within a few yards of him, upon which his attendants again remon- strated with him upon the risk he was encountering at every step ; " Gentlemen," said he, " my children are my best cuirasse." But the shot was not directed towards his majesty, nor was he unpopular with any class. His courageous deportment would have dis- armed his enemies, if any were to be found in the capi- tal : he was received evervwhere with loud cries of THE FRENCH ARMY ENTERS BELGIUM. 587 " Down with the republicans ! long live the king !" On several occasions he stopped, and, turning to the crowd, said, " My friends, I have been accused of having fled to the frontier; I have come amongst you to refute the calumny, and justify my conduct." As the royal cavalcade was passing the Chateau d'Eau, one of the staff observed that a soldier of the national guard, who had been severely wounded, lay there stretched upon a mattress ; the king immediately entered, and approached his bedside, when the invalid, endeavouring to rise, said, " I have been fighting for my country, for liberty, and the king ; I have several children, whom I recommend to your consideration." " I adopt them," replied Louis Philippe ; at the same instant giving directions to his aide-de-camp to take down the address of the family. A very different estimate will henceforth be formed of the conduct and motives of the Duchess of Berri, than if she had been successful in her invasion, or virtuous in her private life ; but, failure in both has exposed her character to contempt. Notwithstanding the law of exclusion, this bold woman appeared on the frontier, declared her resolution to espouse the insur- rections of Marseilles and Vendee, assumed the title of regent, appointed Marshal Bourmont her commander- in-chief, issued proclamations, and gave authority to the Chouans to commit outrages in her name. Such open, flagrant infraction of legal enactments, demanded the exertion of the constitutional powers ; before which anarchy fell prostrate, and the hopes of the Carlists withered away. On the fifteenth of November a French army entered Belgium, with instructions to invest the citadel of Ant- werp, to reduce and restore it to King Leopold, as a 588 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. preliminary of that peace which was to have for its hasis the independence of Belgium. The conduct of Louis Philippe, in this instance, was viewed with some suspicion by the European continental powers, who apprehended that the intervention in Belgium affairs was the prelude and the pretext for a general war. Great Britain, however, did not participate in these sentiments ; she remained calm during the contest, and many English, from motives of curiosity, passed over to Antwerp, and beheld with astonishment the obsti- nacy of the besieged, and the fortitude and military skill of the besieging army. During this war of one month only, the sons of Louis Philippe were distin- guished for gallantry and judgment, and the conduct of the French army generally, received the approbation of foreign countries. The elevated notions, the power- ful motives, which influenced the French people, ap- peared to direct everything with a generosity and moderation worthy of a nation that desired to be counted amongst the foremost in the civilized world, and wished to proclaim the maxims which they thought should henceforth be the basis of universal legislation. " As to our army," said a French civilian, " never were soldiers more ardent, more intrepid, more secured against every species of fatigue and danger. During the very depth of winter they were obliged to fight, and with those weapons too, which their enemies say the French know least how to handle perseverance and resignation. Against an enemy who shut them- selves up within embattled walls, a patient valour, obedient to the rules which genius had traced out, and who declined to proceed with more velocity than science would advise, was absolutely necessary. This valour the besieging army eminently possessed. SIEGE OF ANTWERP. 589 It was vehement yet disciplined, impetuous yet sub- missive, presenting all the virtues that were necessary, and at the precise moment when they were required. With such soldiers everything might be accomplished." Certain limits were prescribed to the operations of the French army, and to these they adhered with the most scrupulous, honourable, and extraordinary accu- racy. It formed a condition of the treaty, that when- ever the Belgian territory should be relieved from the presence of a Dutch army, the commission of the allies ceased ; it was also an understanding, that no violence should be offered to those who employed or menaced none. These concessions to political prin- ciples and to humanity, were made by the most dread-, ful of all powers war. The siege of Antwerp was begun and concluded at the appointed periods ; the town was held to be neutral ground, and exempt from the misfortunes of war ; even the facilities of assault which it would have afforded the army were renounced, rather than violate the understanding between France and Belgium ; and the peaceable inhabitants were spared those miseries which the obstinacy of the gar- rison would have inflicted on them. The French not only made generosity the rule of their own conduct, but taught a similar lesson to their enemies, "fas est ab hosie doceri, for the Dutch, who had previously fired upon the town, now learned to direct their artil- lery against an enemy worthy of them one with arms in their hands, and ready to encounter them not a defenceless and unoffending population. War had never before been conducted on such chivalrous prin- ciples ; and, it is devoutly to be wished, that, whenever that pestilence must visit the earth, civilization may come in her train. The glorious triumph which the 590 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. French arms acquired at Antwerp, where the Dutch also did not sustain any diminution of glory, produced the anticipated consequences the settlement of the Belgian question ; and their duty having been Discharged, the French immediately repassed the frontier. Grateful for the consummation of their struggle for freedom, the Belgian people directed Le Hon, their minister at the Tuileries, to present, in their name, an address of thanks to Louis Philippe ; and, on the eighteenth of February, 1833, his majesty, seated on the throne, and surrounded by his family, received the Belgian embassy. The plenipotentiary, advancing to the foot of the throne, spoke as follows " Sire, The king, my august sovereign, has en- trusted to me the honourable mission of placing in your majesty's hands the solemn act of thanks which the Belgian nation, by the unanimous vote of its repre- sentatives, has decreed to the French army. I feel happy in presenting to your majesty this expression of national gratitude towards yourself and towards France, a memorial which consecrates at the same time the rapid and generous movement of 1831, and the ener- getic and brilliant expedition of the year following. By your majesty's benevolent and generous permission, the French army, under the conduct of an illustrious commander, presented to the world the spectacle of strength guided by good faith, and victory obedient to the law of treaties. Success so popular never, perhaps, possessed a character so European. History will pro- bably record that the British and French flags floated side by side, while the arms of the latter accomplished the mission of peace, emanating from the fortunate co-operation of these two great powers. The remem- brance of the siege of Antwerp, and of the names that GRATITUDE OF THE BELGIANS TO FRANCE 5$l are inseparably associated with it, will for ever be engraven in our annals. Belgium associates with that event the names of your illustrious sons, whose youth- ful courage has twice contributed to the establishment of those guarantees promised by all Europe. Sire, this spontaneous homage from a friendly nation, must be doubly dear to the heart of a prince who does not hesitate to consolidate the independence of Belgium by every pledge that he can offer as a father and a king." Having concluded this grateful acknowledg- ment, the envoy next proceeded to read the official document the decree or vote of the Belgian senate, thanking the French army " for their aid in establish- ing their freedom on a secure basis." The king having received the act from the hands of the ambassador, replied, " I receive with lively satisfac- tion, both in the name of France, and for myself, the solemn decree which you have presented to me from the king and people of Belgium. I discern in this unanimous vote of the two parliaments of your nation, confirmed by the approbation of your sovereign, a sin- cere proof of the gratitude of Belgium to France, as well as a just appreciation of the value of her army, of its heroic conduct, and of that honour which has marked its course, and limited its operations. Two years since, I told you that Belgium would be free and happy ! Let that country never forget that it is to the assistance of France, with the consent of the great European powers, she is indebted for the prompt establishment of national independence ; and let her always rely with confidence on my support in defending herself from all foreign invasion or interposition. " It is gratifying to me to recall these words, the sincerity of which have been proved by events. It is 592 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. gratifying to remind you, that it is to the union of France and England that Belgium owes the great blessings she has obtained, and to Europe the new guarantee she has acquired for the maintenance of peace. My sons have been fortunate in sharing the labours of our brave soldiers, under the command of a general who has sustained the honour of his coun- try in so many actions. I rejoice, especially, that their debut in the career of arms is associated with an event which will be a brilliant pledge of my fidelity in the observance of treaties, and which has bound me more affectionately, if possible, to the king of the Belgians." The opening of the chambers being fixed for the nineteenth of November, the king resolved upon being present ; and, it was now that extraordinary fanaticism, in which the numerous French revolutions originated, exhibited its first symptoms of uneasiness at the prospect of settled government and institutions, and its deeply-seated animosity to kingly power. The royal procession upon the opening of the chambers having passed the Pont Royal, and arrived opposite the Rue de Bac, a man there deliberately advanced from the crowd, pushed in between two soldiers of the line, then in the act of presenting arms, and, levelling a pistol, the muzzle of which was only a few yards from the object of his murderous design, fired its contents at his majesty. Whether the assassin's hand became unsteady by any sudden feeling of re- morse, or the pressure on each side confined his arms or disturbed his aim, his fire, fortunately, did not take effect. The report produced an immediate alarm ; but the king, calmly addressing the affrighted multitude, said aloud, " There is no harm done no one has been OPENING OF THE CHAMBERS. 593 hit," and continued nis route without any apprehension of further danger or interruption. Arriving at the entrance of the chambers, he there strictly prohibited any mention of the transaction to the queen, desiring to be himself the first to explain it to his family at the palace ; but it was impossible to suppress the ebulli- tion of feeling, to silence the language of reprobation, that followed an attempt so desperate, an escape so providential, and the story soon reaching the interior of the palace, became known to the exemplary princess who then shared in the destinies of the elective throne of France. Entering the chamber, the king betrayed not the smallest indication of alarm, while the peers beheld him with the most unmixed admiration, and awaited the opening sentence of the royal speech with anxious suspense. These feelings were at once relieved, and confidence at once restored to every breast, by the tone and manner of the king, who was never more happy in any of his well-considered addresses to the chambers, than on this remarkable occasion. ^ " I congratulate myself," said the monarch, "on the continued enjoyment, after so long a separation, of your wise counsel and firm support. During this interval my government has experienced bitter trials. It has, however, overcome them by its power it has triumphed over the factious. Deceived by the generosity of our institutions, by our respect for the securities of public liberty, they have miscalculated the strength of legal and moderate political sentiments. In Paris, under the watchword of * Republicanism ' in the west, of 1 Counter-revolution they have attempted, vi et armis, to establish a new order of things ; but Republicanism and Counter-revolution have both been vanquished, 4 G 5Q-1* LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. " The days of the fifth and sixth of June have made the perverseness and inability of the favourers of anar- chy sufficiently evident ; they have revealed the danger of any political views, which would rather foster than suppress subversive passions. Constitutional monarchy has recognized its real friends and defenders, amongst the generous population of Paris, amongst the un- daunted national guard, in that courageous and faith- ful army, which so gallantly repelled those traitorous attempts. " I felt sincerely happy that my presence, by encou- raging our fellow-citizens, hastened the conclusion of the insurrection. You have seen what strength a consti- tutional king finds in the support of the nation, when constrained to have recourse to arms for the purpose of defending that crown which he has been invited to wear, and those institutions which he has sworn to maintain. We have had occasion to lament the most deplorable commotions and crimes in the west. The major part of the population, faithful to the charter, had no share in these seditions ; and, wherever rebel- lion did flame forth, its rage was speedily suppressed. The guilty authors of the civil wars which have so recently desolated the country, may now abandon every hope of a counter-revolution, for they will always find us unanimous in resisting it always faithful to our oaths, and ready to mingle our destinies with those of our country. A recent and decisive measure, as regards the public peace, will destroy the last illusions of this party. " In Paris, as well as in the west, my government borrowed from the existing legislature all the energy that was compatible with justice. Such active reme- dies alone were suited to such an alarming disease. SPEECH FROM THE THRONE, 5Q5 It was necessary, also, at such a crisis, that the defend- ers of order and of liberty should find, in the firm resolutions of power, that support which they claimed from it. You will have to inquire whether our legis- lation does not, in that respect, demand revision and amendment, and report by what means the general safety and the national liberty may at once be guaran- teed. It is by perseverance in such a course of mode- ration and justice that we shall show ourselves faithful to the principles of our glorious constitution. This is the system which has received your unanimous con- firmation, and which has been sustained with so much constancy, by the bold and able minister whose loss we all so much deplore. " The happy results of this political system already are begun to be experienced everywhere. Confidence is revived at home commerce and industry have re- sumed their course Providence has scattered its trea- sures over our fields the scourge which so cruelly tortured us is removed, and everything now promises speedy reparation for the losses we have sustained, the burdens under which we were sinking. " The symptoms of national prosperity abroad are not less unequivocal. I have every reason to depend upon the peaceful dispositions of foreign powers, and upon the assurances I daily receive from them. The close alliance which has been cemented between France and Great Britain must prove to both countries a fruit- ful source of prosperity and power, and be a new pledge to all Europe of the prolongation of peace. " There was one question which might create unea- siness in Europe. Notwithstanding the exertions of my government, the treaty which was to consummate the separation of Belgium from Holland remained 596 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. unexecuted. The means of reconciliation seemed exhausted the end had not been obtained. Such a state of things could not be prolonged, without com- promising the dignity and the interests of France. The time had arrived to provide for the execution of the treaties, and for the fulfilment of the engagements contracted with Belgium. The sentiments of the king of England coincided with mine our flags were seen to wave together at the mouth of the Scheldt. Our army, whose discipline and forbearance are only equalled by their valour, appeared before the walls of Antwerp my two eldest sons shared in their labours and their glory. " By giving my beloved daughter to the king of the Belgians, I have cemented the two countries by an additional bond of intimacy. The decree which has consecrated this solemn union shall be laid before you." The solemnity usual upon such ceremonies was, in this instance, repeatedly violated by involuntary bursts of applause from the members of both houses ; every passage was heard with approbation many, with rapturous enthusiasm. Immediately after the king's departure, the members of the grand depu- tation, who had heard from his majesty's lips a recital of the attempt to which he had nearly fallen a victim, related the particulars to their colleagues. The relation was received with a general expression of reprobation against the authors of so vile an attempt, and an exclamation of " Let us all go to the Tuileries " arose simultaneously from every part of the hall. The spirit that prompted, soon caused the performance of this act of sympathy and of duty ; and, proceeding forth- with to the palace, they requested permission to see THE KING REVISITS THE PROVINCES. 597 their monarch, and congratulate him upon his escape from the late nefarious attempt upon his valuable life. Fully appreciating the generous impulse of kindly feel- ing which actuated this distinguished body, he never- theless exhibited such a noble courage under the painful circumstances, as dissipated the fear of those who apprehended a wide-spread conspiracy against royalty in any shape. The most devoted of his adhe- rents, however, saw with regret, in this daring act, the first of a series of criminal attempts, which would, inevitably, be made, to cut him off. " My life is destined to defeat the factious," said his majesty ; " the ball of an assassin cannot reach my heart." Then approaching M. Dupin, he continued, " Well, my dear Dupin, they have fired at me." " No, sire," replied the deputy, " they have only fired upon themselves." The convulsions to which the provinces appeared subject, the danger of sudden invasion by foreign forces in support of the exiled family, and the known opinion of the celebrated Vauban, that Paris ought to be pro- tected against a coup de main, now occupied the atten- tion of government ; but, the Opposition calumniated the promoters of a project, which Vauban suggested, and Napoleon intended to have executed. For this time, therefore, it was rejected, only to be revived some ten years afterwards, with less national glory, and when the public resources were less flourishing. Once, again, the king resolved to visit the provinces, and ascertain the stability or duration of his popularity : he was everywhere received with the cordiality that characterized his former tour ; he again reviewed the national guards in the principal towns ; and, to the utter confusion of the factious, the gratitude of the nation, for the sacrifices the Duke of Orleans had 598 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. made, had experienced, apparently, some augmentation in the interval. France had not forgotten the revolution of 1830. All the arts of declamation could not persuade her people, that, although they had been victorious without a leader, the influence, power, and popularity of Louis Philippe were immaterial to the preservation of liberty, and maintenance of order. All good and wise men applauded the conduct of the elected sovereign, and their admiration of the speech from the throne drew forth the flattering compliment, " that, truth ought to be told to kings, but it should also be told by them." On the twenty-seventh of October, 1833, the king and queen, with their children, repaired to Bourget, there to await the arrival of the king and queen of the Belgians. A state courier, Vernet, the same indivi- dual who announced the return of Napoleon on the twentieth of March, passed near the royal carriage at the moment the postilions were mounting their horses. The king called him, and the courier, drawing close to the carriage, leaned forward also, to hear with greater accuracy the commands of his royal master ; at this instant the saddle turned Vernet fell while the pos- tilions, ignorant of the accident, put their horses to a gallop, and the wheel passed over the body of the unfor- tunate messenger. It was some minutes before the cries of the queen and princesses were heard or understood by the riders ; but, as soon as the carriage was stopped, the king and the duke of Orleans leaped out, and, hastening to the spot where the melancholy accident happened, raised the wretched Vernet from the ground, and carried him to the foot of a tree by the roadside. The duke having undressed him, the king examined his ribs and limbs with care, and, finding that they were not broken, said, " There are yet hopes enough ; is there ACCIDENT TO THE KING'S MESSENGER. 599 any one here who can bleed him ?" Receiving no an- swer, " Well, then," said he, " I must perform the operation myself it won't be the first time." Calling for linen or ribands, the princesses threw their hand- kerchiefs to him ; the king then took his lancet from his pocket-book, and opened the temporal artery with the most perfect address. A stream of thick black blood instantly spouted from the wound, staining the hands and the dress of the royal operator. Recovering the use of those faculties that had been for a while sus- pended, Vernet exclaimed, " Ah ! sire, I plainly per- ceive that I shall never again be able to mount my horse I" The king consoled him by many assurances, restored his courage, reanimated those feelings that had become torpid, and, in terms of the most studied kindness, endeavoured to inspire him with a salutary confidence. Meanwhile with a steady and skilful hand, he continued the operation so promptly com- menced, stopping the efflux of blood, closing the wound, and applying bandages ; nor would he quit the patient, until he had placed him under the care of a surgeon. The incident has been commemorated by the pencil of the artist is it not equally deserving of historical registry ? It may be deficient in romantic features, but abounds in those of humanity. This interesting event, in conjunction with that of the civic crown presented to Louis Philippe by the municipality of Vendome, forms the subject of an orna- mented pendulum of a clock in the palace of the Tuileries. The chambers being summoned for the twenty-third of December, the king took advantage of the occasion, to lay before the members a true and striking picture of the internal state of the nation. " The repose of 600 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. France," said his majesty, " has not been disturbed since we last met here in public assembly. The coun- try continues in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace and order. Industry and labour have their reward everywhere. The people, occupied and peace- ful, rely upon the stability of our institutions, upon my fidelity in preserving them ; and public confidence is the surest token of national prosperity. It is by pre- serving all rights, and protecting all interests it is by equity and political moderation that we have ensured these fortunate results. To secure their duration, let us persevere, with energy and patience, in this successful system. An assiduous vigilance is still requisite : extravagant passions and guilty manoeuvres are still endeavouring to corrupt social order. Let us oppose to them your loyal co-operation, the firmness of the magistrates, the activity of the government, the cou- rage and patriotism of the national guard and of the army, the good sense of the nation, enlightened by the danger of the illusions, which those still wish to propa- gate who attack liberty under the pretence of defend- ing it, and we shall assure ourselves of the triumph of constitutional order, and a still farther progress in civi- lization. It is thus, gentlemen, that we shall subdue revolution, and accomplish the wishes of France. I am grateful to the country for the support it has lent me, for the testimonies of confidence and affection with which it has surrounded me ; I received them with the liveliest emotions, in the departments I have been able to visit ; and I thank Providence for the blessings our common country already enjoys, as well as for the prospects of those that may be reasonably expected." The head of the monster "Faction" had been lopped off, but it grew again with renovated vigour ; in the very PUBLIC PEACE AGAIN MENACED. 601 bosom of the senate, an orator was heard to declare that "the republican party was henceforth constituted; its associates embraced the whole surface of the land ; it was a net which enclosed every town, every village some wrote, others organized, all fought. The com- mon object was to hold themselves in readiness for any event that might arise, to aid the people, and pro- vide for their benefit in any victory that might be won ; in fine, the future contests would assume -the character of a battle, rather than an insurrection ; for the cou- rage and number of the republicans enabled them to offer it." The war proclaimed by this orator soon after broke out, the battle he anticipated was soon after fought, and French blood was once more shed by French hands. Again also was it owing to the valour and firmness of the national guard and the troops of the line, that France was saved from the danger that impended at Paris, Lyons, and Grenoble. Wherever rebellion reared its bloody standard, the people the true and loyal people, who acted under a constitutional government, and were partisans of liberty those who had overthrown the throne when the king had laid a perjured hand upon the charter that people did not participate in these insurrections. They thought of the morbid joy of that party, strangers to every senti- ment which should animate the heart of every true Frenchman, after having sown the seeds of civil war in Vendee, still gloried in having brought Vendee to Paris, and already dreamed of the Cossacks and legitimacy. They protested against the agitators, who, under the profaned names of liberty and repub- licanism, concealed the one anarchy, the other coun- ter-revolution. 602 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Treason at this period assumed a new form ; laying aside the modes of insurrections, tumults, and large public meetings, it underwent a sudden transition, and, under the guidance of political fanaticism, presented the most hideous aspect. In the history of similar periods, the close of civil wars, it has uniformly been observed that assassination succeeds to insurrection, personal to public violence ; such is not only the last effort of an expiring party, but, the party being extinguished, of men frantic from defeat, desperate from their weakness, and driven by this despair to the commission of the most cruel and criminal excesses. The wars of the League against Henri quatre were followed by blows from the daggers of Jean Chatel and of Ravaillac. These were not the struggles of the league, but the infamous attempts of the frantic desperadoes of a fallen and a beaten party. After the insurrection of Paris and Vendee, when jacobinism and loyalty at once became convinced of their weakness and imprudence, came the infernal machines, and the numerous attempts to assassinate the first consul. Nor were these base measures the off- spring of the once powerful parties to which thought- lessness might at first ascribe them, but of the dross of that partisanship, of the wild fanaticism which was infused into their doctrines, and unhappily survived the extinction of the sincere and honourable portion of the association. At this period, these parties, and all others that had resisted with obstinacy the estab- lishment of a constitutional monarchy, were dispersed, insurrections were suppressed, but fanaticism still panted after the phantom of its affections. The twenty-eighth of July, 1835, the fifth anniver- sary of the revolution, was celebrated with more than ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE KING. 60S usual splendour, the people universally sharing in tne national rejoicings, when an event disgraceful, but memorable in the story of those days, occurred. The national guard and regular troops were to pass under review by his majesty, and were drawn up in the principal public squares and avenues. The king, accompanied by several of his ministers and a large attendance of staff-officers, had nearly completed the inspection, and was passing along the ranks of the second line of infantry. Reaching the Boulevard du Temple, along with the Dukes of Orleans and Nemours and the Prince Joinville, he was received enthusias- tically by multitudes of all ages, sexes, and parties, some in the densely crowded streets, others at the opened casements of the houses, whence they waved their handerchiefs, or suspended the national colours. It was just half-past twelve o'clock when the oft-re- peated shout of " Vive le roi" on every side was the signal that the king was passing. The royal party had just reached the position of the eighth legion of the national guard, and the king, who preceded his staff at an interval of only three or four yards, had passed the gate of the Jardin Turc, when a sudden explosion took place. It appeared as if a number of petards had been discharged, then a few gunshots, followed, at short but unequal distances, by other loud detonations. A space was instantly cleared around the king, but the work of destruction had been performed ; the pavement was perceived to be deluged with blood, dead, dying, and wounded, lay prostrate on the ground, and several horses fell along with their unhappy riders. As soon as the extent and nature of the mischief could be ascertained, it was reported that the Duke of Treviso, six generals, two colonels, nine officers and 604 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. privates of the national guard, together with twenty- one citizens, were more or less severely hurt, and that eleven had fallen lifeless on the spot. Amongst the innocent victims was a poor girl of sixteen years of age, with a blacksmith, his wife and children, who were wounded at the very moment the king was passing before them ; one of the balls that hit them grazed the forehead of his majesty, so slightly, however, that the effects were invisible after a few days. That Providence which watched over the destinies of France, so shielded the life of her ruler, that while death laid all around prostrate, he escaped with an injury suffi- cient only to awaken his gratitude for boundless mercies. The king's charger was struck in the chest, and the horses of the Duke of Nemours and of Prince Join- ville were both wounded, but not severely. The gal- lant Duke of Treviso and his caparisoned steed fell dead together to the earth. In an instant the cry of " The king is slain !" was raised on every side, and the national guard, at the command of their leaders, ad- vanced to the scene of imagined danger, while the multitude, recently so elated with the joyous character of passing events, fled in the utmost confusion, uttering cries, threats, and imprecations against the authors of these mysterious murders. Although placed in a posi- tion of the most painful perplexity, and distressed beyond measure at the melancholy sight of these inno- cent victims to some fanatic's false doctrines in govern- ment, the king quickly overcame his feelings, and, proceeding to the left of the company of Voltigeurs of the fourth battalion of the eighth legion, he encouraged them by his presence, and, by the kindness and firm- ness of his directions, restored order in that locality. After a brief halt, due to the memories of the victims ALARM OF THE QUEEN AND PRINCESSES. 605 of that day, the king resumed his duties, and continued to review the troops. The queen and princesses were at the hotel of the lord-keeper of the privy seal, witnessing the maneuver- ing of the troops in the Place Vendome, when it was announced that an infernal machine had burst in the route of the procession, by which many lives were sacrificed, but that the king and his sons had sustained no injury. At first it was proposed to conceal from her majesty the distressing intelligence ; but, when it was observed, that she could not avoid reading it in the countenances of all who approached her, M. Guizot was deputed to inform her of the facts as far as they were known. The distress which the communication occasioned to the queen was increased by the absence of her royal husband, who wished to conclude the review, notwithstanding the occurrence of the calamity ; and her first impressions were, in consequence, that the king had been wounded, slightly or mortally, and that compassion for her feelings induced M- Guizot to conceal the circumstance. The repeated assurances of the lord-keeper at length assuaged her distress, but there were several others in the same apartment, the mothers, wives, and daughters of the eminent persons who accompanied his majesty, whose agonized feelings were not relieved, but, on the contrary, more severely tried by the account that, although several around the king had been either killed or wounded, his majesty had escaped unhurt. This state of suspense continued for some time, amidst tears, sobs, and cries, until the arrival of an aide-de-camp, who brought the names of the individuals who had sustained any injury, and its precise character and extent. This information, how- ever, although it cured the pain of suspense, did not 606 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE remedy the settled sorrow which the truthful disclosure occasioned to many. Paris became again exposed to grievous disturbances, when a civilian, whose voice had always been heard with respect, called publicly on the government to probe the wound which was preying on the constitution of France, and apply a remedy, under penalty of seeing society fall into anarchy, and at length dissolved. " Let us reflect well," said he, " on our condition ! The attempt of yesterday, if it were unique in atrociousness, was not without a moral cause, not without previous symptoms this is the second time that the life of his majesty has been assailed. If the crime of yesterday was unforeseen in its dreadful form, and in its fatal success, it still was not in itself unanticipated. Every- one felt that the life of the king was insecure, everyone experienced that kind of oppression and sadness that generally precede some great calamity. Whence arose then this instinctive warning, if not from the con- viction, more or less distinct, but innate, under which we all labour, that the moral structure of society is bad, and can only produce disorder and crime ? Every- one knew that danger did exist, although no one could tell whence or from what hand. I say openly and candidly, and with the anxious desire of being heard by good men of every party, that the day when men considered themselves at liberty to attack the principles of our government, and to call themselves legitimists in the face of the revolution of July, republicans in that of constitutional monarchy that day the unity of society was dissolved, its moral tie broken. From that day flagrant civil war has raged in the midst of us ! And how can the principles of a government be changed without overthrowing the government itself ? How can SUPJNENESS OF GOVERNMENT CENSURED a monarchy be changed into a republic without burying under the same ruins both the monarchy and the monarch ? How can we expect those who have a king at Prague, and who solemnly protest against the recog- nition of another, to obey quietly the government of a prince who reigns at Paris ? The disaffected, we are told, would openly proclaim a republic, and that pro- claimed republic would content itself with its vain and honorary title, without seeking to unite itself to that law which it believes it has the power to make. Such an expectation is futile ; such a practice impossible ! The rebellion of the mind pervades and infallibly pro- duces rebellious action. It is intelligence which directs and nerves the arm. Show me, in the whole world, a government that has suffered its principles, that is, its vitality, to be daily called in question ? Show me a republic which has tolerated missionaries of monarchy in its bosom, from delicacy of interfering with liberty of opinion. "Do not be misled by illusion ! The constitutional monarchy of July is exposed to the fire of two batteries, which incessantly vomit forth balls and flame, and there is no citadel that can hold out against an eternal siege. Make your election ! be republicans be legitimists be constitutionalists be something definite. The same government cannot endure within it three princi- ples and three governments hostile to each other, they would only cause endless laceration and deadly wars. The leaders would be exalted, but blood would flow ; and the life of the king, on whom the monarchical principle rests, would be sought by the hand of some political fanatic or cowardly assassin." Public opinion, a general feeling of inquietude, seemed to demand a termination to those great crimes (]()IE. that incessantly menaced the peace of France ; and the king liimsclf was the first to give assurances that the people should he protected against their recurrence. ' frenchmen I" said his majesty, " the national guard and the army are in mourning; many families are afflicted ; a frightful spectacle has grieved my heart. A veteran chief, an early friend, spared from the fire of a hundred battles, has fallen at my side by the halls which the assassin had destined for me. Such was the extent of their malignity against me, that they did riot hesitate to sacrifice the glory, honour, and patriotism of the peaceful citizens, and count the women and children amongst their victims. Paris has seen the best blood of I'Yauce flow on the same spot, and on the same day, that it had been shed five years before, for the maintenance of the laws of our country. Those whom we are this day mourning over have fallen in the same cause ; it is still the constitutional monarchy, legal liberty, national honour, the safety of our homes, the happiness of the community, that my enemies and yours arc attacking. But the public grief, which responds to mine, is at once a homage offered to the noble victims of a savage cruelty, and a striking proof of the unity of feeling which exists between France and its king. My government knows its duty, and will perform it. However, let those fetes that were to have adorned the last day of our rejoicings, make way for a procession more conformable to the senti- ments which actuate us ; let suitable honours be paid to the memory of those whom we have just lost; and let those mourning veils, that yesterday overshadowed the national colours, be again attached to that flag, the faithful emblem of every patriotic sentiment." ' Fh is affecting proclamation, calculated to soothe the THIRD ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE KING. f)09 feelings of those who had heen most afflicted by the calamity, was also adapted to produce public confidence in the king, whose courage was evidently unshaken, even by the repetition of the most desperate attempts upon his life. While these present and prospective dangers menaced the general tranquillity, the king took advantage of the moments of repose and silence that succeeded the murderous attempt of the assassin Ficschi, to repair to the palace of Fontainbleau, and urge on those improvements which his judgment had dictated. From the examples of Fontainbleau, Ver- sailles, and Chateau d'Eau, Louis Philippe learned that his admirable taste had found, amongst the artists of France, interpreters worthy of its merit. Before those moments of grief and of terror, which had overwhelmed France, and rent the hearts of her people, had passed away before the blood of those soldiers and citizens which had been shed for the life of their monarch, was dried up before the sword of justice, which had avenged the great national injury, had been sheathed, the doors of the tribunal-hall were again opened, to pass sentence upon a similar act of guilt. " Confident in the king's great experience, happy and proud of those virtues which surrounded the throne, and which subdue and disarm the most obdurate fana- ticism, France devoted herself ardently to those works in which peace is fertile, and which alone can secure its permanence. During the prevalence of this widely- spread content, France learned with horror, that an- other attempt had been made upon the life of her amiable monarch ; but, that Providence which h.ad, within the space of one short year, twice saved the country from anarchy, exercised the same merciful vigilance over the destinies of the sovereign, and, under i. 4 i 610 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. circumstances as affecting as memorable. It was to that feeling of kindness which was natural to him to that eagerness of responding to those testimonies of respect and love of which he was the object, that Louis Phi- lippe owed his escape from the death that was intended for him ; for, it was at the very moment when the king was saluting the national guard under arms, that the assassin, mistaken in his calculation, fired ineffectually at his victim." * Louis Philippe, having arrived at the palace of the Tuileries during the day of the twenty-fifth of June, 1836, was about to leave, and return to his seat at Neuilly, at six o'clock in the afternoon, and, accompa- nied by the Queen and Madame Adelaide, was already seated in his carriage. The six first horses of the cortege had just reached the causeway of the Pont Royal, when a man stationed amongst the crowd, thrusting forward a cane-gun, which he rested on the door-frame of the royal carriage, discharged its con- tents in the direction of the king's person. The ball did not take effect ; and, although the wadding remain- ed entangled in his majesty's hair, yet France had no public occasion for regret no one was injured. The assassin was instantly arrested, and, with much indif- ference as to his situation, stated, that his name was Louis Alibaud. The wretched man acknowledged his crime, and even dared to boast of his patriotism in attempting to rid his country of a tyrant ; he mani- fested regret on one subject only, the failure of his diabolical design. Such were amongst the consequences of that hateful doctrine which possessed many weak and wandering minds. They qualified their guilt by the * Moniteur, July, 1836. EXECUTION OF ALIBAUD. Gil mild epithet of a political crime, which they vainly imagined conferred no little dignity upon their infa- mous exertions. Such minds had mistaken audacity for heroism, and atrocity for the devotion of a patriot. They claim to be esteemed useful citizens, while they are in reality but dastardly assassins ; they despise all laws they reject and trample upon all authority they risk their own lives, that they may usurp the right of disposing of those of others. Alibaud was tried, condemned, and executed. The investigation that attended his criminality revealed a most depraved mind, but always enjoying self-possession. The assassin had long reflected upon the heinous pro- ject which he had conceived, calculated its extent, yet coolly and dispassionately resolved to commit it. The expedition of Mascara drew off the attention of the public from the recollection of domestic misfor- tunes and criminality ; it was also an useful appren- ticeship for the recruits, on . the approach of a great war. It was a living lesson for the junior officers of the service, in which, happily, the present age is not fertile ; for a veteran warrior, an illustrious marshal, for a youthful prince, who several times during the action gave signal proofs of his courage and coolness, a still greater opportunity for displaying their devotion in the sacred cause of national honour. The enterprise at Strasburg, on the thirteenth of October, in this year, afforded to the country another evidence, that the fide- lity of the army was shielded by a still more infallible talisman. The session of 1837 was approaching; the peers and deputies had assembled on the twenty-seventh of December, 1836, and were waiting with the utmost solemnity the arrival of the king, to consummate by his presence the imposing union of the three estates. 612 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. His majesty had left the Tuileries, and had proceeded along the quay as far as the first sentry-box on the terrace at the water's edge, when, perceiving the flag of the fourth battalion of the second legion lowered to salute him, he put his head and shoulders out of the carriage-window, and bowed repeatedly to the national guard. At this instant a shot was fired by some person in the crowd, immediately behind the standard-bearer ; the ball entered by the window through which the king leaned, grazed his majesty's breast, passed between the right cheek of the Duke of Nemours and the head of prince Joinville, and, shattering the glass in front, lodged in one of the carriage-pannels. Louis Philippe, again protected by his destiny, was unhurt, but a splin- ter of wood lacerated the ear of the Duke of Orleans, a fragment of glass entered the cheek of the Duke of Nemours, and a few drops of blood starting from the wounds, trickled down the dresses, and stained their orders and decorations. The procession only stopped for an instant, while the king informed the national guard that he had received no injury, that the same kind Providence which had hitherto preserved him for the service of his country, had not deserted him in this last extremity. Meanwhile an affecting scene was witnessed in the chamber of peers, where the queen and the princesses had just occupied, for a few minutes, the seats reserved in the tribune for the royal family, and awaited, not without anxiety, the announcement of the king's arrival. Sud- denly an officer presented himself before the queen, apologizing at the same time for his unceremonious entrance into the royal tribune ; this was commandant Dumas, whom the king had directed to hasten to the chamber, and satisfy her majesty as to the different reports he thought it probable might reach her before MEUNIER THE PARRICIDE CONDEMNED. his arrival at the house. " Madam," said the faithful messenger, " the king is safe the princes are not wounded no life has been sacrificed." As the com- munication was made officially, and by the king's com- mand, it produced the anticipated effect of dispelling instantly the alarm and anguish of the royal party. On the twenty-fifth of April, 1837, the court of peers pronounced the criminal, Meunier, guilty of parricide ; upon which he instantly addressed a letter to the king, full of contrition and repentance, and supplicating forgiveness of his great offence. But before the application had reached his majesty, the privy council had taken the question of his sentence into consideration ; and the king having spoken in favour of a commutation of punishment, in consider- ation of the very becoming conduct of the accused during his trial, Meunier's pardon was actually signed when his petition was laid before the council. It was during the deliberation of the council upon the fate of Meunier, that an aged woman was seen to cross the palace court with much difficulty, a prey to the most painful emotions. She presented herself at the entrance of the queen's apartments, and implored the attendants to convey her humble memorial to her majesty, adding, that she was the afflicted mother of the wretched Meunier.. The officers in waiting, af- fected by the appeal of a heart-broken mother, received her petition, and carried it to their royal mistress ; and, in the space of a few minutes from the arrival of the unhappy woman at the palace-gate, she was prostrate before the queen in her private apartments, and with tears and supplications implored her to have compas- sion for a mother's sorrows, and intercede with her virtuous husband for mercy to her guilty son. A heart 614 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. so full of maternal tenderness, could not long remain secure against those assaults of pity and compassion, and, joining in the grief, sympathizing in the sufferings of the suppliant, she promised to employ all her influ- ence with the king and council. Apprehensive, how- ever, of exciting hopes that might not eventually be realized, she informed the petitioner, that, until the separating of the council, it was utterly impossible to offer more than the language of consolation. Scarcely had she uttered these feeling words, when the door of the apartment was thrown open, and the king an- nounced. His majesty soon relieved the queen from her painful state of perplexity ; he came on purpose to inform the mother of the regicide that her son should o not die by the hands of the public executioner. " I have commuted his punishment," said he ; " since he is peni- tent, I wish him to live. I did not wait for his own application for mercy, I granted pardon unsolicited." The aged mother, completely abashed in the presence of so much grandeur, and overwhelmed by such infi- nite condescension and tenderness, was deprived of all power of utterance, her tears alone telling her tale of misery and thankfulness ; the king humanely proceeded, "Be consoled, your son is already aware of the clemency of government, he knows already that he is pardoned, for I sent the president of the council to inform him of it." He now raised the aged suppliant, who was still kneeling at the feet of her majesty, and leading her to an arm-chair, desired her to be seated for a while, add- ing many expressions of congratulation and kindness. This extraordinary, interesting, and unparalleled scene lasted for many minutes, after which, willing to release the poor woman from her embarrassment, their majes- ties, withdrew ; not, however, until they had recommended MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. Gl5 her to the careful attentions of the officers and ser- vants. The king, peers, and deputies were indefatigable in their labours for the restoration of order, which was now everywhere recovered and secured ; the government was armed with salutary laws, which had saved France, and still served to repress all criminal attempts to which incorrigible men were addicted. From the throne itself emanated the oblivion of civil discords ; and, on the eighth of May, 1 838, the celebrated act of amnesty was proclaimed. With an unexampled impatience, and without permitting his ministers to separate, the king resolved to accomplish this great project, of which his council entirely approved. The amnesty which his majesty signed was full and extensive, including all political crimes and delinquencies, even the parricidal act, which had been committed against himself within the few preceding months. The prison-doors were thrown open, and all those who had been so unhappy as to have offended the state, were set at liberty ; it appeared as if their faults were forgotten, as well as forgiven, by the ruling powers. The king again mixed with his people as in the days of 1830, and they re- cognized each other with mutual gratification and love. The ancient church of St. Germains 1'Auxerrois, so long abandoned to neglect, redeeming itself from popu- lar indignation, rose again from its ruins ; and the cross and the sanctuary, that had been desecrated, again re- ceived the homage of devotion. To these first-fruits of a rich and peaceful future, an addition was now on the point of being made, which would have an influ- ence on the destinies of France. The prince-royal, the Duke of Orleans, the eldest son of Louis Philippe, was about to espouse, a princess of the house of Meek- 61 6 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. lenburg-Schwerin, a person who brought to her high station qualities eminently fitted to adorn it. Before she left her home of Ludwigshut, she was reminded that it would be necessary to conceal her regret for the land of her birth. "I shall endeavour," she replied, "hence- forth to love and admire everything in France." The duchess possesses an extensive acquaintance with Eng- lish literature, and, although a strict Protestant, has conducted herself since her marriage with such ex- emplary propriety, that the duke is considered by his countrymen equally fortunate as a prince and a hus- band. The marriage was celebrated on the thirtieth of January, 1837, at the palace of Fontainbleau, and in the splendid gallery of Henry II. Here, amidst the festivities that reigned around, Louis Philippe happening to meet Yousouf Bey, observed, " Well, general, what do you think of Fontainbleau ?" " Mag- nificent I" replied the Mussulman ; " I only regret that I did not bring some of my countrymen with me to France, for, when I return, and attempt to describe the splendour I have witnessed here, they will not credit my unsupported testimony." Scarcely had France adopted the young duchess of Orleans, when Louis Philippe with a munificent hand opened the doors of the ancient palace of Versailles, the home of the most magnificent of all her monarchs, Louis XIV. On the tenth of June, the first day of this interesting ceremony, a convocation was held here by the king, of the peers of France, the deputies, mar- shals, magistrates, literary characters, artists, military officers, as the representatives of the opinions and feelings of the country at large ; on the following day the public were admitted without distinction, and the transports of delight which they manifested, must have OPENING OF VERSAILLES. C>17 proved a grateful recompense to the generous prince who had unsealed the palace of their favourite king. Versailles exhibited for a length of time, neither the character of a palace nor of a ruin. Louis Philippe, in order to restore the structure in all its primitive beauty and just proportions, was obliged to i-eriovate the different parts in the styles of the ages to which they respectively belonged, and with the sumptuousriess that characterized the illustrious founders. He desired to enter this venerable pile preceded and followed by emblems of France, past and present ; he wished to enter it in the names of Louis XIV. and of Napoleon ; he was eager to plant upon its forsaken heights the two honoured standards, the white and the tricoloured, both of which had waved over many a field of victory ; he hastened to see concentrated there, in becoming elegance and classified arrangement, all the glorious mementos of his country ; he longed to see the palace of Versailles arise from its mortal apathy, that he might introduce there the royal line the French revolution the empire the constitutional monarchy. Arrived before the gates of this temple dedicated to history, art, and national feeling, he held forth his hands and exclaimed, " Ouvrez ! ouvrez! vos portes! c'est la fortune de la France !" Victor Hugo had composed some verses for the occasion, but Louis Philippe, too much the child of nature, too little that of art, to employ any language but that of the heart, neglected the effusions of the poet. Meeting the author soon after, in the halls of the palace, he took him by the hand, and with much naivete said, " My friend, I regret exceedingly that I was not able to read your verses ; but in my profession there is very little time for reading." i. 4< K 618 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. On the day after the public opening of Versailles palace, his majesty received there all the authorities of that very elegant town ; he also held a review of the local guard and of the garrison. Passing the college of St. Cyr, he proceeded to the principal front of the palace, and, halting before it, ordered the students to be summoned into his presence by sound of trumpet. There, holding in his hand the national flag, he spoke as follows "I am now about to fulfil the promise I lately made, of presenting to your school these colours, which you have so eminently deserved by your con- duct, studiousness, and patriotism, as well as for the sound moral principles which animate you. The plea- sure I experience in presenting them, is enhanced by the performance of the ceremony in front of this vast edifice, whither I have myself called you, that I might have the gratification of pointing to the imposing re- union of the great recollections of our history, and of the glories of France. It is this that should guide you in the career now opening before you, under these venerated colours, the sight of which never fails to produce a vivid impression on the nation colours which we have resumed under such memorable cir- cumstances just seven years ago. You will know how to sustain the honour of this tricoloured flag as your predecessors have done ; and if ever it shall be your des- tiny to carry this gift to the field of battle, France will again hear the cry of the contemporaries of my youth- ful days resounding throughout your ranks like them you will imitate the noblest examples, you will prove yourselves worthy of the name of Frenchmen j and whenever the voice of your country shall call you to its defence, you will be ready to offer your lives for the honour, the liberty, and the safety of France." These PERSONAL COURAGE OF THE BOURBONS. 6l9 inspiring expressions, uttered by a prince who had himself performed no ignoble part in the defence of his country, addressed to an assembly of youthful aspirants for military glory, were received with raptur- ous plaudits, and with loud and long-continued shouts of " Vive le roi ! vine Louis Philippe I" Foreign policy was not neglected, while domestic happiness was so munificently consulted ; a treaty was concluded in Western Algeria with Abd-el-kader, a powerful chief, while the Bey of Constantine, after a spirited resistance, was completely humbled, and offered no impediment to the conquerors, as they planted the tricoloured flag on the towers of his citadel. The army conducted itself with so much gallantry, as to receive from their veteran leader that eulogium to which all Europe has since subscribed " I have seen nothing," said the hero, " in my long career, that my young army has not equalled." In this expedition the Duke of Nemours distinguished himself by coolness, courage, and ability ; the Prince de Joinville, who subsequently entered the navy, would willingly have accompanied his brother, had his august parents permitted him : but, disregard of danger and love of glory are charac- teristic of the whole Orleans family, and Louis Philippe, alluding to this noble propensity of his children, has been heard to quote the national phrase, " Their blood, as well as that of all her children, belongs to France." France, free, tranquil, prosperous, has committed herself to the wisdom of its Constitutional King an enlightened protector of its liberties and institutions, which he beheld prostrate before tyranny in 1789 ; which he defended against foreign invasion in 1792 ; and, which he alone consummated in 1830. 620 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. The end of life is the criterion both of conduct and of happiness ; and, to pronounce a solemn judgment on the foreign and domestic policy of this remarkable man, before Providence shall have brought his arduous labours to a close, would be an anticipation as unneces- sary as unjust. The life of a sovereign, a soldier, or a statesman, is not to be judged partially, from single or solitary acts, for he is often obliged to execute decrees to which his judgment and his feelings are repugnant, but as a whole as an unbroken and con- tinuous career : the amount of good he has performed, the quantity of happiness he has distributed to man- kind, and the value of the great moral lesson which his example ultimately leaves, are to constitute the chief features of that character to which posterity will impartially admit his claims. T HE END Usher. Scm fc C . APPENDIX, VISIT OF QUEEN VICTORIA TO THE CHATEAU D*EU, IN NORMANDY. EVEN in the year 1813, when the monarch of France had reached to threescore years and ten, the romance of his eventful course had not been concluded ; on the contrary, it was still to be characterised by an adven- ture of rare occurrence in general history, and which has no parallel in the annals of France and England since the interview between Henry VIII. and Francis I. on the field of the Cloth of Gold a meeting of two sovereigns under the impulse of sincere and unaffected friendship. It was in the summer of this year that the Princess Clementine of France, then recently married to the Prince Augustus of Saxe Cobourg, visited England, where she was received by the Queen with that hospitality which had prevailed at the court of St. James's since her accession. Devo- tedly attached to his children, and most sensitive upon every point in the least degree connected with the recognition of his rights by the legitimate sovereigns of Europe, more especially by the first and most power- ful monarch in the world, Louis Philippe was deeply affected by the narration of his daughter's reception at Windsor , and, in the full flow of that kind feeling, which has marked him both as a faithful husband and a fond parent, he instantly despatched two of his warm- 622 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. hearted sons, the Prince de Joinville and the Duke D'Aumale with instructions to wait upon Queen Victoria, and, in their royal father's name, invite her to visit the shores of France. Had any suspicion ever lurked in the breast of our courageous sovereign, it must have been rapidly dissipated by the frank and gallant manner in which this invitation was presented, -by the recollection of that strong parental feeling which prompted it, by the very quality of the mes- sengers chosen to convey it, and by the total forget- fulncss of all jealousy or distrust on the part of the generous, high-hearted, and sagacious monarch who so courteously and considerately offered it. Scarcely had the French princes delivered the request of their royal father to Her Majesty, when it was announced that Espartero, Regent of Spain, had arrived in London, driven, as it was reported, from his country, and stripped of his high command, by the wily stratagems of Louis Philippe. The real object of the princes' visit being then unknown to the public, their sudden departure, after a sojourn of but two or three days, gave an additional impulse to the ground- less rumour ; nor was the mist dispelled until the actual arrival of Queen Victoria at the court of France was publicly made known to her loving subjects. So long a period had elapsed since a visit of friendship, or even ceremony, had been paid by any of our sovereigns to the crowned heads of other countries, that few remem- bered the repeal of that act which prohibited the departure of the monarch from the shores of Britain, without special leave of the great council of the nation. Besides, so bitter had the rancour between England and France become, during the republican and impe- rial wars, and so keen an animosity had recently sub- APPENDIX. 623 sisted between the French cabinet and the Palmerston ministry in England, that her Majesty's refusal of king Louis's invitation would have surprised her faith- ful subjects much less than her acceptance. Queen Victoria, however, was not unacquainted with the character of the French king, either in domestic life, or as the ruler of one of the greatest nations upon our globe, a nation so difficult to control, of such an uneasy and ambitious temperament, that hitherto they had scarcely been governed by any sove- reign who did not employ foreign war as a damper to regulate the military enthusiasm of the people. The Queen having accepted the warm invitation of Louis Philippe, " as freely as 'twas nobly given," the princes returned with the joyful intelligence to their illustrious parent. When Louis Philippe gave, and Queen Victoria accepted an invitation to visit France, his majesty, accompanied by his Queen and all the royal family, had taken up his residence for the summer, at the Chateau d'Eu, two miles from the little town of Treport, at the mouth of the river Bresle which here falls into the English channel. On this spot a man- sion or castle appears to have stood, as far back as the ninth century. Its first lord of rank was William Longsword, the son of Rollon, to whom Richard Sans Peur succeeded, whose youngest son William, was the first count of Eu. This William also founded the abbey adjacent to the castle. The ancient building occupied an eminence, commanding a view of the vale of the Bresle, and a considerable part of it was standing in the reign of Louis XL ; but a false report prevailing, that the Count of Eu intended to put his domains into the hands of Edward IV. of England, Louis ordered the 624 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. chateau to be demolished, an act of barbarous perse- cution, which was carried into effect on the 16th Julv, 14-75. In the more ancient castle of Eu the marriage of Matilda of Flanders with William the Conqueror, was celebrated ; and, in this same castle it was that William hospitably entertained Harold, with whom he after- wards contended for the crown of England. In this dilapidated state the chateau was found by Henry II., Duke of Guise, surnamed le Belefre, to whom the estate passed upon his marriage with Cathe- rine of Cleves, Countess of Eu. The duke visited Eu for the first time, in 1579* and laid the foundation of a splendid and costly mansion, which was never fully completed, and some portions of what he did raise were taken down in 1806. After the tragic death of her husband,* Catherine of Cleves resided constantly at Eu, and here her exiled daughter, the Princess of Conti died very suddenly on the 30th of April, 1631. Louis XIII and Louis XIV, visited this favourite seat of the Guises. When Henry of Lorraine having escaped from captivity in the citadel of Gaeta, returned to his chateau of Eu, in September 1659, he passed but nine days there, during which time he assigned the estate to his brother the Duke of Joyeuse ; this nobleman was succeeded by his son the Prince Joinville and Count of Eu, and it was in his time (1660) that the whole property was sold under an extent, and was purchased by Anne Marie Louisa of Orleans, Duchess of Montpensier, in her own right. This princess enlarged the chateau, improved the grounds, and adopted Eu to be her favorite retreat from the splen- dour and gaiety of court. At her death, Eu became the property of the Duke of Maine, whose sons the * He was shot by Palliot de Meux, a Huguenot nobleman. APPENDIX. 625 Prince of Dombres and the Count of Eu, were con- cealed here, after the discovery of the plot of Cella- mare, until some time in the year 1720. Here dwelt also the venerable Duke of Penthievre, whose name is inseparably connected with all the useful and benevolent institutions of the vicinity, and whose memory is most fondly cherished by the inhabitants of Eu and of Treport. Under the republican government the chateau was transferred to the magistrates of Rouen, who, finding it inconveniently large for public purposes, restored it to the government, who had the integrity to surrender it to the Duchess of Orleans, daughter of the Duke of Penthievre, and mother of Louis Philippe. Here a noble collection of paintings was made by the Duchess of Montpensier, a species of property which commanded the respect and therefore escaped the ferocity of the republicans. Louis Philippe, besides beautifying and enlarging the chateau, has made con- siderable additions to the picture gallery, in which may be seen portraits of the most eminent literary, military, and political characters of every civilized nation. It was in the year 1821 that Louis Philippe, on visiting this ancient and beautiful ancestral seat, felt so charmed with its natural advantages, that he resolved upon its restoration, and having secured the assistance of M. Fontaine, an architect of the first eminence, he succeeded in the most entire manner in the accomplishment of his object. In addition to the peculiarly architectural elegance of this princely home, its extent is also remarkable ; sixty apartments are appropriated to reception and ceremony ; two hundred and fifty are used as chambers for lodging attendants and servitors ; the stables contain stalls for one hundred and thirty I. 4 L 626 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. horses, and there are houses for sixty carriages. The character of the grounds, enclosed between two boldly impending cliffs, necessarily limited the area of the demesne, which scarcely exceeds eighty statute acres in extent, every part of it being either cultivated as pleasure ground, or afforested with noble elms. In front of the chief entrance is a spacious cour ef honneur upon which opens a glazed gallery, that forms a porch below, and a balcony above. This light and graceful entrance leads to a grand vestibule, adorned with marble busts, placed on ornamented brackets. These interesting works of art include different members of the ancient families of Artois, Guise and Eu. To the vestibule succeeds an anti-room hung with portraits, each richly framed, and having the name with a few brief memorials of the original inscribed on a gilded pannel underneath. Beyond the anti- room is the cabinet of Queen Christina of Sweden, so celebrated for her learning and her eccentricities ; and here was once suspended a faithful likeness of that interesting princess, which she had herself pre- sented to Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Christina lias been removed, but portraits of the French princes and princesss, from the year 1528, down to 1828, keep possession of their narrow dominions. Two state apartments, the salon de reception and salle-a-manger, are of considerable length but dispro- portioned height ; the former is splendidly decorated, the walls being hung with tapestry, adorned with portraits of heroes, statesmen, scholars, and other French worthies, while the gilded chairs and carved sofas are covered with rich yellow gobelin tapestry. The salle-a-manger pleases equally by its more solemn, substantial, and massive furniture and embellish- APPENDIX. 6.27 merits. A ceiling, of heavy stucco, is divided into compartments and painted in a style of masterly perfection; while the portraits around partake also of a more sombre character, being those of grave and very eminent men, whose actions, or writings, or example, have extended over a large portion of their country's history. The grand staircase is suitable to the dignity of the mansion, but some of that con- venience and ease, which it originally possessed, has been sacrificed in recent alterations, and it is now too steep either for beauty, or perspective, or facility of ascent. Still it is a noble approach to a still more noble design, " the gallery of the Guises/' an apart- ment of the most just proportions, chaste decorations, and agreeable position. Around are suspended por- traits of the haughty race to whom this splendid gallery is dedicated ; nor could pride, ambition, arid scorn, have been more appropriately lodged than in a chamber so far exceeding what either the neces- sities or the comforts of life demand. And it was in this vast gallery the king's favourite band was placed to greet the arrival of Queen Victoria, by the most finished performance of England's national anthem ; and, it was through this apartment also that her majesty passed, having ascended by the grand stair- case, to the balcony in front of the Chateau, imme- diately after her arrival, to acknowledge, with that remarkable grace of manner, for which she was so much admired by the French, the warmth and hospi- tality and sincerity of her reception. The apartments appropriated to Queen Victoria, form the second story, or first floor, of one of the wings ; and consist of a salon, bed-chamber, and cabinet. Above these is a corresponding suite occu- 628 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. pied by Madame Adelaide, the much loved sister of the king, during the visit of her majesty. Both these suites command an agreeable view of the valley of the Bresle, and of the ornamental grounds around the palace, beyond which the sea appears either as a tranquil mirror, or an angry element. Louis Philippe and his queen slept in the distant wing of the palace, over a series of apartments, one of which is beauti- fully fitted up as a private chapel, and dedicated to Amelia, the patron saint of her majesty the Queen of the French. And now the note of preparation for the reception of the Queen of Great Britain and her consort Prince Albert, was sounded through the land, and every officer of the palace and the court was endeavouring, both for the honour of the royal suite and the fair name of la belle France, to form the best and most splendid arrange- ments upon the great occasion. It has been imagined, and probably not without a semblance of justice, that the national character for gallantry and politesse had some share in the excitement of the moment, and that the breast of every Frenchman heaved high and heartily, at the idea of the honour done to his country by the visit of a young and beautiful lady, to whom providence had assigned the highest rank and rule in this great round world. Whatever were the motives, and it is not possible they could have been other than pure and generous, the visit of the Queen of England was looked towards hy France as an epoch in her history, as a triumph of principle, and one which had been granted to her by the conservative party in England. This was not it never could have been, the feeling with which the venerable patriot king reviewed the remarkable event, APPENDIX. 629 he must have received it as a proud token of respect, and admiration of his character as a father, husband, friend, prince, ruler, man, one who had experienced every vicissitude of life, and appeared to become wiser by each as he passed through it. Days were rolling away, to some rapidly, to others slowly, to all anxiously, while the queen was expected at Eu, and the king himself inspected and directed much of the preparations which the occasion required. One morning, towards the close of the month of August, the king and royal family, accompanied by the little Count of Paris, proceeded in a large open carriage called a char-au-banc, to Treport, where her majesty the Queen of England was to disembark ; the inhabitants having discovered that the young count, their future sovereign, was in the carriage, resolved on exhibiting their loyalty by a grand^w dejoie. Never aid a compliment prove more unpropitious, for, the horses, startled by the suddenness and loudness of the discharge, which was re-echoed from the cliffs all around, set off at full speed, and became wholly un- manageable. A little bridge spanned the Bresle just before them, in a moment both leaders had cleared the parapet, drawing one of the wheel-horses after them, and leaving the safety of the party dependent upon the ability of the postilion to curb the other, until assist- ance should arrive. The fortune of Louis Philippe prevailed, in a few seconds the villagers were beside the carriage, the traces were cut, and three of the horses permitted to fall into the bed of the river. The queen, whose many sorrows had made a lasting im- pression on her spirits, shed tears of gratitude at her miraculous escape, while Louis Philippe, always in possession of the most calm, and chivalrous courage, 630 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. stood erect, holding his grandson in his arms, and refused to descend from the carriage until he had seen that every member of the party had alighted, and was in safety. On Friday, the second of September, 1843, Queen Victoria left Plymouth for Treport, in Normandy, in the royal yacht, convoyed by a powerful naval force,* and, at eight o'clock on the following morning, the royal squadron came in sight of the battery at that place. Repeated discharges of ordnance during the day, announced the still nearer approach of the august visiter, until five o'clock in the afternoon, when the deafening roar of hundreds of guns proclaimed the news that the squadron was at anchor off the port. Summoned by this tremendous voice of salutation, Louis Philippe and his family left the Chateau, in car- riages and on horseback, for Treport, to receive their royal guest. The road, during its whole length, ex- hibited the appearance of a moving mass, through which the royal party made their way not without difficulty, but hailed with plaudits that reached the skies. At the jetty where the Queen was to land, lay the pleasure-boat called La Reine des Beiges, beside it was the royal barge, manned by twenty-four chosen oarsmen, and having at the stern, an awning of crim- son silk. The steps which descended from the pier to the water were covered with a Persian carpet, and the * It consisted of the St. Vincent, 120 guns, Captain Rowley, with the flag of Admiral Sir Charles Romily ; the Caledonia, 1 20 guns, Captain Milne; Caraperdown, 104, Captain Brace; Formidable, 80, Captain Sir Charles Sullivan ; Warspite, 50, Captain Lord John Hay ; Grecian, 16, Commodore W. Smyth ; Cyclops, steam-frigate, Captain H. Austin ; Tartarus, steamer, Captain F. Bullock ; and Prometheus, steamer, Lieutenant-Commodore Lowe. APPENDIX. 631 balustrade was lined with crimson velvet. On the pier stood the splendid state-carriage of the king, drawn by eight beautiful horses richly caparrisoned, in front of a pavilion erected for her majesty's reception on landing ; and at a little distance were ranged five spacious chars-aux-bancs for conveying the princesses, ladies, and officers of the royal household. The children of the late Duke of Orleans, the Count de Paris, the Duke of Chartres, with the Count d'Eu, were seated on the salute battery, the national flag waving proudly over the future hope of France, and beneath was spread out the calm sea itself, smooth and placid as a high-polished mirror, prepared to multiply by reflection the splendid images of that day. Queen Amelia, Madame Adelaide, and the prin- cesses, took their station on the pier-head, while Louis Philippe, inspired by both personal and patriot gal- lantry, entered the royal barge, and directed his crew to pull for the bark that bore the Queen of the Ocean. In twenty minutes his majesty was standing on the deck of the royal yacht of England an event that was celebrated by a discharge of artillery, which enveloped the whole fleet, and harbour, and shore in one dense cloud of smoke for several minutes. The first meet- ing of the sovereigns of these two great countries will long be narrated by impartial history as an evidence of the civilization, and high sense of honour, which pervaded the age. Victoria had exhibited a fearless- ness, and evinced a confidence in the honour of the king of France, by her acceptance of his invitation, not exceeded by any example in history ; and the gal- lantry and generosity of Louis Philippe, in leaving the victory of the first concession to the youthful queen, while he placed himself, without reserve, within her 632 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. power, and felt his freedom unhazarded amidst a British fleet, British honour being pledged for his security, is not less entitled to admiration. Scarcely had the venerable monarch placed his foot securely on the deck, when he embraced the beautiful young queen, the ruler of the waves, and kissed her on both cheeks in the most affectionate manner. These greetings concluded, the sovereigns descended into the barge, and passing rapidly by the pier-head, where the royal family were assembled, received the salutations and cheers of the illustrious party. A few minutes more elapsed, and all were assembled before the pavi- lion. The moment in which the two sovereigns stepped together on the soil of France, was hailed by loud shouts of Vive la Reine, vive Louis Philippe, followed by renewed discharges of heavy ordnance, the deafening tones of which subsiding, were succeeded by the English anthem of God Save the Queen, played by the band of the Carabiniers. The Queen of France saluted her august visiter with a warmth that would have reflected admiration upon earlier life, and so soon as the authorities of Treport and Eu had presented their felicitations to the Queen of England, her Majesty, Prince Albert, Louis Philippe, and his Queen, entered the state carriage, and set out for the Chateau D'Eu. The grand court of this venerable pile was surrounded with troops, who, on the entrance of the royal party, presented arms, their band playing God save the Queen, a compliment of which her Majesty could not have been aware from the loud huzzas of the soldiers, and the enthusiastic vociferations of some twenty or thirty English gentle- men, for whom courtesy had on that occasion procured admission amongst the ranks. In a few minutes after APPENDIX. 633 the arrival of the cortege, and before the cheers of the brave soldiers had subsided, Louis Philippe appeared in the balcony over the grand entrance, conducting the Queen of England. Her Majesty bowed and kissed hands repeatedly, while the king cheered and waved his hat with a vigour that the youngest arm on that day did not exceed. At the banquet that followed, Queen Victoria was seated between her royal host and the Prince de Join- ville, while Prince Albert was placed between the Queen of the French and Madame Adelaide. The state apartment used on this occasion is highly deco- rated ; portraits of illustrious Frenchmen and foreigners adorn the walls ; the ceiling is pannelled and richly gilt, and the view from the windows agreeable and com- manding. The dinner-service, which was brought from the Tuileries, was mostly of gold ; along the centre of the table extended a plateau of that precious metal, supporting golden vases and urns filled with aromatic plants and richly coloured flowers. Forty persons sat down to table, which number included the suite of her Britannic Majesty** The Duchess of Orleans, not having appeared on public occasions since the untimely fate of her husband, did not join the banqueting party, but Queen Victoria knew the best approaches to her aching heart, and availed herself of that knowledge by visiting the young princes in their * Amongst the company were the King arid Queen of the French ; the Queen of England and Prince Albert ; the Queen of the Belgians; Prince Augustus of Saxe Coburg and the Princess Clementine ; Prince and Princess de Joinville ; the Duke D'Aumale ; the Duke de Mont- pensier ; Lord and Lady Cowley ; the Earl of Aberdeen ; the Earl Delawarr; M. Guizot; General Sebastiani ; M. Lacaire Laplagne, &c. I. 4 M 634 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. nursery, and making such an acquaintance with them as fond mothers only have the power to do. From that moment the widowed duchess was more fre- quently seen in the royal circle that surrounded the Queen of the Isles. Sunday was devoted to those duties from which not even the Lord's anointed are exempt, and Queen Victoria caused divine service to be read in her own apartments by one of her own suite ; and, in compli- ment to their illustrious visiter, no species of amuse- ment was permitted, nor any stranger or spectator allowed to approach the chateau during the day. It would be a censure both unjust and ungenerous to im- ply, that a sense of religion as deep and devoted as the members of any creed can boast of, does not pervade the royal family of France, The contrary is the case, and it is but a natural consequence of that life of exemplary piety, which the princes of that family have witnessed in their illustrious mother, Queen Amelia. Numerous instances of the devotion and benevolence of this illustrious lady might be adduced, perhaps one more particularly connected with the event here com- memorated, may be most appropriate. On the day of Queen Victoria's arrival at Treport false alarms had been frequently given, and the royal family were there- fore constantly on the alert, passing backward and forward between Treport and Eu. A visiter who occu- pied himself by observing the royal movements, turned into the church of Eu, the door of which stands always open, and while walking and gazing about was asto- nished at observing Queen Amelia enter alone, and proceed to the altar to offer up the incense of her prayers to heaven. The onty other persons in the church at that moment were two poor women, appa- APPENDIX. 635 rently on their return from market, as the baskets of vegetables that stood beside them indicated. In the forest of Eu, an extensive tract, there is an eminence called Mont d'Orleans, from which a splendid panorama of the vale of Bresle and of the surrounding country is enjoyed. Carriage roads have been formed in the forest leading to the most picturesque and agreeable spots, and the royal family are much attached to the fine scenery of this ancient wood. Here Louis Philippe resolved on entertaining Queen Victoria, on the morning after her arrival, with a fete champetre, and preparations were made with a taste suitable to the occasion. The plainest furniture filled the tent, viands were laid in rustic services, and the utmost attention paid to suit every circumstance to the occa- sion and the place. The state-carriage was not used on this day of rustic festivity, the king's char-au-banc conveyed the royal party to the scene of gaiety. It was on the return of the party from Mont d'Orleans that Louis Philippe, in a playful mood, declined entering the vehicle before Prince Albert, an order of precedence to which his Royal Highness politely objected, saying, " No, Sire, not before your Majesty !" " Forward, my dear boy," said the venerable monarch, "none of your 'Majesty's' here." Returning to the Chateau, a splendid banquet was again served, after which the comedy of Joronde was performed in the private theatre, by a company of actors from the Opera Comique, at Paris. Reviews, drives round the vici- nity of the Chateau, and visits to the tombs of the Guises, filled up the hours of the few days that were passed at Eu by the royal visiters, until the morning of Thursday, at nine o'clock, when Queen Victoria entered the state char-au-banc, and accompanied by 636 LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Louis Philippe, returned to Treport ; there, embarking in the royal barge, she was conveyed to the Victoria and Albert steamer, which lay in the offing ready for sea. Thus happily concluded an event remarkable on many accounts; for the subsidence of an animosity between two rival nations, which years of ministerial sagacity would never have accomplished for the total absence of ceremony on the part of the British queen and monarch of the French for the generosity and confidence which they reposed mutually in each other for the peculiar moment when the memorable meet- ing took place, one at which the sincerity of France was much doubted by overwise politicians and, finally, for the happy character of the interview itself, which was unbroken in its felicity by even the most trivial event of an untoward kind. It is more than probable that the recollection of " the days at Eu," may at some future period have its influence, like the Sabirie wives and daughters, in reconciling to each other two great neighbouring nations at variance. GENERAL INDEX. Abbe Leroi, 28. Abduction of sailors, a reprehensible practice, 325. Alilmud, Louis, his attempt to assassinate the king, 610. Algiers, conquest of. by the French, 465. Amelia, Princess of I^aples, married to Louis Philippe, 378 Ambrosio, Madame, governess to the Princess Maria Louisa, 383. Antwerp, siege of, 587. Ashburton, Lord, meets Louis Philippe near the Falls of Niagara, 311 Augustin, Thomas, his heroism, 477. Aurelianum, the ancient name of Orleans city, 1. Bastile, destruction of, 33. Belgium, an union of with France proposed, 575. Belgian gratitude to France, 591. Beaujolais, Count, his imprisonment, self-possession, 231. His noble gene- riosity and affection for his brother, 272- His liberation, 289. Embarkation for America, 291. Arrives in England, 329. Removes to Malta, and dies there, 355. Balloons first invented, 12. Bentinck, Lord W., his friendship for the king and queen of the French, 361. Betemps, commandant of the fort at Marseilles, his extraordinary heroism, 261. Berri, Duke of, his marriage, 449. Brissot, arrested, 63. British generosity, example of, 393. Broval, the Chevalier, his mission, 373. Bourbon, Duke of, 17. Duchess of, 24. Bourbons, their public expulsion, 57. Cassitnir Perrier, convenes a Chartist meeting at his hotel, 471 Carlist party without resources, 581. Campan, Madame, anecdote of, 47. Charles VIII., his death in 1498, 1. Charles X., his dishonesty, 441. Treacherously disbands the national guard, 453. His deceitf ulness, 455. His flight, 533. His character drawn by Martignac, 547. Chartres, Duke of, see Louis Philippe. Charter, accepted by Louis Philippe, 62. Chateaubriand, his eloquent address to the Chamber, 551. His courage and consistency, 559. Children of the Sun, their sanguinary attack upon the prisoners in the Fort of Marseilles, 251. Choiseul, Duke of, sketch of his character, 541. Cloots, Anacharsis, and the Cordeliers, 109 115. Collingwood, Admiral Lord, his diplomatic talents, 361. General character, 365. Constitutional laws, advantage of, 555. Conti, the Prince of, his imprisonment and character, 223. Liberated from confinement, 257. Sent into Spain, 314. Confirmation, act of, by the peers of France, 561. Cordeliers, club of, its origin and objects, 109. Crown jewels, carried off in the suite of Charles X., 535. Dumouriez, General, his character, 59, note. Defeats the allies, 162. His sudden flight, 163. His fidelity to Louis Philippe, 335. Dupin, foreseeing the revolution, resigns office, 481. Visits Neuilly during the emeute, 523. Favourably noticed by Louis Philippe, 525. 638 GENERAL INDEX. Egalite, Mons , visits London, 37. Returns and is arrested with Mirabeau, 43. Again arrested and imprisoned along with his younger sons in the castle of Marseilles, 63. Condemned to death, 67. His execution, 69. Ewirg, Captain, 197. Espremenel, arrested in the Hall of Deputies, 22. Feuillantes, club, their objects, why so called, 111. Feuillans, 513. Fieschi's desperate attempt to assassinate Louis Philippe, 603. Forms of government, 553. Fouche, Duke of Otranto, his letter to the Duke of Wellington, and his cha- racter, 423. Freemasonry, popular in France, 13. Genlis, Madame de, writes a letter in the name of the Duke of Orleans, 45. Her inconsistency and banishment, 53. Intimacy with the Duke of Orleans 54, note. Her character of the Princess de Lamballe, 77. Her " Solitaires de Normandie," 80. Appointed preceptress to the children of the Duke of Orleans, 82. Her absurd account of Pamela, who was her daughter by Mons. Egalite, 83. Her political character, 101. Girardin, on his death-bed visited by Louis Philippe, 565. Girondists, a club opposed to the Cordeliers, why so named, 112. Guizot, M., informs the queen of Louis Philippe's escape from assassination by Fieschi, 605. Henrietta Maria Stuart, her marriage, 2. Historians, their censurable partialities, 403. Historic parallels, 391. Jacobin Club, some account of, and reflections upon, 105. Origin of the name Jacobin, 107. Jacobinism revived, 259. Jardin Turc, opposite to which the Duke of Treviso was killed, 303. Juste Milieu party, 567. Kellermann, Marshal, Duke of Valmy, his introduction to Louis Philippe, 137. Successful resistance to the Duke of Brunswick, 147. His character, ibid. Lafayette, requires Egalite to withdraw from Paris, 35 ; and to proceed to London, 39. His early history, 509. His captivity, 515. The enemy of Napoleon, 517. Lafitte, presides in the new chamber of deputies, 543. Lamarque, General, his funeral, riots, &c., 583. Lamballe, Princess de, 77. Leopold, of Saxe-Coburg, King of Belgium, espouses the princess royal of France, 578. Liberty, a national right, 557. Leukner, Marshal, succeeds Rochambeau, his character and fortunes, 136. Louis XII., " Father of the people," 1. Louis XIV., his magnificent projects and great abilities, 403. Louis XVI., his trial, 49. Louis XVII., his miserable fate, 47. Louis XVIII., error of his conduct to Louis Philippe, 401. His death, 451. Louis Philippe, Duke of Valois, becomes the pupil of Madame Genlis, 8 Created Duke of Chartres, 89. Makes a tour through the provinces, 90 102. A member of the Philanthropic Society, 103. Gratitude to his governess, 121. His courage and humanity at Vendome, 127. Is rewarded with a civic crown, 131. Takes Courtray, 136. Defeats the enemy signally at Mons, 153. Goes into voluntary exile, 167. Visits Zug, 171. Departure from Basle, 174. Visits the Hospitum on St. Gothard, 177. College of Reichenau, 179, and Hamburg, 181. Copenhagen, 182. Hamersfel clock at, 185. Visits Lapland, 187. Court of Sweden, 189. Mines of Fahlun, 191. Leaves Hamburg, 196. Sails for America, 199. Arrives in Philadelphia, 298. Visits General Washington, 297. Reception amongst the Chippawa Indians, 307. Bleeds himself, and afterwards an Indian Chief, 317. Obliged to quit GENERAL INDEX. 639 Havannah, 328. Sails for England. 329. Entertained by the Duke of Clarence, ( Wm. IV. ) 340. Visits Spain, 343. Returns to England, and becomes the guest of Lord Moira, 347. Invited to Palermo, 357. Accompanies Prince Leopold of Naples to Gibraltar, 360. Advised by Lord Collingwood to return to England. 369. Re-visits Sicily and Spain, but is dissuaded by the Duke of Wellington from taking any part in the war, 373. Espouses the Princess Amelia of Naples, 378. Takes the command of the army of the North, 413. Compared with Coriolanus and Themistocles, 415. Abandoned by the royalists he returns to Twickenham, 419. Takes his seat in the Chamber of Peers, 427. His generosity to Ney's family, 437. Retires to his villa of Neuilly, 443. Attempt to arrest him at Neuilly proves abortive, 521. Chosen Lieutenant- General of the kingdom, 538. Is offered the crown of France, 549. Swears to observe the Charter, 562. Rejects the crown of Belgium, 577. Miraculous escape from the attempt of Fieschi, 603. Fired at by Louis Alibaud, 610; and by Meunier, 612. Pardons the parricide Meunier, 614. Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, commands the royalist forces, 479. Insulted by the Dauphin, 505. Muignet, the Commissioner, 231. Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, her insincerity and intriguing disposition, 375. Meunier, the assassin, found guilty of parricide, 613. Meunier's mother implores his pardon, 614. Mirabeau, arrested, 43. Mont-Cassel, battle of, where the Prince of Orange was defeated, 2. Montesson, Madame de, married to Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, 7. Montpensier, Duke of, his account of the first intelligence of his father's pro- scription, 63. Visits Italy, 169. Immured in Fort Marseilles, attempts to escape, and breaks his leg, 265. His liberation, 289. Embarks for America, 291. Sketches the Falls of Niagara, 309. Lands in England, 329. His Portrait of Lady A. Forbes, 347. His health declines, 349. Death, and burial in Westminster Abbey, 350, 351. Morgainic Marriages, origin of the term. Mount St. Michael, fortress of, 97. Napoleon, his escape from Elba, 411. National Colours, resumed, 531. National Guard, disbanded treacherously by Charles X , 453. Re-organized under Lafayette, 499. Necker, recalled to office, 23. Dismissed and banished, 32. Nemours, Duke of, refuses the throne of Belgium, 577. Slightly wounded by a ball from the infernal machine of Fieschi, 604. Again wounded by Meunier, 612. Ney, Marshal, his unjust and cruel death, 425 Causes that led to it, 437. His family protected by Louis Philippe, ibid. Neuilly, the refuge of literary men, 443. Niagara, Falls of, 309. Orleans, City of, 1. Orleans, Philippe, Duke of, 1. Orleans, Louis, Duke of, 4. Orleans, Louis Philippe, le Gros, Duke of, 6. Orleans, Louis Philippe Joseph, Egalite, 8. Orleans, Louis Philippe, king of French, passim. Orleans, Duchess of, set at liberty, 243. Orleans Estates, 439. Orleans Lodge, Twickenham, the residence of Louis Philippe, 421. Otranto, Fouche, Duke of, his character, and his letters to the Duke of Wel- lington, 423. Palais Royal, converted into a bazaar, 12. Anti-royalists meet there, 13. Its degradation, 399. Celebrated ball at, 463. Palace, of the Archbishop of Paris demolished, 483. f)|0 GENERAL INDEX. Palaces, royal, surrendered, 497. Paris, declared to be in a state of siege, 479. Patriot Jew, remarkable instance of a, 495. Penthievre, Dukes of, their great wealth, 10. Death of the Duke of, 51. 1 oiignac, Administration, 457. Prince, his noble and generous conduct to his brother, 458- Armand, brother of Jules, a chivalrous character, 4>0. The Prince escapes assassination, 471. His fidelity to his trust, 501. Difficult position, 503. Tried and condemned, 571. Public Education, beneficial to princes, 447. Printing, Associations for publishing provincial Journals, 467 Proclamation, of the Chartist deputies, 491. Proclamation, of Marmont, 493. Provisional Government, erected, 537. Regent Orleans, 3. Reveillons factory destroyed by the mob, 27. St. Germains 1' Auxerrois, church of, pillaged by the mob, 573. St. Michael's Mount, visit of Louis Philippe and demolition of the iron cage, 95. Seymour, Pamela, daughter of Madame de Genlis and the Duke of Orleans, 82. Seret, M., saved from drowning, at Vendome, by Louis Philippe, 129. Soult, Marshal, takes office, 571. States- General assemble at Versailles, 29. Swiss guard, their loyalty and great intrepidity, 434. Talleyrand, his duplicity and artfulness, 407. ills continued intrigues to sepa- rate the branches of the royal family defeated, 435. Temple, prison in which Louis XVI. and his Quesn were confined, 47. Thiers, M. de, his spirited conversation with the Duchess of Orleans at' Neuilly, 524. Thouret, M., editor of the Revolution newspaper, fined .2,000, 576. Tiers Etat, 2430. Toreno, Count de, an impartial historian. 389. Treviso, Duke of, shot dead, beside Louis Philippe, opposite the Jardin Turc, 303. Tricoloured cockades and colours, resumed, 531. Twickenham, becomes the residence of the Princes of Orleans, 331. Tuileries, palace of, taken and pillaged, 507. Valmy, duke of, vide Kellermann. Valmy, the cannonade of, 145. Valois, Duke of, vide Orleans and Louis Philippe. Vendome, violence of the mob at, and personal courage of Louis Philippe, 127. Villers-Cotteret, Egalite banished thither by Louis XVI., 18. Returned to represent in the Chamber of the Nation, 26. Westwood, Mr., 197. Wellington, Duke of, his opinion of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, and his prophecy of his future greatness, 386. His letter to him immediately pre- ceding the battle of Waterloo, 430. 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