^o' • I** r < kf • %.*^ .Z*^-. ^9^ • It « •« ♦^^♦. V'O' %.* a -o^ o« * , t •< .0, 'e.i iO. /6Y C^'C-* FRANKLIN AT THE PALAIS ROYALE. (See page 2.) THE RISE AND FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE, EX-KING OP THE FRENCH; GIVING A HISTORY OE THE ERENCH REVOLUTION, FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT, IN 1789, BY BEN: PERLEY POORE, LATE HISTORICAL AGENT OF THE STATE OP MASSACHUSETTS TO FRANCE, AND PARIS CORRESPONDENT OF THE BOSTON ATLAS. ILLUSTRATED WITH HISTORICAL ENGRAVINGS, PORTRAITS. AND FAG-SIMILES. BOSTON: WILLIAM D. TICKNOR & COMPANY, MDCCCXLVIII. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, By Ben : Perley Poore, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. boston: THURSTON, TORRY, AND COMPANY, 31 Devonshire Street. TABLE OP CONTENTS: INCLUDING, (in ITALICS,) OTHEE IMPORTANT EVENTS NOT MENTIONED IN. THIS WORK J THE WHOLE FORMING A CHRONOLOGY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1773, Oct. 6, Birth of Louis Philippe d'Orleans ... 2 1789, May 5, Opening' of the States General at Versailles. June 17, JSstablishment of the National Assembly. July 12, First conflict between the populace and the troops 10 " 14, Storming of the Bastille . . . . .11 Oct. 1, Declaration of the Rights of Man in Society. " 6, The Royal family brought to Paris . . . 11 Political intrigues 13 Nov. 6, Institution of the Jacobin Club. 1790, June 19, Suppression of Nobility . July 14, First National Federation. Sept. 10, Louis Philippe's anti-royalism .... 14 Nov. 20, Louis Philippe admitted to the Ji-.cobin Club . 14 Final difference between the King and the Duke of Orleans ... .... 15 1791, Feb. 9, Louis Philippe and brothers join the National Guard 1 6 April 20, Death of Mirabeau 18 The War Spirit in France .... 19 June 27, Louis Philippe rescues two priests from death . 21 July 17, The unfurling of the red flag. Aug. 3, liouis Philippe saves a man from drowning . . 24 Sept. 14j Louis XVI. swears to maintain the Constitution. 1792, April 20, Declaration of war against Austria ... 26 " 28, First hostilities and reverses in Belgium . . 27 May 7, Louis Philippe brevetted brigadier-general . . 28 Capture of Cambray and Courtnay ... 29 June 29, The Parisian mob at the Tuileries ... 29 JV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1792, July 25, " 29, Aug. 10, " 18, " 20, Sept. 21, " 30, Nov. 6, " 28, Dec. 1793, Jan. 17, March 10, 18, April 10, " 14, May 8, " 20, July 13, Aug. 29, Oct. 10, " 16, « 20, " 21, Dec, 4, 1794, March 5, Juae 8, July 28, 1795, June 8, Aug. 24, Oct. 28, Nov. 1, " 18, 1796, May 10, Sept. 24, Nov. 15, 1797, Jan. 15, June, Sept. 4, Oct. 21, Dec. 10, 1798, Feb. 15, " 17, July 1, Dec. 18, War manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick . 31 Enlistment of volunteers — La Marseillaise . . 32 Sior mills- of the Tuilleries — Imprisonment of the Royal Family. Flight of Lafayette. Battle of Valmy .."... 37 Opening of the National Convention — Abolition of Royalty. Prediction of Oanton to Louis Philippe . . 41 Victory of Jemappes . . . . . 41 Successes of Louis Philippe 44 Debates in the National Convention ... 45 Louis XVI. condemned to death .... 47 Institution of the Revolutionary trihunaL Battle of Nerwinden 49 Defection of Louis Philippe 50 Imprisonment of the Duke of Orleans . . 51 Louis Philippe in Switzerland .... 60 Forced loan of 1000 millions imposed upon the rich. Marat assassinated by Charlotte Corday. Louis Philippe at the Monastery of St. Gothard 62 Louis Philippe appointed Professor of Mathematics 63 Marie Antoinette condemned and executed. Execution of the Girondins .... 54 Execution of the Duke of Orleans ... 56 Organization of the Revolutionary Government. Danton and his friends executed. Festival of the Supreme Being. Louis Philippe sets out on a journey northward 64 Doionfall of Robespierre. Death of the Dauphin, son of Louis XVI. Louis Phihppe at the North Cape ... 68 First meeting of the Councils of Ancients and of Five Hundred. Formation of the Directory. Louis Philippe in Sweden .... 71 Attempted escape of Louis Philippe's brother . 75 Battle of Lodi. Louis Philippe in Denmark .... 76 Louis Philippe embarks at Hamburg for America 78 The Princes of Orleans in Philadelphia . . 81 Victory of Arcole. American tour of Louis Philippe and his brothers 84 Battle of Rivoli. The Princes of Orleans return to Philadelphia for the West . 91 Violent proceedings of the I8th of Fructidor. Louis Philippe and brothers journey to Boston . 93 Major Russell's kindness to the exiles . . .94 Talleyrand and the Princes of Orleans visit Maine 95 Louis Philippe leaves Philadelphia for New Orleans ........ 97 The French enter Rome — the French Republic proclaimed. The Princes of Orleans arrive at New Orleans . 100 Louis Philippe's voyage to Cuba . . . .101 Napoleon lands in Egypt. Treaty between England and Russia against France. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1799, March 22, « 27, Nov. 9, Dec. 19, 1800, Feb. 16, May, Dec. 24, 1801, July 15, 1802, August 2, 1803, March 13, April 23, 1804, Dec. 2, 1805, Sept. 25, Dec. 2, 1806, July 7, 1807, Sep't. 1808, 1809, February, Nov. 26, Dec. 16, 1810, April 2, May 7, " 21, Sept. 30, 1811, March 20, 1812, May 9, 1814, April 11, May, 1815, March 5, June 18, Oct. 13, 1816, 1821, May 5, 1824, Sept. 6, 1330, May, July 25, July 27, " 31, August 2, 9, " 17, 1830, Dec. 24, Napoleon takes Jaffa, in the Holy Land. Seizure of Pope Pius VI. xoho is carried to France. Louis Philippe and brothers sail from Cuba for Halifax Revolution of the \.8th Brumaire. Napoleon nominated First Consul. Louis Philippe lands in England . . ._ . Interview between Chailes'X. and Louis Philippe Napoleon crosses the great St. Bernard into Italy. Explosion of the Infernal Machine. Concordat between Napoleon and the Pope, fol- lowed by treaties between France and Naples, Bavaria, Batavia, Portugal, England, Russia, and the Porte. Louis Philippe visits Spain and is sent back to England Napoleon elected Consul for life by the French. France declares 7Dar against England. Manifesto of Louis Philippe in favor of the Bour- bons Napoleon crowned Emperor. The "Grand Arjny^' of invasion leave France. Battle of Austerlitz . Peace of Tilsit. Louis Philippe leaves England for Malta Louis Philippe's expedition to Spain Louis Philippe at Malta .... Marriage of Louis Philippe at Palermo Napoleon divorced from Josephine. Marriage of Napoleon to Marie Louise. Louis Philippe consents to serve against France Unsuccessful expedition of Louis Philippe to Spain Louis Philippe expelled from Spain Birth of Napoleon's son. Napoleon leaves Paris on his Russian campaign Abdication of Napoleon at Fontainbleau. Louis Philippe's return to France . Napoleon returns from Elba .... Louis Philippe retires to England — his intrigues Battle of Waterloo. Execution of Marshal Ney .... Napoleon arrives in St. Helena. Plottings of Louis Philippe against the throne Death of Napoleon at St. Helena. Accession of Charles X Favors granted by the Bourbons to Louis Philippe France under the reign of Charles X. . Ungrateful conduct of Louis Philippe . Charles X. at the Palais Royal The obnoxious Ordinances signed Partisans of Louis Philippe . Commencement of the " Three Days' Revolution Louis Philippe Lieutenant-General of France Charles X. abdicates in favor of his grandson Louis Philippe accepts the crown . Charles X. retires to England State Policy of Louis Philippe 111 treatment of General Lafayette 102 102 104 105 106 108 109 110 112 113 113 114 115 117 120 123 127 130 131 137 140 141 142 144 150 165 170 180 183 185 200 ■n. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1832, March 13, May 29, June 5, July 22, Sept. 18, Oct 11, Nov. 19, 1834, 1835, May 20, March 14, 1836, July 2, June 25, Sept. 7, Nov. 6, Dec. 27, 1837, 1838, June 28, 1839, Jan. 2, 1840, March 1, Aug:. 6, Oct. 15, " 29, Dec. 15, 1841, 1842, Sept. 13, July 13, 1843, Aug. 20, « 28, Sept. 1, 1844, Aug. 6, Oct. 7, 1846, May 26, July 29, Sep't. 21, 1847, January, May 15, Dec. 31, 1848, January, Feb. 21, " 22, " 23, PAGE Cabinet of Casimer Perier nominated . . . 210 Landing of the Duchess of Berri in France . . 212 Insurrection in Paris 221 Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt, dies in Austria. Charles X. leaves Great Britain for the continent. Ministry of Marshal Soult. Attempt to assassinate Louis Philippe . . . 223 Death of Lafayette ....... 223 Ministry of the Duke de Broglie. Explosion of Fieschi's infernal machine . . 228 Alibaud fires at Louis Philippe. Ministry of Count Mole. Charles X. dies at Goritz 230 Meunier fires at the King-. The Princess Marie 231 Coronation of Queen Victoria. Death of the Princess Marie . - . . . 232 Thiers nominated Minister. Descent of Prince Louis Napoleon at Boulogne. Darmes fires at Louis Philippe. Guizot nominated Minister ..... 235 The ashes of Napoleon deposited in the Hotel des Invalides. Attempt to assassinate the Duke of Aumale. Death of the Duke of Orleans, heir to the French throne 238 Commencement of the Spanish intrigue . . 241 The Duke of Nemours appointed Regent, " in fiduro." Narrow escape of the French Royal family . . 242 Arrival of Queen Victoria in France . . . 243 The French Court 248 Louis Philippe's private life 251 Tangiers captured by the Prince de Joinville. Louis Philippe lands in England .... 258 Policy of the French government and the Opposi- tion 259 Attempt of Le Compte to assassinate Louis Philippe 262 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from im- prisonment. Joseph Henri fires on the King. Celebration of the Spanish Marriages. The commencement of the Session . . . 264 Position of the French 268 Speech of Lamartine at Macon .... 270 Death of Louis Philippe's sister Adelaide . . 272 Commencement of the Session .... 274 The Reform Banquets prohibited .... 275 Resignation of the Guizot Ministry . . . 282 Commencement of the conflict .... 284 Abdication of Louis Phi ippe .... 287 Erratum.— Page 274, for 29th of Dec. 1847, read 27th of Dec. 1847. EISE AND FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. RISE AND FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. CHAPTER I, The Palais Royal is to Paris what that metropolis is to Christendom — the centre of its pleasures and its political intrigues ; nor is there, perhaps, another locality in the world, to which are attached so many and such varied associations. The spacious garden, with its surrounding colonnades, was long an arena for the free indulgence of every depravity which can stigmatize human nature — the stage upon which many a frightful interlude in the drama of revolution was enacted ; and it is yet a forum where the popular voice first sounds the tocsin of discontent At one extremity is the Palace itself, historically interesting to every one; for its ink-stained council tables have, for up- wards of two hundred years, served as a fulcrum upon which the pen — that great political lever — has moved the destinies, not only of the nations of Europe, but of the Western Continent. It was at the Palais Royal that Car- dinal Richelieu founded a company of an " Hundred Asso- ciates," for the purpose of planting a colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence, which was to extend its limits south- ward, and gradually exterminate the '' heretic English at Plymouth," and " the Dutch" at New York, that the lilies of France might alone wave over the new world. For one ' 1 RISE AND FALL hundred and thirty years, plan after plan was there laid to carry this cherished project of the French government into effect, ending with the mission of Baron de Kalb, a few years previous to the American Revolution, to ascertain whether the disaffected colonies could not be induced to change their allegiance, and come under the Bourbon rule. And there, after the declaration of independence, the Duke of Orleans received in state, (in the hall where Abenaquis and Iroquois chiefs had in times past paid homage,) the envoy of the United Colonies — Benjamin Franklin. A picture of the scene was painted for the historical gallery of the Palace, representing the host and hostess in the rich costume of the time, the sturdy ex-printer in his plain garb, and a young lad seated upon the floor, beating a toy drum. " Judging from that boy's present performance," said Frank- lin, "I prophesy that he is destined to make a noise in the world." When, after passing through great vicissitudes of fortune, the amateur drummer became King of the French, he frequently related this anecdote when Americans were presented at his court, and the picture was to them an object of great interest.* Louis Philippe d'Orleans was born at the Palais Royal on the 6th of October, 1773. He is the eldest son of Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orleans, then Duke of Chartres, (the third Duke of Orleans being alive,) who even surpassed in dissolute villany his ducal ancestors, t and of Marie, only daughter and heiress of the wealthy Duke of Penthievre. His sponsors at the baptismal font were the Dauphin, who was soon to call himself Louis XVI., and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, who was that year described by Burke as *' decorating the elevated sphere she just began to move in, glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy." The Duke of Chartres professed the deepest * See Frontispiece. t The Hodse of Orleans. Note A. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. O gratitude to the Dauphin for this mark of royal favor ; yet twenty years had not elapsed ere he irrevocably sealed the fate of that martyr-prince, by walking to the tribune of the National Assembly, and declaring, " my vote is for death ! " He is portrayed as a well formed, portly man, his eye hag- gard with debauch, and his face covered with fiery erup- tions, the fruit of intemperance. When, by the death of his father, he became Duke of Orleans, his son, who had been baptized Duke of Valois, succeeded to the title of Duke of Chartres. Louis Philippe's first preceptor was a boon companion of his father's, the Chevalier de Bonnard, captain of the royal ar- tillery, whose sole aim (in accordance with his instructions) was to impart to his pupil graceful manners, the " code of honor," and the knowledge of fencing necessary to enforce its edicts, — barbarous remnants of chivalry. When he entered his eighth year, he had three brothers and a sister — the Duke of Valois, the Duke of Montpensier, the Count of Beaujolais, and the Princess Adelaide. The Duke of Orleans had some years previously selected, as maid of honor to the Duchess his wife, Madame de Genlis, now about thirty years of age; the period when a woman joins to the freshness and graces of youth all the ac- complishments acquired by intercourse with the world. Miss Burney, who saw her a few years afterwards, says, that " her face, without positive beauty, had the most winning agreea- bility ; her figure was remarkably elegant, her attire was chastely simple ; her air was reserved, and her demeanor was dignified." Yet, when breathing the voluptuous atmos- phere of the Palais Royal, her conduct was as immoral as her talents were superior, Mirabeau, in his life, accuses her of having granted him favors, and in her own memoirs she accuses herself of enjoying the intimacy of half a dozen other equally depraved men of the time. Brought up by the financier La Popeliniere, whose old age she had taken captive, she was an intriguante from her infancy, and su- 4 RISE AND FALL peradded to all the weaknesses of her own sex, all the preten- sions of the other. One day, like the courtezans of ancient Greece, taking baths of milk covered with rose-leaves, the next dressed in masculine attire, carousing at the Por- cherons — following lectures on anatomy, and frequenting the dissecting rooms — writing both pious books and infa- mous novels — residing at the Palais Royal, despite of the Duchess of Orleans — her actions were a constant topic of scandal, and are recorded in the small gazettes of the time which circulated among the courtiers. Over the Duke of Orleans she exercised such unlimited influence, that he did nothing without asking her advice ; and she thus relates a conversation which passed between them, when he consulted her on the choice of a fit tutor for his children. " One evening the Duke called to see me, as was his custom, between eight and nine o'clock, and told me that there was no time to lose in procuring a tutor for his sons, for that, otherwise, his children would have the manners of shopmen. He consulted me on the selection of one. I pro- posed Schomberg, whom he refused to accept, alleging that he would render the children pedantic. I then named the Chevalier de Dufort, who, he said, would give them a bom- bastic air. I then spake of Thiars, but he objected to him as being too careless ; and said that he would pay no atten- tion at all to the children. An idea struck me, and I said in a laughing tone, ' Well, what do you think of me ? ' * Why not,' he replied, seriously. I protested at first that I was jesting, but became so impressed with the thought of doing something at once glorious to myself and unprece- dented in the history of education, that I determined to take the situation. When the Duke heard me unfold my first plans, he appeared delighted, and said, ' thfe thing is de- cided — you must be their tutor.' " * The Chevalier de Bonnard, (who was a protege of Buffon * Memoirs of Madame de Genlis. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 5 the naturalist,) and the Abbe Guyot, were engaged as sub- tutors ; but Madame de Genlis was to be absolute directress of her pupils, who were ordered by their father to call her ** Maman Genlis,'' and to obey her commands in preference to those of the Duchess their mother. Bonnard thought his new position humiliating, and resigned in favor of M. Le Brun, for he could not endure the sarcastic remarks of the courtiers, who not only ridiculed the innovation of intrust- ing the education of boys to a woman, but commented freely upon a father's placing his children under the charge of his chere amie. Madame de Genlis compiled a system of education, based upon the Emile of Rousseau,* which was thorough, and would have been excellent, had it included the inculcation of moral principle. Destitute of this governing virtue, Madame de Genlis could not, and did not cultivate it in the hearts of her pupils, who were also taught to sacrifice every thing for themselves and their family, and to regard life as a play, in which they were studiously to act a part. The pure-hearted Duchess, among her causes of grievance against Madame de Genlis, placed foremost the dramat- ical educatipn given to her children, dreading the effects such a system might have upon them, by destroying the candor of their youthful hearts, and substituting artificial feelings for those of nature. An instance of this was given at Spa, where the family were passing the summer. The Duchess lay for some time dangerously ill, but recovered her health by drinking the water of the Sauveniere, a mine- ral spring in the vicinity. Instead of sending with simple congratulations her sons and daughter, who had not been permitted to visit her sick bed, and to whom she would so joyfully have opened her arms with maternal tenderness, Madame de Genlis must needs compose a sentimental eclogue for the occasion. The vicinity of the spring was * Memoirs of the Duke de Montpensier. 1* RISE AND FALL ornamented with flowers, the groves around were so thinned as to afford a view of the surrounding landscape, and, at the appointed hour, the children were duly ranged upon a turf stage to receive the Duchess. When she appeared, Louis Philippe recited a complimentary ode, and at its close a tableau was formed around a white marble altar, surmounted by a statue of the Goddess of Health. Adelaide, her hand on her heart, and her eyes raised to heaven, appeared to be thanking Providence ; while Louis Philippe on his knees, followed with a graver, as if tracing with it, the first word of the inscription on the altar — " Gratitude." It was thus that Madame de Genlis reduced every thing to stage-like rules, even filial piety; and the moral education of her pupils was alternately composed of an idyl, a pastoral, a melo-drama, and a romance. The mental training of the children was excellent, and Louis Philippe soon surpassed his brothers and sister when he once applied himself, though having been a spoiled child he was not at first disposed to study. When his indefatiga- ble instructress called him into her room, at the commence- ment of her duties, to receive a lesson in history, she relates that, instead of listening, he yawned and stretched himself, then threw himself upon the sofa, placed his feet upon the table, and closed his eyes as if to sleep. Judicious severity cured these anti-studious habits, and he was soon deeply in- terested, not only in the usual branches of polite literature, but in the Roman law and surgery — every hour in the day having its appointed study. A German valet, an Italian table servant, and an English teacher, were in constant at- tendance upon the children, and were only allowed to con- verse in the language of their respective countries. One day the English teacher forgot himself, and, to assist him in conveying his meaning more rapidly to his pupils, made use of the French tongue. " Hold ! " said Louis Philippe, " I will not understand you now, because you speak to me in French. 1 will admit that I did not comprehend what OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. you said in English, but I will have patience to learn, if you will to speak, so let us begin it all over again." This perseverance enabled him so to master the English, Italian, and German languages, that he not only conversed in them with fluency, but wrote them grammatically ; and when seated on the throne was enabled to carry on diplomatic conversations and correspondences, without being obliged to resort for aid to interpreters or secretaries. Daily journals were faithfully kept of all that transpired between the pupils and Madame de Genlis ; and Louis Philippe once remarked to an American gentleman, that, for upwards of sixty years, he had only let four days pass without making the usual entry in, his diary. To practical education, so important, yet so generally neglected, Madame de Genlis paid particular attention. At their summer residence of St. Leu, near Paris, the young princes cultivated a small garden under the direction of a German gardener, while they were instructed in botany and the medicinal virtues of plants by their physician, who was the companion of their rambles. All the principal manufactories of the capital were carefully inspected ,^cind the princes had also their own work-shops, in which they were taught the use of the lathe, of joiners' and of gunsmiths' tools. Louis Philippe excelled in cabinet making, (an art which, it is jocosely said, he has since turned to good account,) and, assisted only by his brother, the Duke de Montpensier, made a heauffat or corner cup- board, and a table with drawers, for the wife of a poor inva- lid soldier in the village of St. Leu. The beds of the princes were thin mattrasses, placed upon planks with no covering but a mat, and they every morning took cold baths after rising at sunrise — healthful practices which Louis Philippe continued when king. Long pedestrian excursions with leaden soles to their shoes ; eques- trian, fencing, swimming and gymnastic exercises, exposure to heat, cold and rain, were mingled with the more intel- lectual pursuits — Madame de Genlis adopting as a rule in the 8 RISE AND FALL education of her pupils, that ancient prayer : Mens sana in corpore sano. To acquire popularity, was, in the opinion of Madame de Genlis, one of the first duties of a Prince-Royal, and in her Memoires numerous instances are cited in which she availed herself of circumstances calculated to raise Louis Philippe in the estimation of the people, then just awakening to a sense of their power. One of these was the melo-dramatic destruction of the prison-cage in the fortress of St. Michael, in which Louis XIV. confined for seventeen years an un- fortunate Dutch editor who had chronicled the licentious revels at Marly, and was seized by stratagem in Holland in order to gratify the " great monarch's " vengeance. It was framed of large beams, with interstices between, and placed in a damp, cold cellar, where the light was excluded, and the air impure. For fifteen years it had only been used as a temporary place of confinement for refractory prisoners, and when showing it to Madame de Genlis and her pupils, the Governor of the fortress remarked, that it would not long remain as a monument of royal cruelty, since the Count d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.) had, on seeing it a few months previous, commanded its demolition. Here was a rare opportunity for producing an effect, and, prompted by his instructress before leaving the fortress, Louis Philippe requested to see the cage destroyed, and the next morning was fixed upon for the ceremony. The Governor, who was also Prior of the Shrine of St. Michael, headed the proces- sion with his monks, then came the visitors, with two car- penters, escorted by the villagers under arms, and followed by the prisoners, conducted by their gaolers. After hearing mass, they descended into the vault with torches, and formed around the walls. Louis Philippe made a few remarks, after which, *' taking an axe, he gave the first blow, and the carpenters following, soon broke down the door and cut to pieces many of the timbers." The prisoners saw with joy their dreaded place of punishment destroyed, and shouted OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. ^ " Live the House of Orleans," an intoxicating ovation to the young Prince. For years his favorite books had been the biographies of Henry IV , of Conde, and of Turenne, and his ambition was excited to have his own name in the dictionary of illustrious men. This artificial life did not prevent the formation of an at- tachment between Louis Philippe and his sister Adelaide, which grew " with their gro\\ th, and strengthened with their strength." Through years of despondency and mis- fortune, when the horizon was darkly unpromising, they comforted each other by their mutual hopes, counselled each other with their best advice, cheered on each other by their brightest anticipations, defended each other from calumny, and vindicated each other's fame, with a steadfastness of purpose and a devotedness of heart which all lovers of con- stant affection must admire. She was religious without bigotry, and her serious duties were always characterized by a benevolence as cheerful as it was expansive — adver- sities had made her acquainted with the desire (when brighter days shone upon her) to administer to want. FAC-SIMILE OF LOUIS XTl. 10 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER II. The political tendencies of Madame de Genlis's system of education are to be found in her works, which were the text-books of her pupils. She advocated a revolution, as calculated to aid the Duke of Orleans in his ambitious schemes for dethroning the king and becoming Regent of France. In England the direct line of the royal family had been expelled in favor of the Prince of Orange, and Louis Philippe was taught to believe that the triumph of radical principles would insure his father's success. Thiers gives an animated account of the scenes daily enacted in the garden of the Palais Royal, where the Duke of Orleans distributed large sums of money to the lower classes, and congregated the most vehement agitators. There might be seen an orator mounted upon a table, collecting a crowd around him, and exciting them by the most furious lan- guage — language always unpunished — for there the mob reigned as sovereign. Louis Philippe was an attentive lis- tener, and was ever ready to unlock the inclosures, that the discontented factions might pluck from the evergreen trees sprigs of recognition for their hats or caps. One of these factions which he had thus decorated, carrying in procession wax busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, was met near the Place Vendome by the Royal German regiment, which fired upon it. Several persons were wounded, among them a private in the regiment of French Guards, who were notoriously protected and supplied with money by the Duke of Orleans. They joined the people, and fired upon the Royal Germans, whose Colonel, the Prince de Lambesc, fell back upon the Garden of the Tuileries, charged the people who were quietly walking there, and while his men wounded several with pistol shots, himself cut the uplifted OF LOUIS PHILlPrE. 11 arms of an old man with his sword. The Parisians are re- markable, says Thomas Paine, for their respect to old age, and the insolence with which this outrage was committed, uniting with the general fermentation of the day, produced a powerful effect, and a cry of " to arms, to arms," spread itself in a moment over the city. Terror, before unbounded, was now changed into fury.* The people armed themselves, wine was distributed freely at the Palais Royal, and frightful excesses were committed in the streets. A few days afterwards, (it was the 14th of July, 1789,) the French Guards placed themselves at the head of the infuriated populace, and after hard fighting cap- tured the Bastille, that formidable prison which had endured many sieges, and which Henry IV. himself could not take. Delauny, the Governor, was beheaded on the square in front, where several cannoneers were also executed ; the people, elated with victory, dancing around their remains amid the applause of a large party of spectators assembled on the ad- joining terrace of the Beaumarchais garden. Madame de Genlis was there, with Louis Philippe, his sister and brothers, and when after their return to the Palais Royal in the evening, a mob of fish-women, intoxicated with fury and wine, commenced dancing in the garden, the young people were encouraged by their governess to descend and join in the saturnalia. In the month of October fdkrcving, Madame de Genlis treated her pupils to a more horrible sight from the terrace of a house at Passy t — the infuriated populace bringing the royal family from Versailles to the City Hall of Paris, their first resting place during protracted misery, that ter- minated some years afterwards on the scaffold. The pro- cession was led by a band of ruffians, who had breakfasted on half roasted horse-flesh, served up upon the corpses of * Thiers's French Revolution. + Memoirs of Clermont Gallerande. 12 RISE AND FALL two life-guardsmen whom they had massacred below the windows of the king, and whose bloody heads they bore in triumph upon pikes. Surely, Satan himself, says Lavalette, must have invented the placing of a human head at the end of a lance, where the disfigured and pale features, the gory locks, the half open mouth, the closed eyes, images of death added to the salutations which the executioners made them perform in mockery of life, presented the most frightful spectacle that rage could have imagined. After this fero- cious horde came the royal carriage, escorted by the Pa- risian National Guard, and a large troop of fish-women, the scum of their sex, and generally ugly as crime itself, who alternately embraced and insulted the soldiers. Several of th?se abandoned creatures were astride upon the cannon, celebrating by the most abominable songs all the crimes which they had committed or witnessed, while others, nearer the carriage, were singing allegorical airs, and by their gross gestures applying the insulting allusions in them to the queen. She, poor woman, had that morning fled for her life from a furious mob, who rushed into her room a few minutes after she had left it, and, enraged at finding their victim escaped, pierced her bed with their bayonets. Yet Bertrand de Molleville, who was an eye-witness of this dis- tressing spectacle, says that amidst this clamor, this tumult, these songs, interrupted by frequent discharges of musketry, which the hand of a monster or an awkward person might have rendered so fatal,' Marie Antoinette retained the most courageous tranquillity of mind, and an air of inexpressible nobleness and dignity. Once only she shuddered and turned deadly pale — it was when she saw Madame de Genlis and her pupils evidently delighted at the sight of the procession. The young people were her relatives, and gratitude, if nothing else, should have restrained them from thus exult- ino- over her downfall. No later than the first of January previous, she had prevailed upon the King to create Louis Philippe (their godson) Knight of the Holy Ghost, and with OF LOUIS riULirPE. 13 the blue riband of the order he received a pension of a thousand crowns. The initiation of Louis Philippe into the mysteries of po- litical intrigue, was at a club originally founded in the village of Montrouge, near Paris, but which afterwards held its meetings in the apartment of Madame de Genlis, at the Palais Royal, — literature cloaking its real designs, as the madness of the first Brutus concealed his vengeance.* Headed by the Abbe Sieyes, that mystic oracle of the Rev- olution, they used to deliberate schemes for gaining the Duke of Orleans the Regency, or, as some think, the throne itself Louis Philippe entered into their plans with the ardor of youth, electioneering with great spirit for his father when he was a candidate for the States-General at Crespy. The Duke was elected, and also chosen at Villars-Cotherets, but he preferred to represent Crespy, because the voters of that district were the more patriotic of the two. At the opening procession of the States-General, he left his own place vacant among the nobility, and walked with the depu- ties, abdicating the privileges of a Prince Royal, to assume the dignity of a citizen.- Lafayette, if we may credit Lamartine, instinctively hated in the Duke of Orleans an influential rival, and resolved at all risks to compel him to remove from the scene, by an exercise of moral restraint or the fear of a state prosecution, and reside in England. The King was easily convinced of his plots to win the throne, and the Duke was at last forced to submit to an arbitrary exile, under the appearance of a diplomatic mission freely accepted. Before leaving, he gave Louis Philippe a separate establishment, and commended him to Mirabeau, one of those mysterious mortals described by Bossuet as the instruments of God's designs. Deriving a certain aristocracy of ideas from his birth, he took part with the people because he had shared in their oppressions, * Lamarliue's History of the Girondins. 2 14 RISE AND FALL and was carried by the same passions which sullied his pri- vate life, up to the loftiest paths of a public career. Though nervous most of the time under the influence of wine and love, he was able, at any moment, to retire from one of those voluptuous fetes which still lingered about the court, and prepare, by the severe application of theories to facts, those profound and passionate displays of eloquence, with which he annihilated the old system, and would have renovated the new.* Such was the man chosen to initiate Louis Philippe into political life, and it is not strange that we find such entries as the following in the young Prince's journal : " Septem- ber 10th, 1 790. — In the evening we went to the theatre to see Brutus. Many allusions were made. When Brutus said — ' Ye gods ! Give me death sooner than slavery' — the whole house rang with the applause and bravos. All hats were up 1 It was superb. Another line ended with — ' Be free, and without a king.' It was covered with plaudits." With such counsellors as Mirabeau and Madame de Genlis, Louis Philippe soon became thoroughly inoculated with the revolutionary spirit, and was chosen a member of the Jacobin club, then in the very zenith of its power. He thus chroni- cles his admission into that wild assemblage, upon whose countenances was stamped " Revenge upon our oppressors," while their agitated lips pronounced those words — destined to be so terrible, though then pure — " Liberty, justice for the great masses of mankind." " November 2d, 1790. — I was yesterday admitted a member of the Jacobins, and much applauded. I returned thanks for the kind reception which they were so good as to give me, and I assured them that I should never deviate from the sacred duties of a good patriot and a good citizen." Other entries in his journal show that his mentors im- pressed upon his mind the necessity of winning popular * Bulwer's France. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 15 favor, and that he carried their counsels into practice. He was a daily attendant at the public hospitals, as on the 2d of December, when he " dressed two patients, and gave one six, and the other three livres;" nor was the church neg- lected. On the 25th of December, he says, " I went yester- day morning to confession. I dined at the Palais Royal, and then went to the Philanthropic Society, whence I could not get away till eight o'clock. I went to the midnight mass at St. Eustache, returned at two in the morning, and got to bed at half past two. I performed my Christmas de- votions at this mass." Meanwhile the Duke of Orleans had returned from Eng- land, although Lafayette had sent his aid-de-camp to Lon- don, with an urgent request that he would prolong his absence. The counter arguments of Lachos, one of the favorites of Madame de Genlis, imputing his deference to Lafayette to cowardice, stirred his Bourbon blood, but on his arrival at Paris he lacked courage to put into execution projects of revenge, and sent a humble petition to the Min- istry for the restoration of a commission he had previously held in the navy. Notwithstanding his conduct and that of his children, the King, with that kindness which the elder branch of the Bourbons has ever displayed towards the House of Orleans, appointed him Admiral. Upon receiving his commission, the Duke of Orleans waited upon the King, and read a long excuse for his past errors, in a voice nearly choked by emotion, and with those gestures, more eloquent than words, that add so much pathos to solemn explanations. The King, deeply affected, forgave him, and the Duke re- turned to the Palais Royal, reconciled with himself, and de- termined thenceforth to be loyal. His puny ambition was easily satisfied, and he would have become one of the hum- blest sycophants around the throne, had the court possessed the same forgiving disposition as the sovereign. On the Sunday following this reconciliation, there was a grand reception at the Tuileries, and the Duke attended to 16 . RISE AND FALL present his public homage, but was received with indignant glances by the courtiers, who had not been informed of his repentance and pardon. His entrance to the royal apart- ments was barred by the officers of the household, who turned their backs to him, and the servants passing at the time with the Queen's dinner, a voice cried, '' look to the dishes," as though some notorious poisoner was present. The indignant Duke turned alternately pale and red, imag- ining that these insults were offered to him at the instigation of the King, and as he descended the staircase to leave the palace, withering remarks were made by an indignant crowd who followed him, some of whom even spat on him. He had entered the Tuileries appeased, he quitted it implaca- ble ; and finding on his return home Madame de Genlis and her clique happy to nourish his resentment, he was easily convinced by them that his only refuge against court per- secutions was in the last ranks of the Democracy, and he enrolled himself resolutely in them to find safety or ven- geance. Thenceforth Danton was his chief adviser, the Jacobin Club his favorite resort, and he followed the extreme party without hesitation, even to the Republic — to Regi- cide — to Death ! * The children of the Duke of Orleans, indignant at the treatment their father had received at court, became more violently radical, and the young men wore constantly the uniform of the National Guard, to which Louis Philippe joined the red cap, an emblem which probably was origi- nally derived from Phrygia, but had for upwards of a cen- tury been the distinctive headgear of a French galley slave. On the 9th of February, 1791, the three brothers went to register their names on the roll of the light infantry com- pany of the National Guard in the parish of St. Roch, and seeing the clerk enter his titles of rank and nobility, the eldest took the pen, blotted out what had been written, and * Lamanine's History of the Girondins. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 17 signed himself, " Louis PJiilippe Egalite, Prince Frangais jjour son mallieur, mais Jacobin jus qu^ an bout de ses ongles." * Louis Philippe Equality, unfortunately a French Prince, but a Jacobin to the very end of his nails. This strong language was perhaps used in order to at- tract popularity among his comrades, for soon after Louis Philippe was a candidate for the post of commander of the battalion of St. Roch. One of the weakest points of his character is a desire to secure popularity at the moment, to effect the object at the moment desired; but on this occa-, sion even the immediate end was not gained — the thor- ough-going Jacobin was defeated, and a shoemaker elected commandant of the battalion. At the National Assembly Louis Philippe was a constant attendant, and translated for it an English work on the Revolution, by Joseph Towers, in answer to Burke, though, at his father's request, his secretary's name was prefixed to it. Day after day he listened with enthusiastic attention to the harangues from the revolutionary tribune, whose orators, following the example of the ancients, heated their elo- quence in the flame of genius, instead of suffering it to grow cold in political combination, and exhibited in their speeches superb language, deep thought, and politi- cal incapacity. Sometimes he spoke himself, but his repu- tation as an orator was not equal to that which he enjoyed as a jovial boon companion, gathering around him in his apartments the most agreeable actresses and witty youth of his party. It has never been recorded, however, that his dis- sipation degenerated into the excesses for which his ancestors had been infamously notorious. Mirabeau had separated himself from the Duke of Or- leans, and remained faithful to the royal cause, which he was paid to defend ; but the most intimate relations con- tinued to exist between him and Louis Philippe. At last * Sarraa's History of France. 2* IS RISE AND FALL excess in pleasure and in business undermined the popular orator's vigorous constitution, and on the 20th of April, 1791, Louis Philippe was summoned, with other friends, to his death-bed. " Open ther windows, Cabanis," said the dying man. " All that can now be done is to envelop oneself in perfumes, to crown oneself with flowers, to surround one- self with music, that one may sink quietly into everlasting sleep." Acute pains interrupting these rants of atheistical voluptuosness, he insisted upon taking opium, and, to quiet . him, his physician mixed a draught which he said contained a death portion. He took it with composure, swallowed the draught which he believed to be mortal, and in a few mo- ments breathed his last. He could, (says one of his most talented countrymen,) afford to die — he had given the art of oratory to France. OF LOUIS PIIFLIPrE. 19 CHAPTER III. Deprived of Mirabeau, upon whom the King depended for extrication from the difficulties which were thickening around him, he determined to maintain his throne by foreign swords, and thus enabled the National Assembly to utilise the war spirit, that fatal yet popular obstacle to French pros- perity. It dates from the reign of Louis XIII., when feu- dality had been destroyed by uniting the great iiefs to the crown, and the people flocked around the throne, ready to support their monarch in his maddest schemes, in return for their delivery from a horde of oppressive tyrants. The first result of this new order of things was a tissue of domestic dissensions and religious persecutions, under which the na- tional existence of France would soon have been destroyed, had not the ambitious Richelieu guaranteed his power by the formation of a war party. The spirit thus kindled, was fanned into a flame by Anne of Austria, who next ascended the throne as dueeii Regent — her adviser, Mazarin, (an- other belted priest,) finding it for his interest to embroil France in an almost continual series of conflicts, which Louis XIV. continued throuorhout his life. Declared, as most of these wars were, in obedience to the dictates of his own passions, the " Grand Monarch" felt bound in honor to carry them on ; nor, aware of his own incapacity, dared he quarrel with the Minister who had thought and acted for him — whose astute intellect had first brought about the dispute, then fostered it into a declaration of hostilities, and gone on to commence the campaign. The turbulent aristocracy, in whose breasts chivalry yet lingered, were charmed with the congenial occupation of arms ; they flocked around their sovereign's oriflame, and soon became such slaves to military discipline, that Louis XIV. could truly say 20 RISE AND FALL " I am the State ! " Equally loyal were the rank and file, who were rarely promoted, but often revelled on the rich booty of conquered provinces, while the people rejoiced over captured standards, and toiled to sustain the armies sent forth. War became popular ! That fiendish spirit which desolates and scourges nations, henceforth swayed France ! For years the history of France is thus a record of strug- gles which drained her of blood and treasure. Human life and the public finances were sacrificed with a lavish hand, and for what ? To keep in place the Minister of the day, who dreaded peaceful times, as affording his fickle sovereign an opportunity to select another favorite. Besides, the army chest is the most convenient of all sources for rewarding adherents, and troops always uphold the hand which distrib- utes advancement and pay. A lieutenant's epaulette was necessarily the first stepping-stone to position, and the licen- tious habits of the camp gradually pervaded society. France became noted for brute force, reckless expenditure, and unblushing dissipation ; or, to use the words of Bulwef , " her dark Bastille, her bankrupt exchequer, and her shame- less eourt." During the first three quarters of the eighteenth century her armies were forty-six years absent on hostile expeditions, each campaign increasing the national debt, and consequently the taxation. And when, at last, the im- poverished people determined to throw ofli* the yoke of op- pression, (for the glory with which it had been gilded only increased its weight,) Louis XVJ. thought to put them down by calling to his aid Swiss, Piedmontese and Spanish troops. The Assembly were advised of this by an intercepted letter to the King from the Emperor Leopold, and determined to secure the French army for their purposes. They knew that a war, carried on under their direction, would increase their power. All officers were ordered to join their com- mands, and report to the National Assembly. Louis Philippe, who, since 1785, had been proprietary Colonel of the 14th regiment of dragoons, repaired to OF LOUIS PHILIPrE. 21 Vendoine, where it was quartered in June, 1791, and as- sumed the command. Placing himself under a drill ser- geant, he was soon a good tactician, winning the hearts of his soldiers by his strict compliance with military disci- pline, listening to their complaints, joining in their amuse- ments, and leaving nothing undone to elevate the character of the regiment. In barracks, where there were several nobles at the officers' mess who were devoted to their King, he used to say " that he was a soldier of France, and that she required their lives and their services, and not their opinions." Yet he was a regular attendant, as were most of his private soldiers, at the Constitutional Club of Ven- dome ; and when, on the 27th of June, a decree for the suppression of orders of knighthood, passed by the National Assembly, was discussed, he declared, " that he was too much the friend of equality not to receive a decree for the suppression of such emblems with transport." On the same day there was a serious commotion at Ven- dome, owing to the seizure by the populace of two clergy- men, who (as had many others) refused to take an oath prescribed by the constitution. Louis Philippe thus de- scribes it in his journal : " At noon I had brouorht back the reg-iment, but with orders not to unboot or unsaddle. I asked Messrs. Dubois, d'Albis, Jacquemin, and Phillippe, to dinner. They brought us word that the people had collected in a mob, and were about to hang two priests. I ran immediately to the place, followed by Pieyre, Dubois, and d'Albis. I came to the door of a tavern, where I found ten or twelve national guards, the mayor, the town-clerk, and a considerable num- ber of people, crying, 'They have broken the law; they must be hanged — to the lamp-post!' I asked the mayor what all this meant, and what it was all about. He replied, * It is a nonjuring priest and his father, who have escaped into this house ; the people allege that they have insulted M. Buisson, a priest, who has taken the civic oath, and who 22 ' RISE AND FALL was carrying the holy sacrament, and I can no longer restrain them. I have sent for a voiture to convey them away. Have the goodness to send for tw^o dragoons to escort them.' I did so immediately. The mayor stood motionless before the door, not opening his mouth. I therefore addressed some of the most violent of the mob, and endeavored to explain ' how wrong it would be to hang men without trial ; that, moreover, they would be doing the -work of the executioner, which they considered infamous; that there were Judges whose duty it was to deal with these men.' The mob an- swered that the Judges were aristocrats, and that they did not punish the guilty. I replied, ' That's your own fault, as they are elected by yourselves; but you must not take the law into your own hands.' There was now much confusion ; at last one voice cried — ' We will spare them for the sake of M. de Chartres.' ' Yes, yes, yes,' cried the people ; ' he is a good patriot; he edified us all this morning. Bring them out; we shall do them no harm.' "I went up to the room where the unhappy men were, and asked them if they would trust themselves to me ; they said yes. I preceded them down stairs, and exhorted the people not to forget what they had promised. They cried out again, ' Be easy ; they shall receive no harm.' I called to the driver to bring up the carriage; upon which the crowd cried out, ' No voiture — on foot, on foot, that we may have the satisfaction of hooting them, and expelling them ignominiously from the town.' ' Well,' I said, ' on foot ; be it so; 'tis the same thing to me, for you are too honest to forfeit your word.' We set out amidst hisses and a torrent of abuse; I gave my arm to one of the men, and the mayor was on the other side. The priest walked between Messrs. Dubois and d'Albis. Not thinking at the moment, I unluck- ily took the direction towards Paris. The mayor asked one of the men where he would wish to go ; he answered, ' To Blois.' It was directly the contrary way from that which we were taking. The mayor wished to return, and to pass LOUIS PHILIPPE RESCUING THE PRIESTS. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 23 across the whole town. I opposed this, and we changed our direction, but without going back through the streets. We passed a little wooden bridge of a few planks without rails ; there the mob cried to throw them into the river, and endeavored, by putting sticks across, to make them fall into the water. I again reminded them of their promise, and they became quiet. " When we were about a mile out of the town, some of the country people came running down the hill, and threw themselves upon us, calling out, ' Hang or drown the two rascals ! ' One of them seized one of the poor wretches by the coat, and the crowd rushing in, forced away the mayor and M. d'Albis. I remained alone with M. Dubois, and we endeavored to make the peasant loose his hold. I held one of the men by one hand, and with the other endeavored to free the coat. At last one of the national guard arrived to our assistance, and by force cleared the man. The crowd was still increasing. It is but justice to the people of Yen- dome to say that they kept their word, and tried to induce the peasants to do no violence to the men. Seeing, how- ever, that if I continued my march, some misfortune must inevitably occur, I cried we must take them to prison, and then all the people cried, ' To prison ! to prison ! ' Some voices cried, * They must ask pardon of God, and thank M. de Chartres for their lives.' That was soon done, and we set out for the prison. As we went along, one man came forward with a gun, and said to us, ' Stand out of the way while I fire on them.' Believing that he was really about to fire, I rushed forward in front of my two men, saying, * You shall kill me first.' As the man was well- dressed, M. Pieyre said to him, ' But how can you act so ? ' * I was only joking,' says the man ; ' my gun is not charged.' We again continued our way, and the two men were lodged in the prison." As Louis Philippe was returning to his quarters the next day, after parade, a peasant came to him with a basket of '/i4 RISE AND TALL fruit, which he begged him to accept in token of his grati- tude, saying, " I am the man who, yesterday, in a trans- port of rage, sought to kill Father Paul. I have come to ask your pardon, to thank you for having prevented my com- mitting so great a crime, and I hope you will not refuse my fruit." Two other extracts from Louis Philippe's journal record an equally creditable action : — " August 3. — Happy day ! I have saved a man's life, or rather have contributed to save it. This evening, after having read a little of Pope, Metastasio, and Emile, I went to bathe. Edward and I were dressing ourselves, when I heard cries of ' HeJp, help, I am drowning ! " I ran imme- diately to the cry, as did Edward, who was farther. I came first, and could only see the tops of the person's fingers. I laid hold of that hand, which seized mine with indescri- bable strength, and by the way in which he held me, would have drowned me, if Edward had not come up and seized one of his legs, which deprived him of the power of jump- ing on me. We then got him ashore. He could scarcely speak, but he nevertheless expressed great gratitude to me as well as to Edward. I think with pleasure on the effect this will produce at Bellechasse. I am born under a happy star ! Opportunities offer themselves in every way ; I have only to avail myself of them ! The man w^e saved is one M. Siret, an inhabitant of Vendome, sub-engineer in the office of roads and bridges. I go to bed happy ! " " August 11. — Another happy day. I had been invited yesterday to attend at the Town-House with some non-com- missioned officers and privates. I went to-day, and was received with an address ; there a letter was then read from M. Siret, who proposed that the municipal body should decree that a civic crown should be given to any citizen who should save the life of a fellow-creature, and that, in course, one should be presented to me. The municipal body adopted the proposition, and I received a crown amidst the applause of a numerous assembly of spectators. I was OF I, oris I'lm.iiM'i:. 'J-j very much ashamed. I nevertheless expressed my gratitude as well as I could." His journal also shows that while pursuing his military avocations, he was a diligent student, as for instance : — " Yesterday morning at exercise. On returning from parade, I undressed, and read some from Henault, Sternheim, and Mably. Dined, and after dinner read some from Ipsiple, Matastasio, Heloise, and Pope. At five to the riding-school ; and afterwards read Emile." The reports of Louis Philippe to the National Assembly are well written, and exhibited in a strong light the liberal political views of the privates, while the monarchical prejudices of a majority of the officers were glossed over by praise of their attention to their duties. So strongly were a majority of these young men, (mostly, like Louis Philippe, members of aristocratic families,) attached to the old forms of government, that when the new oath of allegiance required by the National Assembly was received, only seven out of twenty-eight signed it. Nothing but the known radical sentiments of " Colonel L. P. Egalite " saved the regiment from being disbanded, but so long as he was in command, and continued to enjoy the respect and con- fidence of his men, the National Assembly could reckon the 14th dragoons among its staunchest defenders. Although the foreign powers had liberally promised to aid Louis XVI. in re-establishing his government, and the emigrants at Brussels and Coblentz talked largely, nothing was done. The royal family endeavored to escape, but were brought back to Paris captives. The Austrian cabinet persuaded Leopold to refrain from any hostile demonstration — Spain, fearing that any military movement might expose the royal family to greater dangers, not only recalled her troops ordered to the frontier, but prevented an expedi- tion against Marseilles, in which the knights of Malta were to assist with two frigates — Pitt was unwilling to send any aid from England — Gustavus of Sweden was too far dis- 3 26 RISE AND FALL tant — Catherine of Russia, who was to join him in an ex- pedition, had but just conquered the Turks, and now had Poland to reduce, and the emigrants, unsupported, could only linger about the frontier and issue proclamations. To keep them in check, the National Assembly ordered its most reliable troops into the field, and the 14th dragoons were, in August, 1791, removed to Valenciennes, where they were quartered during the winter, — Louis Philippe, as senior officer of the garrison, commanding the place. Louis XVI., imprisoned in his own capital, found that he had committed a great error in depending upon aid from abroad, and when, by the death of Leopold, the temporiz- ing policy of European diplomacy was no longer opposed to the contagion of new ideas, there was only one course for the unfortunate monarch to pursue. That was, to place himself at the head of the war party. Dumouriez pro- posed hostilities at the council of Ministers, and induced the King, as if by the hand of fatality itself, to propose them to the Assembly. " Then the people," said he, " will credit your attachment, when they behold you embrace their cause, and combat kings in their defence." It was a hard task for Louis XVI. to thus declare against his allies, whose only offence was a determination to protect and support his emigrant relatives and their adherents in their attempts to sustain the inviolability of the throne, but he had not the genius to resist the popular current — trust- ing himself to its course, it bore him to the scaffold. En- couraged by Dumouriez, (who was the intimate friend of Madame de Genlis,) he unexpectedly entered the National Assembly on the 20th of April, 1792, and after his minister had made a detailed report of the regulations with Austria, made a short address in a faltering voice, proposing an im- mediate declaration of war. It was received with enthusi- asm, not only by the Assembly, but by the war-loving people, and in a week thousands of troops were on their way to the frontier, under the command of Lafayette, Rochambeau, and Biron. OF LOUIS PHlLIPrE. 27 CHAPTER IV. Louis Philippe having been detached to General Biron's division, which was to move from Valenciennes upon Mons, masking the advance of the main army under Lafayette against Liege, the Duke of Orleans obtained permission to serve in it as a volunteer, with his other two sons, the young- est of whom was only thirteen years of age. He had pre- viously sent his daughter to England with Madame de Genlis, " to withdraw her from the influence of a woman," as he termed the Duchess, " whose opinions were not in ac- cordance with his own." General Biron, who commanded the division of ten thou- sand men, in which the Orleans family were thus comrades, had participated in many a debauch at the Palais Royal, and was attached to the Duke, though he was too noble hearted to join in his plots. Known at the court of Marie Antoinette as the handsome Duke of Lauzun, he had renounced his title when he embraced the popular cause, but, young and chivalrous, he carried aristocratic honor into the republican camp. Lamartine describes him as one who, loved by the soldiers, adored by the ladies, at his ease in the tent, a rake at court, was of that school of sparkling vices of which Marshal Richelieu had been the type in France. It is even said that the queen herself was enamored of him, without being able to fix his inconstancy. The campaign was opened on the 20th of April, 1792, and Louis Philippe gained his first laurels at Bossu, where the advanced guard of two dragoon regiments under his command put double their numbers to flight. The division was equally successful at Quaragnon and Quirevain, but on arriving before Mons, which was guarded by a weak Aus- 28 RISE AND FALL trian force, the advanced guard, though not in presence of the enemy, were apparently panic-struck, and cried out, " We are betrayed." In vain did Louis Philippe endeavor to rally them ; they turned bridle, and galloped back through the division, scattering fear and disorder among the ranks. Biron and the other officers unsuccessfully attempted to stop the fugitives, who, threatening to shoot all who opposed their escape, fled back to Valenciennes, leaving their baggage and munitions of war in the hands of the enemy. By a singular coincidence, the advanced cavalry of General Dillon, who was marching out from Lille at the same hour, also fled, crying that it was betrayed. The infantry was not only so panic-struck as to follow it, but when the cowards were safely behind the walls of Lille, they murdered their general and his aid-de-camp, as traitors. As may be imagined, this news created much excitement at Paris, all parties accusing one another of treason or a wish to injure the popularity of the officers. Yet so highly did General Biron speak of the heroic bravery of Louis Philippe, that he received a brevet of brigadier general as a reward for his brilliant military debut on the 7th of May. With him was promoted Berthier, afterwards Napoleon's fa- vorite Marshal, one of that race whose history, when read by future ages, will be deemed as fabulous as that of the " Knights of the Round Table." Beginning life under the burden of the knapsack, at the time when the French forces were driven forth by the energy of revolutionary war, to scour and sack the plains and cities of Europe, their mili- tary prowess gained them high prizes in the lottery of life. Yet of all the phantasmagoria of the French revolution, and ths king-vassals of imperial France, Bernadotte alone died in the position to which he had been raised. He preserved it, in a country jealous of its ancient liberties and of its na- tional independence, because he learned faithfully to observe the conditions of a constitutional government, and to main- tain, even at the sacrifice of his personal sympathies, the OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 29 honor and freedom of the subjects who wanted him to rule over them. Louis Philippe should have profited by the ex- ample. The command of the northern army was now given to Marshal Luckner, an old Prussian, who had served under the great Frederic, and been attracted to France by large pay. He is described by Madame Roland as a brave sol- dier, and an honest man in the fullest acceptation of the term, who stood in need of nothing but a more sober im- agination, and a more flexible mind. With an army of twenty-two thousand men he advanced on Cambray, which was taken by his advanced guard, in which were the 14th and the 17th dragoons, forming the brigade commanded by Louis Philippe, who fought bravely. Courtray was next captured, but Luckner, fancying his force unable to compete with the Prussians, who were advancing by Coblentz, re- treated again on Valenciennes. The northern army was now divided into two corps — one remained on the frontier of Belgium under Duraouriez, the other, comprising Louis Philippe's brigade, moved, under Luckner, towards Metz. When Gen. Biron had returned to Paris, he was accom- panied by the Duke of Orleans, who is accused of having aided in bringing about the brutal demonstration of the rabble at the Tuileries on the 29th of June. Certain it is that the preliminary meetings of the conspirators were at- tended by Laclos and Sillery, two of his creatures, and that they had wine distributed gratuitously to the masses which poured forth from the faubourg St. Antoine, that abiding place of crime, toil, misery aild sedition. A chance shot from some drunken man, or some exalted patriotic assassin, would have removed the King, and the Duke of Orleans could have secured his crown. The Duke was present at the court of the Tuileries on the 20th, exulting in the igno- minies heaped upon the royal family. Not so a little artillery officer, who could no longer restrain his indignation 3* RISE AND FALL when he saw a red cap handed on the point of a pike to the king, who was forced to put it on, and then drank from a bottle given him, " Success to the nation." *' What mad- ness ! " exclaimed the artillery officer to his companion ; " how could they allow these scoundrels to enter ? they ought to have blown four or five hundred of them into the air with cannon. The rest would then have taken to their heels." The speaker was Napoleone Buonaparte, as the young Corsican then subscribed himself. Just then intelligence was received of a conspiracy in the Ardennes, headed by Dessailles, which so emboldened the emigrant Princes that they published a proclamation, which concluded by asserting that — " In two months the revo- lution will be crushed — armed only with whips, we shall soon put to rout these clowns, who have taken to epaulettes and swords." *' Citizens ! the country is in danger !" was the impres- sive declaration of the President of the National Assembly when its committees had reported on the state of affairs. Minute guns proclaimed this appeal, and standards upon which it was inscribed were planted in every market-place in France, waving over tables at which the municipal offi- cers enrolled those volunteers who answered this solemn call to defend their native land. '^ Citizens ! the country is in danger I " " Multitudes of foreign soldiers are advancing upon our frontier — all those who hate Liberty are leagued against our Constitution ! Arm in its defence. '' Citizens ! the country is in danger ! Let all those who have the honor of enlisting under the banners of Liberty, remember that they are Frenchmen and Freemen ! Let their fellow-citizens maintain at home the safety of persons and property — let the magistrates be vigilant — let all re- main quiet and wait for the law to give the signal for action, and the country will be saved. '' Paris, July 22d, 1792." OF LOUIS THILIPPE. 31 This call to arms was answered by an insulting mani- festo from the Duke of Brunswick, dated at Coblentz on the 25th of July, which was well calculated to stimulate the national passions to phrensy. Alison is of the opinion that, coming as it did in a moment of extreme public excitation, and enforced as it was by the most feeble and inefficient military measures, it contributed in a signal manner to ac- celerate the march of the Revolution, and was the immedi- ate cause of the downfall of the throne. It commenced by declaring that the only aim of the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, in commencing a war of invasion, was *' the happiness of France," as they were '' convinced that the sound part of the French nation abhorred the excesses of a faction which domineered over it, and that the majority of the inhabitants awaited with impatience the moment of succor, to declare themselves openly against the odious en- terprises of their oppressors." " Inhabitants of cities and villages," it went on to say, " who shall dare to defend themselves against the troops of their imperial and royal majesties, and to fire upon them, either in the open field, or from the windows, doors and ap- ertures of their houses, shall be instantly punished with all the rigor of the law of war, and their houses demolished or burned." " The city of Paris and all its inhabitants, without dis- tinction, are required to submit immediately and without de- lay to the King, to set that prince at full and entire liberty, and to insure to him, as well as to all the royal personages, the inviolability and respect which the law of nature and nations renders obligatory on subjects towards their sove- reigns ; their imperial and royal majesties holding personally responsible with their lives for all that may happen, to be tried militarily, and without hope of pardon, all the mem- bers of the National Assembly, of the department, of the district, of the municipality, and of the national guard of Paris, the justices of the peace, and all others whom it shall 32 RISE AND FALL concern ; their said majesties declaring, moreover, on their faith and word, as Emperor and King, that if the Tuileries is forced or insulted, that if the least violence, the least out- rage, is offered to their majesties the King and Q,ueen, and to the royal family, if immediate provision is not made for their safety, their preservation, and their liberty, they will take an exemplary and ever-memorable vengeance, by giving up the city of Paris to military execution and total destruc- tion, and the rebels guilty of outrages, to the punishments which they shall have deserved." These terrible menaces excited the Revolutionary ardor to the utmost degree. The thousands who had come in from the provinces to assist at the anniversary of the Fed- eration on the 14th of July, (the last time Louis XVI. was seen in public until he mounted the guillotine,) joined the Parisian volunteers organizing to oppose the invaders. In three days the capital raised, uniformed and armed forty- eight battalions of infantry, numbering 32,000 efficient men, who were at once marched off to the camp at Chalons-sur- Marne, their departure hastened by the Girondin faction, who wished to introduce a horde of their own creatures to rekindle the radical spirit and overawe the conservatives. Marseilles furnished a legion of twelve hundred turbulent spirits, many of them used to warfare and hardened by crime. Rendered fanatic, says Lamartine, by the climate of the Mediterranean, and the eloquence of the provincial clubs, they came on amidst the applauses of the population of central France — welcomed, feasted, overcome by en- thusiasm and wine at the patriotic banquets which hailed them in constant succession on their route. The Girondins went from Paris to meet them, and the sea of people which rolls unceasingly through the streets of that vast metropolis was violently agitated at their approach. The National Guard, the confederates, the popular societies, children, women, all that portion of the population which lives upon street excitement, follows processions and attends public OF LOUIS PlilLll»rE. 33 spectacles, greeted the Marsellais. Their bronzed faces with eyes of fire, their uniforms covered with the dust of their journey, their red woollen caps, shaded with green boughs, the absence of discipline with which they either carried their muskets or dragged them after them, their harsh provincial accent mingled with oaths, their ferocious gestures — all struck the imagination of the multitude with great force. The revolutionary idea seemed impersonated, and to be marching to the last assault of Royalty, chanting an air whose notes seemed to come from the breast with sullen mutterings of national anger, and then with the joy of victory. It resounded through the streets of Paris like a recovered echo of Thermopylae ; and while those who heard it felt assured that France never would fall a prey to the invader, good citizens turned pale as they beheld the horde of ruffians who pealed it forth. The notes of this air, Lamartine goes on to say, rustled like a flag dipped in gore, still reeking on the battle plain. It made one tremble — but it was the shudder of intrepidity which passed over the heart, and lent it a fresh impulse — redoubled strength — e^en veiled death. It was the fire- water of the Revolution, which instilled the intoxication of battle into the senses and the soul of the populace. There are times when all people find thus gushing into their minds national sentiments which no man can describe, yet all the world have felt. All the senses desire to present their trib- ute to patriotism, and eventually to encourage each other. The foot advances, gesture animates, the voice intoxicates the ear, the ear rouses the heart — and the whole frame be- comes inspired like an instrument of enthusiasm. Art becomes divine — dancing, heroic — music, heroic — po- etry, popular ! The national hymn composed by Rouget de Lisle will never die, and should not be profaned on common occasions. Like that sacred oriflarae which was once de- posited in the church of St. Denis, only to be unfurled when France was in dano-er, so this stirring chant should be 34 RISE AND FALL kept as an extreme arm for the great necessities of that country.* The Marseillaise produced its desired effect in Paris, and was soon the triumphant song of the mighty masses who stormed the Tuileries on the night of the 10th of August — that awful night, when the despotic monarchy of a thousand years went down, like some imposing ship of war, in the midst of hurricane and tempest, never again to raise its head in France. Its notes mino-led with the thunder of cannon * THE MARSEILLES HYMN. (freely translated.) Ye sons of Prance, awake to Glory, Hark, hark, what myriads bid you rise ! Your children, wives and grandsires hoary, Behold iheir tears and hear their cries ! Shall hateful Tyrants, mischief tireeding, With hireling hosts, a ruffian band, Affright and desolate the land, While Peace and Liberty lie bleeding ? CHORUS. To arms / to arms ye brave f y/i' Avenging- Sicord tmsheath I March on, march on — alt Ivearts resolved On Liberty or Death I Now, now the dangerous storm is rolling, Which treach'rous Kings confederate raise, The dogs of war let loose are howlmg, And lo ! our fields and cities blaze. And shall we basely view the rain, While lawless force with guilty stride Spreads desolation far and wide. With crime and blood his hands imbruiog? With luxury and pride surroi^nded, The vile, insatiate despots dare — Their thirst of gold and power unbounded — To mete and vend the liglit and air. Like beasts of burden would they load us, Like tyrants bid their slaves adore ; But man is man, and who is more? Nor shall they longer lash and goad us. O, Liberty ! can man resign thee, Once having fell thy g"enerous flame ? Can dungeons, bolls and bars confine thee. Or whips thy noble spirit tame ? Too long the world has wept, bewailing That falsehood's dagger tyrant's wield ; But Freedom is our sword and shield, And all their arts are unavailing. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 35. when the faithful Swiss guards were slaughtered ; it was the death song of the ruffians who cruelly butchered eight thou- sand Parisians between the 2d and the 7th of September ; and it was sung under the windows of the Palais Royal by the band of executioners who, having defiled the corpse of the Princess de Lamballe, bore her head in triumph upon a pike, the countenance still lovely, though the long auburn tresses were clotted with blood. The Duke of Orleans was sitting down to dinner at the time, with Madame de BufFon, his latest favorite, but rose from his chair and gazed at the ghastly spectacle without discovering the least symptom of uneasiness or horror. His position began to be an un- pleasant one, for while the court party shunned him, the revolutionists looked upon him with distrust. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OP ROBESPIERRE. P C Ju^ Vi^^fU/'i 36 RISE AND I'AIL CHAPTER V. Soon after the division of the army under Luckner arrived at Metz, that officer was superseded by Gen. Kellerraan, (created Duke of Valmy by Napoleon,) on whom Louis Philippe called to tender his respects, wearing his brigadier- general's uniform. " You are the youngest brigadier I have ever seen," said Kellerman ; " how have you contrived to be made a General so soon ?" To most young men of his age the inquiry would have been sufficiently embar- rassing, but Louis Philippe replied with promptitude and ready wit, — " By being the son of him who made a colonel of you." '* Well answered," said Kellerman, who had received his first commission from the Duke of Orleans, " I am happy to have you under my orders." He was entered on the roll as General Louis Philippe Egalite, and continued to manifest the most radical senti- ments of " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." Entering a tent one evening where some of his dragoons were dis- cussing politics, one of them went out, and returned with an arm-chair, which he offered him. " Take it away," said the Prince, " though your General in military matters, we are equals in politics, I would rather eat the chair than sit in it." All this was duly reported at Paris, and on the 11th of September, 1792, Louis Philippe was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, and offered the command of Strasbourg. "I cannot accept," was his reply, "for I am too young to be shut up in a city. I should prefer re- maining with the army." Hundreds of volunteers were daily leaving Paris for the camp at Chalons, which was placed under the command of Luckner, and appeared to make rather a show of strength than of resistance. The command of the armv on the OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 37 frontier was given to Dumouriez, a soldier of fortune, pos- sessing rare mental and bodily accomplishments, and regard- ing the Revolution as a drama, which furnished a grand scene for his abilities. Could he conclude it by crowning the Duke of Orleans, he was certain of being created Grand Constable of France. While on his way to occupy the defiles of Argonne, where he hoped to check the advancing allies, he learned that Verdun had surrendered, and thus announced it to the Executive Council : " Verdun is taken, and I am waiting for the Prussians. The camp of Grand- prey and that of Islettes are the Thermopylae of France, but I shall be more fortunate than Leonidas." His next bulletin showed that he had been too confident. " I have been obliged," he wrote, " to abandon the camp of Grand-prey. The retreat was accomplished when a panic seized the army. Ten thousand fled before fifteen hundred Prussian hussars. The loss amounts to no more than fifty men and some baggage. All is retrieved, and I make myself responsible for every thing." By a masterly mancEuvre, he contrived to make a detour, which enabled him to take up his position in the rear of the Duke of Brunswick, and sent orders to Kellerman to join him. That General, who had left Metz on the 4th, arrived at Valmy on the evening of the 19th, where he encamped in a valley commanded by the heights of La Lune. Lieutenant General Valance commanded the right wing of his army, Louis Philippe the left, and General de Grassier the ad- vanced guard. In the morning it was found that a grand error had been committed in not having encamped on the heights of Gisancourt, which commanded those of La Lune, and towards which the Prussians were now moving ; for if he should be surrounded on high ground and beaten, he would be driven into the marshes behind the mill of Valmy. The vanguard, which had fallen back after a skirmish, was sent to occupy Gisancourt. The right wing was drawn up at right angles with the road to Chalons, along which it was 4 38 RISE AND FALL expected the Prussians would pass, while parallel to the road, and at right angles with the right wing, was the left wing, commanded by Louis Philippe. Whatever might have been the young General's desire to enter into action, it was eight o'clock ere he arrived at the post assigned him, near the windmill of Valmy. Two heavy batteries had been planted by the Prussians against this mill, one on the extreme end of the rising ground on which it was situated, the other on the opposite hill of La Lune, both of which opened a heavy cannonade about ten o'clock. The French suffered some loss, but returned the fire steadily, and there was but a moment's confusion, caused by the explosion of an ammunition wagon into which a shell was thrown. Louis Philippe, who had just dismounted, was thrown to the ground, but immediately re-mounting his horse, he rallied his men and restored confidence. The Duke of Brunswick had observed this disorder, and thought it a favorable moment for carrying the heights around the mill with the bayonet. Half an hour afterwards a thick fog, which had all the morning enveloped the two armies, cleared up, and the French beheld the Prussians advancing in three columns, with that formal precision which distinguishes German tactics. Kellerman feared the effect of so formidable an array upon his untried recruits, but formed them into numerous columns, a battalion in front, and ordered them to charge down upon the Prussians. The cry of " Vive la Nation " echoed through the ranks, and the French moved on with such a resolute bearing, that the Prussians fell back without awaiting them. Reinforced by the Austrians, the Prussians formed again after sunset, and deployed three times without making an attack, so that the battle has been since called the "Can- nonade of Valmy," as twenty thousand round shot were fired. Yet it was an important affair, for, as Alison ob- serves, it is with an invading army as with an insurrection — an indecisive action is equivalent to a defeat. The Duke OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 39 of Brunswick no longer ventured to depise an enemy who had shown so much steadiness under a severe fire of artil- lery — the elevation of victory, and the self-confidence which insures it, had passed over to the other side. Gifted with an uncommon degree of intelligence, and influenced by an ardent imagination, the French, troops are easily depressed by defeat, but proportionally raised by success. The can- nonade of Valmy was the commencement of that en avant career of victory which terminated with sauve qui pent at Waterloo. Europe now gave credit for valor to those cobblers and tailors of whom the emigrant nobles had said the French army was composed, and their astonishment was heightened when after a few weeks vainly spent in endeavors to rally, the allies evacuated France, retreating before those " clowns" who were to have been whipped into subjection. Kellerman in his dispatches, rendered justice to the indefatigable zeal and bravery of Louis Philippe, and the courage of his younger brother, by saying : " Embarrassed by an attempt at selection, I shall only particularize among those who have shown distinguished courage, General Chartres, and his aid- de-carap. Monsieur Montpensier, whose extreme youth ren- ders his presence of mind, during one of the most tremen- dous cannonades ever heard, the more remarkable." The Minister of War again offered Louis Philippe a supe- rior command, but as he would then be stationed at Douay, away from the scene of warfare, jie again declined the pro- motion, preferring the camp to a comparatively easy life in garrison. Lamartine describes him at this time as one who " had been welcomed by the old soldiers as a prince, by the new ones as a patriot, by all as a comrade. His intrepidity did not carry him away ; he controlled it, and it left him that quickness of perception and that coolness so essential to a General ; amid the hottest fire he neither quickened nor slackened his pace, for his ardor was as much the effect of reflection as of calculation, and as grave as duty. His 40 RISE AND FALL Stature was lofty, his frame well knit, his appearance serious and thoughtful. The elevation of his brow, the blue hue of his eyes, the oval face, and the majestic, though somewhat heavy, outline of his chin reminded every one strongly of the Bourbon family. The bend of his neck, the modest carriage, the mouth slightly drawn down at each corner, the penetrating glance, the winning smile, and the ready re- partee, gained him the attention of the people. His famil- iarity — martial with the officers, soldierly with the soldiers, patriotic with the citizens — caused them to forgive him for being a prince. But beneath the exterior of a soldier of the people lurked the arriere pensee of a prince of the blood ; and he plunged into ail the events of the Revolution with the entire yet skilful abandon of a master-mind ; and it seemed as though he knew beforehand that events dash to pieces those who resist them, but that revolutions, like the ocean's waves, often restore men to the spot whence they tore them. To perform that skilfully which the exigency of the moment required, and to trust to the future and his birth for the rest, was the whole of his policy, and Machiavel could not have counselled him more skilfully than his own nature. His star never lighted him but a few steps in ad- vance, and he neither wished nor asked of it more lustre, for his only ambition was to learn to wait. Time was his providence ; and he was born to disappear in the great con- vulsions of his country, to survive crises, outwit the already wearied parties, satisfy and arrest revolution. Men feared, in spite of his bravery and his exalted enthusiasm for his coun- try, to catch a glimpse of a throne raised upon its own ruins and by the hands of a republic. This presentiment, which invariably precedes great names and destinies, seemed to reveal to the army that, of all the leaders of the Revolu- tion, he might one day be the most useful or the most fatal to liberty." * * Lamartine's History of the Girondins. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 44 Dumouriez was so impressed with the bravery and tact of Louis Philippe, that on a visit to Paris, soon after the battle of Valmy, he conferred with Danton on the propriety of relinquishing further attempts to secure the throne for their patron, the Duke of Orleans, and substituting his son. The next day Danton met Louis Philippe at the War Depart- ment, where he was complaining of a deficiency in the equip- ments furnished to his brigade, but was rather cavalierly listened to by Serran, the Minister. " Call on me to-mor- row," said Danton in an under tone, " I will procure you justice." Louis Philippe accordingly waited upon him, and received a caution not to criticise the massacre of Septem- ber, which the young soldier had openly said dishonored Liberty, adding that the army looked with horror upon exe- cutioners, for in their opinion blood should only be shed in battle — sentiments which he again firmly maintained. " You are too young to judge of such matters," replied Danton ; *' to comprehend them, you should be in our place, and for the future, be silent. Return to the army — do your duty — but do not rashly expose your life. You have many years before you. France does not love a Republic — she has the habits, the wants, and the weaknesses of a Monarchy. After our storms, she will return to one, brought back by her vices or her necessities. You will be her King ! Adieu, young man — remember the prediction of Danton." Thenceforth Louis Philippe made no more professions of Jacobinism ! Dumouriez was actively engaged, while at Paris, in polit- ical intrigues which have never been fully brought to light, but which are supposed to have been in favor of Louis Philippe. At any rate, on returning to the army, he intrusted him, the youngest of his generals, with the command of the right wing, consisting of twenty-four battalions of infantry. On the 5th of November, 1792, the French army found itself in presence of the Austrian forces, intrenched on tlie elevated ground around the city of Mons. On these heights 4* 42 RISE AND FALL are the three villages of Jemappes, Cuesmes, and Berthai- nionts, which had been strongly intrenched, while between them were redoubts, batteries, and other defences. Trees had been felled to obstruct the approach of cavalry, ravines so deepened and widened that the artillery could not cross them. Tyrolese sharp-shooters were in ambush, and a large body of hussars were posted in valleys, whence they could debouch upon the flank of the French troops, as soon as they should be thrown into confusion by the raking fire from the redoubts. Dumouriez's order of battle against this formidable posi- tion, directed the columns of Ferrand and Beurnonville against the enemy's right and left, with the hope of flanking him — Louis Philippe was to head the attack upon the almost impregnable centre. Strong proof this, according to Lamartine, that his chief desired to obtain a ray of glory for him, to exhibit him to France, and to point him to a destiny of which the political instinct of Dumouriez ap- peared to have a glimpse through the smoke of his first fields of battle. The army slept on their arms in full march- ing order, the artillery-men at their pieces, whose horses were harnessed, with their bridles in the drivers' bands. Aid-de-camps galloped to and fro, among them two delicate young girls, sisters, who wore the staff-uniform, and were the next day in the thickest of the fight.* Theopile de Fernig, the youngest of these Amazons, followed Dumouriez, but her elder sister, Felicite de Fernig, was ever by the side of Louis Philippe. The cannonade commenced at sunrise, and the attacks on the flanks of the Austrians were vigorously made, but with- out material success. At eleven o'clock Louis Philippe was ordered into action. Placing six battalions in reserve, with the eio-hteen others in columns, he drove in the Austrian light infantry at the point of the bayonet, and reached their * The Blademoiselles Fernig. Note B. «» OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 43 redoubts, but there the fire of the artillery made such fear- ful havoc that they could not deploy into line. Some of the new levies faltered, and the Austrian hussars charging them, a general retreat seemed inevitable. But Louis Philippe, whose horse had been wounded, dash- ed into the thickest of the fight, and shooting down the colonel of Jhussars, endeavored to rally the fugitives. His example, the bravery of his staff", the shame the intimidated soldiers experienced at seeing the valor of Mademoiselle de Fernig, who, though only sixteen, fought with her bridle between her teeth, a sword in one hand, and a pistol in the other — had the desired effect. From the fragments of the battal- ions which clustered around Louis Philippe, he formed a single column, which he said should that day be called the battalion of Jemappes, on the morrow the battalion of Vic- tory, for it was in their ranks. Placing himself at its head, he ordered the trumpeters to sound a charge, and with the same soldiers, whose flight it was difficult to check a few moments before, attacked the Austrian infantry posted be- tween the redoubts, penetrated their ranks with the bayonet, and got possession of the enemy's artillery, which the Aus- trian cavalry in vain endeavored to carry back to Mons. From this moment victory was no longer doubtful, and prodigies of valor were multiplied in the French ranks. The enthusiasm of the French on this occasion has never been exceeded, even by themselves, elsewhere — and the martial spirit which displayed itself here in such brilliancy, bore down all obstacles. As they followed the brave young general to the successive attacks upon the redoubts, from whence showers of grape shot were poured in among them, they rent the air with shouts of *' Live the Republic," which uniformly passed into a grand chanting of the '* Marseil- laise." Driven from all their positions, the Austrians fled, and left the battle-field at Jemappes covered with their dead and their artillery. The sensation produced by this important 44 RISE AND FALL ^p battle was prodigious throughout Europe, and at Paris nothing was talked of but the heroic coolness with which the Austrian artillery had been confronted, and the intre- pidity displayed in storming their redoubts. In 1838 Louis Philippe was present at a review, where, among other manoeuvres performed, was the formation of infantry squares to resist the charges of cavalry, with the officers and colors in the centre. He remarked in his ad- dress to the officers at the close of the exercises, that at Jemappes a charge of the Austrian hussars had compelled a part of his division to form similar squares, into one of which he threw himself, with his staff. " In the ranks of that square," said Louis Philippe, " were two private sol- diers, who are now here as superior officers, full of honors and years." One was Marshal Gerard, the other Marshal Soult. Amonor their victorious comrades were Davoust, Mo- reau, Serrurier, Mortier, Jourdan, Augereau, Maisons, Foy, and others of those leaders who bore in triumph through Europe, under the eagle of Napoleon, the tri-color under which they triumphed at Jemappes. Dumouriez pursuing the Austrians, Louis Philippe, who commanded the advanced guard, added new successes to his fame at Anderlacht, at Tirlemont, and at Varroux. On the fourteenth of November, Dumouriez took possession of Brussels, and on the twenty-eighth Louis Philippe marched triumphantly into Liege. 4i OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 45 CHAPTER VI. While Louis Philippe was thus winning laurels in the field, the Duke of Orleans was at Paris, striving to make himself forgotten in the bosom of the convention. Had he joined the emigrant nobility, insult, if not death, would have been his reward, for having repudiated his birthright, and plotted against that royal relative who had ever shown him favor. Among the revolutionists there still lingered the ineffaceable remembrance of his former existence, and the ever-present testimony of his immense wealth — the Jaco- bins tolerated him, but the Girondins boldly asserted that he lavished his wealth on anarchists, seeking to dislodge Louis XVL from the throne, that he might occupy it, or seat his son upon it. *' Let us put a stop to the intrigues at the Palais Royal," said Buzot one day in the assembly. "The monarchy is overthrown, but it still lives in the habits, in the memory, of its ancient creatures. Let us imitate the Romans. They expelled Tarquin and his family : like them let us expel the family of the Bourbons. One part of that family is in confinement; but there is another, far more dangerous, be- cause it is more popular — I mean that of Orleans. The bust of Orleans was paraded through Paris. His sons, boil- ing with courage, are distinguishing themselves in our ar- mies, and the very merits of that family render it dangerous to liberty. Let it make a last sacrifice to the country by ex- iling itself from her bosom ; let it carry elsewhere the mis- fortune of having stood near the throne, and the still greater misfortune of bearing a name which is hateful to us, and which cannot fail to shock the ear of a free man." Loud cheers burst from the oralleries as Buzot sat down, and many members testified their approbation. 46 RISE AND FALL Other Girondin orators seconded these remarks, one of them reminding the Duke of the voluntary exile of Colla- tinus, and exhorting him to follow his example. The Jaco- bins replied to them, rather out of opposition than because they were partisans of the Duke. " They maintained that it was not the moment to persecute the only one of the Bourbons who had conducted himself with sincerity towards the nation ; that they must first punish the Bourbon pris- oner, then frame a constitution, and afterwards turn their attention to such citizens as had become dangerous; that, at any rate, to send Orleans out of France was to send him to death, and they ought at least to defer that cruel measure. Banishment was nevertheless decreed by acclamation." * But when the decree was read, the name of the Duke was stricken out, because, as a representative of the people, it was asserted that he could not be sent from the nation to whose council he was attached. All the members of the family of Bourbon-Capet not in public service, (except the imprisoned Royal family,) were ordered to leave the depart- ment of Paris within three days, and the territory of the Republic within eight. This feeling against the Duke of Orleans was in a great measure brought about by Madame de Genlis, who was then in England with his daughter Adelaide. She wished to withdraw the Duke from Paris, and wrote a letter to Petion concerning the trial of the King, which was published in all the French newspapers, and created such a sensation in favor of the unfortunate Louis as to awaken the resentment of the faction led by Marat and Robespierre. The Duke refusing to join her, she returned to the Palais Royal, but arriving after the enactment of the decree, was forced to leave at once for Belgium, as Mademoiselle Adelaide had been included in the list of the proscribed. Louis Philippe came to escort them, and on the way they were overtaken by Lord * Thiers' History of the French Revolution. ; OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 47 Edward Fitzgerald, who had fallen in love with Pamela Seymour, a beautiful girl who is supposed to have been the natural dauofhter of the Duke of Orleans and Madame de Genlis, and was educated with her pupils. They were mar- ried at Tournay, and two days afterwards set out for Ire- land, where Lord Fitzgerald was soon condemned to death as a political conspirator against the English yoke, and com- mitted suicide in his dungeon. Louis Philippe now pressed upon his father, in repeated letters, the propriety of retiring to the United States, but the Duke clung to his hopes until retreat became impossible. He also wrote a letter to the President of the Assembly, ex- pressing such strong sentiments against the coming trial of the King, that it would have been made the ground of an immediate impeachment of the Duke, had it not been ad- visable to keep the Jacobins and Gh'ondins united until Louis XVL was condemned to death. This fearful verdict was pronounced on the 17th of Jan- uary, 1793, some of the Deputies voting for " Imprison- ment," others for " Exile," others for " Death." Among the latter class was the Duke of Orleans ! He was the last called upon, and Lamartine says that this vote of the first prince of the blood, who had ever basked in the favor of the King, was so revolting to natural feeling, that a " shudder pervaded the benches and tribunes of the asssembly. The Duke descended from the tribune greatly disconcerted, and doubtful, from the appearance presented, of the act he had just perpetrated. The true heroism of liberty does not make the human heart shudder. We have no horror of that which we admire. Virtues like those of Brutus are so close akin to crime, that the consciences of republicans themselves are troubled in the presence of such deeds. To sacrifice nature to the laws appears beautiful at the first glance; but consanguinity is a law, and there is no virtue opposed to a virtue. If this vote were a sacrifice to liberty, the horror of the Convention must have convinced the Due d'Orleans 48 . RISE AND FALL that the sacrifice was not accepted ; if it were a pledge, so vast a one was not required from him ; if it were a conces- sion to his safety, he paid too dearly for his life. Already assailed by the Girondists, scarcely tolerated by Robespierre, client of Danton, if he had refused any thing to the Moun- tain it would have demanded his head. He had not even elevation of soul to offer to it. Robespierre himself, in re- turning in the evening toDuplay's house, and conversing on the sentence passed on the king, seemed to protest against the Due d'Orleans' vote. ' The miserable man,' said he; * he was only required to listen to his own heart, and make himself an exception : he would not, or dare not do so. The nation would have been more magnanimous than he ! ' " Four days afterwards he saw his noble victim stripped and bound upon the scaiFold of the guillotine, and heard him say, in his clear, sonorous voice : " People, I die innocent of the crimes which are imputed to me 1 I pardon the au- thors of my death ! I pray that my blood may not fall upon France ! " .Here the drums were ordered to beat, and a long roll drowned the voice of the King and the sympa- thetic murmurs of the multitude. The assistants seized their victim and bound him to the fatal plank — it was thrown back between the grooves in which a bright axe de- scended — the head fell, and a noble soul was returned to its Creator by the hands of the executioner. " Son of Saint Louis," ejaculated the attendant priest, '^ ascend to Hea- ven ! " The executioner exhibited the head to the people, holding it by the hair, and sprinkling the blood which dropped from it about on the handkerchiefs held to receive it. The bands of confederates opened the veins of the headless corpse to dip the points of their swords in the blood of a King, and then marched through Paris shouting "Live the Republic." The dynasty of the Capets fell a victim to the war spirit which it had inspired in the heart of its subjects — the bells OF LOUIS PHILIITE. 49 which had pealed forth joyous notes in honor of their tri- umphs, rang as merrily when Louis XVI. was beheaded — the oft victorious cannon of the Guards informed the en- virons that royalty was immolated in the person of that King to whom the artillery-men had sworn allegiance ! What were their echoes in the heart of the Duke of Orleans. Dumouriez was at Paris on this bloody day, shut up in the Rue de Clichy with Danton, to concert a plan for bring- ing his army against Paris to overawe the Assembly, and place Louis Philippe at the head of the government. In a few weeks his troops hailed his return, and he is represented as treating them like a parent restored to his children, adding respect to the affection he knew so well how to inspire, by the martial severity of his reprimands. Of 45,000 well disciplined men, eighteen battalions were placed under the command of Louis Philippe, who had acquired new eulogiums and deserved praise at the siege of Maes- tricht under General Miranda, a Peruvian. The Prince of Coburg concentrated his force of 60,000 men behind the village of Neerwinden, on the 18th of March, 1793, and Dumouriez determined to trust the chances of a battle to the impetuosity of his troops, hoping to take the enemy by surprise. Louis performed his part gallantly, carrying the village at the point of the bayonet, and after the Austrians took possession of it again, re- occupying it after a second engagement more desperately contested than the first. But the wings of the French were completely routed, and would have been totally destroyed, had not Louis Philippe, by extraordinary courage, succeeded in holding the enemy in check. His horse was killed under him, and he had two sabre combats, in both of which he disabled his adversary. Throughout the night he remained in the saddle, and by rallying the troops, prevented the re- verse of fortune which Dumouriez and his army expe- rienced, from becoming still more disastrous to the French army. 5 50 RISE AND FALL On the evening of the 22d, Dumouriez had an interview with General Mack, of the Austrian army, ostensibly for the purpose of concluding an armistice, but with the real view of advancing the cause of Louis Philippe. Thiers accounts for his conduct by the dark prospect of the career he was pursuing. If, a few months before, he foresaw success, glory and influence, in commanding the French armies, and if this hope rendered him more indulgent towards revolutionary violence — now, beaten, stripped of his popularity, and attributing the disorganization of his army to this same violence, he viewed with horror the dis- orders which he might formerly have regarded only with indifference. Bred in courts, having seen with his own eyes how strongly organized a machine is requisite to insure the durability of a State, he could not conceive that insur- gent citizens were adequate to an operation so complicated as that of Government. In such a situation, if a general, at once a warrior and a statesman, holds the power in his hands, he can scarcely fail to conceive the idea of employ- ing it to put an end to the disorders which haunt his thoughts and even threaten his person. The son of the deceased King was too young to be called to the throne, nor did regi- cide admit of so prompt a reconciliation with the dynasty. The two Generals agreed that Louis Philippe was the man. A delegation was sent to Dumouriez by the Assembly, but he refused to receive their representatives, and held sev- eral interviews with Mack. A second party, who brought an order for his arrest, were themselves arrested, and on the morning of the 4th of April, 1793, he set out with his staff to seek in foreign lands safety from a guillotine already saturated with the blood of the good and the brave. A di- vision of volunteers commanded by Marshal Davoust met, endeavored to stop them, and when they galloped across the fields, commenced firing upon them. Dumouriez had his horse killed, but Felicite Fernig dismounted and gave him hers. They all escaped, and repaired to the Austrian head- quarters at Mons. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 51 A few days afterwards Lasource indirectly accused Dan- ton in the Assembly of having participated in the designs of Dumouriez to re-establish royalty. " I demand," said he, *' that a commission be named to discover and punish the guilty. The people have seen the throne and the capitol, let them now behold the Tarpeian rock and the scaffold. I demand moreover that Egalite and Sillery be arrested — and to prove to the Nation that we will never make terms with a tyrant, I demand that we all swear the death of him who shall attempt to -make himself King or Dictator." The whole Assembly rose and took the oath. A stormy debate took place, in which all factions en- deavored to clear themselves of the accusations of Orleans- ism, and to condemn the Duke for his son's defection, which afforded a pretext to the demagogues for the execution of their former leader. When Louis Philippe's letters to his father were first read in the Assembly, it was decreed, that Sillery, father-in-law of General Valence, one of Dumou- riez's officers, and Philippe Egalite, should be watched, and not permitted to leave Paris. Sillery, says Lamartine, sac- rificed by his friends, the Girondins, did not address a single reproach to them. " When it is in agitation to punish traitors," said he, turning toward the bust of the first of the Brutuses which decorated the hall, '' if my son-in-law be guilty, I am here before the image of Brutus." And he in- clined his head as a man who accepted an example and knew his duty. '' And I also," exclaimed the Prince, stretching out his hand toward the image of the Roman judge and murderer of his son, *' if I am guilty, I ought to be punished ; if my son be guilty, I behold Brutus ! " He obeyed the decree without a murmur. Whether he had fore- seen the price of his services, whether he had comprehended his false position in a republic which he disturbed in bowing to it, or whether his mind, wearied with agitation, had at- tained that impassability of minds without resource, the Duke of Orleans displayed neither astonishment nor weakness be- S^ RISE AND FALL fore the ingratitude of " La Montagne." He held forth his hand to his colleagues ; they refused to touch it, as if they feared the suspicion of familiarity with this great proscribed. He surrendered himself, escorted by two gendarmes, to his palace, now become his prison. Innocent or culpable, the Duke of Orleans embarrassed the two parties. The Duke was sent to the fort of Notre-Dame-de-la- Garde, a citadel built on a hill commanding Marseilles, with the Count of Beaujolais, his youngest son, the Duchess of Bourbon, his sister, and the Prince of Conti, his uncle. The Duke of Montpensier had been arrested in Italy, where he was on service, and the father and sons met in prison one year from the day on which they had congratulated each other on Louis Philippe's success at Jemappes, in the latter's tent. Lamartine speaks of the Duke of Orleans, at Notre-Dame- de-la-Garde, as contemplating " the dispersion of his rela- tives and his own fall as a spectacle to which he was really a stranger. Whether it were from a feeling that great revo- lutions devour their apostles, or whether a species of phi- losophy, without hope and without regret, caused him to receive as an inert being the shocks of destiny, his sensibil- ity was only aroused by the paternal feelings, which seemed to survive last in his heart. He inhabited at first the same apartment as his two sons ; he had the liberty of walking with them upon the terrace of the fort, whence his eyes, free at least, cast themselves from the height of the rock over the vast horizon of the Mediterranean, and down upon the motion and turmoil of Marseilles. On the fourth day of his detention, administrators and the officers of the National Guards entered his chamber at the moment when he was at breakfast with his two children." *' They intimated to him the order of separation from the Duke of Montpensier, whom they removed alone to another stage of the fortress. ' As to the youngest of your chil- dren,' said the officer charged with the execution of this OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 53 order to him, 'he is permitted, from his tender age, to re- main with you ; but he will not be able to see his brother more,' The Prince in vain protested against the barbarity of this order. The Duke of Montpensier was torn, bathed in tears, from the arms of his father and brother, and drag- ged to another floor in the fortress." " Transferred, after a first interrogatory, to the fort St. Jean, a darker prison, at the extremity of the fort of Mar- seilles, their captivity, still more harsh, was deficient in air, prospect, and exercise. Three dungeons, placed one over the other in the thick walls of the same tower, confined the Prince and his two sons. The youngest, the Count of Beaujolais, was permitted to inhale the air outside for some hours in the day, under the surveillance of two guards. In descending to his promenade, the child passed before the door of his brother, which was situated below his own. The Duke of Montpensier pressed his face against the door, and the two brothers exchanged some rapid words across the fastenings and bolts. The sound of each other's voices af- forded them a moment's joy. One day, the Count of Beaujolais, in reascending, found the Duke of Montpensier's door open. The child escaped with abound from his guards, and rushed into the arms of his brother. The sentinels had some difficulty in separating them. For two months the brothers had never seen each other. Measures were taken against these surprises of tenderness, as if against a con- spiracy of malefactors. The one was thirteen, the other eighteen years of age." " Their father, lodged upon the same staircase, could neither see nor hear them. The desire of beholding closely a Prince of the blood, the author and victim of the Revolu- tion, now wearing the chains of the people he had served, continually attracted fresh visitors to the threshold of his cell. The Prince, upon whom solitude weighed heavier than captivity, and who found no society worse than his thoughts, sought not to withdraw himself either from the 5* 54 RISE AND FALL looks or interrogations of the curious. Each of them ap- peared to relieve him partly from the weight of heavy hours. One morning asking the jailor, who brought him his breakfast, what o'clock it was, he was heard by the Duke of Montpensier, who was in the passage-way, and who instantly replied : ' Nine o'clock, my dear Father ; how do you do this morning?' 'Ah, Montpensier,' replied the Duke, * I am glad to hear your voice again — it does me much good — but my health is very indifferent.' ' Silence 1 ' said the stern jailor, and closed the prison door." Meanwhile at Paris the guillotine was in constant use, surmounted by the scarlet cap of Liberty, whose presence was invoked by the sacrifice of hecatombs. Courageously did the Girondins endeavor to oppose the sanguinary Ter- rorists, but in vain, and on the 20th of October, 1793, twenty of them assembled around the festive board for the last time, in the fatal prison-hall of the Conciergerie — they were to be beheaded the next day at eleven o'clock. In one corner of the hall lay the yet warm corpse of one of their brethren, who had that day committed suicide before the Tribunal which had passed the fatal sentence, but the revel- lers were, says Thiers, alternately gay, serious, and elo- quent. Brissot de Warville presided at the funereal banquet, clad in the Quaker's garb which he had adopted with the Quaker's creed in Philadelphia, and in an impressive dis- course regretted that the pure republican doctrines he had transplanted from the Western Continent were to be washed away by a torrent of blood. "Ah, my friends," said Vergniaud, "we have killed the tree by pruning it. It was too aged : Robespierre cuts it. Will he be more fortunate than ourselves ? No ; the soil is too weak to nourish the roots of civic liberty : this people is too childish to wield its laws without hurting itself. It will return to its kings as babes return to their toys. We were deceived as to the age in which we were born, and in which we die for the freedom of the world. We deemed OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 55 ourselves at Rome, and we were at Paris. But revolutions are like those crises which blanch in a single night the hair of a man, — they soon bring nations to maturity. Our blood is sufficiently warm to fertilize the soil of the republic. Let us not carry away with us the future ; and let us be- queath to the people hope, in exchange for the death we shall receive at their hands." The conversation now took a philosophical turn, and all appeared to meet death with the firm consciousness that their lives had been passed in endeavoring to promote the welfare of France, and that Christianity had no place in their hearts. Toasts were drunk, mirthful stories were min- gled with infidel reasoning, bumpers were drained in honor of bright eyes, and occasionally the festival was crowned by song, all joining in chorus, with the heroism of Indians at the stake. One of these sonors was in 1848 the funereal chant of Louis Philippe's reign.* * " Morir pour la Patrie " — a stirring Hymn, of which the following prosaic translation was given in the " Boston Transcript : " " By the voice of the alarm-gun, France calls her children. Let us go, cries the soldier : to arms ! it is my mother ; I defend her. To die for one's country, is a fate the most beautiful, the most worthy of envy. '* We, friends, who, far from battle, sink in obscurity, let us consecrate at least our obsequies to France, to its liberty. To die for one's country, is a fate the most beautiful, the most worthy of envy." FREE TRANSLATION. By the sound of her cannon alarming. Fair France to her children outcries ; Huzza ! cry the patriots, arming, 'Tis the voice of our mother — arise ! For country and freedom to bleed, Is a lot to be envied indeed ! With arms for the strife — fierce and gory, Her mistress the lover supplies ; If he fall, the bright halo of glory Shall beam o'er his brow as he dies ! For country and freedom to bleed, Is a lot to be envied indeed ! 56 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER VII. The Girondins were executed on the 21st of Octobefj 1793. Two days afterwards, the Duke of Orleans was summoned to Paris, to be tried before the Convention, and was condemned by that tribunal on the 6th of November, — - the conduct of his son forming one of the principal charges against him. Returning to his prison, whence he was to be taken the next morning to the guillotine, he burst forth into a furious tirade against Frenchmen. " The wretches !" he exclaimed ; " I have given them all — rank, fortune, am- bition, honor, the future reputation of my house, — and this is the recompense they reserve for me. If I had acted, as they accuse me, from ambition, how unhappy should I be at this moment ; but it was from a higher ambition than that of a throne, it was the ambition of the liberty of my country, and the felicity of my fellow-creatures. ' Vive la Republique!' that cry shall be heard from my dungeon, as it was from my palace." All the entreaties of two Catholic priests that he would confess, were repulsed with scorn, and we learn from Mont- gaillard that he breakfasted the next morning with an excel- lent appetite, consuming " some oysters, two cutlets, and the best part of a bottle of rich claret." His toilette was then made with great care in the English style ; green frock-coat, white vest, yellow buckskins and white top-boots ; nor did he evince the slightest uneasiness, but maintained his usual dignity of deportment. When the fatal hour arrived, he mounted into the cart with an impressive air, and gazed calmly on the crowd through which the escort with difficulty cleared a passage, while the execrations and insults which he heard from every side seemed to have no effect. Three OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 57 Other victims, who were in the cart with him, were bent double, pale and stupified by horror, but the Duke stood upright, his head elevated, his countenance full of its natu- ral color, with all the firmness of innocence. " Why do we stop here 1 " he asked of the driver, as the cart, by a refinement of cruelty, stopped in front of the Palais Royal. No answer was made, and an eye-witness says that he ran his eyes over the building with the tranquil air of a master, examining whether any repairs were necessary, but they flashed fire as he read inscribed over the portal, in tri-colored letters : '' Republic One and Indivisible — Liberty, Equality — Fraternity or Death — National Property." The scaffold was erected near the spot where Louis XVL had been executed. On ascending it, the executioner's as- •sistant wished to draw off his boots, but the Duke said calmly — " No, no, they will come off better afterwards — let us hurry." These were his last words. With the execution of the Duke ended the connection between the House of Orleans and French politics, until the Bourbons were restored to the throne, — so it would be out of place here to take more than a parting glance at the va- rious governments which rapidly succeeded each other, — as in a temple in ancient Rome, where the murderer of the priest became his successor. Years of warfare, that evil school, had engendered a frightful indiflference to the Divine command, *' thou shalt not kill," and so lowered the stand- ard of morality, that the social bond was easily broken, and full sway was given to individual passions. The struggle de- veloped the abilities of many competent to govern, but after blazing in their orbits for a while, they were invariably jolted from the political firmament by the envy which genius ever attracts, or fell beneath the axe which they had so un- sparingly wielded, until the temple of French Liberty, like that of Juggernaut, was known by the immolated victims with which the road leading to it was overlain. And each successive set of rulers encouraged the war spirit ! 58 RISE AND J'ALL Faction after faction rose — struorarled — and fell. The Constituents were succeeded by the Girondins — the Giron- dins by the Terrorists — the Terrorists by the Thermidori- ans — the Thermidorians by the Directory — the Directory by the Consulate — the Consulate by the Empire ; and all these governments declared to France that war — war with some power or any power — was necessary to its political existence. The tri-colored flag, which had floated above the scaffold when Louis XVI. fell beneath the axe of the guillotine, and to protect which, Marat had called for the heads of " three hundred thousand aristocrats," was to be borne in glory abroad, in order to prevent anarchy at home. Brilliant, to those who worship before the shrine of mili- tary glory, was its flaunting career. Coalition after coali- tion — there were not less than seven of them — was formed among the principal continental powers ; but still the tri- color was triumphant, amid all changes, and against all opposition. Napoleon bore it as a conqueror throughout Italy, Pichegru throughout Holland, and Moreau along the banks of the Rhine. To put down this detested banner, which threatened to make the tour of Europe, and which had already revolutionized Switzerland and Naples, annihi- lated Venice, and been borne in the van of Macdonald's army to the gates of sacred Rome herself, the Czar dis- patched the victorious Suwarrow from the snows of Russia to the Alps, there to sustain a crushing defeat at the hands of Joubert and Massena — and England, from first to last, was engaged in a bloody war of twenty years, during which she added upwards of six hundred millions of pounds ster- ling to her national debt ! Still the tri-color was triumphant. It crushed Austrian Lombardy at Marengo — annihilated Prussia at Jena — and broke the heart of Pitt by its signal success at Austerlitz. At length came the period of its humiliation. In Spain — in Portugal — in Russia — at Leip- sic — in the heart of France itself — and finally at Waterloo — it was only raised to be lowered again, in token of abject OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 59 defeat. Then, after having been furled for upwards of a quarter of a century, the white flag of the Bourbons, with its golden lilies, was again waving from the Tuilleries It is wrong to attribute this mad attempt to subdue Europe single-handed to Napoleon. His predecessors were more culpable, fostering the war spirit as they did for their private ends ; for they feared if peace were concluded, their tenure of office micrht be shortened — that new men and a new system of internal policy might find favor in the eyes of the nation. The sanguinary terror, galling reverses, and scarcely less oppressive' victories of the first French Revolution, as it was carried on under the influence of the war spirit, threw political liberty back half a century in the course of politi- cal improvement. France, after a mad worship of Mars and Moloch, was driven, in the end, to bow once more before the crowned idols of legitimacy. During this long and bloody crusade for equality, con- quest and fame, Louis Philippe was an exile ; nor is his name connected with the history of France until his return from America. FAC-SIMILE OF NAPOLEONE BUONAPARTE'S SIGNATURE WHEN LIEUTENANT. 60 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER VII I. In April, 1793, Louis Philippe arrived at Cobleiitz, on the Rhine, where the throueless Louis XVIII. held his court, but was denied a reception, and passed up the river to Basle. Here he learned that Madame de Genlis and his sister were at SchafFhausen, where he joined them, and the two started for Zurich. Arriving there on the 8th of May, the magis- trates refused to grant them a resident's passport, for while the Helvetian aristocracy dreaded the presence of a Prince who had served in the Republican ranks with loud profes- sions of Jacobinism, the French royalist emigrants openly insulted him in the streets, exulting over the imprisonment of his father. In a few days they left for Zug, where, hav- ing assumed the incognito of an Irish family, they lived for some weeks in tranquillity, but having been recognized by an old officer of Marie Antoinette's household, the magis- trates were reproached for granting them an asylum, and requested that they would withdraw. A hundred romantic projects are said to have suggested themselves at this critical moment, for it was evident that they were marked objects of dislike. Count Gustavus de Montjoie, an old friend then at Basle, to whom they wrote for advice, came to give it in person, and after consulting with General Montesquiou of Geneva, it was decided that Mademoiselle Adelaide should be received into the convent of St. Clare at Bremgarten. " As for you," wrote General Montesquiou, " there is nothing left for you but to wander among the mountains, stay but a short time in any place, and continue this miserable mode of travelling until circum- stances prove more favorable. If fortune should ever be propitious, your life will be an essay, whose details will at some future day be collected with eagerness." OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 61 General Dumouriez was of the same opinion. " Em- brace," he wrote to General Montesquiou, " our good young friend for me. May he gain both instruction and fortitude from his present misfortunes. This insanity will soon pass away, and he will then occupy his proper place in society. Urge him to keep an accurate diary of his travels. It will be novel to see the journal of an Orleans devoted to other subjects than the chase, women, and the pleas- ures of the table. I am also delighted to think that this work, which he can finish by and by, will serve as a sort of certificate of his life, and be of essential service to him, either in resuming or regaining his station. Princes should, as you say, produce Odysseys rather than Pastorals." Louis Philippe sold all his superfluous effects and only retained one horse; so that after paying his debts with the proceeds, he found he possessed nearly four hundred dollars. He would also have dismissed his only remaining servant, Baudoin, but that faithful follower persuaded him to let him partake of the sorrows of a persecuted exile, though he was taken so ill that when Louis Philippe left Basle it was on foot, leading the horse upon which his retainer was mounted.* He passed for a French lawyer, who was trav- elling to gather mineralogical specimens, and often had many curious ones given him, which were thrown into the next brook he passed over, instead of being sent to Paris, as the donors credulously believed. Most of the principal spots of interest in Switzerland were visited in their turn. The former residences of Rous- seau and Voltaire, the ruins of Hapsburg Castle, whose owners have so long sat upon the Austrian throne, and the chapel where Tell, after escaping from Gessler's boat on the Lake of Lucerne, lay in wait for the tyrant behind a tree, *Most of the details of Louis Philippe's travels, while in exile, are taken from his life, by Messrs. Laugier and Charpentier, of the Historical Insti- tute of France, and General Cass's " France, its King, Court and Govern- ment." 62 RISE AND FALL and shot him with his unerring arrow as he passed, were particularly noted in his journal. It also contains many valuable notes on the increase of the glaciers, and on the avalanches, which show that he carefully explored "The Alps Those palaces of Nature, whose vast walls Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, And throned Eternity in icy halls Of cold sublimity." On the evening of the 29th of August, 1793, after toiling all day up a zigzag road, carrying their heavy knapsacks, Louis Philippe and Baudoin found themselves in a desolate valley, some seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. Lofty snow-clad peaks towered up all around. There was no vegetation, and the only sign of humanity was the Monastery of St. Gothard, inhabited by monks, who reside in this cheerless spot to assist travellers. *' Che volete " — what do you want? asked a monk in Italian from the case- ment, when Louis Philippe pulled the bell. "I wish re- freshment and beds for myself and my companion." " You cannot have it here," replied the monk ; " we do not receive pedestrians, particularly travellers of your class." " But, reverend Father, I have money enough to pay for what we may have, even though we may not look very smart." " No, no," replied the capuchin, " this is no place for you, go to the out-building," and he closed the casement. There was no alternative, and the future King of the French was forced to sleep on straw, in a miserable loft over the stable, set apart for the muleteers and chamois hunters. Some weeks after, in the little town of Gordona in the Gordons, he was again refused admittance by the landlady of a tavern, who would not lodge such ragged and ill-looking wanderers. However, as it was very stormy and nearly night, she permitted them to sleep in her barn, after much importuning. Fatigued, and unable to proceed farther, the OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 63 Prince thankfully laid himself down upon some straw, and slept soundly until daylight, when he was awakened by the monotonous sounds of footsteps pacing up and down near him. Opening his eyes, he saw to his utter astonishment a young peasant armed with a musket, keeping guard at his side, who coolly replied, on being asked why he thus stood sentry — " My aunt placed me here, with orders to kill you if you made any attempt to rob us; she is as suspicious a body, you must know, as she is stingy." Louis Philippe could, not help laughing, but immediately paid the stipulated sum for his wretched accommodation, and dismissed his body guard. Crossing the Lake Luzerne, he found on board the ferry- boat a French priest, who had no money, and who would have been ducked by the boatman for his fare, had Louis Philippe not paid it. There was also a merchant on board, who entered into conversation with the passengers, informing them that his name was Mauseda, and that he was an opti- cian connected with an establishment in the Palais Royal of Paris. He spoke very familiarly of the Duke of Orleans, to whom he said he often sold spectacles, and then, to the momentary embarrassment of Louis Philippe, asserted that he was well acquainted with all the members of his family. Little did he think that the young man before him, with threadbare garments, a staff in his hand, and a knapsack on his back, was the Duke of Chartres. At Luzerne he received a letter from General Montesquiou , informing him that there was a vacant professorship in the College of Reichenau, — a Mr. Chabaud, who was to have taken it, not having arrived. Louis Philippe determined to accept it, as the best way of preserving his incognito, and of adding to his slender pecuniary resources ; and presented himself to Mr. Aloyse Jost, the director of the college, as a candidate. He passed a strict examination, and on the 10th of October, 1793, was received as Professor of Mathematics, the French Language, Geography and History. Though only 64 RISE AND FALL twenty years of age, he conformed with cheerfulness to hard fare, early hours, college rules and strict discipline, every one except Mr. Jost, thinking him the real Mr. Chabaud. While thus engaged, Louis Philippe learned the tragic end of his fa- ther, and after fulfilling his duties for eight months with scru- pulous punctuality and care, he determined to visit his sister, who was about to leave Bremgarten for Hungary, to reside with her aunt, the Princess of Conti. At parting, the stu- dents gave him a snuif-box in testimonial of their respect, and from the officers of the college he received a certificate, acknowledging the useful services he had rendered to the institution. It will be long, says General Cass, before the House of Orleans receives, in the person, of one of its mem- bers, a reward more worthy the regard of every man inter- ested in the dignity of human nature. Neither was it merely as an instructor that he was successful, for such was the esteem in which he was held by the villagers, that he was elected Deputy from Reichenau. Louis Philippe, now Duke of Orleans, left for Bremgar- ten on foot, and was met a few miles from the convent by his faithful Baudoin, whom he had sent in advance to reconnoi- tre, fearing that he might be received as at St. Gothard. " Come on, Monseigneur," said he, " you need not fear — . we shall make a better supper here than with those rascally monks, for I have heard the turning of a spit, and smelt roast chicken, which is far more savory than the cheese which the muleteers gave us." After his sister Adelaide's departure, Louis Philippe resided with General Montesquiou until 1794, under the name of Corby, and with the title of aid- de-camp, engaged in schemes for establishing a constitutional monarchy at Paris. Some of his letters were intercepted, and only served to increase the suspicion with which he was regarded at Paris, by those terrible and ever-changing rulers who, at that era of desperate energy, governed and died in blood. Accidentally overhearing a conversation between General OF LOUIS PIIILIPrE. G5 Montesquieu and a visitor, he found that he was not only in danger himself, but that the hospitality he received miorht prove fatal to his host. Unwilling to expose his generosity to further peril, he determined to leave for Hamburg, where Madame de Genlis was residing, and thence embark for the United States. Conversing with the commercial agent of the United States at Hamburg on his arrival there, he found that the small allowance with which he was furnished by his uncle, the Prince of Modena, would not permit him to take so distant an expedition, and he was forced to postpone it. Hamburg was, however, no place for him to remain in, as he was recognized every time he appeared in public. One day an old Royalist refugee, a bad specimen of a good race, openly insulted him, and accosting him in the public streets, demanded, "What right the son of a regicide had to meet the victims of his father's atrocious conduct, and why he did not hide his head in obscurity or the dust?" Louis Philippe, who was unprepared for this unprincipled and ungentlemanly attack, fell back a few paces, regarded his adversary with a look of stern dignity, and then said, " Sir, if I have either offended or injured you, I am prepared to give you satisfaction, but if I have done neither, what will you one day think of yourself for having insulted in a for- eicrn land a prince of fallen fortunes, and an honest and independent young man?" On another occasion at Ham- burg, Louis Philippe — appealed to for relief by a former dependant on the bounty of his father '' Egalite," but who had rushed from Paris to save his life, and had arrived at the city in question — explained to him that his means were so limited, and his expectations of assistance so scanty, that he really had not the power of doing all he could desire, for one whom his father and mother had regarded with re- spect and pity. " But," added he, " I have four louis left, take one of them; when I shall replace it I know not; make the best use you can of this — we live in times when we must all economize." The poor, exiled, disconsolate old 6* 66 RISE AND FALL man was so struck with this proof of generosity, and of filial respect for the object of his father's and mother's bounty, that he declined receivinor so much as one out of four louis from the Prince's hands ; but Louis Philippe took to flight, and left the unhappy exile weeping with joy and gratitude. The Scandinavian peninsula appeared to Louis Philippe a desirable field of travel, as it was not only well worthy of interest, but could be visited at little expense, and was so far from France, and so little frequented by French emigrants, that he would be secure from malicious pursuit. Passing by Jutland to Copenhagen, a banker on whom he had a letter of credit, made out in favor of Monsieur Corby, a Swiss traveller, procured for him under that name a Danish passport, which included his friend Count Montjoie and Baudoin. Elsineur was their first stopping-place, where they visited the garden of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, immortalized by Shakspeare's genius. They then took a packet-boat for Gottenburg, whence they left on foot for Norway, stopping to admire the picturesque cascades of Goetha-Elf and the stupendous canal commenced two centuries ago, at Trollhae- than, to connect the waters of the North Sea with the Gulf of Bothnia. Crossing the frontier, the party stopped at Frederickshall, where Charles XIL was killed. How little did Louis Philippe then think that future writers would apply to him the last two lines of Dr. Johnson's stanza, describing the close of that ambitious monarch's life : — " His death was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress and a dubious hand ; He left a name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral or adorn a tale." Christiana was for some time the exile's residence, and among Louis Philippe's friends was the Rev. Mr. Monod, an enlightened French Protestant clergyman, whose urbanity and gentleness his successors are said to have lost. He OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 67 regarding Louis Philippe as Mr. Corby, their conversa- tions turned to French democracy, and on one occasion, allusion having been made to the late Duke of Orleans, he observed: "I have been accustomed to hear much that is disffustinof and revoltinjr of the late Duke of Orleans, but I cannot help thinking that he must have had some virtues mixed up with his evil propensities, for no reckless or worth- less man could have taken so much pains with the educa- tion of his children. His eldest son, I have been assured, is the model of filial affection as well as of all the virtues." Louis Philippe felt his cheeks suffused with blushes, and M. Monod perceived it. " Do you know him, then ? " asked M. Monod. *' Yes I do, a little," was the reply, ^* and I think you have somewhat exaggerated his praises," The next time the venerable Protestant pastor saw him, Louis Philippe was in his own palace at the Palais Royal ! M. Monod was at the head of the Protestant Consistory of Paris, and was visiting the illustrious Prince to congratulate him on his return to his native country. When the cere- mony was over, the Duke called M. Monod aside, and asked, " How long it was since he had quitted Christiana ? " " Oh ! many years," replied the excellent man ; " it is very kind of your Royal Highness to remember that I was ever an inhabi- tant of that city." '' It is more, then, M. Monod, than you remember of me ! " " Was your Royal Highness, then, ever an inhabitant of Christiana?" asked the astonished pastor. "Do you remember M. Corhy — the young Cor- by 7 " inquired Louis Philippe ] *' Most certainly I do, and I have frequently sought for some intelligence with regard to him, but could procure none." " Then I was M. Corby," replied the Duke. The rest of the conversation can be easily imagined. Louis Philippe was much attached to the admirable M. Monod, to the hour of his death, and some of his affection for Protestant families, Protestant commu- nities, and the Protestant clergy, can unquestionably be traced to the influence exercised by that gentleman over his mind. 68 RISE AND FALL On another occasion while at Christiana, his equanimity was disturbed, and at first he feared he was discovered. It is the custom of the inhabitants at the proper season, after having breakfasted, to go into the country, and there pass the residue of the day. After one of these excursions, when the family where the stranger had been received was preparing to return to town, he heard the son exclaim with a loud voice — " The carriage of the Duke of Orleans ! " He was recognized without doubt — but how could it be? Preserving his self-possession, however, and perceiving that the young man did not regard him, he was anxious to learn the cause of this singular annunciation. " Why," said he, smiling, " did you call the carriage of the Duke of Orleans, and what relations have you with the Prince 1 " '^ None, indeed," answered his Norwegian friend ; " but while at Paris, whenever we issued from the opera, I heard repeated from all quarters, ' The carriage of the Duke of Orleans ! ' I have been more than once stunned with the noise, and I just took it into my head to make the same exclamation." Continuing his tour, Louis Philippe stopped some time at Drontheim, where Baron de Kroth, the Governor, loaded him with kindness, and thence pursued his way along the coast of Norway as far as the Gulf of Saltdam, the scene of that famed Maelstrom, which swallows up every thing drawn within its vortex. Chartering a fishing-boat, he passed into the outer circles, greatly to the alarm of his boatmen, who implored him on their knees not to seek to gratify his curi- osity farther. Leaving Saltdam with a barber's boy by the name of Holm, from Iceland, as his guide and interpreter, Louis Philippe traversed Lapland, and saw a new race of men, quite different from their Norwegian and Swedish neighbors. Sleeping in their humble tents, and travelling on sledges drawn by reindeer, his spirit of enterprise led him north- ward, until, on the 24th of August, 1795, he reached the North Cape, the Ultima Thule of the ancients. He was OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 6^ thus within eighteen degrees of the north pole, and five degrees nearer to it than Maupertuis, who had been employed by the King of France to measure a degree of the meridian within the polar circle, or the Poet Regnard, who had cut upon a rock which marked the termination of his journey, — " Hie tandem stetimus nobis ubi deficit orbis." The Duke remained some time in this country. It was a source of pleasure to him to question the inhabitants, and to study from the details they furnished him, their manners, their customs, and the singular characteristic of their climate, so diiferent from ours, the sun, in his annual course, offering to man and to vegetation but one day of six months, and one night of the same duration. Clothed like them with a sort of tunic, which, after the fashion of the Norwegian sailors, he wore constantly, and which they call a koufte, the Prince visited the ordinary tents of the Lap- landers. These tents were made by inclosing a number of poles placed in a circle with a covering called vahnar, so that the fire might be made in the middle of the tent, and the smoke pass out through a hole in the top. He likewise visited those stone dwellings something like ours, which are called in the Lapland tongue, Kodeki, and which have, like the tents, a hole in the top to let out the smoke. Impelled by the same feeling of curiosity, he looked into those little barracks mounted on poles, like pigeon houses, which served the Laplanders as a depot for provisions during the winter. They are thus elevated above the ground, so that the provi- sions will not be buried up with the snow, and the wild beasts are unable to clamber after them. The bears are the only animals who can get at them. These animals, by breaking the poles that support these safes, cause them to fall, and then tearing them in pieces, secure for themselves the dry meat which they find there.* * Laugier's and Charpentier's Life of Louis Philippe. 70 RISE AND FALL Passing through Swedish Lapland a second time, Louis Philippe descended to Toraco, traversed a part of Finland to examine on the spot the theatre of the last war between the Russians and Swedes under GustavusIIL, and advanced to the river Kymene which separated Sweden from Russia. But here he stopped ; for though he was an ardent traveller, he was a Frenchman ; and as the animosity of Catherine IL was not merely directed against the revolution, but against France and her sons, he resolved not to pass the Kymene, but to visit Stockholm, and remain at least where he would be free alike from the risk of the knout, and from the chance of beino; sent to Siberia. FACSIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF MARSHAL SOULT. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 71 CHAPTER IX. Arriving at Stockholm, (Laugier goes on to say,) about the end of October, Louis Philippe remained unsus- pected until his curiosity to be present at a grand ball given at the Court, in honor of the birth of Gustavus II., King of Sweden, determined him to profit by a ticket, which his banker had procured him for admission to the gallery of the saloon. He had been there but a short time, when a master of ceremonies came to conduct him to the hall where the Court were congregated. This circumstance made him suspect that he had been discovered. In fact, M. de Rivals, the French envoy to Sweden, having observed the Prince in the ball-room, said to the Chancellor, the Count de Span, " You have kept one of your secrets from me ; you did not tell me that you harbored here the Duke of Orleans." The Chancellor, surprised, could scarcely credit it. '' Neverthe- less it is true," said M. de Rivals ; " there he is up in the gallery." This being known, the Count de Span assured Louis Philippe that the King and the Duke of Sudermania, then Regent, would be delighted to see him. They received the Duke of Orleans with every mark of attention, and were prodigal of their generous offers, and gave the necessary directions that he might visit whatever he thought worthy of his notice throughout the kingdom. This last proffered kindness, Louis Philippe accepted. Quitting Stockholm, he visited the ruins of Dalecarlia, and afterwards Sahla, Afre- sested, Saeter, Ormes, and the house in which, in 1520, Gustavus Vasa was concealed when pursued by the emissa- ries of Christiern. This house, which was truly remarkable in its construe- t^ RISE AND FALL tion, had been preserved without any aheration. The stairs were on the outside, the chamber which Gustavus occupied was in the second story. It was quite large, and formed a perfect square. On each side of the door were his two faithful Dalecarlians, clothed in a stuff of white wool, armed cap-a-pie, with their sugar-loaf hats after the fashion of that day. By their side, and near the bed, stands the faith- ful servant who followed Gustavus. Here is also the genea- logical tree of his family. On the walls of the room hang a few bad portraits of the Kings and Queens of Sweden since the reign of Gustavus. Here may be seen the closet in which he concealed himself, and from which he escaped, to effect the meeting at Mora. He descended into the famous copper mines of Fahlun, where at a great depth there are subterraneous villages ; he saw those good and brave people, who had preserved in their purity the manners and customs of their forefathers; he examined the great stone of Mora, on which Gustavus Vasa stood when he solicited the Dalecarlians to march against the ferocious Christiern, the Nero of the North. The French Prince thus proscribed, slept tranquilly in this place which had so long served the Swedish hero as a place of refuge. What emotions did the thoughts of Gustavus awaken in his bosom, escaping by a miracle from his exe- cutioners, compelled to bury himself alive in the bowels of the earth, and planning, in the depths of his retreat, the freedom of his country ! As it has been remarked, these two illustrious exiles left this farm of Mora, to become at different epochs, the one, King of Sweden, and the other, King of the French. Louis Philippe was unwilling to quit Sweden without first visiting the splendid arsenal of Carlscrona, where in vast basins cut out of the solid rock, forming a dry dock, vessels could lie either for their preservation or while undergoing the necessary repairs. The Court offered to conduct him there, with all the honors due to his rank. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 73 Unaccustomed to such homage for so long a time, he re- fused it, and repaired to Carlscrona as a stranger. The Governor to whom he addressed himself, informed him that strangers could on no account be admitted. Accustomed to similar disappointments the Prince was about to retire, when a courier, sent expressly by the Regent, came to coun- termand the rigorous order. All the gates were opened to the French exile, whom the Governor eagerly accompanied, in order to give all the necessary explanations. The Gov- ernor put a great many questions to the Prince, with the hope that he might betray his incognito, but without success ; for notwithstanding his desire to discover who the traveller was, to whom the Court had shown such distinguished favor, he knew not whom he had the honor to receive and accom- pany. The Prince repassed the Sound, and returned by the way of Copenhagen and Lubeck to Hamburg in 1796. Unfortunately this sojourn in the northern kingdoms of Europe had not bettered his condition, either politically or in a pecuniary point of view, and he found himself without ' resources. The fate of his brothers, however, was his greatest source of unhappiness, for he feared that they would be condemned to an ignominious death. Indeed, Montpensier's last letter had contained a ruffianly speech made in his hearing by one of the sovereign people : " Ah ! we have cut down the tree, the old trunk, but that is only doing half the work. We must cut up the roots, or the tree may be seen sprouting at some future time." In the same letter the imprisoned Prince related that one morning their aunt, the Duchess of Bourbon, entered their chamber, saying, — "I hope," said she to them, " you are prepared for the terrible misfortune that religion alone can aid you to support in a proper manner. Read this letter which your mother has written." The letter contained these few words in large characters and much disfigured : " Live, unhappy children, for your 7 74 RISE AND FALL unhappy mother ! " " My aunt," said the Duke de Mont- pensier, " what means this heart-rending intelligence ? What has become of my father ? " " You have no longer a father," was the reply. The two brothers, after the death of their father, thought often of the means of making their escape. Finally they concluded a bargain with a captain of an Italian ship bound to Leghorn. On the day fixed for their departure, the 18th of November, 1795, about six o'clock in the evening, the Count de Beaujolais left his chamber first, after agreeing to wait for his brother in the harbor, and to send a boat for him at the foot of the tower in case he should not see him arrive. Five minutes after, the Duke de Montpensier fol- lowed him, passed four sentinels without being stopped, gained the bridge, and already believed himself at liberty. All at once he met the commandant of the fort who was cominor home, and who thus accosted him : " Where are you going ? You are the elder Orleans ; if you do not in- stantly return, I shall call the guard and cause you to be seized." " I am going to the play," replied the Prince, " as I have many times done, without your knowledge ; but since I have been so unfortunate as to meet you, I shall this even- ing be deprived of that pleasure." So saying, he sadly mounted the stairs followed by a corporal and a fusileer. After entering his chamber, which faced the sea, he tied a cord to the window and let himself down. When about lialf way down, about thirty feet above the sea, the rope broke, and he fell senseless. On recovering his senses, the moon was shining clear, and he found himself waist deep in the sea. After waiting some time for the boat which the Count de Beaujolais was to send, he determined to cross the harbor by swimming. He then perceived that his foot was injured, and that he lacked strength. Scarcely had he made five or six strokes, when he reached the chain which extended across the harbor, and rested there. For two hours he remained resting upon the chain : seven boats OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 75 passed by ; he supplicated each one, and made them liberal offers. " It is too late," said one, '' We have no time," said another, and they continued on. They all had made similar answers to the Count de Beaujolais, in spite of all his offers. Finally a boatman, more compassionate than the rest, came to him, and took him half dead into his boat, and rowed to the harbor. At the instant they reached the bank, a by- stander exclaimed, — " Ah, it is one of the Orleans family ! He was making his escape." Immediately the guard were called. " Why did you attempt to escape ? " demanded they after many other questions. " To free myself," replied the Duke, " from the atrocious tyranny, under which I have groaned for three years, and to recover my liberty, of which they have no right to deprive me." " What has become of your brother V "I know not, — I hope that, more fortunate than me, he has escaped from your hands, and you will see him no more." The Count de Beaujolais had in fact deceived all his guards, but learning the misfor- tune of the Duke de Montpensier, he came voluntarily back to his chains to share his brother's misfortunes. Added to the uncertain fate of his brothers, Louis Philippe could not but think that his loved mother and sister were exiles from their home, that General Biron and other devoted friends had been beheaded, and that he, the often scouted son of a regicide, was branded as a traitor, accused of having by his plots thus brought ruin upon his family, and was almost a destitute wanderer on the face of the earth. 76 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER X. The Directory who ruled France, dreading the presence of Louis Philippe in Europe, had in vain endeavored to trace his steps, and the mystery in which he had enveloped himself but increased their suspicion of his designs. At last they resorted to the expedient of offering to his mother to liberate her two sons from their captivity at Marseilles, provided Louis Philippe would embark with them for the United States, and upon their arrival there to annul the act of sequestration against her property. The Duchess at once assented to this proposition, and gave to an agent of the Directory a letter to Louis Philippe, which, after recom- mending a compliance with the terms proposed, concluded by saying : — '• May the prospects of relieving the sufferings of your poor mother, of rendering the situation of your brothers less painful, and of contributing to give quiet to your country, recompense your generosity ! " For two months the bearer of this letter sought in vain for Louis Philippe, assisted by the French Minister at the Hanseatic cities, and he was just on the point of returning to Paris, when he learned that Mr. Westford, a merchant at Hamburg, could give him the desired information. Unwil- ling to betray his secret, this faithful friend received with proper incredulity the declaration of the French agent, that his object in opening a communication with Louis Philippe was to convey to him a letter from his mother, on the part of the Directory, and disclaimed all knowledge of his actual residence. He, however, immediately communi- cated to Louis Philippe a statement of what had taken place, and the latter determined to risk the exposure, in the hope of receiving a letter directly from his mother. He was at that time at Frederickstadt, in the neighborhood OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 77 of Hamburg, though in the Danish States, where he had changed his residence from time to time, as a due regard to secrecy required. An interview was arranged by Mr. Westford at his own house, between Louis Philippe and the French agent, where they met in the evening, and where, after the receipt 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, that his brothers might be liberated. Besides, he was well aware, that a refusal on his part would first be followed by more arbitrary measures against his mother and brethren — then by an active system of espionage exercised against himself — and, finally, by applications from the then French gov- ernment to foreign powers to surrender him into their hands, under threats of vengeance and war in the event of refusal. The negotiations were regularly concluded, and Louis Philippe thus answered his mother : " When my dear mother receives this letter, her orders will be obeyed, and I shall have set out for America. I shall embark in the first vessel which sails for the United States. And what would I not do after perusing the letter I have just received ? 1 will no longer believe I am without hope, since I have yet the means of soothing the sorrows of a mother so dear to me, whose situation and whose sufferings have for so long a time caused me deep anguish. It seems to me like a dream when I think I shall in a short time embrace my dear brothers, and again be united to them, for I could scarcely believe what has hitherto appeared to me im- possible. I would not now lament my fate ; and I know full well that it might have been yet more wretched, nor will I deem it miserable if, after again joining my brothers, I may know that my beloved mother is as well as it is pos- sible under such circumstances for her to be, and if I can once more serve my country by contributing to her tranquil- lity. Whatever I have done for my country, I consider no 78 RISE AND FALL sacrifice, and whilst I live there is none which I shall not always be ready to make." The ship "American," Captain Ewing, belonging to Conyngham & Nesbit, of Philadelphia, between which port and Hamburg she regularly sailed, was on the point of departure. Louis Philippe, who had been provided with a Danish passport, engaged a birth for thirty-five guineas, and endeavored to prevail on the captain to take his faithful Baudoin as under steward ; but he refused, saying that he would not be of the slightest service at sea. He even ob- jected to taking him on any terms, telling Louis Philippe that he would unquestionably desert him as soon as they should land in America, but, after much importunity, agreed to receive him at half-price. Anxious to escape observation as much as possible, both master and man repaired on board at once, and remained below in the cabin until the ship sailed — a precaution which led the captain to suspect them as fugitives from justice. The " American " left the Elbe on the 24th of Septem- ber, 1796. There was only one other cabin passenger, a French gentleman somewhat advanced in years, who came on board late in the night preceding the departure, and made considerable disturbance. The accommodations did not meet his expectations, and getting into a violent passion, he commenced finding fault with much vehemence, but with a garrulity wonderfully checked by his imperfect knowledge of English. His inability to make the captain comprehend his complaints only added to his rage, but as there was no interpreter at hand, his discontent, or rather the expression of it, died away. The next morning the scene was renewed at the breakfast table, where the old gentleman became enraged because there were not hot rolls, declaring that he could not, and would not, eat ship-biscuit. Captain Ewing enlisted Louis Philippe as interpreter, and told his refractory p:issenger through him, " There is my beef and there are my biscuit — if you do not like the fare, return with the OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 79 pilot." On his way to St. Domingo, where he had a planta- tion, the Frenchman concluded to risk his remaining teeth rather than wait for another ship, and his anger was sof- tened by finding that his fellow passenger could converse with him. "You speak very well for a Dane," said he, " and I will correct you when you go wrong — but as y,ou are a young man, and I an old one, you must serve as my in- terpreter." In the steerage there were only nine passengers, among them a young Hanoverian priest, who was the laughing- stock of the crew, hiding himself whenever the wind was not' fair, lest the second mate should carry into execution his threat to throw him overboard as a Jonah. There was also a burly Alsacian escaping from the proscription, ac- companied by an Italian servant, who robbed him of his entire wealth, 500 golden louis, on the morning after his arrival. Louis Philippe used to converse familiarly with the steerage passengers, and on ascending the throne, gave one of them, then a shopkeeper in Rouen, a gold medal as a souvenir of the voyage. Ere the ship left the coast of Europe, she was boarded by a French privateer which had just captured two Danish vessels, and was taking them into Havre. The old gentle- man was much alarmed when he saw the armed boat's crew approaching, and ran down to hide in the cabin, saying to Louis Philippe as he descended the companion- way : " If you, my good friend, were a French subject as I am, you would not take matters so coolly." The priva- teer's men having reached the deck, examined the ship's papers, and took their leave. "You," said their officer, "are bound from Hamburg to Philadelphia, both neutral ports, so we have nothing to do with you, but you had better keep near the coast of England, as it is safer than that of France." The passage was a pleasant one of twenty-seven days, and on arriving in the harbor of Philadelphia, Louis Phi- 80 RISE AND FALL lippe, on giving the captain some letters of introduction to send up to the city, told him who he was. Capt. Ewing was somewhat surprised, as may be imagined, but confessed to his young passenger that, owing to the circumstances under which he came on board, he had come to the conclu- sion that he was a gambler who had been exposed in cheat- inor, and was seeking a refuoje in the new world. The other passenger, whose teeth and constitution had resisted the biscuit and beef, remained in ignorance of his compan- ion's name until he learned on shore that the Duke of Or- leans had arrived, and that he was the interpreter. Louis Philippe landed in Philadelphia at Walnut street wharf, where he was welcomed by Mr. David H. Conyng- ham, one of the owners of the '' American," who conducted him to his house. No. 94 Front street, where he remained as a guest for several days. He then took rooms in the lower part of a house belonging to the Rev. Mr. Marshal, adjoining a church in Walnut street, between Fourth and Fifth streets. Here he anxiously awaited his two brothers ; and when a reasonable time had elapsed without their arrival, he began to fear that some accident had befallen them at sea, or that the French government had not kept their promises. The Directory were, however, too happy to free themselves of the Orleans family, and on learning that Louis Philippe had sailed, gave orders that his brothers should be immedi- ately sent to join him. Montpensier says in his journal : '' When the General pronounced the unexpected happy sounds, ' You shall quit this prison for ever, unless you desire to return to it,' Beaujolais and myself looked stead- fastly at each other, then, throwing ourselves into each other's arms, began to cry, laugh, leap about the room, and even to exhibit signs of temporary derangement." They embarked from Marseilles on the 5th of November, 1796, on board the Swedish ship " Jupiter," and after a tedious passage of ninety-three days, once more joined their brother. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 81 The brothers tOQk a house in Fourth street, belonging to the Spanish Consul, and the lease is a rare specimen of the legal papers then so carefully drawn up.* This Indenture, made the twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, Between Don Joseph Ignatius de Viar, of the city of Philadel- phia, Esquire, of the one part, and Louis Philippe D'Orleans, of the said city, Esquire, of the other part, Witnesseth, that the said Don Joseph Ignatius de Viar, in consideration of the payment of the Rent and performance of the Covenants hereinafter men- tioned, hath and by these presents doth lease, demise and let to the said Louis Philippe D'Orleans, all that certain three story brick House and lot of ground thereto belonging, situate on the north- west corner of Fourth and Prune streets, in the said city, together with the privilege of the necessary house at the west end, and all other the appurtenances, to have and to hold to him the said Louis Philippe D'Orleans, from the day of the date hereof for and during the full end and term of two years now next ensuing : Yielding and paying therefor unto the said Don Joseph Ignatius de Viar, his Heirs and Assigns, the yearly rent or sum of Five Hundred and Fifty Milled Silver Dollars, in quarterly payments, to say, on the twenty-fifth day of the months of May, August, No- vember and February in each year, during the said term ; the first quarter's Rent to be paid on the twenty-fifth day of May next. And the said Louis Philippe D'Orleans doth hereby promise and agree to pay the said Yearly Rent in quarterly payments as afore- said, and at the expiration of this Lease, to surrender and give up peaceable possession of the said demised Premises, to the said Don Joseph Ignatius de Viar, his Heirs and Assigns, in tenantable order and repair, reasonable wear, fire and unavoidable accidents excepted. Provided always, that the Term hereby demised is upon this express condition, nevertheless, that in case a Sale should be made of the said demised premises at any time during the said Term, and the Purchaser should want possession thereof, then in such case the term hereby demised shall cease, and deter- mine on three months' notice being given in writing ; anything * It is now in the possession of E. D. Ingraham, Esq. of Philadelphia. 82 RISE AND FALL hereinbefore contained to the contrary notwithstanding. In Wit- ness whereof the said parties have interchangeably set their Hands and Seals hereunto ; dated the day and year first above written. Sealed and Delivered in ^ jq^^^^ IGNAT'S VIAR. [L. S.] ine presence of us, f *- -" Abm Shoemaker, I L. P. D'ORLEANS. [L. S.J Joel Richardson, J Baudoin was the sole domestic of this modern establishment, and is now remembered by some of the market-women, with whom he considered the state of his masters' finances obliged him to drive hard bargains. The Princess mingled in the society of the city and formed many agreeable acquaintances, all of whom were remembered through the stirring scenes and the successes of after years. Mr. Bingham, Mr. Wil- ling, Mr. Dallas, Mr. Gallatin, Mrs. Powell and others were mentioned to Gen. Cass, but no record has been made by that writer of the young lady to whom Louis Philippe offered his hand. She was " Willing," report saith, and referred her suitor to papa, but the old gentleman would not give his con- sent, alleging to Louis Philippe as a reason : *' As an exile, destitute of means, you are not a suitable match for my daughter — should you recover your rights, she will not be a suitable match for you." Philadelphia was then the seat of the Federal Govern- ment, and Gen. Washington was at the head of the adminis- tration. Seeing the young Princes at Independence Hall, he had them presented to him, and cordially invited them to visit Mount Vernon when he should have again retired into private life. Louis Philippe was present at the inauguration of Mr. Adams, and heard Washington's last address to the American Congress. Well would it have been for the future King of the French, if the example and precepts of our revered first President had made a deeper impression upon his mind — if he had learned from them to restrain his OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 83 " vaulting ambition," to promote the good of his people, and to preserve inviolable his oath of office. History does not present a more striking contrast, or teach in all her pages a more impressive lesson, than is to be read in the different circumstances under which the first President of the United States, and the first Republican King of France, retired from the offices to which the people had called them. One, resisting all the temptations offered to him for perpetu- ating his power, steadily adhered to the Constitution he had sworn to protect, and, after directing with steady and cau- tious hand the ship of state through political seas yet troubled by the recent struggle, relinquished the helm to his successor when she was in calm water, after laying down the course which was to guide him.* The other, constantly, from the moment of his election, improving every occasion for his own aggrandizement, seizing every opportunity to extend his prerogative, breaking without scruple the solemn oaths he had taken — after an administration of eighteen years, when apparently at the summit of his aspirations, driven in disgrace from the palace where he had built him- self a throne, his family scattered, and he himself obliged to flee in disguise from the people he had deceived. * " This is the consummate glory of Washington," says an English writer, " a triumphant warrior where the most sanguine had a right to despair ; a successful ruler in all the difficulties of a course whollv untried ; but a warrior whose sword only left its sheath when the first law of our nature commanded it to be drawn ; and a ruler who, having tasted of supreme power, gently and unostentatiously desired that the cup might pass trom him, nor would suffer more to wet his lips than the most solemn and sacred duty to his country and his God required." 84 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XI. Leaving Philadelphia in company with General Smith, the Princes were for some days his guests at Baltimore, and then proceeded to Washington, where they were hospitably re- ceived by Mr. Law. The Federal city had been laid out upon paper by Major I'Enfant, a French engineer, but no traces of the spacious streets were visible elsewhere. Penn- sylvania Avenue was " staked out " through a deep morass covered with alder bushes, and there were but a few houses finished, among them a block still standing, known as the " Six Buildings." The north wing of the capitol was nearly completed, the corner-stone having been laid with masonic honors by General Washington, in 1793. Louis Philippe used to speak often to Americans of his kind reception at Washington, and of an excursion which he made to the little falls of the Potomac, some three miles above the beautiful city of Georgetown, in company with General Mason, at whose house the Princes stopped on their return. Passing through Alexandria, Mount Vernon was their next stopping place, where Washington received them with parental kindness, and that noble hospitality which character- ized the landed proprietors of those days. General Cass says, that Louis Philippe's reminiscences of the patriot coincide with the statements generally given by his contemporaries of his private life and personal habits. He was comparatively silent, somewhat reserved, methodical in the division of his time, and careful in the use of it. The arrangement of his household was that of a wealthy Virginia gentleman of the old school — unostentatious, comfortable, and leaving his guests to fill up their hours as they thought fit, and at the same time providing whatever was necessary for pleasant OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 85 employment. One morning, after the usual salutations, Louis Philippe asked his distinguished host, how he had slept the preceding night. It is probable, from the answer, that some peculiar circumstance had turned his thoughts towards the evils too often produced in society by reprehensible publica- tions. However this may be, that answer deserves to be engraved upon the hearts of his countrymen: " I always sleep well, for I never wrote a word in my life which I had afterwards cause to regret." While at Mount Vernon, General Washington prepared for the Princes an itinerary of a journey to the western coun- try, and furnished them with some letters of introduction to persons upon the route. They made the necessary prepara- tions for a long tour, which they performed on horseback, each of them carrying in a pair of saddle-bags, after the fashion of that period, whatever he might require in clothes and other articles for his personal comfort. The travelling map of the three Princes was preserved at the Tuileries, and furnished convincing proof that it had passed through severe service. The various routes followed by the travellers were strongly depicted in red ink ; and, by their extent and direc- tion, showed the great enterprise displayed by three young strangers to acquire a just knowledge of the country, at a time when the difficulties of travelling over a great part of the route were enough to discourage many a hardy Ameri- can. Louis Philippe, in showing this map to General Cass, mentioned that he possessed an accurate account, showing the expenditure of every dollar he disbursed in the United States. Bidding adieu to the " Cincinnatus of the West," the Princes mounted their horses, and took the road by Leesburg and Harper's Ferry to Winchester, where they stopped at the public house of Mr. Bush, a portly old revolutionary soldier, who considered the relations between the traveller and him- self as a favor to the former. He was a native of Manheim on the Rhine, and Louis Philippe, thinking he had won his 8 86 RISE AND FALL good graces by speaking to him in German about his " fa- therland," proposed that the meals of his party should be sent up into their room. Such a proposition had never been heard in the whole valley of the Shenandoah, and least of all in the mansion of our friend, Mr. Bush. The rules of his house, to which the laws of the Medes and Persians were but transitory regulations, had been attacked, and his professional pride wounded ; and the recollections of Man- heim, and the pleasure of his native language, and the mod- est conversation of the young strangers, were all thrown to the wind, and the worthy and offended dignitary exclaimed : " If you are too good to eat at the same table with my other guests, you are too good to eat in my house — begone ! " And notwithstanding the deprecatory tone which Louis Philippe immediately took, his disavowal of any intention to offend, and his offer to eat wherever it would be agreeable to this governor of hungry appetites to decide, the young men were compelled to leave the house, and to seek refuge elsewhere. Leaving Winchester and its democratic landlord, the Princes proceeded by Staunton, Abingdon and Knoxville, to Nashville. It was court week when they arrived there, and the compiler of this work once heard Louis Philippe narrate, with great glee, the crowded state of the inn, where they were all three forced to sleep in the same bed. On leaving next morning, says an eye-witness, they inquired if they should be able to procure any spirits during the day. Receiving a negative answer, Louis Philippe purchased a tin canteen, had it filled, and off they started, one of his brothers re- marking : — " This will cut a curious figure in history, the Duke of Orleans in the wilds of America with a canteen of whiskey around his neck." From Nashville they journeyed to Pittsburg via Louis- ville, Lexington, Maysville, Chillicothe, Lancaster, Zanes- ville, Wheeling and Washington, in Pennsylvania. When traversing the barrens in Kentucky, they stopped at a tavern OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 87 where was to be found *' entertainment for man and horse, ^^ and where the landlord was very sclicitous to ascertain the business of the travellers — not apparently out of any idle or interested curiosity, but because he seemed to feel a true so- licitude for them. It was in vain, however, for Louis Philippe protested they were travelling to look at the country, and with- out any view of purchase or settlement. Such a motive for encountering the trouble and expense of a long journey, was beyond the circle of the settler's observation or experience ; and he could only believe it by placing these young men quite low in his scale of human intelligence, and viewing them with a feeling of pity or contempt. 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 their puncheon bedstead, which was pinned to the loo-s formincT the side of the mansion. In the night the King overheard the good man expressing to his wife his regret, that three such promising young men were running uselessly over the country, and wondering they did not pur- chase land there and establish themselves creditably. At Pittsburg Louis Philippe formed some pleasant ac- quaintances, among them General Neville and Judge Brack- enridge. Conversing one day with the latter on the advan- tage of living even under bad laws, provided they are written, known, and faithfully executed, than of living in a state of society where democracy in full riot sets up its own tribunals, and subjects its victims to its own caprices and decisions, often under the pretence of favoring popular rights and popular liberties, the Judge looked severely, and then broke out as follows : " I guess that Nero was no better than Robespierre, nor Caligula than Marat; but it is quite true that obedience and submission might secure the people from the edicts of the one, whilst that very obedience and that very submission would subject them to the vengeance of the other. Democracy without laws is the most horrible of despotisms." 88 ^ RISE AND FALL A curious incident, which occurred during their stay at Pittsburg, is related by General Cass, as connected with an American who subsequently acquired much distinction for the enterprise and military qualities he displayed, in con- ducting an expedition from Egypt to Derne, to co-operate with our naval forces in an attack upon that city. This was General Eaton, who, taking his seat one morning at the breakfast table, where Louis Philippe and his brothers, and the boarders of the house were assembled, called a female servant to him, and said, with a loud voice : " You gave me a d dirty room, and a d dirty bed, last night." The landlord who had heard the observation, or to whom it was repeated, immediately made his appearance, and walk- ing up to General Eaton, said : " You have had a d dirty room, and a d dirty bed, and as I keep a d dirty house, you will walk out of it." And out of it he was indeed compelled to go. At Pittsburg the travellers rested several days, and formed an acquaintance with some of the inhabitants. Thence the party travelled to Erie, and then down the lake shore to BafFalo. At Cattaraugus they found a band of Seneca Indians, to whom they were indebted for a night's hospital- ity ; for there were then few habitations except Indian wig- wams upon the borders of the internal seas of America, and still fewer vessels, except birch canoes, which sailed over their waves. Among this band was an old woman, taken prisoner many years before, and now habituated to her fate, and contented with it. She was a native of Germany, and still retained some recollection of her native language and country ; and the faint, though still abiding feeling, which connected her present condition with her past, led her to take an interest in the three young strangers who talked to her in that language, and of that country. She exerted herself therefore to render their short residence among her friends as comfortable as possible. The chief assured the travellers that he would be personally responsible for every OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 89 article they might intrust to his care ; but that he would not answer for hjs people, unless this precaution was used. Accordingly every thing was deposited with the chief, sad- dles, bridles, blankets, clothes and money ; all which being faithfully produced in the morning, the day's journey was commenced. But the party had not proceeded far upon their route when they missed a favorite dog, which they had not supposed to be included in the list of contraband articles requiring a deposit in this aboriginal custom-house, and had therefore left at liberty. This was a singularly beautiful animal, and having been the companion in impris- onment of the two younger brothers at the Castle of St. Jean, they were much attached to him. Louis Philippe immediately returned to seek and reclaim the dog, and the chief, without the slightest embarrassment, said to him, in answer to his representations, '* if you had intrusted the dog to me last night, he would have been ready for you this morning ; but we will find him." He immediately went to a kind of closet, shut in by a board, and on his removing this, the faithful animal leaped out upon his masters. The health of Beaujolais had suffered by three years' bad treatment and excitement in the damp prison at Marseilles, and the effects now began to display themselves, rendering frequent baitings necessary. Arriving at Bairdstown, he found himself indisposed, but the whole place was in commotion, and the whole family at the inn, father, mother, children, and servants, left their sick guest without attention. When the landlady made her appearance, the latter, a little impa- tient, asked why she had not left a servant to wait upon him. She answered with great animation, that there was a show there, the first that had ever been seen in Bairdstown, and she could not think of staying away herself, nor of with- holding any of her family. After ascending to the throne, Louis Philippe sent to Bishop Flaget a handsome clock for his Cathedral at Bairdstown, as a memorial of his visit. At Chillicothe the Princes stopped at the public house of 8* 99 RISE AND FALL a Mr. M'Donald, whom Louis Philippe saved from being severely beaten by a drunken customer whom the host thought himself able to eject from his bar-room. Such was Louis Philippe's first claim to the title of ** the Napoleon of Peace." Mr. M'Intire was their host at Zanesville. A few days afterwards, Louis Philippe acted as surgeon to an Indian chief, whom he bled in his wigwam with such success, that the tribe bestowed a high, though not very de- sirable honor, upon the white stranger. It was customary in this tribe, that the whole family, however illustrious, should sleep upon one spacious mat, the relations being all ranged according to proximity, rank, age, and other discriminating circumstances. In acknowledgment of the services ren- dered by Louis Philippe to the grandfather of the chief's family, he was permitted to pass the night upon the family mat between the grandmother and grand aunt, the highest honor ever conferred by that tribe upon any individual of any age or color. The travellers pursued their way to Buffalo, and there crossed over to Fort Erie, and then repaired to the Falls of Niagara on the Canadian side, the state of the country on the American side preventing all direct communication between Buffalo and the Cataract. From Buffalo they pro- ceeded to Canandaigua, through a country almost in a state of nature, and by paths, rather than roads, which to this day seem to furnish Louis Philippe with his heau ideal of all that is marshy and difficult, and even dangerous, in travel- ling. In one of the worst parts of this worst of roads, they met Mr. Alexander Baring, the late Lord Ashburton, whom Louis Philippe had known at Philadelphia, where he had married a daughter of Mr. Bingham. Mr. Baring was on a visit to the Falls of Niagara, and having almost ex- hausted his patience at the state of the roads, and the diffi- culties he had encountered, he expressed a doubt whether Niagara itself would furnish an adequate recompense for the fatigue and privation necessary to reach it. The travel- OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 91 lers, after a few moments' conversation in the swamp, pur- sued their respective routes ; Mr. Baring telling Louis Phi- lippe that he had left an almost impassable road behind him, and Louis Philippe answering by the comfortable as- surance that Mr. Baring would find one no better before him. They continued their route to Geneva, where they pro- cured a boat, and embarked upon the Seneca Lake, which they ascended to its head ; and thence they made their way to Tioga Point upon the Susquehannah, each of the travellers having carried his baggage for the last twenty-five miles upon his back. The load was no doubt heavy, and the task labori- ous ; but perhaps the burden which the King now bears (luckily for his own country and for Europe) is more oppres- sive than the weight which the Duke of Orleans carried through the forest and over the hills of the Susquehannah. From Tioga the party descended the river in a boat to Wilkesbarre, and thence they crossed the country to Phila- delphia. In the following letter, dated from Philadelphia, the 14th of August, 1797, and written by the Due de Montpensier to his sister, the Princess Adelaide of Orleans, he describes the incidents and impressions of this journey : " I hope you received the letter which we wrote you from Pitts- burg, two months since. We were then in the midst of a great journey, that we finished fifteen days ago. It took us four months. We travelled 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 upon hired horses, and partly in the stage, or public conveyance. We have seen many Indians, and we remained several days in their country. They received us with great kindness; and our national character contributed not a little to this good reception, fur they love the French, After them, we found the Falls of Niagara, which I wrote you from Pittsburg we were about to visit, the most interest- ing object upon our journey. It is the most surprising and majestic 92 RISE AND FALL spectacle I have ever seen. It is a hundred and thirty-seven (French) feet high ; and the volume of vrater is immense, since it is the whole river St. Lawrence which precipitates itself at this place. I have taken a sketch of it, and I intend to paint a gouache from it, which my dear little sister will certainly see at our tender mother's ; but it is not yet commenced, and wiH take me much time, for truly it is no small work. " To give you an idea of the agreeable manner in which they travel in this country, I will tell you, my dear sister, that we passed fourteen nights in the woods, devoured by all kinds of insects, after being wet to the bone, without being able to dry our- selves, and eating pork, and sometimes a little salt beef and corn bread." FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF TALLEYRAND. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 93 CHAPTER XII. Returning to Philadelphia in June, 1797, the Princes had scarcely time to locate themselves ere the yellow fever broke out with violence, and they were counselled to follow the examples of all persons of respectability, and to leave the city. But this was impossible, owing to the reduced state of their finances, and they were forced to remain until the fall, when they received supplies from their mother, and proceeded northward by the way of Trenton. In New York the Princes were guests of Talleyrand, who inhabited a small house in the environs of the city, and was on the point of setting out for Boston when they arrived, to transact some commercial affairs. He persuaded his wandering countrymen to join him, and taking passage on board the sloop " Yankee Blade," they traversed the Sound in seven days to Providence. Here places were secured in a stage which was to start in three days, and which was a day and a half on the road to Boston. They were set down at the Hancock House in Corn Lane, then kept by a Mrs. Brazier, who was often afterwards mentioned by Louis Philippe to Bostonians as a pattern housewife. The arrival of the Princes in the metropolis of New England was announced in the Columbian Centinel of October 21st, 1797, then edited by Major Russell, to whom Louis Philippe had made himself known as a brother free- mason, possessing means scarce sufficient for a week's sub- sistence. The Prince did not ask that direct charity which had been given to Brissot and other French masons by the Boston Lodges, but " offered him some books of great value." Without cheapening, the Major purchas d them. He penetrated the exigency. He gave the assistance cir- 04 RISE AND FALL cuitonsly which he had too much delicacy, too nice an appre- hension of the sensitiveness of greatness in distress to offer directly, and an atlas, among the books thus purchased, he kept through life. To the claims of misfortune he never turned a deaf ear, whether his brother came from afar or from the next door, whether he was a pauper or a Prince. It is the distress, not the rank of the sufferer, which creates the claim to Masonic assistance." * On the afternoon of the above announcement, Major Russell took the Princes to witness the launch of the Con- stitution into that element upon which she has since won so much honor, and they afterwards visited the monument erected to the memory of Dr. Warren. By his advice they took board with a tailor named Amblard, whose house stood where the Globe Bank now stands, and every morning after breakfast they used to visit the Centinel office in Congress street, to read the foreign news in the exchange papers. Nor did Major Russell's good offices stop here; for he opened the columns of his excellent paper to Louis Philippe for the vindication of his father's memory from the black pall of infamy which shrouded it. The Centinel of Novem- ber 15th, t contains a curious letter purporting to be written by the confessor of " Egalite," before his execution. The writer goes on to say, that having proved to him by passages from Scripture that his " noble repentance would grant him salvation," " Yes," said the Duke, " I die innocent of the crime of which I am accused ; may God forgive my judges as I foro-ive them. I have indeed deserved death in order to expiate my sins. I have contributed to the death of an inno- cent person, and that has been my bane, but he was too good not to forgive me, — God will join us both with St. Louis." This letter, coupled with the gentlemanlike deportment of the Princes, opened to them the doors of the first houses * Baylies' Eulogy on Benjamin Russell. t This was kindly communicated to the compiler by the Rev. J. B. Felt. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 95 in the city, even those belonging to the Federalists, who lamented Louis XVI. as America's greatest benefactor, and were contending against a spirit which was endeavoring *' to organize Jacobin Clubs, as the legitimate organs of Ameri- can Government." Owing to the prevalence of the yellow fever in the more southern cities, Boston was then unusu- ally thronged with strangers, and Louis Philippe has often since spoken with great satisfaction of the plsasant evenings he passed at the houses of the Hon. H. G. Otis, John Am- ory, Esq., Col. Pickering, Gen. Knox, and others. He also recollected a Museum which was a place of fashionable resort, dancing assemblies given by Monsieur Duport, and the humble Roman Catholic chapel, which had just been graced by the pious Cheverus. Talleyrand was meanwhile busy in making purchases for the West India market, and wishing to visit the lumber contractors in Maine, the Princes joined him. They left Boston in a covered wagon, and passed some days at New- buryport, riding up one bank of the Merrimac to Haverhill, and returning by the other ; and it once afforded great pleasure to the compiler of this work to hear Louis Philippe speak in high praise of this beautiful, though neglected river : " Earth has not any thing to ghow more fair." Journeying northward, the Princes were for a week guests at the Martin farm, on the borders of Sagamore creek, near Portsmouth. The Martin homestead is still standing, and some flowers sent from its garden to the Tuileries after Louis Philippe had ascended the throne, were acknowledged by an autograph letter. At Gardiner they accepted the hospitality of General Henry Dearborn, who occupied a house built in 1785, and destroyed by fire while the first sheet of this work was in press. Kosciusko had arrived in the United States, and the papers announcing that Lafayette and the Duchess of Or- 96 RISE AND FALL leans were on their way, the Princes returned to New York by Boston, Worcester, Hartford, New Haven, and New London. Letters of introduction given them in Boston pro- cured them a hospitable greeting, and General Cass says that Governor Clinton, Judge Jay, Colonel Burr, and Colonel Hamilton appear to have been well known to Louis Phi- lippe. One day Talleyrand invited the Princes to join him on a fishing excursion, and they left in a small sail-boat without any attendant. The weather was delightful, the wind fair, and their boat glided along up the East River, the exiles singing some of the glees which they had learned at the Court of Versailles. All at once, they found themselves drawn into a large eddy, in which their frail craft was carried round and round with considerable velocity, and they were forced to ply their oars in order to escape. Louis Philippe used often to speak of Hell Gate, and laugh at the fears of the ex-bishop Talleyrand, which displayed them- selves in a continued volley of curses. The commercial emporium of America was then a com- paratively small town, and when a map of New York was exhibited to Louis Philippe in 1838, he could scarce credit its astonishing growth. With the lower part of the city, however, he appeared to be perfectly familiar, and descanted on the fine view from the Battery, and the meats at Fly Market, in a manner that would have gladdened the heart of Knickerbocker. Instead of welcoming their mother to the land which had been a peaceful refuge to the Princes, they learned while at New York from the newspapers that she had been transported with the Prince of Conti and the Duchess of Bourbon to Spain. A law had been passed at the close of the 18th of Fructidor, banishing every Bourbon from France, and the affectionate trio of exiled sons were again sorrowful. '' My poor mother, my beloved mother ! " ex- claimed Louis Philippe; " she also is included in this unjust OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 97 and severe decree ! What has she done to France, but love it, cherish it, plead for it, weep over it, suffer for it ? We will speedily join her. She is gone to Spain ! Dearest mother, thou shalt not remain sonless as well as a widow whilst we are alive! " From that moment their resolution was taken; but how long it was before it could be carried into effect ! England and Spain were at war. The com- munications between the United States and the Peninsula were, therefore, either interrupted or dangerous, and many difficulties opposed themselves to the realization of their filial enterprise. The only practicable route which offered itself was to repair to Louisiana over land, and then endeavor to find a vessel bound for Havana, whence English vessels sailed for Europe. The Princes accordingly left Philadelphia on the ICth of December, 1797, on horseback, but Beaujolais becoming fatigued, they purchased a wagon. Arriving at Carlisle on Saturday, when the town was full of the neighboring yeomen, they drove up to a public house, in front of which was a feeding-trough for the use of travellers, who might not choose to have their horses put up in the stable. The bits were removed, and while the horses were feeding, they became frightened by a passing squad of volunteer soldiers, and dashed off at full speed. For a while they kept on well enough, and the Princes began to congratulate them- selves, when they came to a tree which remained standing in the centre of the road, with a path on either side of it — as is often seen at the present day in the far West. One of the horses chose to pass on one side, and his fellow on the other, so the pole came in violent contact with the tree, and the occupants of the wagon were thrown out with great violence. Stunned by the fall, Louis Philippe lay for some moments insensible, but on recovering, managed to bind up and draw blood from his arm. Quite a crowd had collected to watch the operation, and as at that period the New England States were sending out swarms of emigrants to 98 RISE AND FALL Ohio, it was thought that he was a Yankee doctor, going West to establish himself. Apparently satisfied with the surgical ability which the new Esculapias had displayed, the Squire and other notables of Carlisle endeavored to persuade him to remain and commence his professional career amongst them. They offered to guarantee him a good living, feeling certain, to use their own words, that a man who could doctor himself so well, was calculated to heal others, and were quite disappointed when he declined their proposition. " Perhaps," said Louis Philippe when relating this anecdote to an American gentleman in 1845, "I should have lived happier as the Doctor of Carlisle than as the King of the French ! " When the Princes reached Pittsburg, they found the Monongahela frozen, bat the Alleghany open. They pur- chased a keel-boat, then lying in the ice, and with much labor and difficulty transported it to the point where the two rivers meet and form the Ohio. There the party embarked on that river, which they descended, along with three persons to aid them in the navigation. Before airiNin^ at Wheelinof, the river became entirely obstructed by the ice, and they were compelled to land and remain some days. They found Major F , an officer of the United States' army, charged with dispatches for the posts below, detained at the same place. On examining the river from the neigh- boring hills, they ascertained that the region of ice extended only about three miles, and kept themselves prepared to take advantage of the first opening which should appear. This soon came, and they passed through, and continued their voyage ; but Major F , who had not been equally alert, missed the opportunity, and remained blockaded. He did not reach the lower part of the river till three weeks after our travellers, and it is suggested by General Cass, from whom we continue to quote, that he should have been presented with a leaden paddle. At Marietta the party stopped and landed, and a circum- OP LOUIS PHILIPPE. 99 stance connected with this event shows Louis Philippe's extraordinary memory. When King of the French, he asked an American gentleman if he was ever in Marietta. As it happened, this gentleman had spent some years in the early part of his life there, and was able to answer in the affirmative. " And do you know," said Louis Philippe, *' a French baker there named Thierry?" The gentleman knew him perfectly well, and so answered the inquiry. " Well," said the King, " I once ran away with him," — and then proceeded to explain, that, in descending the Ohio, he had stopped at Marietta, and gone into the town in search of bread. He was referred to this same Mr. Thierry ; and the baker not having a stock on hand, set himself to work to heat his oven in order to supply the applicant. While this process was going on, Louis Philippe walked over the town, and visited the interesting ancient remains which are to be found in the western part of it, near the banks of the Muskingum, and whose history and purposes have given rise to such various and unsatisfactory speculations. Louis Philippe took a sketch of some of these works, which are indeed among the most extensive of their class that are to be found in the vast basin of the Mississippi. On his return he found the ice in the Musk- ingham on the point of breaking up, and Mr. Thierry so late in his operations, that he had barely time to leap into the boat with his bread, before they were compelled to leave the shore, that they might precede the mass of ice which was entering the Ohio. The baker thus carried off, bore his misfortune like a philosopher ; and though he mourned over the supposed grief of his faithful wife, he still urged the rowers to exert themselves, in order to place his young countrymen beyond the chance of injury. They were finally successful ; and after some time, Mr. Thierry was taken ashore by a canoe which they hailed, well satisfied with his expedition. The devscent of the Mississippi river was at that day a 100 RISE AND FALL voyage of considerable danger, but Louis Philippe after- wards referred to it as one of the most excitingly interesting portions of his peregrinations. All the principal localities continued fresh in his mind, and not a year before his dethronement, the compiler saw a list of scenes which he wished to have sketched. One afternoon, by the inatten- tion of the helmsman, the boat struck a " snag," and stove in her bows. All the crew, Princes and hired men, went to work ; and after twenty-four hours, the damages were repaired. They reached New Orleans in safety on the 17th of February, 1798. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF LAFAYETTE. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.- 101 CHAPTER XIII. Louisiana had passed from the French to the Spanish crown, but the Princes found at New Orleans many countrymen who loaded them with attentions, and the Governor, Don Gayoso, not only welcomed them at his palace, but promised them a passage to Havana in a man- of-war which he daily expected. After waiting for it five weeks, Louis Philippe became impatient, and finding an American brig bound for Cuba, the brothers took passage in her. Crossing the Gulf of Mexico, they were met by an English frigate, sailing under the tri-colored flag, which fired a gun as a signal for the brig to lie to, and sent a boat to board her. The Princes had seen with despair the hated emblem of the Republic, which threatened them with im- prisonment if not death, and descended into the cabin to destroy some of their papers. While thus employed, they heard the officer come on board, and soon a bluff English voice called out at the top of the companion-way : " Come, tumble up my lads, you must follow us." Going on deck they found that their captors were in want of seamen, and were told without much ceremony, that they would make " first rate fore-top-men." " God knows," said Montpensier, "where they will take us to now — perhaps we shall have to sail round the world." Alongside of the frigate, when the lieutenant was about to go up the side, Louis Philippe said, with that air of dig- nity which he knew so well how to assume : " Will you have the goodness to tell your captain that I am the Duke of Orleans, on my way, with my brothers the Duke of Mont- pensier and the Count of Beaujolais, to Cuba? " In a few moments that oflficer came to the gangway, and after intro- 9* 102 - RISE AND FALL ducing himself as Captain Cochrane, invited the Princes on board. Unluckily for Louis Philippe, the side-rope gave way as he was stepping from the gunwale of the boat to the accommodation ladder, but as he was a good swimmer, he escaped with a thorough ducking. " You are bound for Cuba," said Captain Cochrane, when he reached the deck, " and to make amends for this detention and salt-water bath, I will take you there, though I cannot land you." He then very unceremoniously impressed a portion of the American crew, (for in those days Britannia ruled the waves,) and steering for Cuba, landed his passengers there on the last day of March, 1798. No opportunity offered itself for going to Europe, and although the Princes are said to have lived in the most retired manner, confining themselves to study and exercise, and carefully restraining from expressing any political opin- ions, the home government at Madrid no sooner were in- formed of their presence at Havana than it commanded them to leave. A revolutionary spirit had begun to develope itself in the colony, and it was deemed so unsafe for a French Jacobin who had been a noted radical to reside there, that by an order dated at Aranjuez on the 21st of May, 1799, the Captain-General of Cuba was no longer to tolerate the presence of the Princes of Orleans, but was to send them directly back to New Orleans. Fortunately they found a Spanish cartel bound for the Bahamas and thence to Hali- fax, where the Duke of Kent, (the father of dueen Vic- toria,) received them kindly, but did not feel authorized to give them a passage to England in a government ship, with- out first obtaining permission from London. This the brothers were not disposed to wait for, and they re-embarked on board a small vessel bound for New York, where, after many annoyances before they could raise the requisite passage-money, they took an English packet for Falmouth, where they landed in February, 1800. Their sister Adelaide had obtained permission from George HI. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 1 03 for them to reside in or near London, and they hired what has since been known as the Orleans House at Twickenham, a picturesque village on the banks of the river Thames, then called " the Muses' Haunt," for it was the favorite retreat of the literary, as well as the fashionable citizens of the metropolis. The house is situated near Pope's Villa, " Close by those meads, forever crowned with flowers. Where Thames with pride surveys his rising towers." It is large and commodious, with an octagonal room con- nected with it by a long gallery, built by Mr, Secretary Johnson, for the purpose of entertaining Caroline, Queen of George H., at dinner. This room was Louis Philippe's private study. Louis XVni. then resided at Mettau, in Germany, with a few emigrant nobles, who endeavored to keep up the ceremonious etiquette of a court ; while the Prince of Conde, at the head of a small army, had an occasional skirmish with the French troops. The Count of Artois, after- wards Charles X., was in London, with several other Princes of the elder Bourbon branch ; and a contemporary writer in Fraser's Magazine, (from whom I borrow largely,) says that the arrival of the three sons of " Egalite " in England was to them an event of importance, while all politicians regarded it with curiosity. '' What is the object of Louis Philippe in coming to London ? " was a question every where put. That the brothers and the child of Louis XVL should feel an aversion to the offspring of the ungrateful kinsman who had voted for the death of their brother and father, cannot excite surprise — the defection of Louis Philippe when under Dumouriez, with his once trumpeted radical principles, and known ambition to grasp the throne, rendering him an object of particular suspicion and mistrust. The Count of Artois determined to ascertain his views if possi- ble, and taking advantage of the temporary absence of 104 RISE AND FALL Montpensier and Beaujolais for the purpose of sea-bathing at Brighton, invited Louis Philippe to visit him at his resi- dence in Welbeck street, Cavendish square. The invitation was promptly accepted, and at the first visit no allusion was made to politics, or family affairs, save that much talked of state secret, — the Man in the Iron Mask. Asked, during his reign, by one of our American Ministers who this mysterious personage was, Louis Philippe replied : " I cannot tell you — the same question was put to me by Charles X. when I first called upon him in London, and I could not answer it." " No one knows, then," said Charles X., " but I well remember one day at Versailles surprising the Queen Marie Antoinette on her knees before Louis XVI., imploring him to tell her. This he refused to do, declaring that it was a secret only to be confided to his successor, though, after all, it was a person of no great importance, and not worthy of the interest attached to him." All the rules of etiquette were strictly observed, and on taking leave, Louis Philippe was invited to return to dinner a few days afterwards. Then the Count of Artois proposed a reconciliation with Louis XVIIL, and Louis Philippe expressing great happiness at the idea, the former said : *' The King will be pleased to see you, but it will be advisa- ble for you to write him." When the Count of Artois visited Twickenham the next morning, Louis Philippe showed him the draft of a letter he had prepared, expressing his deep regret at the fatal vote of his father, and his own horror at the enormities perpetrated by the regicide faction in France, but not disavowing his own radical principles, or his attempts to grasp the crown. This was not the thorough recantation desired by the elder branch, but Louis XVIII. had so much love for his cousin that he accepted it, and from that day were renewed the favors heaped upon the Orleans branch by the legitimate Bourbons. OP LOUIS PHILIPPE. 105 Finding that Louis Philippe was not apparently organizing any conspiracy, Mr. Pitt introduced him to George III., who held a special levee at St. James Palace to receive him and his brothers. They also mingled in the most fashion- able and refined English circles, and so won good opinion as to gain influence enough to persuade Mr. Pitt to -send them, at their urgent request, in a ship of war to Minorca. From that place they had hoped to cross over into Spain, where their mother was residing at Figueiras, in Catalonia, Napoleon having generously given her a large portion of the confiscated revenues of her husband, on condition that her sons should not serve against his government.* A Neapoli- tan corvette luckily touched at Mahon shortly after their arrival, which conveyed them to Barcelona, but so great was the aversion of the Spanish government to the sons of the ungrateful regicide, that they were not allowed to go into the interior. The Duchess sent them as large a sum as she could spare, and gladly acquiesced in their desire to have their sister Adelaide, who had been living in Hungary with Madame de Genlis, with her. Devotedly attached to their mother, who had ever been kind and generous to them, the Princes felt deep regret at not being able to see her, but the Spanish Government was inexorable, and they were forced to return to Twickenham. This was in 1802, and for the five ensuing years the brothers led a retired and happy life, attended by the Chev- alier de Broval, who had been attached to their suite in their younger days. Beaujolais watched with interest the affairs of France and of the continent, keeping his brothers informed of what was going on in those eventful times — Montpensier painted some very pretty landscapes, (which were afterwards burned when Neuilly was sacked in 1848,) — and Louis Philippe devoted most of his time to the study * Memoires of Vallet. 106 RISE AND FALL of political economy. The constitution and laws of England were his favorite theme, and he became so much attached to them, and the land which has attained greatness under their action, that in July, 1804, he wrote to the then Bishop of Llandaff : "I quitted my native land so early, that I have hardly the habits or the manners of a Frenchman, and I can say with truth, that I am attached to England, not only by gratitude, but by taste and inclination. In the sincer- ity of my heart do I pray that I may never leave this hospi- table soil. But it is not from individual feeling only that I take so much interest in the success of England — it is also as a man. The safety of Europe, of the world itself, the happiness and independence of the human race, depend upon the safety and happiness of England." While thus flattering the English, so justly proud of their nation, and fond of hearing it praised by foreigners, Louis Philippe was devoted in his professions of fidelity to Louis XVllL, to whom he took the oath of fidelity. On receiving a copy of the protest of Louis XVIII. in favor of the rights of the Bourbons to the French throne, he wrote the follow- ing adhesion, signed it first, and wrote to the other members of the royal family to obtain their signatures. "We, the undersigned Princes, the brother, nephews, and cousins of his Majesty Louis XVIII., King of France and Navarre, being deeply impressed with the same sentiments with which our Sovereign Lord and King proves himself to be so gloriously ani- mated in his noble answer to the proposal made to him to renounce the throne of France, and to require of all the Princes of his house a renunciation of their imprescriptible rights to the succes- sion to that same throne, we declare — " That as our attachment to our duty and honor can never per- mit us to enter into any compromise regarding our rights^ we ad- here with heart and soul to the answer of our King : " That following his illustrious example, we shall never consent to the slightest step that might degrade the House of Bourbon, nor make it be wanting in its duty to itself, to its ancestors and its de- scendants : OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 107 " And that if the unjust exercise of superior power should suc- ceed (which God avert) in placing de facto but never de jure, on the throne of France^ any but our lawful King, we shall obey, with as much confidence as fidelity, the voice of honor, which bids us to appeal, unto uur last breath, to God, the French, and our swords. " Louis Philippe d'Orleans. "April 23, 1803." Unfortunately the health of the Dukes of Montpensier and of Beaujolais had been so impaired by their confinement in the dungeons at Marseilles, that they were seized with pulmonary complaints soon afterwards. The best medical aid was obtained, but Montpensier died, in his thirty-second year, on the 18th of May, 1807. A writer who knew him, says that he had a noble and tender heart, a fine, elevated mind, a high sense of honor, and a great love of order and truth. His remains were deposited in Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1829, bearing the following inscription — the joint composition of Louis Philippe and General Dumouriez : " Princeps illustrissimus et serenissimus Antonius-Philippus, Dux de Montpensier, Rigibus oriundus, Ducis Aurelianensis filius natus secundus, A tenera juventute In arniis strenuus, In vinculis indomitus, In adversis rebus non fractus, In secundis non elatus, Artium liberalium cultor assiduus, Urbanus jucundus, omnibus comis ; Fratribus, propinquis, amicis, patriae, Nunquam non deflendus, Uteunque fortunae vicissitudines Expertus, Liberali tamen Anglorum hospitalitate Exceptus Hoc demum in regum asylo Requiescit. 108 RISE AND FALL Nat. III. julii M. Dcc. lxxv. Ob. XVIII, mail M. dccc. vii. £Etat. xxx. In memoriam fratris dilectissimi Ludovicus-Philippus, Dux Aurelianensis, Hoc marmor posuit." The health of de Beaujolais declining also, the London physicians advised him to pass the winter in a milder and more genial atmosphere, recommending Malta, but he was unwilling to leave England. " I am positive," said he to Louis Philippe, " that my life will end like that of Mont- pensier ; why then should I seek a grave in a distant land, and lose the consolation of dying in this retreat where we at last found repose? Let us remain here on this hospitable shore, where I can die in your arms, and my ashes can be mingled with those of my beloved brother." Louis Philippe promising never to leave him, he consented to embark, and after a tempestuous passage they arrived in Malta. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 109 CHAPTER XIV. Bereaved and alone, Louis Philippe sought in change of scene some mitigation of his sorrows; and having received from Ferdinand IV., King of the Two Sicilies, an invitation couched in the most flattering terms to visit him, he em- barked for Messina, and crossed Sicily to Palermo. There he was received with regal hospitality, and succeeded in captivating the heart of Marie Amelie, who accepted his suit. Ferdinand gladly gave his consent to his daughter's marriage, for he was not only pleased with Louis Philippe, but wished to secure his military talents in case that Joachim Murat, who then ruled at Naples, should attempt to seize the remaining half of his kingdom. With his queen the case was different, for, like many other mothers, she had formed too many ambitious projects for her daughter's set- tlement in life, to give Jier to a young man who had little, save his talents and his sword. Just then, news was received at Palermo that Napoleon, having constituted himself the arbitrator between the King of Spain and his son Ferdinand, had resolved to deprive one of the present, the other of his prospective right to the crown, and to place the diadem of the peninsula on the brow of his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. This led to the long Spanish war, and the dueen of Sicily had strong hopes that her second son Leopold might secure the throne for himself, if aided by Louis Philippe as General of the royalists, who would rally around a Bourbon leader. She therefore appa- rently favored his attentions to her daughter, until she had persuaded him to accompany Prince Leopold to Seville. The English Minister at Palermo procured the two Prin- ces a passage on board of the British corvette " Thunderer," 10 110 RISE AND FALL to Gibraltar, from whence they intended going to Seville, but on landing were told that they could not enter Spain. In vain did Prince Leopold attempt to obtain permission from Lord Collingwood, the English Governor ; and Louis Phi- lippe hearing that George IIT. would stop his pension from the fund voted by Parliament for the support of the royal refugees, entered into a private compact which did him little honor. Abandoning his companion, he took passage on board the " Thunderer" for England, -where, on his arrival, he complained of Lord Collingwood' s course through the Sicilian Minister, in order to appease his intended mother- in-law, but, as was the previous understanding, accepted as an apology that " the Governor of Gibraltar but obeyed his instructions." The Princess Adelaide had followed her brother through the Mediterranean without being able to overtake him until after his arrival in England, and through her entreaties, the British government gave them passage on board a frigate to Malta, where they said their mother would join them, with the express understanding that Louis Philippe was not to visit Spain. They sailed from Portsmouth, and arrived at Malta in February, 1809. Taking a house in the city of Valetta, Louis Philippe at once entered into a correspondence with the Junta at Seville, and dispatched the Chevalier de Broval as his agent to the national faction, under the pre- tence of arranging an interview with his mother. The Junta gave him the command of an army destined to cross the-frontiers of Catalonia, and unite with the inhabitants of the southern provinces of France, who were violently opposed to Napoleon, and would rally under the banner of any Bourbon prince. Louis Philippe enjoying a high mili- tary reputation, De Broval, with the aid of Don Mariano Camereno, succeeded in organizing a large corps, who were to rise in arms, but the measure coming to the ears of Na- poleon, he suddenly invaded Andalusia with an overpowering army. The project not only proved a complete failure, but OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Ill loud murmurs were heard in the Junta against Louis Phi- lippe's conduct — he had either been culpably careless, or sold the Emperor his secret. The disappointment of the Queen of Naples in her Span- ish project, provoked her to oppose Louis Philippe's over- tures to her daughter, but he proceeded boldly to Palermo, and by facing his calumniators with an air of injured inno- cence, dissipated the fresh cloud which seemed about to gather over his fortunes. The charms of his society and conversation, the earnest pleading of Louis XVIIL in an autograph letter to dueen Maria Caroline, and the undis- guised attachment of the Princess for him, removed all obstacles, and they were affianced. Louis Philippe an- nounced the glad tidings to his mother, in a letter which shows the strong attachment he bore her — a good trait of character which covers many faults. In it he says: "Their Majesties having started some objections, I told them that I should have recourse to you, to which the Q.ueen replied — * Ah ! if that angel intercedes for you, it will be impossible to refuse you any thing ! ' I wish, dear mother, that I could give you a portrait of the Princess, who was destined for me even before her birth. It would be a feeble sketch though, for she combines so many good qualities, and is so accom- plished in my eyes, that it seems to me she has, in every thing, taken you, my good mother, as a model." The Duchess of Orleans received this letter at Port Mahon, where she had taken refuge from the persecution and sorrow to which she seemed destined. She had been deprived of her children in their infancy — her husband had deserted her, and then been beheaded — two of her sons had died in exile — her property had been confiscated — and her peaceful retreat at Figueras had been sacked by the Cata- lonians, provoked by Louis Philippe's conduct. Embarking on board of the British frigate " Resistance" on the 12th of October, she arrived at Palermo on the 15th, and one month afterwards attended the marriage of her first-born son. 112 RISE AND FALL *' The old Dachess," wrote Lord Collingwood, " who is a delightful old woman, seems to have forgotten all her misfor- tunes, (and they have been great,) and is very happy in the choice which her son has made of a wife." The nuptial benediction was pronounced on the 26th of November, 1809, in the old Norman chapel of the Royal Palace, in the presence of the Sicilian court and the offi- cers of the British squadron which protected them. " If ever a marriage contract was formed, between individuals of such exalted rank without the least admixture of ambi- tion or interest," observes Mr. Wright, " it was that of the Princess Amelie with the wanderinp- Duke of Orleans." The exiled Prince won a bride, who united to that piety and those personal graces, w^hich so well become the exemplary tenor of domestic life, large intellectual endowments, and a spirit and capacity worthy of her high Bourbon lineage. She constantly opposed his subsequent plottings to grasp the French crown, but after once ascendincr with him the throne, (where she at once heightened and relieved the grandeur of her position by all those moral excellencies which impart grace and dignity to greatness,) her pride revolted at leaving it like a fugitive criminal, and she besought Louis Philippe to mount his horse and " die like a king." No one was now louder in protestations of allegiance to the doctrines of legitimate sovereignty than Louis Philippe, and so great was his repentance for the revolutionary spirit which had previously marked his conduct, that he determined to show it in something more than mere words. After much mancEUvring, he succeeded in regaining the good will of the Regency at Seville, who sent him by Don Mariana Camereno, a commission in their forces. Though its accep- tance placed him in opposition to his old comrades, and to the tri-color under which he had won his early laurels, Louis Philippe accepted the commission with apparent joy, as will be seen by the following letter : OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 113 '* In accepting the honorable mission of combatting in the ranks of the Spanish armies, I not only do what my honor and inclina- tion dictate to me, but also comply with the wishes of their Sicil- ian Majesties, and of the Princes, my brothers-in-law, who are so eminently interested in the success of Spain against the tyrant who has striven to strip the august house I have the honor to have issued from, of all its rights. " It is indeed time that the glory of the Bourbons should cease to be a mere recollection to the nations whom their ancestors have so often led to victory.* * * Happy shall I be, if my feeble efforts can contribute to raising again and supporting the thrones subverted by the usurper, and to maintaining the independence and rights of the nations he has so long trampled upon. Happy, even, shall I be, if I be doomed to fall in this noble struggle, since, in every case, I shall have at least acquired, as your Majesty is pleased to tell me, the satisfaction of having been enabled to do my duty, and prove myself worthy of my ancestors. 4< # # * # Spain will recover her King and maintain her altars and throne; and, if it please God, I shall have the honor of accompanying the victorious Spaniards, when, by their noble exam- ple and with their assistance, their neighbors receive them. "Louis Philippe d'Orleans. "Palermo, May 7, 1810." English writers say that the Duke of Wellington, who then commanded in the Peninsula, disapproved of the invi- tation which had been sent to Louis Philippe, and regretted, for his honor's sake, that he accepted it. The Prince, how- ever, had no scruples when a chance presented itself of personal aggrandizement, even though in arms against the country, principles and men which he had once supported. He left Palermo on the 21st of May, 1810, and arrived at Tarragona in a fortnight, at an inauspicious moment, for the Catalonian army were in full retreat. Repairing to Cadiz, he met with a frigid reception from the Spanish leaders ; the English agents had an invincible repugnance to see him intrusted with a command, the Regency had discovered some of his intrigues, and the Cortes, taking all this into consideration, sent him a polite 10* 114 RISE AND FALL request to return to Palermo. Receiving this order of ban- ishment on the 30th of September, 1810, Louis Philippe, in a furious passion, went at once to the anti-chamber of the hall in which the Cortes were assembled, and demanded to be heard at the bar. The members appointed a committee to listen to his protest, which reported that his absence was necessary to the safety of Spain, and on the 3d of October he was forced to re-embark in a Spanish frigate, which landed him at Palermo. He learned on his arrival the birth of his son on the 2d of September previous — that Prince whose premature and melancholy death France so deplored. It has been insinuated, and not without foundation, that England gave Louis Philippe a handsome sum from her secret service fund to console him for his disappointment, and secure his assistance in carrying out her policy in Sicily. Certain it is that he opposed the Queen's wish to restore her husband to his Neapolitan throne, then usurped by Joachim Murat, and advocated the English j)lans for the temporary abandonment of Naples, that Sicily might be defended against the threatened French invasion. Louis Philippe, in connection with the English Minister, (who had 20,000 troops on the island to back him,) at last openly countenanced the resistance of the Sicilians to arbitrary laws forced upon them by the Neapolitan emigrants, and aided them in framinof a constitution in 1812, based on cer- tain privileges which the reigning dynasties in Sicily had respected for ages. Like the French charter of 1830, this constitution was soon set aside, and the Sicilians doomed to learn, by many years of oppression and suffering, how little the assurances of a Prince are worth, when his subjects are not the depositary, the guardian, and the avenger of their own riorhts. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 115 CHAPTER XV. For seventeen years the flashes of French cannon had illuminated Europe, and the blood of soldiers fertilized her plains. Every street of Paris resounded vi^ith the crying of the bulletin and the beating of the drum ; and French ex- istence was a dream of arms, and uniforms, and decorations. The Empire was great and glorious — her victorious tri- color floated o'er once proud capitals — her common soldiers sat upon their thrones; but, as a reverse to this dazzling picture, her people were decimated and bankrupt. At last the flight of the conquering eagles was arrested — foreign hordes occupied Paris — and Napoleon was banished to Elba, while the Bourbons were restored to the throne. This news was brought to Palermo by an English vessel, on the 23d of April, 1814, when Louis Philippe, entering the Marine Hotel, occupied by the British legation, was met at the door by the Minister, who tendered him his warm congratulations. He could scarcely credit the news, but the Moniteur, as the organ of the French government, re- moved all doubts, and hastening to the adjutant-general's office, a royal salute soon pealed forth the welcome tidings. The next day an English frigate arrived, tendered to Louis Philippe by Admiral William Bentinck, then at Genoa, to convey him to France, according to instructions received from London. The English government wished to have so devoted an ally in Paris, though the French nobility evinced no wish to see him there. Indeed, the cunning Talleyrand said one day to Louis XVIII. " that he saw no necessity for hastening the return of Louis Philippe — that the air of Palermo seemed to agree with him so well, that perhaps it would be best he should remain there." 116 RISE AND P^ALL Arriving at Paris on the 18th of May, accompanied by White, his faithful valet, Louis Philippe put up at a hotel in the Rue Grange Bateliere, and when it was twilight started out to pay a stolen visit to the Palais Royal. The porters, who still continued to wear the imperial livery, were with difficulty induced to permit a stranger, clad in the cos- tume of Sicily, to penetrate the innermost apartments of the palace ; but the earnestness with which he pursued his survey left them little leisure to question him as to his object. As he approached the grand staircase, the recollections of his boyhood, the lustre of his ancient race, the agonies of mind he had endured since he last beheld that spot, and gratitude to that Providence which had spared him amidst such universal ruin, completely overwhelmed him, and, fall- ing prostrate on the tesselated pavement, he imprinted a thousand kisses on the cold white marble, whi^e tears gush- ing from his eyes indicated, while they relieved, the emotions with which he contended. The attendants of the palace looked on this scene of fervent feeling with surprise, some imagining that it was the workings of frenzy or of folly ; but on being informed that it was the long exiled and sole surviving son of Egalite — the Ulysses of modern ages — whom they beheld entering the palace of his fathers, after his wanderings over Europe and America, — pity was super- seded by admiration.* The next morning Louis Philippe presented himself at the Tuilleries in his Sicilian uniform, not choosing to wait for a French court suit, lest some injurious report might be circulated, and prejudice Louis XVIIL against him. That King received him with great kindness, saying : " Your Highness was a Lieutenant General in the service of France twenty-five years ago, and three days since, learning your return, I re-appointed you ! " " Sire," replied the Duke, * Wright's History of Louis Philippe. OF LOUIS PIIILTPPE. 117 " it will be in the uniform of that rank that I shall hence- forth present myself before your Majesty." In July, 1814, Louis Philippe went to Palermo for his family, on board the frigate " Ville de Marseille," which the King had placed at his disposition. He was accompanied by his aid-de-camps, Count St. Aldegonde and Baron Atha- lin — the latter of whom was afterwards united to Madame Adelaide by a morganic marriage, and was for many years her brother's most intimate friend. Returning to Paris, the Orleans family took up their residence at the Palais Royal ; but reports were soon circulated that Louis Philippe was plotting against the King, and he was treated with coolness and suspicion by the restored royalists. The landing of Napoleon at Cannes, on the 5th of March, 1815, was so entirely unsuspected, that Louis XVIII. was at first disposed to fly, but Talleyrand persuaded him to remain and adopt vigorous measures against the usurper. He com- menced by issuing an ordinance declaring Napoleon a traitor and a rebel, for havino; re-entered France at the head of an armed force, and enjoined all civil and military officers to arrest him for trial before a court-martial. This was widely circulated, with the following proclamation from that arch- traitor, Marshal Soult, annexed — a disgraceful piece of in- gratitude from a man whom Napoleon had raised from the ranks to load with favors, and who, years afterwards, was purchased by Louis Philippe. " Soldiers ! that man, who so recently abdicated, in the face of Europe, a usurped power, of which he made so fatal a use, Bona- parte, has descended upon the French. soil, which he ought never to have seen again. What does he desire? Civil war. Whom does he seek? Traitors. Where will he find them ? Will it be among the soldiers whom he has deceived and sacrified a thousand times, in misleading their valor? Will it be in the bosom of their families, through which his very name sends a shudder? Bona- parte despises us enough, to think that we are capable of abandon- ing a legitimate and beloved monarch, to share the lot of a man 118 RISE AND FALL who is now a mere adventurer. He believes it, madman that he is ! His last act of insanity reveals hhn entirely. Soldiers, the French army is the bravest in Europe ; it will also be the most faithful. Let us rally around the stainless lilied banner, at the voice of the father of his people, the worthy inheritor of the virtues of the great Henry. He has himself traced out to you the path which you ought to follow : he has put at your head that Prince, the model of French chevaliers, whose happy return to his country lias chased the usurper from it, and who now sets out to destroy his single and last hope. " Le Marechal Due de 1)almatie." The next step of the King was to send for Louis Philippe, but the suspicions he had entertained against him were dis- sipated by the frank air with which he said : " Sire ! I am prepared to share both your bad and good fortune ; for, al- though a royal connection, I am still a subject. Dispose of me as your Majesty pleases for the honor and the peace of France." He was sent to Lyons with the Count of Ar- tois to attend a council of war, at which measures were to be taken to oppose Napoleon's progress; but Marshal Macdon- ald showing the impossibility of such resistance, Louis Phi- lippe returned to Paris. He sent the Duchess to his old English residence at Twickenham, with her two sons, the youngest of whom was born on the 25th of October, 1814, and christened Duke of Nemours. Madame Adelaide pre- ferred remaining with General Athalin. Louis Philippe was now the favorite adviser of the King, and endeavored to stop the approach of Napoleon, but in vain, for the regiments sent to oppose him ranged themselves suc- cessively under his triumphant banner, and the disbanded sol- diers abandoned their occupations, put on their old uniforms, and followed the cherished tri-color. In twenty days the small escort with which the Emperor had left Elba, swelled into an army of forty thousand men, reached Paris — a march of two hundred and forty leagues. What a glorious reali- OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. . 119 zation of the promise made them by Napoleon on landing in France. " Soldiers ! come and range yourselves under the standards of your chief; his existence is only composed of yours ; his rights are only those of the people and yours ; his interest, his honor, his glory, are no other than your interest, your honor, and your glory. Victory shall march at the charge step : the eagle, with the national colors, shall fly from steeple to steeple, even to the towers of Notre-Dame. Then you will be able to show your scars with honor ; then you will be able to glory in what you have done ; you will be the deliverers' of the country. In your old age, sur- rounded and esteemed by your fellow-citizens, they will hear with respect while you recount your high deeds ; you will be able to say with pride : — ' And I, too, was part of that grand army, which entered twice the walls of Vienna, those of Rome, of Ber- lin, of Madrid, of Moscow ; and which delivered Paris from the foul blot which treason and the presence of the enemy imprinted on it.'" Accompanied by Marshal Mortier, Louis Philippe had visited the fortified towns in the northern military division (which had been placed under his command), and made ear- nest appeals to the fidelity of the garrisons, whom he entreat- ed to remain steadfast to their King. But the veterans of the " grand army " were not very favorably disposed to listen to one who had deserted the tri-color under which he had fought in youth, and now considered it his " principal dis- tinction to have escaped the contaminating victories of an usurper," whom he intended to punish as a criminal. Na- poleon reached Paris on the 20th of March, (the birth- day of his son in 1811,) and Louis Philippe, who had left the Tuileries that morning, found the gates of every fortress he came to, as he pursued his rapid journey northward, closed against him. The commanders had been notified by telegraph that : " The Emperor entered Paris at the head of the troops sent against him, — the authorities, both civil 120 . RISE AND FALL and military, must obey no orders but his — and the tri- colored flag must again be hoisted." The war spirit, which thus changed the government of France, as by a miracle, was thenceforth used by Louis Philippe to advance his own views, and ere leaving France for Twickenham, he sent the following conciliatory letter to Marshal Mortier. " My dear Marshal — I love my country too well to sacrifice the interests of France because new misfortunes have forced me to quit it. I depart, intending to live in retirement. The King being no longer in France, I can transmit you no further orders in his name, and I release you from the observance of those which have been sent to you. You will act as your pure patriotism and your excellent judgment will dictate, for the best interests of France, and the proper performance of your duties. Adieu, my dear Marshal ; how my heart is grieved in writing that word ! Let me rely upon your friendship wherever fortune may lead me, and be assured always of mine. What I have seen of you for the short time we have been together, will never be effaced from my memory. My admiration for your loyalty and your noble charac- ter is only equalled by my esteem and my love, and I cordially wish yoQ, my dear Marshal, all the happiness you merit, and which I hope may yet be in store for you. L. P. D 'Orleans." While the army rallied around Napoleon, supporting his imperial schemes for recovering his former position, the bourgeoisie shrank back from the conqueror who had driven his war chariot over industry and commerce, with no law, save his individual will. They remembered the heavy taxes levied to maintain the army ; the conscriptions which had absorbed the male population until the deaths exceeded the births ; and when they recovered their self-possession, strongly opposed the efforts of Napoleon to re-establish his absolute rule. Du- pont de I'Eure,* then Vice-president of the Representative Chamber, asserted their rights with an intrepidity which fully * Dupont de I'Eure. Note C. DUPONT DE L'EURE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 121 proved the sincerity of his attachment to the cause of true liberty, and Napoleon promised to respect the mercantile and industrial interests. But these promises, it was soon seen, were not intended to be fulfilled, and the bourgeoisie refused to oppose the invading armies by stirring up the populace, so imbued with the war spirit, or by rushing itself to arms. The cannon of Waterloo broke the talisman which seemed to give Napoleon a supernatural command, and the Bourbons re-en- tered France, '* floated on the tide of invasion, like its foam." Meanwhile Louis Philippe had been busy at Twickenham in attaching to his interest the leaders of the bourgeoisie which was becoming so powerful at Paris, together with some ambitious military men, and had in his pay the cel- ebrated Fouche, who managed to get himself nominated a member of the Provisional Government after the battle of Waterloo. Determined to retain his official position, let who would be ruler of France, Fouche corresponded with the court of Louis XVIIL at Ghent, and with the partisans of Napoleon II. at Vienna, while he addressed letters to every member of the Congress of Nations, advocating the claims of Louis Philippe. " The personal qualities of the Duke of Orleans, the recollections of Jamappes, the possi- bility of forming a treaty which could conciliate all inter- ests, the name of Bourbon, which will be of service out of France without being named at home — all these objects offer in the choice of the Duke of Orleans a prospect of repose and security, even to those who would look upon it as promising tranquillity." Talleyrand was of the same opinion, and so inoculated the mind of the Emperor Alex- ander, that he persuaded him to ask one day in full Congress : *' Would it not be for the interest of Europe that the crown of France should be placed on the head of the Duke of Orleans'?" After the first feelings of stupefaction which followed this unexpected proposition had subsided, it was evident that Louis Philippe had at least an equal chance with the elder branch, until Lord Castlereagh, by virtue of 11 122 RISE AND FALL instructions from London, opposed him with all his powerful influence. The Court of St. James feared that thus to elevate a collateral branch would establish a dangerous precedent, which would in time undermine all the thrones of Europe. It was resolved to re-establish Louis XVIII. at Paris, and Talley- rand wrote to Louis Philippe one significant word — " attcn- dez " — wait ! Returning to Paris, Louis Philippe found himself coolly- received at court, and the king made no secret of his limited confidence in him, although he annulled the act of seques, tration which Napoleon had imposed upon his estates. Prof- iting by a royal ordinance which called all Princes of the blood to take seats in the Chamber of Peers, he nobly oppos- ed an address to the King which called for vengeance against Ney, Labedoyere, Chartran and others. The address contain- ed the following paragraph : " Without depriving the crown of the benefits of clemency, we dare to recommend strict justice — we dare humbly to solicit from its equity, the necessary distribution of rewards and of penalties, and the purification of the public administration." Well aware that this was but the authorization of a new Reign of Terror, several Peers proposed partial amend- ments, but the infuriated royalists opposing them, Louis Philippe said : — " All that I have just heard, confirms me in the opinion that the Chamber should take a more decisive stand than that proposed by the amendments. I propose that the entire paragraph be suppressed. Let us leave to the King the care of providing, in a constitutional manner, the necessary precautions for the maintenance of public order. We must not make demands which will be the means of disturbing the tranquillity of the State. Our character of actual judges of those towards whom we recom- mend justice, rather than clemency, should impose upon us an absolute silence respecting them. Every annunciation of preconceived opinions appears to me a perversion of our judicial functions, and we constitute ourselves at once accusers and judges." OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 123 The proposition was adopted, though many fatal execu- tions and proscriptions took place, some of which, says an English writer, " overshadowed the great name of the Duke of Wellington, and revived the worst memories of the French Republic." Take, for instance, the cold-blooded murder of one of the bravest soldiers of France, which a word from ^' the Duke" might have prevented. A statesman of the time thus describes it: "At nine o'clock in the morning, Ney stepped into a hackney-coach, dressed in a blue frock. He had sent to ask M. de Semonville for a bottle of Bor- deaux, and had drunk it. The grand referendary accom- panied the Marshal to the coach; the cure of St. Surplice was by his side, and two officers of gendarmerie on the box. The dismal party crossed the Luxembourg gardens on the observatory side. On passing the iron gate it turned to the left and halted fifty paces further on under the wall of the avenue. The coach having stopped, the Marshal stepped out nimbly, and standing eight paces from the wall, said to the officer, * Is this the place, sir?' — ' Yes, Monsieur le Marechal.' Ney then took off his hat with his left hand, laid his rigrht on his heart, and addressing; the soldiers, cried out, ' Comrades, fire on me.' The officer gave the signal to fire, and Ney fell without making any motion." A repeal of the ordinance, by virtue of which the. Princes of the blood sat in the Chamber of Peers, was a direct rebuke of the course which Louis Philippe had pursued, indorsed by a positive refusal of his tendered services in the formation of the new government. Some of the minis- ters even urged his exile to Palermo, but Louis Philippe went voluntarily to England, and for the third time was a resident of Twickenham. 124 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XVI. During Louis Philippe's residence at Twickenham, he ''looked through the loop-holes of retreat," at what was going on in Paris with apparent indifference, but w^as in secret correspondence with the now degraded soldiers of the Imperial army and the bourgeoisie. At the head of the latter faction was the Duke Decazes, then and afterwards Louis Philippe's tool, and in every way calculated to carry out his schemes. Possessing an imposing person, insinu- ating manners, and business habits, he had risen from an inferior position through Louis Philippe's influence, and fully comprehended his position, carrying out the views of his patron with supple sagacity. Louis XVIII. was easily prepossessed in his favor by the political gossip with which he enlivened his reports as head of the Police, and when the dissatisfied Chamber of Deputies demanded a change of the first appointed Royalist Ministry, Monsieur Decazes received a port-folio, and riveted his position by saying in his bland manner : "I trust to make the King — not as Henry III. the Chief of the Leaguers, but as Henry IV. the father of his people." The Bourbons were thus flattered, like the Trappist monks, into digging their own grave, under the direction of the Duke Decazes — he obeying the orders of Louis Philippe. This recognition of the popular party on the part of Louis XVin., and the admission of their ostensible leader into his cabinet, was violently opposed by the partisans of arbitrary principles, headed by the Count of Artois, then heir appa- rent, who was naturally fond of contention and intrigue. Sustained by the remnants of ancient nobility, he demanded the re-establishment of the new rights of primogeniture and OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 125 entail, the restoration of church privileges, the proscription of all who had ever opposed the Bourbons, — in short, that France should be governed as she was under Louis XIV. These ultra views were sustained by Chateaubriand, De la Mennais, and other able champions, while, in support of the " King and People," pamphlets were published in pro- fusion by Madame de Stael, Benjamin Constant, the Abbe de Pradt, and a host of others of less notoriety. " With such leaders, it is easy to conceive that the quarrel was pur- sued with ample spirit, and there is no record in the annals of literary warfare of a controversy which has called for a more brilliant exhibition of taste and talent, or of which . . . "^ the monuments wdl be read with more interest in future times, when the party feelings of the present day shall have passed away forever." * Louis Philippe, strange as it may appear, openly espoused the feudal principles of the Count of Artois, whose favorite son, the Duke of Berri, was married on the 24th of April, 1816, to Carolina Ferdinanda Louisa, Princess of Naples, and niece to the Duchess of Orleans. One who knew her says, that her life is even more romantic than that of her uncle Louis Philippe, and that while few women have ever lived, whose passions have betrayed them into more acts of indiscretion and impropriety, few have ever possessed such admiring and devoted followers. When young, she had the art of making herself loved to a greater degree than almost any other woman of her time, and to this day the name of the Duchess of Berri carries a talismanic influence with it, even in the liberal saloons of Paris. Louis XVIIL was devotedly fond of her, and it was by her intercessions that Louis Philippe obtained permission to return to France, though the King would not receive him at Court except in the most formal manner, or permit him to assume the title of * Alexander H. Everett's French Revolution. 11* 126 RISE AND FALL " Royal Highness." Neither was he allowed to sit in the Chamber of Peers, or to hunt in the crown forests, for the King regarded him as a secret yet dangerous foe. Notwithstanding this want of cordiality at Court, Louis Philippe appeared to enjoy himself, holding levees at the Palais Royal, giving rural entertainments at his country palace at Neuilly, or inviting large parties to his marine villa at Eu, When with the Count of Artois he used to lament the policy of the King as being too much influ- enced by the hourgeois Decazes — yet that Minister was his frequent visitor, and the malcontents of all periods found his doors open to them. Horace Vernet decorated his saloons with pictures of the battles of the ^Empire, which attracted all the faithful friends of Napoleon ; Beranger used to sing his inimitable yet seditious songs at his table ; David reproduced the features of the leaders in '89 in mar- ble for his gallery ; Lafitte, with his mercantile friends, was always welcome ; Foy, Casimer Perier, and Manuel, were constant visitors — and to all of these he used severely to attack the conduct of the reigning House, deplore with them its attempts upon the liberties of the people, and ominously hint at a counter revolution. " Activity, persever- ance, caution, and patience, and ever be constant to the Palais Royal, my good friend," was ever the conclusion of these conferences.* The young Princes were sent to the public schools, and permitted to associate with the merry bands who play in the Tuileries, while Louis Philippe care- fully looked after his immense revenues. There were few joint stock companies established in which he had not shares, and his burly figure, with a large green umbrella under the arm, was often seen " on Change." For some years the Duke Decazes completely ruled France, by alternately encouraging the friends of constitu- * Memoirs of Jacques Lafitte, OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 127 tional monarchy and of hereditary succession, but in 1820 he overplayed his part, and called into the Cabinet new ministers from each faction. The hourgeoisie regarded this as an abandonment of the party which had raised him into power, and the Royalists looked upon the would-be pacifica- tor as a conquered suitor, so that his project was at once drowned by the waves of popular opinion which ran too high on either side for tranquillity. To annihilate it, came the terrible assassination of the Duke of Berri, with a dagger, as he was leaving the Opera on the 13th of Feb- ruary, 1820, by a journeyman saddler named Louvel, who had vowed to extirpate the Bourbons. This was adroitly laid to the progress of liberal sentiments, and the Royalists easily persuaded the King to dismiss his Ministry, M. de Chateaubriand remarking, "that the foot of M. Decazes had slipped in the blood of the Duke of Berri." Louis Philippe is charged with having instigated this assassination, but there is no prOof that he had the slightest cognizance of it, neither is it true that he protested against the legitimacy of the Duke of Bordeaux, son of the Duchess of Berri, who was born on the 29th of September following his father's murder. His connection with Charbonnerie is more certain, though the only evidence of that is the fact that his known emissaries were engaged in the complot, and had ample funds at their disposal. This Charhonnerie was modelled after the Carbonari o^ Italy, and although Louis Blanc chooses to assert that it was " hatched by Free Masonry," his subsequent description of its secret organization is a sufficient proof that it had not the slightest connection with that time-honored institu- tion. Some of its founders were undoubtedly members of the " Friends of Truth Lodge," which was deprived of its charter by the Grand Lodge for indulging in political discus- sion, and afterwards was implicated in a riot, where one of its members named Lallemand was killed. The disaffected then re-orgai^zed, calling themselves Charhonnerie, and adopting 128 RISE AND FALL a mystic code which, Louis Blanc says, with an air of would- be wisdom, rendered them " the militant part of Free Ma- sonry." These were its principal features : " It was agreed that around a parent association called the haute vente, there should be formed under the name of rentes centrales other associations, which again were to have under them ventes particulieres. The number of members in each association was limited to twenty, to evade the provisions of the penal code. The haute vente was originally composed of the seven founders of Charbonnerie, Bazard, Flotard, Buchez, Dugied, Carriol, Joubert, and Limperani. It filled up vacancies in its own body. " The following was the method adopted to form the ventes centrales: Two members of the haute vente took a third person as their associate, without making him acquainted with their rank, and they named him president of the incipient vente, at the same time assuming to themselves the one the title of deputy, the other that of censor. The duty of the deputy being to correspond with the superior association, and that of censor to control the proceed- ings of the secondary association, the haute vente became by these means the brain as it were of each of the ventes it created, whilst it remained, in relation to them, mistress of its own secret and of its own acts. " The ventes particulieres were only administrative subdivisions, having for objects to avoid the complications which the progress of Charbonnerie might introduce into the relations between the haute vente and the deputies of the ventes centrales. As the latter emanated from the parent society, so did the inferior societies from the secondary. There was an admirable elasticity in this arrange- ment : the ventes were speedily multiplied ad infinitum. "The impossibility of altogether baffling the efforts of the police had been clearly foreseen ; in order to diminish the impor- tance of this difflculty, it was agreed that the several ventes should act in common, without, however, knowing each other, so that the police might not be able to lay hold on the whole ramification of the system, except by penetrating the secrets of the haute vente. It was consequently forbidden every charbonnier belonging to one vente to attempt to gain admission into another, and this pro- hibition was backed by the penalty of death. OF LOUIS nilLIPPE. 129 " The founders of Charbonnerie had counted on the support of the troops ; hence the doable organization given to the system. Each rente was subjected to a military staff, the gradations of which were parallel with those of the civil officership. Corres- ponding respectively with charbonnerie, the haute vente, the venies centrales, and the ventes particulieres , there were the legion, the cohortes, the centuries, and the manipules. When Charbonnerie acted civilly, the military officership was in abeyance ; on the other hand, when it acted in a military point of view, the functions of the civil officers were suspended. Independently of the force de- rived from the play of these two powers, and from their alternate government, the double denominations they rendered necessary, affijrded a means of baffling the researches of the police. " The duties of the charbonnier were, to have in his possession a gun and fifty cartridges, to be ready to devote himself, and blindly to obey the orders of unknown leaders. " Charbonnerie, thus constituted, spread in a very brief space of time through all quarters of the capital. It made its way into all the classes of the university. An indescribable fire glowed in every vein of the Parisian youth ; every one kept the secret ; every one was ready to devote his life to the cause. The members of each vente recognized each other by means of particular signs, and mysterious reviews were held. Inspectors were appointed in several ventes, whose duty it was to see that no member failed to have a musket and cartridges. The members were drilled in their houses, and often was the exercise performed on a floor covered with straw. And all the while this singular conspiracy was extending itself, protected by a silence and reserve without par- allel, and surrounding the society with a thousand invisible meshes, the government was tranquilly slumbering in the shade ! " Thus far this mystic force was apparently directed by some invisible hand, whether that of Louis Philippe, or not, nothing positive is known. But it is clearly ascertained that upon admitting influential Republicans into the secret, they gave the matter a diflferent turn, and advocated a Provisional Government in case of an outbreak, to consist of Lafayette, Dupont de I'Eure, and three others. Then Manuel and his friends, who had thus far upheld Charlon- 130 RISE AND FALL nerie, more or less openly, withdrew their support, and endeavored to persuade Lafayette and his colleagues from sanctioning the intended outbreak. When it did burst forth, it was in so feeble a manner that Government easily suppressed it, the " four Sergeants," selected as examples, were beheaded in Paris, and " thenceforth Charbonnerie only dragged on its way through its martyr's gore." The assassination of the Duke of Berri and this danger- ous complot so deprived Louis XVIII. of all courage, that he surrendered his rule to the Count of Artois, whose con- duct grew more arbitrary than before. On the 6th of Sep- tember, 1824, the nominal King, who had drained the cup of voluptuousness to its bitter dregs, and over whose coun- tenance the ghastly pallor of death was fast stealing, was lifted into an arm-chair — to die. The Count of Artois was there, with his young grandson, and all the Cabinet minis- ters. " Before I die, Charles," said the expiring monarch, *' let me tell you that I have dealt with all parties as did Henry IV., and die in my room more fortunate than he was. Do you as I have done, my brother, and you will die as I die. I forgive you all the pain you have caused me." Then beckoning to have the Duke of Bordeaux led to him, he laid his hand on the boy's head, saying : " bless thee, my child, and may my brother husband tenderly your crown." Five minutes afterwards, the general officers heard foot- steps approaching the royal entrance of their saloon, and held their breaths — the doors were thrown open, and the Master of Ceremonies announced " the King, gentlemen ! " The Count of Artois, thenceforth Charles X., received the homage of all present, and then repaired to the balcony of the Palace, where the Master of Ceremonies, breaking his rod of office, cried " The King is Dead." His successor then stepped forward to the front of the balcony, and there went up from the assembled populace of Versailles a deaf- ening shout of " Vine le RoV Foremost among the cour- tiers who echoed it upon the balcony was Louis Philippe. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 131 CHAPTER XVII. Charles X., who had been most unpopular as heir to the throne, became the very idol of the Parisians on ascend- ing it, and an English writer, who was present when he first entered the capital, speaks of a religious enthusiasm which pervaded it in favor of the Chevalier King. Change itself was no inconsiderable blessing to such a people ; and wearied with a decrepid monarch, swathed in flannel, they delighted themselves in the possession of a King who en- joyed the pre-eminent advantage of bearing himself gal- lantly on horseback. Charles X. courted popularity, and had in his favor all the external circumstances which pro- cure li. Courteous, dignified, with a peculiarly royal air, and a singular grace of expression, his manner and his con- versation were very far superior to himself, though it is er- roneous, notwithstanding all his errors, to suppose that he did not possess a certa:in ability. Some generous expres- sions which were attributed to him on his entry into Paris, and the abolition of the censorship of the press, completed his popularity, and rendered him the idol of the Parisians. Even the Republicans, whom the last reign had inspired wdth a deep and almost desperate dissatisfaction, paused for a while ; but, first doubting, finally disappointed, they added to the list of their wrongs the vainness of those hopes that had been excited, and with a more dark and determined spirit pursued their reveries of revenge,* While they met at the Palais Royal, Louis Philippe was busily engaged in obtaining all that he could from the King, whose downfall he was plotting — even as his father had accepted favors * Bulvver's France. 132 RISE AND FALL from Louis XVI., while engaged in intrigues which he crowned with his fatal death vote. The new monarch was not forgetful of his uncle's pre- vious adherence, and in less than a fortnight after the old King died, would in person inform Louis Philippe that, by his decree, he was thenceforth to bear the title of " Royal Highness," so long coveted. A letter has found its way into print, giving an account of the interview : " Neuilly, 21st September, 1824. "I hasten, Sir, to inform you that the King having sent me word last night to be with him to-day at noon, I waited on his Majesty a few moments before he went to mass. As soon as I was introduced into his closet, I began by thanking him for his kind- ness, and added that we had been particularly touched with that he evinced to us the day before yesterday. Then, as 1 observed that I had never understood the distinction between the Royal Family and Princes of the Blood, and that I did not better un- derstand why there should be any other pre-eminence and dis- tinction among us than that of birthright, and the precedency that was derived from it, the King said that the late King had con- ceived a wrong notion on the point, which he had been sorry to see ; but that we were all one and the same family ; that we had but one common interest ; and that he wished us to consider him as a father, and ever to be most united. We intend going to-morrow to St. Cloud between eleven and twelve, in order to thank the King for his kindness in granting us the title of Royal Highness. " Louis Philippe." The Duchess of Orleans and her daughters were now constant visitors at the Palace, where they were received with the most marked attention, and greatly beloved. " They are delicious creatures, those demoiselles d'Orleans," said the Duchess of Berri, as they left on one occasion the favor- ite evening sitting-room of the royal family ; " there is not, dear grandpapa, such another family in your Majesty's do- minions." Indeed, too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the parental government of Louis Philippe, whose OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 133 home circle was the admiration of Paris. ^' Its members," wrote Madame de Genlis in her diary, " are charming by their personal attractions, by their natural qualities and edu- cation, and by the reciprocal attachment of parents and children." Under the pretence of providing for his children, the new "Royal Highness" was to have a law substituted for the ordonnance which conferred on him the Orleans ap- panages. Charles X., who, according to the words quoted by Louis Philippe above, wished all the Princes of his house to consider him as a father, resolved to gratify that wish also. He was obliged to have recourse to authority with a Royalist Chamber, which had inherited the distrust Louis XVHL entertained against the Orleans family. The majority, which belonged to the droite, wanted to reject the measure, but, according to M. Sarrans, Charles X sum- moned to the Tuileries the most untractable Deputies, and warned them that they would personally wound him if they rejected the clause relative to the Duke of Orleans ; and that he would consider as an attack on his family any attack that, in the debate on the Civil List, might be directed against the former conduct of a Prince, whose fidelity and devotedness were no longer doubtful. To render the matter certain, Louis Philippe prevailed on Charles X. to order the clause respecting the appanage to be inserted into his own civil list law, so that the one could not be rejected without the other being also rejected. This was what M. de Labourdonnaye, in his lively and pic- turesque language, called faire la contrabande dans les carosses du Roi. The distrust of the Royalist Custom- , house was thus overcome, and the smuggled article passed. M. Capefigue, a conservative historian, cites several other instances of favors heaped upon Louis Philippe, among them the following, which most people regarded as a di- rect gift. The patrimonial property of Louis Philippe had lawfully devolved to the State, at least to the amount of 12 134 RISE AND FALL 37,740,000 francs, which the State had paid to his father's creditors, in pursuance of the compact he had entered into with them on the 9th of January, 1792, which compact gave rise to the sequestration put on all his property in 1793. Now this sequestration was followed, in the 11th year of the Republic, by the settling of the creditors' claims, and pay- ment of most of them, whereby the State succeeded to the rights of the creditor. Nevertheless Louis Philippe was, on the solicitation of Charles X., and contrary to the will of M. de Viliele, his Minister, admitted to the amount of 16,000,000 francs into the liquidation of the indemnity granted to the emigrants by the law of the 17th of April, 1825. In May, 1825, Charles X. was crowned at Rheims with all the pompous magnificence and the monkish superstitions of the olden time. The sword of Charlemagne was girded to his side, the spurs of St. Louis were buckled to his heels, and when anointed with that holy oil " originally brought by a dove from heaven, to consecrate Bourbon kings," Louis Philippe shed tears of joy. He was, after the King, the most prominent actor on the occasion, and swore everlasting fidelity with a loud, clear voice. Not only did he strive to testify, by lively and multiplied demonstra- tions, his sentiments towards the King, but he was profuse in expressive gestures of devotedness whenever any of the royal family were mentioned. " It was quite worth while," says a historian, " to see Louis Philippe at the royal banquet, putting his hand to his heart at every toast to the King, Madame, and the Duke d'Angouleme. He himself would, at dinner, often shout * Vive le Roi ! ' as if moved by a powerful feeling, which could not wait for the moment of etiquette." One of Charles X.'s first regal acts was an edict, ordering the executioner to burn all copies of a book called "Memoires de Maria Stella,^' a woman who asserted that she was the dauo-hter of the late Duke of Orleans, and Louis Philippe OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 135 the son of an Italian, her mother having consented to their exchange when infants, in order to present her husband with an heir. He also prevailed on M. de Lamartine, wlien his coronation took place, to substitute for this line, which gave great pain to liOuis Philippe, *' Le fils a rachete les crimes de son pere," this other line, " Le fils a rachete les amies de son pere." Not long after this, Charles X. created Louis Philippe's eldest son Ferdinand, Knight of the Holy Ghost, and ap- pointed that young Prince Colonel of the Orleans Hussar Regiment. The Duchess of Orleans had also permission to present the infamous Madame de Feucheres at court, whence she had been expelled by Louis XVHL, a step which diverted the rich succession of the Duke of Bourbon from the Tuileries to the Palais Royal, It was only on the positive refusal of the Duchess of Berri to accept the offers of Madame de Feucheres, that the latter addressed herself to Louis Philippe — as will be seen in the following extract from Sarrut. " One day," says this reliable writer, " a per- son of the Duke of Bourbon's household, waited on one of the Duchess of Berri's high officers, and, after many pre- cautions, turned the conversation on Madame de Feucheres. * She has been ill-judged of,' said the visitor, ' and very severely treated. The expulsion from the Palace has caused her the utmost grief If there were means of obliterating that recollection, and of having the Baroness de Feucheres again admitted to Court, and if" Madame" condescended to use her influence for the purpose, I may venture to say that she would afford proof both of goodness and cleverness. The Duke of Bourbon is advanced in years. Madame de Feucheres's influence over him is greater than ever, and the house of Conde is rich, as you know. As regards the 136 RISE AND FALL Duke of Bourdeaux, his fortune is secured ; it is the Crown of France ; but such is not the case with his sister.' The answer returned was, that there existed not the slightest inclination to take charcre of such a neo^otiation, and that it was not doubtful that whoever took charge of it would meet with a very unpleasant reception. The Duchess of Berri, to whom this conversation was reported on the very same evening, greatly approved of the reply, and added that she would not hear of any such matters. The Barroness de Feucheres's emissary then addressed himself to Louis Phi- lippe, who eagerly received the overtures, and commenced that splendid campaign of the succession, which ended by Madame de Feucheres's return to Court, and the conquest of the invaluable will, which-has transferred all the property of the House of Conde to the Duke of Aumale." Anxious to render the fourth son of his '' beloved cousin Philippe," (as he was familiarly called at the Palace,) the richest Prince in Europe, by this succession, Charles X. ac- tually went so far as to command the members of his family to receive with politeness the unprincipled wanton, who grati- fied her vanity by taking advantage of her power over the feeble Duke of Bourbon. "To leave the fortune of the Condes," says Louis Blanc, "■ to a family which the enemies of the nobility and monarchy had had at their head, seemed to the old leader of the armed emigration a crime, and almost an act of impiety. He could not have forgotten that, transferring his Court into an assembly of regicides, one Orleans had voted the death of Louis XVI., and another Orleans had combatted under Dumouriez's banner. But, on the one hand, how could he refuse without insult what he was so well supposed to wish to give, and, on the other, how could he stand the passionate fits of Madame de Feu- cheres, through whose medium anticipated thanks reached him?"* * The Baroness de Feucheres. Note D. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 137 While thus granting favors to Louis Philippe, Charles X. pursued a reactionary political policy, which, could it have had its sway, would have entirely destroyed the liberties of France. An army of 100,000 men was sent into Spain to crush the Constitution — the milliard of indemnity money granted to the emigrant Royalists depressed government stocks — the National Guard was disbanded, — a law of primogeniture was proposed — the stamp-tax on newspapers was increased — and when some symptoms of independence were manifested by the Chamber of Peers, the offended Monarch was prevailed upon to avenge himself by creating seventy-six new members of that Assembly. In short, the unfortunate Charles X., with the swift descent of a misgiv- ing sinner, had plunged from the pinnacle of gay debauch, where he had sisjnalized his early days, down to the very depths of superstition. The Jesuits ruled France. With stealthy step, this crafty and ambitious sect had obtained such complete ascendancy, that the affairs of religion became the daily business of the State — a law was passed punishing sacrilege as parricide — another placed the medical schools under clerical rule — the opera dancers were commanded to elongate their dresses until only so many inches of neck and ancles should be exposed — the King walked through the streets of Paris in long monkish processions, chaunting the Miserere, and the Minister of War gravely informed the army (the successors of Napoleon's braves,) that the 16th Infantry was excellent at prayers, or the 10th Artillery incom- parable at Easter-service. Superstition and absolutism were the order of the day, but the bourgeoisie at last became so indignant, that the Ministry feared it could no longer com- mand a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and ordered the election of a new Chamber. It was decidedly liberal — so much so, that the King dismissed M. Villele and the other Ministers to call M. Martignac and his friends into the cabinet, and promised better things in future. There was hope for a time that these promises would all 12* 138 RISE AND FALL be realized, and the repeal of several ordinances which had oppressed the rights of the nation, won from it a cordial support of the throne. But Charles X. had no idea of yield- ing. Lord Wellington had arrested the march of reform in England — the French troops had put down liberty in Spain — Don Miguel, supported by Austria, had trampled on the Constitution of Portugal — Absolutism had full sway in Central Europe — and the French monarch determined to enforce an iron rule of despotism upon his subjects. Louis Philippe, advised of this outrageous attempt against the liberties of France, went over to England to ascertain what favor he would meet with if proclaimed King in the event of a change of government. His visit was satisfac- tory, and he had scarcely returned, when the formation of the Polignac cabinet struck the country with amazement. The friends of liberty asserted that France had never been so basely betrayed. " Yes," said M. de Berenger, " it was reserved for our heroic nation to receive from its King more outrages in one day, than any foreign power had ever dared to offer her." The words " Unfortunate France ! Unfortu- nate King ! " which headed an article in the '' Dehats " newspaper were echoed throughout the land, and the new cabinet was described as attracting into a focus, as it were, all the hostile, angry, and dangerous feelings that, differing one from the other, various and dispersed, were burning in the hearts of the people — and which, in order to be inevitable, only wanted to be concentred. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF CHARLES X. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 139 CHAPTER XVIII. After nine months passed in recriminations, the session of the Chambers was opened by a Royal speech, denouncing France as a hot-bed of sedition. " If unlawful movements," said Charles X., " raise up obstacles in the way of my gov- ernment, an event which I cannot and will not anticipate, I should derive the necessary strength to surmount them from my resolution to uphold the public peace from the just confidence of the French, and from the love they have always evinced for their King." Two hundred and twenty-one members of the Chamber of Deputies firmly replied, (though protesting their respect ^'for the sacred principle of legitimacy:^') ''Our con- science, our honor, the fidelity which we have sworn you, and which we shall ever maintain, renders it our duty to explain the cause of the present difficulties. The situation of the country requires the permanent concurrence of the political views of your government with the wishes of the" people as an indispensable condition of the regular pro- gress of public affairs. Sire, our loyalty compels us to say to you that this concurrence does not exist between those who are unmindful of a nation, so calm and so faithful, and us, who, with a profound conviction, come to deposit in your bosom the wants of your people. Let the wisdom of your Majesty decide." The wisdom of the King, or rather the want of it, was manifested in the following irrevocable reply: — ''I had counted upon the concurrence of the two Chambers, in the plan which I had meditated for the security and happiness of my people. I grieve to hear the Deputies say that on their part, this concurrence does not exist. I have declared my 140 RISE AND FALL resolution in my address ; it is unalterable. The interests of my people will prevent me from swerving from it. My Ministers will make known to you my wishes.'' On the first of September the Chamber was prorogued. The symptoms of an approaching crisis succeeded each other with frightful rapidity. Associations were formed for resisting the payment of taxes, and the stirring odes of Beranger were echoed by the stirring appeals of a perse- cuted press. The Ministry in vain endeavored to divert the belligerent disposition of the populace into a foreign chan- nel by invading Algiers, plunging the country into a danger- ous and expensive contest, but it was too late. Plans had been laid to seize the throne by Louis Philippe, its pledged supporter, " the richest and happiest Prince in Europe," as Charles X. said, when some priests endeavored to prove that he was conspiring. Yet at that time he had well matured schemes for the overthrow of the dynasty which had restored to him his titles, which had opened to him the Courts of Europe by re- instating him in its favor in exile — which had favored his marriage with Princess Amelie of Naples — which, since the Restoration, had restored to him his immense property, kindly forgetting that they belonged to the State — which had paid his father's debts — which had confirmed that favor by imparting to it irrevocability by an article inserted into the civil list law, in order to prevent its being rejected by the Royalist Chamber of 1825 — which had superadded to this first munificence, more friendly than lawful, that of the indemnity of 16,000,000 — which had conferred on him and his the title of " Royal Highness," so anxiously wished for — which had promoted the transfer of the Conde wealth to his son — which had given all his sons the decoration of cordon lieu — in short, which had done every thing possible to merit his loyal gratitude. Charles X. could not believe that a Bourbon could be so ungrateful as to forget all these favors, and was moreover OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 141 blinded by the Duke's assiduous courtiership, accompanied by obsequious demonstrations of loyal respect. On the 17th of May, 1830, he dissolved the Chambers, and a . few nights afterwards deigned for the first time to attend a ball at the Palais Royal, though some of his ministers objected to his waiting on the son of " Egalite," and others considered it a dereliction of etiquette. Three thousand of the bourgeoisie filled the palace, and twice as many of the populace were admitted to the garden, while a glare of light on every side, like some oriental illumination, disclosed one party to the other — the Prince, the mob, the court and the bourgeois. Late in the evening the King was announced, and Louis Philippe, attended by his family, hastened to receive him at the foot of the grand staircase, bowing low and expressing in humble terms his gratitude for this mark of royal condescension. The ball was given in honor of Louis Philippe's father-in- law, the King of Naples, and when at its height difficulty arose in the garden from some unknown cause, during which lamps were thrown about and tables burned. " A Neapolitan fete this," said M. de Salvandy to Louis Phi- lippe, " we dance on a volcano, like your kinsman when at home." Months afterwards a conversation which followed this remark was published in the government paper, in which Louis Philippe is represented as uttering the most liberal sentiments, and asserting that he had nothing to reproach himself with. " These remarks, whether really made then or not, if they are Louis Philippe's ideas," said a writer soon after, "should offer the best security to the people whom he governs, if we had not unfortunately so many examples of the corrupting influence of power, of the heart being changed, and the understanding blinded by a successful ambition." Louis Philippe was destined to add another example. The capture of Algiers did not win any popularity for the crown, and a new election proved that the strength of 142 RISE AND FALL the opposition party was increased in the Chamber of Deputies. Yet M. Polignac haughtily boasted that with the twenty-eight thousand men at his orders, he would sweep away any attempt at outbreak like the dust of the streets ; and the Archbishop who chaunted Te Deum in the Cathedral of Notre Dame for the Algerian victory, said to the King, that it was " the presage of one still more impor- tant." Liberty was to be conquered, and four royal ordi- nances calculated to overthrow its only supports, were decided upon at St. Cloud on the evening of the 25th of July, Louis Blanc thus describes the signing of this famous sus- pension of the constitution of the country — the death warrant of the dynasty : — " The Dauphin was present. He had at first given his voice against the ordonnances ; but he very soon surrendered his own opinion in deference to the King's : for the Dauphin trembled beneath his father's eye, and carried to a childish excess that respect for the head of his family, in which Louis XIV. desired that the Bourbon princes should be brought up. " The Ministers took their places in silence round the fatal table. Charles X. had the Dauphin on his right, and M. de Polignac on his left. He questioned each of his servants one after the other, and when he came to M. d'Haussez, that Minister repeated his observations of the preceding day. ' Do you refuse ? ' said Charles X. — ' Sire,' replied the Minister, ' may I be allowed to address one question to the King ? Is your Majesty resolved on proceeding, should your Ministers draw back ] ' — ' Yes,' said Charles X., firmly. The Minister of Marine took the pen and signed. " When all the sio-natures were affixed, there was a solemn and awful pause. An expression of high-wrought energy, mingled with uneasiness, sat on the faces of the Ministers. M. de Polignac alone wore a look of triumph. Charles X. walked up and down the room with perfect composure. As OF LOUIS PHILIPPE, 143 he passed M. d'Haussez, who was looking up with an air of deep thought, 'What is it you are looking at so?' he said — 'Sire, I was looking round to see if there did not happen to be a portrait of Strafford here.' " The first of these ordinances pronounced the dissolution of the newly elected Chamber of Deputies before it had assembled. The second abolished the vote by ballot, de- prived a large number of their suffrages, and reduced the number of Deputies from four hundred and thirty to two hundred and fifty-eight. The third convoked a new Cham- ber, to be chosen by the new law of suffrage. To crown all, the fourth, in direct violation of the charter, abolished the freedom of the press, reviving an edict of 1814, by which no periodical journal could be issued without first obtaining the sanction of government — to enforce this effectually, the presses and types of offending journals were to be seized or rendered unserviceable. To support him in enforcing these Draconian edicts, Charles X. had but a small fraction of the mind or the force of the nation. M. de Polignac, (his natural son,) brought up in ultramontane maxims, headed an inefficient cabinet, despised by the people for its tyrannical and fanatic measures. The troops well remembered that it was their present commander, Marshal Marmont, who had turned his sword against Napoleon, and their officers had been galled by the contempt of the restored nobility, whose ancient genealogies paled the coats of arms given by the Imperial Herald. The bourgeoisie felt that they had no voice in directing the government, which their capital, business talent, and industry supported; and the people had been easily incited against a dynasty which treated the memory of their military idol with contempt, recalled the Jesuits, and raised the tax on wine, but as to violating the charter, they knew little about it, and cared less. 144 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XIX. While Charles X. was thus madly loosing his crown, Louis Philippe was quietly making preparations to grasp it as it fell, enlisting in his cause, either directly or indirectly, all the varied shades of opposition. The hourgeoisie were charmed by his condescending familiarity and loud professions in favor of a liberal admin- istration of government ; Jacques Lafitte, the popular banker, ever sounding his praises. The son of a carpenter, Lafitte had, by his industry, amassed a collossal fortune, which enabled him to control the monetary affairs of France, and with which he relieved much want and suffering. He had married his daughter to the poor, yet talented son of Mar- shal Ney, and thus also acquired a strong hold over the Bonapartists, who suffered all the honorable misery of men grown old and wasted in glory, oppressed by those who had grown old in emigration and mendicity. The great secret of Lafitte's influence, however, was his alliance with Beran- ger,* the chosen poet of France, whose lyre, like that of Juvenal, was tuned by indignation, and poured forth strains which shook the very throne. Engaging in a crusade against Charles X., he attacked his government with irony and scorn, enlisting the national glory against it, and calling to his aid the vanquished republicans and overthrown impe- rialists, by the power of song. Nor was Beranger content with addressing himself to the soul, mind, courage, and independence of the people. He knew the character of his countrymen, and spoke besides to their senses — to their passions, and their appetites. He Beranger. Note E. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 145 mingled together liberty and the pleasures of the table — crushed the Grand Almoner while he praised the charms of Lisette, and launched his thunder against the Jesuits, while he sang to the youthful graces of Jeanneton. Com- bining the talents of Anacreon and TyrtsBus, he wore a double crown — of thorny laurels and of thornless roses — and in proportion as his grisettes were of easy access, was his political aim difficult to divine. All ages found some- thing to admire in his varied stanzas — the young girl as well as the old soldier, the peasant as well as the revolution- ist, drank eagerly from the cup of love and liberty which he presented. His songs resounded from the English chan- nel to the Pyrenees, entering into all memories, and by the force of noble and daring thought fixing upon all hearts a profound contempt for Charles X. Guizot, Thiers, Mignet, Michelet, and a host of other writers, re-echoed the same sentiments in the University and the daily press, wielding against the imprudent mon- arch the mighty influence of letters, which in France pre- dominates over all others. They attacked every thing that bore the name of legitimate royalty, and likened the reign- ing branch of the Bourbons to the English house of Stuart. Across the channel a monarch had been dethroned without politically convulsing society, and they boldly inquired if France could not do likewise ? In olden times, when the great mass of the French had little honor to win or property to lose, history had little influence, but now that a division of fortunes had placed almost every office within the reach of the hourgeoiserie, they looked to it as a prac- tical lesson for examples. The historians became popular oracles with them, as they gained an influence over the Bonapartists and Republicans, by depicting their triumphs in gorgeous colors. As to the power of the newspaper press, so universally exercised in the present century, it is only necessary to say that its influence in France is quadruple what it is in the United States. Directed through such 13 146 RISE AND FALL channels, the attacks of the " hommes de lettres " shook the very foundations of the throne, and the result fully realized the fine passage which Bulwer puts into the mouth of his sao-acious hero. Cardinal Richelieu : the PEN is iniffhter than the sword. Behold the arch enchanter's wand ! Itself nothing ! But catching sorcery from the master-hand To paralyze the Csesars, and to strike The loud earth breathless ! " Many of these master-minds were members of a revolu- tionary society called " Aide-toi et le del faidera,'^ (aid thyself, and Heaven will aid thee,) which numbered Garnier Pages, Odilon Barrot, Manuel Foy, and other popular ora- tors, who exercised a great influence upon the people. They had, amidst the smoke of battle-fields and the exigen- cies of war, lost sight of oratory as of most other severe studies of poetic leisure, and now dwelt with rapture on free voices, speaking freely. Speech, like the sword, is a formidable weapon when wielded by those who have courage, and march boldly on to the assault. One solitary priest was among this formidable opposition, for Charles X. was too much of a devotee not to enlist the church on his side. Bat this exception, to use the words of Janin, was one who thought like Bossuet, and wrote like Jean Jacques Rousseau — one of those spirits which are naturally rebellious because they are never didy appreciated. A democrat after the manner of an old apostle, this organ between the gospel and the charter — this constitutional Luther — this energetic orator, whose denunciation crushed all upon whom it fell — to sum up in one word, this Father de la Mennais was one of the most powerful opponents of Charles X. Calling to him all the griefs, all the humili- ations, all the miseries, and all the opinions of disordered humanity, he filled their wasted and weary souls with popu- lar vengeance. Having found it impossible to make himself OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 147 comprehended as an expounder of his own creed, he applied that creed to politics in a democratic sense, and became the most powerful politician of the age. The Pope fulminated his thunder against him, and he sent the bolts back with doubled force against Charles X., Defender of the Holy Church. There was yet another branch of this hydra-headed oppo- sition — the women, who have ever exercised in France a greater influence, both in politics and literature, than they have in any other land since the days of Egyptian greatness. An English writer says, that, although excluded from the throne and sceptre by the Salic law, they have frequently ruled by a power stronger than all law; and amidst a people vain, frivolous, chivalric, gallant, and fond of pleasure, the women have taken up their place in life by the side of the men. More adroit in their conduct, quicker in their perceptions, than the less subtle sex, they have ruled abso- lutely in those times when adroitness of conduct and quick- ness of perception have been the qualities most essential to pre-eminence. And the heroism of Joan d' Arc, the courage of Charlotte Corday, the barbarities committed by the fishwomen in the first revolution, show that they are not wanting when enterprise and daring are demanded. Who that has read French history forgets the powerful De Maintenon, the win- ning Pompadour, the intriguing De Longueville, the ingenious Scuderi, the epicurean Ninon, the agreeable Sevigne, the much loved De Lorme, the heroic Roland, the intelligent De Stael — in short, there is not a page but has to speak of some female reputation — nor is there a path to fame which female footsteps have not trod ! Madame Adelaide of Orleans is well known to have played an active part in the (as yet undefined) efforts of her brother to seize the throne. It is certain that she prevailed upon Talleyrand to join the dis- contented faction, that she promised office and honors to the wives of prominent men in the case of her brother's success, and that her morganic husband, Baron Athalin, 148 RISE AND FALL was the orsfan of communication between the clubs and the Palais Royal. With all these powerful auxiliaries, Louis Philippe felt conscious of success in the inevitable struggle. His plans were so well matured that he was able to stand aloof, and not only to deceive the King, but Lafayette and the Repub- licans. Instead of seizing the crown, he intended to accept it when offered to him by those whom he saw would not be disposed to submit to the despotic rule he projected. The publication of the ordinances lit the train which he had so carefully laid, and the subsequent explosion proved his ability in undermining the dynasty which had granted him so many favors, and which he had sworn to uphold. FAC-SIMILE OP THE SIGNATURE OF CHATEAUBRIAND. l-^ lA IV^ X \j^\;k OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 149 CHAPTER XX. It was on Monday morning, the 26th of July, 1830, that the " Moniteur,'' Charles X.'s official journal, published the obnoxious ordonnances, the effect of which was to entirely abrogate the charter. By eleven o'clock they were generally known, and groups were assembled from time to time in the Palais Royal, discussing their object and effect, but there were no signs of popular commotion ; business went on as usual, and there was a full attendance in the evening at the theatres and dancing gardens. The editors of newspapers, w^ho thus found their pens bridled, met in the morning at the elder Mr. Dupin's, to know if the law would not justify them in publishing with- out a license ; but they found him awed, and unwilling to take any decisive measures. They determined nevertheless to hold a meeting, protest against the ordonnances, and issue their papers the next morning without obtaining li- censes. At the Institute of France Mr. Arago delivered an eulogy on Fresnel, into which he introduced some spirited allusions to the glaring usurpation which had been attempted on the liberties of the country. Count de la Borde presided at a meeting of the editors held at the office of the ''National'"' in the afternoon, when, after an animated discussion, the publication of a protest, and a resistance to the ordonnances, was decided upon. Believing that Charles X. would have a temporary triumph — for it was impossible to imagine that a government which deliberately invited insurrection was not prepared to resist it — the editors displayed a spirit worthy of their position as sentinels on the watchtower of freedom. Their protest was bold, representing the disobedience of the unlawful 13* 150 RISE AND FALL ordonnances as sacred, and asserting that '' when a legal reign had ended, that of force commenced." By sunset, proof slips of the next morning's papers, containing this protest, were profusely distributed, and produced an electric effect upon the Parisians. The liberal Deputies were called together in the evening, and urged to issue a similar protest, but they hesitated. The students of the Qaartier Latin were making cartridges, for Count de la Borde had said that morning to a deputation which they had sent to the editor's meeting, urging a re- course to arms : " Gentlemen, you are right — our country no longer claims from us empty words ; unanimous action, vigorous and powerful, can alone save her liberties." And from the low wine shops around the Palais Royal there is- sued bands of men, each carrying a bundle of the protests, who scattered themselves among the dancing-gardens in the suburbs, paying for liberal potations in which to drink the downfall of Charles X. — telling the workmen that they were all to be dismissed the next day — and shouting " Vive la Charted " Live the Charter," echoed from thousands of lips, they knew not exactly why, but with its overthrow the intriguing agents of Louis Philippe cunningly wove in, the occupation of Paris by the allies, the disgrace of the cher- ished tricolor, and the banishment of Napoleon. To pos- sess a charter, according to Prince Polignac, who knew the Parisians well, is for the populace the full enjoyment of "three things — work to do, cheap bread, and few taxes to pay." On Tuesday morning very few of the shops were open, and the garden of the Palais Royal was filled with the pop- ulace, listening to inflammatory harangues from the revolu- tionary agitators, who strove to impress upon their audiences that a charter was all that was necessary to alleviate their condition. By noon large bodies of the lower classes were parading the streets, uttering imprecations upon the obnox- ious Ministers, and shouting "Vive la Charte," OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 151 Unluckily for Charles X. he intrusted the command of Paris to Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, who had betrayed Na- poleon, and permitted the allied army to enter Paris. With only 12,000 men under the orders of this detested com- mander, the government now resolved to enforce its edicts, and a Commissaire of Police, supported by a company of gend'armes was sent to seize the presses of the ''Temps," one of the refractory journals. The house thus menaced was situated in the Rue Richelieu, one of the most frequented thoroughfares of Paris, and the presses which it was in- tended to seize were in the buildings at the further end of a large court. The approach of the commissaire being an- nounced, Mr. Baude had the doors of the printing-house locked, and the gates opening on the street thrown wide open. The workmen, the contributors, and all the persons employed on the paper in any capacity, drew up in two files ; Mr. Baude stationed himself in the space between them, bareheaded ; and in that order all remained waiting the event in deep silence. The passers by were struck with curiosity and stopped ; some of them bowed respectfully ; the gend'armes were uneasy. The commissaire arrived. Obliged to pass between the two files of men, who stood mute and impassive on either hand, he became agitated, turned pale, and going up to Mr. Baude, he politely stated to him the object of his mission. " It is by virtue of the ordonnances, Monsieur," said Mr. Baude, firmly, '' that you are come to demolish our presses. Well, then, it is in the name of the law that I call on you to forbear." The commissaire sent for a locksmith : he came, and the doors of the printing-house were about to be forced open. Mr. Baude stopped the man, and producing a copy of the Code, he read to him the article relating to the punish- ment of robbery accompanied with housebreaking. The locksmith uncovered his head to show his respect for the law; but being again ordered by the commissaire to proceed, he seemed about to obey, when Mr. Baude said to him with 152 RISE AND FALL ironical coolness, " Oh go on! it is only a matter of the gal- leys." At the same time appealing from the commissaire to the Assize Courts, he drew out his pocket-book to enter the names of the witnesses present. The pocket-book passed from hand to hand, and every one inscribed his name. Every particular in this scene was striking and sin- gular, — Mr. Baude's stature, his sturdy countenance, his keen eyes overhung with thick bushy brows, the law for which he demanded respect, the stubborn determination of the spec- tators, the protection of the absent Judges invoked within a few paces of a detachment of gend'armerie, the crowd that every moment grew denser outside, and gave audible ex- pression to its indignation. The terrified locksmith threw up the job, and was loudly cheered. Another was sent for; he endeavored to execute the orders given him ; but sud- denly found that his tools were gone. It was necessary to have recourse to the smith employed to rivet the irons on the convicts. These proceedings, which took up several hours, and were witnessed by great numbers of persons, derived a real historical importance from the circumstances. By affording the people an example of disobedience combined with attachment to the laws, two cravings of its nature were gratified, — viz., the love of manifesting its independence, and the necessity of feeling itself governed.* In the afternoon a body of troops fired upon a group of people, who refused to disperse when summoned by a mag- istrate, and a man was killed. " To arms ! live the charter ! shouted the mob ; barricades were thrown up, arms and ammunition were distributed by unknown hands, and the hostilities commenced, upon the issue of which depended a sovereignty. The fifth regiment of infantry refused to fire upon the people, and several other regiments faltered, while the insurgents displayed indomitable courage. Day was just declining, when a man appeared on the Quai de I'Ecole, car- * Louis Blanc's History of Ten Years. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. .153 rying in his hand that tricolor flag which had not been seen for fifteen years. No cry was uttered, no movement took place among the crowd drawn up along the river walls. Amazed, silent, and, as if immersed in their recollections, they continued gazing, long after it passed, on that stand- ard, the unexpected sight of which evoked such glorious phantoms. Some aged men uncovered their heads, others shed tears ; every face had turned pale. Lafayette had that morning read the ordonnances at La Grange, and, taking post-horses, was at Paris in the evening to offer to the insurgents the use of his name and person. He found that the liberal Deputies had been in session all day, but had done nothing, though the rattling of musket volleys had been heard throughout the afternoon, and some young men, who had come to cheer Mr. Perier, were charged upon by a squad of hussars, and wounded by the sabres under the windows of the council-room. Louis Blanc, from whom, as an eye-witness of the scene, we quote largely, gives a vivid description of the aspect of Paris that night. All along the Boulevards, on the Place Louis XV., the Place Vendome, and that of the Bastille, were Swiss or lan- cers, or gend'armes, or cuirassiers of the guards, or foot soldiers ; patrols crossing in every direction ; in the Rues de I'Echelle and des Pyramides attempts at barricades ; and all around the Palais Royal a swarm of men assembled from all quarters to batten on revolt ; musket shots as yet few and desultory ; at the foot of the columns of the Exchange a guardhouse blazing, and shedding an ominous flood of light over the square ; under the peristyle of the Theatre of Novelties lay a corpse, after having been carried about with cries of " Vengeance ! " darkness gathering thicker and thicker over the city from the destruction of the lamps ; men running up and down the Rue Richelieu bare-armed, with torches in their hands. On Wednesday, the 28th, all the disposable forces in the neighborhood of Paris were marched into the capital, and 154 RISE AND FALL the strongest positions were occupied by artillery ~ on the other hand, the whole population of Paris appeared to have risen as one man, every shop was shut, every artisan was in arms, carrying weapons of the most heterogeneous descrip- tion, obtained partly from the Musee d'Artillerie, partly from the various armorers' shops, and partly from the use of those numerous expedients to which a deep sense of de- termined patriotism enables men to resort in such moments. An indefatigable frequenter of the drama, who repaired to the barricades, was astonished to find his " dii penates " on the qui-vive in every direction. Charlemagne's Sword was gleaming on one spot — Tancred's Panoply was mounted in another — the Helmets of the Horatii rivalled with the Swords of Nero's Freedmen — and halberds and partisans, the usual caparison of the minions of despotism, waved high in the coarse hands of Sans-culottes. At four in the morning, a deputation of the Polytechnic School had been received by General Lafayette, and in a few hours these young heroes were directing the movements of the insurgents in every quarter of the city. The National Guard began to re-organize itself, and some imperial uni- forms were obtained from the wardrobe of a minor theatre. In vain did Mr. Arago attempt to persuade the Duke of Ragusa to cease firing on the people — indignant that his regular troops had been in two instances repulsed by jour- neymen printers, who fired the type they had been forbid- den to use legitimately, he was determined to occupy the city. Barricades were erected of felled trees and overturned carriages, while, as the troops moved on through the narrow, obstructed streets, an invisible enemy poured forth their fire, with deadly aim, from nearly every window. The very women, their passions roused, hurled down from the house- tops paving stones, logs of wood, and bricks, bruising and harassing the soldiers who escaped the shot. All hope of conciliation was destroyed, and it now remained for victory alone to decide between the King and the people. The OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 155 latter were inspired by the cry of *' Live the Charter," and, although " ignorant of its meaning, they threw into it," says Louis Blanc, ** all the vague hopes that swelled their bosoms. Many of them died for a word they did not un- derstand — the men who did understand it were to show themselves by-and-bye, when the time was come to bury the dead." The protest of the liberal Deputies was issued in the afternoon, though many of them had left the city, among them Mr. Thiers, who had taken refuge with Madame de Courchamp, at Montmorency. Charles X. was at St. Cloud, and although he could hear the firing, he refused to credit the reports brought to him from time to time. " The Pa- risians," he said, "are in a state of anarchy — anarchy will necessarily bring them to my feet." This blind security was not shared by the monarch's niece, the Duchess of Berri, who was positive that the insurrection was the work of another uncle, the Duke of Orleans. So strong were her suspicions, that she organized a party to' proceed to Neuilly, seize the Duke, and oblige him by force to consent to enter Paris with her, to exhibit her infant son Henri to the people, as their legitimate sovereign. Charles X. accidentally learned the project, and stopped it, saying — " Why, the Duke of Orleans is the best subject I have, and did he think there was any danger, he would be here to advise me." He little thought that all that day messengers had passed between Neuilly, where Louis Philippe was, and Mr. Lafitte'Sj every half hour, and that Mr. Oudart, secretary to the Duchess, had been the bearer of the more confiden- tial communications. Before night the tricolor waved in triumph from the Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame, and the troops were con- centrated around the Tuileries. Tacitus says that a cloudy sky is a disastrous omen, and that the midnight enterprise languishes under the omen of a clouded moon ; but the citizen soldiers were happy in their auspices, for pure and 156 RISE AND FALL bright as their aspirations for liberty was the heaven above their heads on the night between the 2Sth and 29th of July. Few Parisians closed their eyes, for tliough the tocsin had ceased to sound, and the firing had ceased, a solemn mur- mur of busy labor was every where heard. In every street paving stones were torn up and trees cut down to form barricades, the gunsmiths " plied their rattling trade," and the groans of the wounded on their way to the hospitals were mingled with the sharp challenge, or the watchful " sentinel, guard well your post," which one hundred thou- sand citizens on foot for liberty passed, from one to another, every quarter of an hour. A newspaper of the day, "La Trihime/' narrates an inter- esting scene which occurred at one of the barricades in the Rue Cadet, between the hours of one and two in the morning, when an old man, walking with difficulty, sought to pass. "Halt," cries the sentinel; "corporal, come and re- connoitre." (The corporal was a working man.) "You must come to the post, you fellows there ; and you shall tell us what keeps you abroad so late." The group walk toward the post, where each of the unknown undergoes an exami- nation. First, a man well stricken in years, of venerable countenance, and for whose passage it had been necessary to make breaches in two or three of the barricades — then, three other persons, who appeared to be under his orders, as aides-de-camp. All this appeared very suspicious to the Commandant, who sharply interrogated the old man. The latter replied to him : " Captain, you see me moved to the very soul at the spectacle which you make me witness ; embrace me, and know that I am one of your old comrades! " The Commandant hesitated. " It is General Lafayette 1 " said some one. Every one flew into his -arms; but the Commandant, resuming all his gravity : " Gentlemen," said he, "to arms!'^ and immediately all fell into line, and the General reviewed the post, as in the most regular army. OF LOUIS riiiLiprE. 157 CHAPTER XXI. At sunrise on the 29th, the bourgeois took up arms, and joined the insurgents, whose ranks, thus far, had been filled with wild students, Phalansterians, St. Simonians, Commu- nists, and other anarchists, secretly instigated by agents from the Palais Royal. They had accomplished wonders, but there was danger of revolutionary excess, and when Lafitte called upon the middle classes to join the populace in order to check their mad audacity, and establish a firm constitu- tional government, few refused. A regular system of at- tack was now organized, and from every quarter of the capital marched columns, in whose ranks were to be seen mechanics and noblemen, veteran soldiers and boys, uni- forms and rags, led on to victory by the ardent Polytechnic students — Generals of twenty years, asBeranger called them. Prodigies of valor were enacted by many of these improvised battalions, and we even read of boys waving the tricolor flag amidst the volleys of grape-shot, and rushing among the enemy's squadrons to poniard the horse of the dragoon whom they could not reach. The King's troops, particularly the Swiss guards, " fought like brave men, long and well," but they could not resist the masses which attacked them on all sides. The Louvre was evacuated — the last company of the Swiss foot guards fell in the Place de Carrousel — and at one o'clock, Charles X. looking through a telescope from the Palace of St. Cloud, saw the fiery tricolor waving in triumph over the Palace of the Tuileries. The insurgents had conquered, and walked through regal halls, as the Spar- tan army did through the palace of Xerxes, without commit- ting the slightest acts of violence — for to have devastated or plundered would have brought death. The bourgeoisie 14 158 RISE AND FALL were determined to enforce law and order, and while they humored the mob by joining in the chorus of La Marseillaise, they succeeded in inspiring in their breasts a delicate sense of honor, which would not have discredited the days of chivalry. At this moment, Lafitte declared at a meeting of the Deputies, that as they had remained behind the people, they must now at least endeavor to overtake them by organ- izing without delay a Provisional Government, with General Lafayette at its head. Half an hour after the Tuileries sur- rendered, this Provisional Government was on its triumphal march to the Hotel de Ville, amid shouts of" Vive Lafayette P' passing through barricades stained with fresh blood, while from the house-tops, from whence, but a few hours before, massive paving stones had been cast with destructive force upon the doomed soldiery, now showered gentle flowers and tricolored cockades on the revolutionary veteran. The entire capital resounded with shouts of joy, which went up from the square in front of the Hotel de Ville as the pro- cession arrived, and Lafayette entered the walls, where, forty years before, another generation had placed him at the head of the Revolution of 1789. Some one wishing to show him the way : " I know it better than you all do," said he with a smile, and ascended the grand staircase. Monsieur Sarrans, his aid-de-camp, gives us a vivid picture of the scene which these head-quarters of insurrection pre- sented : " What mighty recollections were intermingled with others yet more grand ! Those immense halls, filled with crowds of citizens of every class, of every age — those combatants, intoxicated by victory, interesting by their wounds — those hangings, covered with fleur-de-lis, coolly torn to pieces — the bust of Louis XVIH. thrown upon the floor; that of Charles X. dashed to atoms — those citizen soldiers arriving from all sides to announce the defeat of the enemies of liberty, the carrying of the Louvre, the Tu- ileries, and the barracks of Babylon, bringing the colors> OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 159 and dracTorinor aloncr the cannon which they had forcibly taken from the soldiers of Charles X. — orders dictated in haste, and dispatched in every direction, to pursue and harass the Royalists in their retreat — those guards with naked arms — military posts forming at every point — the Place deGreve covered with ammunition wagons and broken arms — the whole Polytechnic school in battle array — else- where pious hands already digging the grave of the heroes of liberty — in short, this compound of a popular tumult and a real battle against experienced troops and generals, resolving itself into a multitude of attacks of posts and par- tial successes — all this, rendered vivid and animated by the consciousness of a great triumph, presented a spectacle worthy the pen of a Tacitus or a Sallust." That afternoon the tricolored flag waved from every public building in Paris ; not a man was to be seen una- dorned with the tricolored cockade. Prompt measures were taken for the preservation of the public tranquillity, and the following proclamation was placarded upon the walls : '' My dear fellow-citizens and brave comrades, " The confidence of th& people of Paris calls me once more to the command of the public force. With joy and devotedness I have accepted the power that has been intrusted to me, and novi^, as in 1789, I feel myself strong in the approbation of my honor- able colleagues now assembled in Paris. I shall make no pro- fession of faith ; my opinions are known. The conduct of the Parisian population, during these last days of trial, renders me more than ever proud of being at its head. " Liberty shall triumph, or we will perish too^ether. " Vive la Liberie ! Vive la Patrie ! "La.fayette." "Paris, July 29, 1830." His forces slain or dispersed, the Duke of Ragusa fled to St. Cloud, where, the day before, he had pledged himself to keep possession of the capital for at least a fortnight longer. The news that the rebels were victorious so incensed the 160 RISE AND FALL Duke of Angouleme, that he demanded the Duke's sword, and broke it over the pommel of his saddle, ordering him into arrest. This act of violence was disapproved of by Charles X., who limited the arrest to four hours, and at dinner time sent to inform the Duke that a cover was placed for him at the royal table. The invitation was not accepted. Finding that further resistance to the popular will was useless, the King consented to repeal the ordonnances, and directed the Duke of Mortemart to repair to Paris, and treat for his abdication, as well as for that of the Duke of Angouleme, in favor of his grandson, who would ascend the throne as Henri V. Well informed politicians have ex- pressed it as their opinion, that had the Duke of Montemart seen the leading Deputies that night, the elder branch might have saved the throne. The confidence of Charles X. in Louis Philippe remained unshaken. As he coolly sat at the whist table, enjoying his usual rubber, Monsieur Duras (first gentleman of the bed- chamber) trumped his king of hearts with a knave of clubs, and the Duchess of Berri remarked, " So, my uncle, you will fall a victim." " Banish these suspicions against those good d'Orleans," replied the monarch; " there are not more loyal people in France, and just now, when I heard a lieu- tenant of the guards say that he could have seized the Duke, I told him that, had he laid a finger on him, I should have loudly disavowed the act." " Who shall rule France ? " was that night discussed by thousands — the aristocracy advocating the claims of Henri v., the bourgeoisie the Duke of Orleans, the war party young Napoleon, and the liberals a President. To General Lafayette a Republic, modelled after the United States, was the dream of a long life, but the people remembered the excesses of 1789. " Take the Duke of Orleans for your King," said Monsieur Lafitte — " Liberty will be satisfied with the sacrifice of legitimacy 1 Order will thank you for OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 161 saving it from Robespierre ! England, in your revolution, will recoa^nise her own ! " *' Take Louis Philippe as our King ! " replied Monsieur de Glandeves. ** Why, are you not aware that he is accused of having approved of the homicidal votes of his father, and having been implicated in schemes for seizing the throne since he was eighteen, besides having fought against Napoleon ? Do not all impartial observers accuse him of constant intrigue since 1815, procuring the restitution of his stipend in defiance of the law, cringing at court, and out of court flattering the mischief makers 1 And, above all, has he not been so loaded with favors by the elder branch, that it would be the blackest ingratitude for him to seize their heritage?" "Ah, my good Sir," was Lafitte's reply, '' the Duke is such a good husband and so kind a father — besides, he would improve the commercial pros- perity of the country. The bourgeois will give him their support." At four o'clock on the morning of the 30th, Lafitte re- ceived a letter from one of the agents he had sent thither on the preceding day, which contained, in the following closing paragraph, the final instructions of the arch-conspi- rator. " It is proposed to wait on him in the name of the constituted authorities, suitably accompanied, and to offer him the crown. Should he plead family considerations or scruples of delicacy, it will be answered him, that his abode in Paris is important to the tranquillity of the capital and of France, and that it is necessary to place him in safety there. The infallibility of this measure may be relied on. Furthermore, it may be set down for certain, that the Duke of Orleans will not be slow to unite himself fully with the wishes of the nation." A copy of this was carried to the office of the " Na- tional,'' where Messrs. Thiers, Mignet, and Beranger were in session, and in an hour placards from their pens were 14* 162 RISE AND FALL profusely distributed in every direction. One will give an idea of all. " The Duke of Orleans has carried the tricolor flag under the enemy's fire ; the Duke of Orleans can alone carry it again. We will have no other flag. " The Duke of Orleans does not declare himself. He waits for the expression of our wishes. Let us proclaim those wishes, and he will accept the charter, as we have always understood and desired it. It is from the French people he will hold his crown." These placards provoked an explosion of anger among the Liberals, and Pierre Leroux hurried to the Hotel de Ville to remonstrate with Lafayette, declaring that the accession of another Bourbon would be the signal for a renewal of the conflict. The General is represented as having sat immovable in a large arm-chair, apparently lost in deep thought, and would have undoubtedly opposed Louis Philippe, had it not been for the appearance of Odilon Barrot, who prevailed upon him to uphold a constitutional monarchy. Louis Philippe had left Neuilly on the morning of the 30th for Raincy, and was therefore away from home when Messrs. Dupin, Persil and Thiers arrived, bringing an infor- mal offer of the crown from the Chamber of Deputies. The Duchess of Orleans could not bear to see her family hon- ored by '' a crown snatched from the head of an old man, who had always proved himself a faithful kinsman and a generous friend ; " but the ambitious Madame Adelaide promised that if her brother could not be found to accept what should be tendered him, she would receive it in his name. " Only," said the diplomatic Princess to Thiers, " we must have a care that Europe does not think this rev- olution has been gotten up merely to change the crown of France, and attribute the fall of Charles X. to the intrigues of the Diike of Orleans." In a few hours a committee of OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 163 the Chamber of Deputies presented themselves at Neuilly, bearing the following proclamation : " To THE Citizens of France : — The meeting of Deputies at this time in Paris, has deemed it urgently necessary to entreat his Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans to repair to the capital, to exercise there the functions of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and to express to him their desire to preserve the tricolored cock* ade. It has, moreover, felt impressed with the necessity of apply- ing itself, without intermission, to the task of securing to France, in the approaching session of the Chambers, all the indispensable guarantees for the full and entire execution of the charter." Returning to Neuilly in the evening, Louis Philippe read this important document at the gate of his park, by the pale and flickering light of a torch, and immediately set out for the Palais Royal. He arrived about midnight, accom- panied by only three persons, wearing the tri-colored cock- ade, and answering to the sentries' challenge, as they clam- bered over the barricades, " Vive la Charte." Strano-e to say, no sooner had he written notes to Lafitte and Lafayette, than he despatched a messenger for the Duke of Montemart, who had been repulsed from the Chamber of Deputies as testamentary executor of Charles X. Louis Blanc thus describes the interview : The Duke of Montemart followed the messenger, and was introduced through the roof of the palace into a small closet opening to the right on the court, and not belonging to the apartments occupied by the family. Louis Philippe was lying on a mattress on the floor, in his shirt, and only half covered with a shabby quilt. His face was bathed in perspiration, there was a lurid fire in his eye, and all about him bespoke extreme fatigue and extraordinary excitement of mind. He began to speak the moment the Duke of Montemart entered, and expressed himself with great volu- bility and earnestness, protesting his attachment to the elder branch, and vowing he had only come to Paris to save 164 RISE AND FALL the city from anarchy. At this moment a great noise was heard in the court, where people were shouting Vive le Due d' Orleans ! " You hear' that, Monseigneur," said De Mon- temart, " those shouts are for you." " No ! No ! " re- plied the Duke of Orleans, with increased vehemence; "I will suffer death sooner than accept the crown." He seized a pen and wrote a letter to Charles X., which he sealed and delivered to De Montemart, who carried it away in the folds of his cravat. By a curious coincidence — Louis Blanc goes on to say — almost at the very hour that these things were passing in Paris, in the Palais Royal, the Duchess of Berri started out of bed at St. Cloud, agitated by a thousand terrors, and ran half- dressed to awaken the Dauphin, and to reproach him for an obstinacy that endangered the lives of two poor children. Distressed and overcome by the cries and tears of a mother, the Dauphin acquainted Charles X. that St. Cloud was threatened, and that the seat of the monarchy must be moved a little farther ; and some minutes afterwards, before daybreak, Charles X., the Duchess of Berri, and the chil- dren, were on their way to Trianon, under the protection of an escort o? gardes du corps. The aspect of the camp boded ill : and bitter thouorhts were written in the faces of all those armed servants of fugitive royalty. The remains of the royal kitchen, distributed among the soldiers, sent some flashes of gaiety through this dense and dismal gloom ; but whilst some were dividing this unexpected booty among them, with laughter, others were abandoning their colors, and scattering their arms over the road as they fled. Little dependence can be placed on hired bayonets. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 165 CHAPTER XXII. E\RLY on the morning of the 31st, the deputation of the Chamber of Deputies waited on Louis Philippe for his deci- sion, and found him nearly overpowered by fear and hope, for Charles X. was still at the head of a powerful army, and the Duchess was openly opposed to her husband's dethroning his generous kinsman. At last he sent Marshal Sebastian! to Talleyrand for his decision, and that old diplomatist settled the matter by saying, with the flippancy of a political coxcomb, "It is well — let him accept." In an hour the following proclamation was placarded: *' Inhabitants of Paris, — " The Deputies of France, at this moment assembled in Paris, have expressed their desire that I should betake myself to this capital, to exercise there the functions of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. " I have not hesitated to come and partake your dangers, to place myself in the midst of this heroic population, and use all my endeavors to preserve you from civil war and anarchy. On entering the city of Paris I wore with pride those glorious colors you have resumed, and which I had myself long carried. " The Chambers are about to assemble : they will consult on the means of securing the reign of the laws, and the maintenance of the rights of the nation. " A charter shall henceforth be a true thing. " Louis Philippe d'Orleans.'' Surrounded by a numerous staff, and escorted by the Deputies, Louis Philippe now set out for the Hotel de Ville, passing over half-demolished barricades, and by new-closed graves. Yet there was no cheering, no enthusiasm, and 1C6 RISE AND FALL where one cried " Vive le Due d' Orleans ! ^"^ a thousand cried '^ Vive le RepuMique f Vive Lafayette!" for the people felt that they had not been consulted, and the Bourbon blood of the Prince excited a violent irritation. The procession entered the Hotel de Ville, Lafayette receiv- ing his royal visitor with the politeness of a gentleman, delighted to do the honors of a wholly popular sovereignty to a Prince, and then all eyes on the square were turned to the grand balcony. A sullen grief was depicted in the faces of the recent combatants, and others in the crowd were ghastly pale with fear. At last the windows were swung open, and Lafayette, (the picture of the arbiter of the troubled hour described by Virgil,) his aged head crowned with the character of seventy years, appeared on that same balcony where he had been so conspicuous nearly fifty years before, waving in one hand the flag of the old Repub- lic, and presenting with the other the candidate for the new monarchy. Then, and not till then, says an eye-witness, burst out the loud, hearty, and long resounding shouts of the populace ; then, and not till then, the people who had been fighting for their liberties, the party that had been plotting for Louis Philippe, and the deceived huurgeois united in upholding a Prince who was ** to put an end to all revolutions, and to establish on a permanent basis the institutions of France." But it required all the powerful authority of Lafayette to quiet the leaders of the insurrection, who were not so easily duped by fine speeches. " Look through the window at the people," said General Dubourg to Louis Philippe, " and remember that you keep your oaths. The nation has achieved its liberty at the price of blood ; and it well knows how to re-achieve it, if the odious example of the fallen monarch shall be followed, and if bad men shall attempt to rob them of it." Louis Philippe was indignant at having his honor thus called into question, and declared the future would prove that he knew how to keep his en- OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 167 gagements. The future not only proved that his proud boast, "I am a Frenchman and a man of honor," was of little value, but that the nation knew how to avenge its wroncrs. After his departure, the Liberals began to perceive that they were throwing away the advantages which they had gained at a sacrifice of so much blood, and Messieurs Lafayette, Joubert, and Marchais, drew up the following ^^ programme " which the former carried to the Palais Royal for Louis Philippe's signature. "The Revolution of July, so noble, so pure, so generous, has traced for us all the course we have to follow for the happiness and the glory of the country. To reject what the Revolution has rejected, to maintain what it seeks to establish, and to perform what it demands, such should be our triple rule of conduct. " To consolidate, by founding it on the broad basis of the general interest, the popular throne, which the Revolution is about to re- establish ; to destroy monopoly, whenever, and in what form soever it may appear — in trade, in public instruction, in public worship, or in distributiou of political power. " To insure to every district a bona fide \og-a\ representation ; to the people the means of subsistence and instruction ; to all, the peaceful and legitimate enjoyment of their faculties and of their rights. " To unravel the chaos of our legislation ; to simplify and com- bine or expunge the innumerable provisions which have been care- fully handed down to us by the republic, the empire, and the restoration. " To extirpate, by great retrenchments, the hideous disease which the thirst of places and sinecures has engendered. " To pursue, in the public expenditure, all reductions compatible with the good of the public service, and, above all, in the mode of assessing and proportioning the taxes at the utmost possible alleviation of the burdens of the working classes. " Finally, to give to our glorious regeneration all its legitimate consequences, by realizing all the ameliorations of which our situ- ation is susceptible." 108 RISE AND FALL Louis Philippe received Lafayette with great cordiality, and asked him at once how he thought the charter should be modified ? '' You know," said Lafayette, '' that I am a Republican, and that I consider the Constitution of the United States as the most perfect that has ever existed." " I think as you do," answered Louis Philippe, " it is im- possible to have passed two years in America without being of that opinion — but do you think in the situation of France, and according to general opinion, that it is proper for us to adopt it ? " '* No," replied Lafayette, " what is at present necessary for the French people is, a popular throne sur- rounded with Republican institutions." '' That is exactly the way that I understand it," said Louis Philippe, " and here is a paper drawn up by Monsieur Guizot, which meets with my entire approbation, as a proclamation defining the prin- ciples which are to govern the Chamber of Deputies. All this so pleased Lafayette, that he never thought of asking the Duke's signature to the paper he had brought, and went away to proclaim Louis Philippe's orthodox republican views, only restrained by expediency. Louis Blanc tells us, that at a subsequent period he said to Armand Carrel, on the latter's bitterly reproaching him for his conduct in this famous interview — " Well, well, it can't be helped, but at that time I thought him a plain, honest fellow." The de- claration of the Deputies was as follows : " Frenchmen, France is free. Absolute power unfurled its flag. The heroic population of Paris has laid it low. Paris as- sailed has rendered triumphant by force of arms the sacred cause that had before triumphed in the elections. A power usurping our rights, perturbing our repose, threatened at once both liberty and order. We resume possession of order and liberty. No more fear for our acquired rights ; no barrier now between us and the rights we yet lack. " A government that shall without delay guarantee us those blessings is at this moment the first want of our country. French- OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 169 men, those of your deputies who are already in Paris have assem- bled, and, for the present, till the Chambers can regularly inter- pose their voices, they have invited a Frenchman, who has never fought but for France, M. le Duke of Orleans, to exercise the func- tions of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. This is in their eyes the means of promptly accomplishing by peace the success of the most legitimate defence. "The Duke of Orleans is devoted to the national and constitu- tional cause. He has always defended its interests and professed its principles. He will respect our rights, for he will hold his own from us. We will secure to ourselves by laws all the guarantees necessary to render liberty strong and lasting ; " The re-establishment of the national guard, with the interven- tion of the national guards in the choice of their officers ; " The intervention of the citizens in the formation of the munici- pal and department administrations ; " Trial by jury for offences of the press ; "The legally organized responsibility of the ministers and secondary agents of the administration ; " The re-election of deputies promoted to public offices. " We will, in concert with the head of the state, give our insti- tutions the development vi^hich they need. " Frenchmen, the Duke of Orleans himself has already spoken, and his language is that which becomes a free coiintry . The Cham- bers, he tells you, are about to assemble. They will consult on the means of securing the reign of the laws and the maintenance of the rights of the nation. " The charter shall be henceforth a true thing." On the first of August, Louis Philippe proinalgated his first ordonnance, declaring the resumption of the tri-color as a national flag. That morning he received a commission as Lieutenant-General from Charles X., who was at Rambouil- let, and Monsieur Dupin drew up a rude reply, refusing it. Louis Philippe, (if we may credit Louis Blanc,) read it, put it with his own hands under an envelope, and lighted the sealing-wax to seal it, when all at once, appearing to bethink him, he said, " This is too serious a matter to be 15 170 RISE AND FALL despatched without consulting my wife." He went into an adjoining room, and returned some minutes afterwards with the same envelope in his hand, which was delivered to the messenger. The letter that was actually inclosed breathed affection and fidelity, and it soothed and touched the old monarch ; so much so, that from that moment all his doubts and uncertainties vanished. Charles X. was delio-hted to find in Louis Philippe the protector of his grandson, and feeling assured that his honor was the best guarantee of the Due de Bordeaux's royal expectations, he put in execution, without delay, a project that, before this, had but vaguely presented itself to his mind. Not content with abdicating the crown, he used the absolute control he possessed over the Dauphin to make him also abdicate ; and he believed that he should thus secure the salvation of his dynasty. He accordingly drew up the following act of abdication which was sent with a letter from the Duchess of Berri to the Duchess of Orleans, and the receipt of which caused the latter to burst into tears. She did not attempt to conceal her grief before the messenger at the recent catastrophe, but mide no expl-anations as to her husband's policy, merely saying that he was an honest man, aad the family might rely upon him. " Rambouillet, Aug. 2. " My Cousin, — I am too profoundly grieved by the evils which afflict or might threaten my people, not to have sought a means of preventing them. I have, therefore, taken the resolution to abdicate the crown in favor of my grandson, the Duke de Bor- deaux. " The Dauphin, who partakes of my sentiments, also renounces his rights in favor of his nephew. " You will have then, in your quality of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, to cause the accession of flenry V. to the Crown to be proclaimed. You will take, besides, all the measures which concern you to regulate the form of the Government during the minority of the new King. Here I confine myself to making known these dispositions; it is a means to avoid many evils. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 171 " You will communicate my intentions to the diplomatic body ; and you will acquaint me as soon as possible with the proclama- tion by which my grandson shall have been recognised King of France, under the name of Henry V. "I charge Lieutenant-General Viscount de Foissac-Lalour to deliver this letter to you. He has orders to settle with you the arrangements to be made in favor of the persons who have accom- panied me, as well as the arrangements necessary for what con- cerns me and the rest of my family. " We will afterwards regulate the other measures which will be the consequence of the change of the reign, " I repeat to you, my cousin, the assurances of the sentiments with which I am your affectionate cousin, " Charles." It was singular, says Louis Blanc, that Charles should have drawn up in the form of a letter the important docu- ment that changed the order of succession to the throne. Such an informality was particularly remarkable in a mo- narch so scrupulously observant of the laws of etiquette. But the assurances of attachment contained in the letter written by the Duke of Orleans had sealed the mind of Charles X. against suspicion. In this document the Duke of Orleans was considered as the natural protector of the minority of Henry V., and he was left supreme arbiter of all the measures which the fatality of the circumstances might render imperative. But Louis Philippe was bent on securing the crown for himself, and fearing the presence of Charles X. so near the capital, at the head of his army, he sent Marshal Maison, Monsieur de Schonen, and Odilon Barrot, to escort him to the coast, under the pretence of protecting him from popu- lar resentment. " What shall we do if they commit the Duke of Bordeaux to our charge? " asked Monsieur de Schonen when receiving his instructions at the Palais Royal. " The Duke of Bordeaux," exclaimed Louis Philippe, " why, he is your King ! " The Duchess of Orleans, who was present, burst into tears, and threw herself into her 172 RISE AND FALL husband's arms, saying : " Ah ! you are the most honest man in the world." She little thought that he had given positive orders for the embarkation and exile of every member of the fallen dynasty. On the 3d of August the Chambers assembled, or rather the liberal portion of them, for there were few besides. The intrepid De Beranger was there, with De Conny, Pampleun, De Boisbertrand, D'Autpoul, Royer, and De Belissen, all faithful to fallen fortunes — but the remainder of the two hundred royalist Deputies had not the courage to appear. The attendance of the Peers, with Chateaubriand at their head, was more numerous. Louis Philippe's opening dis- course is an interesting state paper. " Gentlemen of the Chamber of Peers and Deputies : " Paris, disturbed by a deplorable violation of the Charter and of the laws, has defended them with a heroic courage. In the midst of this fearful struggle none of the safeguards of social order existed. Persons, property, rights, and all that is dear to men, and citizens, were in imminent danger. In this absence of all public power, the wishes of my fellow-citizens turned towards me ; they have judged ms worthy of co-operating with them for the safety of the country, they have invited me to exercise the functions of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. Their cause appeared just, the dangers great, the necessity imperious, and ray duty sacred. I have hastened to join this brave people, accompanied by my family, and bearing those colors which, for the second time among us, are connected with the triumph of liberty. I have come firmly resolved to devote myself to whatever the circumstances may require of me, in the situation in which they have placed me, to establish the power of the laws, to save our liberty which has been menaced, and to render impossible the return of such great evils, by con- firming the power of that charter, whose name, invoked during the combat, shall be heard after the victory. In the accomplishment of this noble end, I shall look to the Chambers for a guide. All rights should be fully guaranteed, all necessary institutions for their full and free exercise should receive the developments which they require. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 173 " Attached, from principle and conviction, to the principles of a government, I vi^ill take the risk of the consequences. I deem it my duty, from this day, to call your attention to the organization of the national guard, the trial by jury for ojffences of the press, the formation of administrations in the departments, and above all, that fourteenth Article of the Charter which has been so odiously interpreted. "■ In the midst of the joyful transports of the capital and of all France, in the sight of order springing up with such marvel- lous quickness, after a resistance unstained by any excess, a just national pride swells my heart, and I confidently look forward to the future. Yes, gentlemen, France will be happy and free ; this France, so dear to us, will show Europe that, entirely occupied by her internal prosperity, she cherishes peace as well as liberty, and only desires the happiness and tranquillity of her neighbors. " Respect for the rights of all, care for the interests of all, and faith in the government, are the best means of disarming parties, of restoring to the minds of all, that confidence in the public in- stitutions, and that stability which is the only sure pledge of the happiness of the people and of the force of the state." The weather just then was beautiful, and Louis Philippe, with the Duchess leaninof on his arm and two or three of their children following them, used to mingle with the peo- ple in the public gardens. They also visited the hospitals, gave $20,000 to the poor, and made most gracious answers to the numerous deputations who presented themselves. Among other acts calculated to win popularity, was a pen- sion of $300 granted by Louis Philippe to Rouget de L'Lisle, auttior of the Marseillaise,* with a letter, saying that it re- called '' cherished souvenirs" to his heart. Popular enthu- siasm was at its highest pitch, and an English observer says that the streets were crowded with that idle populace so peculiarl)' Parisian — while every where one saw the tri- * A free translation of this national war-song of France has been given on page 34. The words and music were composed in a single night — an in- 15* 174 RISE AND FALL color, and heard the Marseillaise and Ca Ira. The whole population seemed one happy family : " Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher which they took — Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as ihey passed." Some of the rabble who went from Paris, having driven Charles X. from Paris, returned in the magnificent coro- nation equipages, and making a pompous entry into the city, alighted at the Palais Royal, shouting, '* Hallo ! here are your coaches ! " Working men with begrimmed faces and naked arms stood sentinels at every door of the palace, some of them armed with guns, others with pikes. The Duchess of Orleans was greatly terrified at this spectacle, which reminded her of the scenes of the first revolution. But Louis Philippe had mustered up his courage, and the smile never ceased to play on his lips. Charles X. was a fugitive with his family, leaving the throne vacant. Yet a few vain formalities discharged ; and the Lieutenant-General became King. cident beautifully described by Dr. O. W. Holmes, of Boston, in the fol- lowing lines : " The city slept beneath the moonbeam's glance, Her while walls gleaming through the vines of France, And all was hushed, save where the footsteps fell, On some high tower, of midnight sentinel. But one still watched, no self-encircled woes Chased from his lids the angel of repose ; He watched, he wept, for thoughts of bitter years Bowed his dark lashes, wet with burning tears ; His country's sufferings, and his children's shame, Streamed o'er his memory like a forest's flame, Each treasured insult, each remembered wrong, Rolled through his heart, and kindled into song ; His taper faded, and the morning gales Swept through the world the war-song of Marseilles ! " OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 175 CHAPTER XXIII. The new charter was drawn up by Monsieur Berard, but curiously changed by Guizot and De Broglie, ere it was presented to the Chamber of Deputies on the morning of the 7th of August, with the following preamble : "The Chamber of Deputies, taking into consideration the impe- rious necessity resulting from the events of the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th of July, and from the general situation in which France has been placed in consequence of the violation of the constitu- tional charter ; considering, moreover, that in consequence of that violation and of the heroic resistance of the inhabitants of Paris, the King, Charles X., his Royal Highness Louis Antoine, Dauphin, and all the members of the elder branch of the royal family are at this m.oment quitting the French territory, — declares that the throne is vacant, de facto and de jure, and that it is indispensably needful to provide for the same." This preamble was most diplomatically framed, setting forth as it did the elevation of the Duke of Orleans as the compulsory result of events in which it was very possible he had himself taken no part. Charles X. was not expelled from the kingdom ; he quitted it, and the Duke of Orleans only ascended the throne because the throne happened to be vacant. Thus, whatever foreign cabinets might have regarded as revolutionary in the Dake's accession, was, of course, cleared up to their satisfaction ; that Prince was no longer an usurper, he was the unavoidable continuator of the system of order and peace guaranteed by the monarchical form. It had been the wish of the Duke of Orleans to make Europe believe that he respected in Charles X. a member of the family of inviolable kings, when he sent 176 RISE AND FALL commissioners to Rambouillet to protect him against the passions which the Duke himself had excited. Nothing could be better adapted to fulfil the Prince's intentions than the declaration we have just read. It was adopted almost without opposition.* Having washed the usurpation from the eyes of Europe, it was necessary to make the people believe that an indissoluble compact was to be entered into between them and the throne, by which their rights were to be protected. Some articles of the old charter were therefore cancelled, others hurriedly altered, and as it began to grow late before this superficial revision was finished, it was decided to make provision by special laws, to be enacted in the shortest pos- sible time, for the following subjects : — Trial by jury for political oflfences — the responsibility of ministers — the re- election of deputies who had taken office — the annual voting of the army estimates — the national guard — the position of military and naval officers — departmental and municipal institutions — public instruction and liberty of teaching —the determination of the conditions of electoral qualification and eligibility. One more article was necessary to complete this hurried contract which was to bind France to the " Throne of the Barricades." Lafitte read it^ " Together with the adoption of these provisions and proposi- tions, the Chamber of Deputies finally declares, that the general and urgent interest of the French people calls to the throne His Royal Highness, Louis Philippe, of Orleans, Dake of Orleans, Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, and his heirs for all the fu- ture, in the male line, according to the law of primogeniture, with exclusion of the female line and its heirs. " In accordance with the foregoing, His Royal Highness, Louis Philippe of Orleans, Duke of Orleans, Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, will be invited to accept and swear to the foregoing * Louis Blanc's History of Ten Years. ODILLON BARROT. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 177 clauses and obligations to the observing of the constitutional charter, and the specified modifications, and, after having done this in presence of the assembled Chambers, to take the title of King of the French." Monsieur de Corcelles asked if this election of a sove- reign should not be submitted to the people for their ratifica- tion, but no one sustained him. The following was the result of the ballot which decided that the crown of France should be given away, as the same Deputies would have voted them- selves refreshments for the season. Number of voters .... 252 White balls 229 Black balls 33 Towards sunset the Deputies left their hall, and walked in procession to the Palais Royal, where Louis Philippe received them in the hall in which his father had received Franklin, surrounded by his family. Lafitte read the new Charter, the last clause of which was an invitation to ascend the throne, and Louis Philippe replied : " Messieurs, — I receive with deep emotion the declaration you present to me. I regard it as the expression of the national will, and it appears to me conformable to the political principles I have all my life professed. " Full of remembrances that have always made me wish that I might never be called to a throne, exempt from ambition, and habituated to the peaceful life I led in my family, T cannot conceal from you all the feelings that agitate my heart in this great con- juncture ; but there is one that overbears all the rest, that is, the love of my country. I feel what it prescribes to me, and I will do it." As he concluded, he threw himself into the arms of La- fitte, and received the warm congratulations of his friends. Lafayette then led him out on the balcony, and when the applause of the assembled multitudes had subsided, said : 178 RISE AND FALL " We have done a good work. This is what we have been able to make most like a Republic." It is not correct that he exclaimed, '* Behold the best of Republics."* The next day, the Chamber of Peers assembled to ratify the compact which had been entered into by the Deputies, but it was rather an act of civility, for the lower Chamber had acted with sovereign independence. The session was, however, marked by a speech from Chateaubriand, t which will ever remain as a specimen of courageous and sublime eloquence. After having denounced, in eloquent and appro- priate language, the ordinances of July, and their authors; and after having rendered his noble tribute of admiration to the temperance and moderation of the people of Paris, he addressed himself to the question of the rights of the Duke of Bordeaux : " To say that this child, when separated from his masters, would not have had time to forget their very names, before arriving at manhood ; to say that he would remain infatuated 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 at least not very reasonable ! It is not from a feeling of sentimental devotedness, transmitted from the swad- dling-clothes of St. Louis, to the cradle of the 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 sphere of philosophy, from the period at which my life terminates. I pro- pose the Duke of Bordeaux 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 principle of the sovereignty of 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 * Letter from General Lafayette to General Bernard. t Chateaubriand. Note P. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 179 anywhere ; liberty does not flow from political right, as was sup- posed 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, nay, much freer than a republic. And above all, such a monarchy as you would establish, will be swept away by democratic laws, or the constitutional monarch will be swept away by the movement of factious persons. " An unavailing Cassandra,'' he concluded, reverting painfully to his own position, " I have sufficiently wearied the throne and the peerage with my disregarded warnings. It only remains for me to sit down on the fragments of a wreck I have so often pre- dicted. I recognise in misfortune all kinds of power, except that of releasing me from my oaths of fidelity. I must therefore render my life uniform. After all I have done, said, and written for the Bourbons, I should be the vilest of wretches if I denied them at the moment when for the third and last time they are going into exile. Fear I leave to those mock 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. Pious libellers, the renegade now calls upon you ! Come, then, and stammer out a word, a single word, with him, for the unfortunate master you have lost, and who loaded you with benefits. Instigators of Coups cfEtat, and preachers of coa- stituent power, where are you? You hide yourselves in the mire, from under which you raised your heads to calumniate the faithful servants of the King. Your silence to-day is worthy of your lan- guage of yesterday ! Ye gallant paladins, whose projected ex- ploits have caused the descendants of Henry IV. to be driven from their throne at the point of the pitchfork, tremble now, as ye crouch under the tri-colored cockade I The noble colors you display will protect your person, but will not cover your cowardice ! Whatever be the destinies in store for the Lieutenant-General, I will never be his enemy if he efl!ect the welfare of my country. All I ask is, that I may preserve the freedom of ray conscience, and the right to go and die wherever I shall find independence and repose." This touching appeal produced no effect on the Peers, who immediately commenced balloting. Only one hundred and fourteen were present, of whom eighty-nine voted in 180 RISE AND FALL favor of the new Charter, ten against it, and fifteen refused to vote at all. That same evening the majority presented themselves at the Palais Royal, M'here their Chancellor, Monsieur Pasquier, thus addressed Louis Philippe. " The Chamber of Peers presents to your Royal Highness the act which realizes our hopes. Hitherto you have defended our young and untried liberties with your sword ; to-day you conse- crate them by institutions and laws. Your wisdom, your inclina- tion, the recollection of your whole life, promise a citizen King. You will respect our safeguards, for they are likewise yours. This noble family which we see around you, educated in the love of country, of justice, and of truth, will assure to your children the peaceable enjoyment of that Charter to which you are about to take the oath, and the blessings of a government firm and free to the end." Thus far the relations between the creator and the created had been religiously observed, and nothing now remained but to give the transfer of the crown a formal sanction, or as a French radical calls it, " that sort of legitimacy which public imbecility connects with the prestige of an imposing ceremonial ! " The throne was placed on its usual platform in the Chamber of Deputies, but the Jleur-de-lis had been removed from it, and in the canopy which hung over it, the white flag of St. Louis, " sans tache,^' had been replaced by the tricolored banner of the first revolution. At the front of the platform was a range of stools, and between that destined for Louis Philippe and the throne, was a table on which stood the pen and ink to be employed in signing the Charter. This table typified the barrier still existing between Louis Philippe and Royalty. He was to sit upon a simple stool, until, by signing a compact with the Repre- sentatives of the Nation, he received permission to seat himself upon the throne of Charlemagne. On the 9th of August, 1830, having been escorted thither by a brilliant procession, Louis Philippe entered the Chamber OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 181 to the sound of the Marseillaise, accompanied by the Duchess of Orleans, his two eldest sons, and his devoted •sister. Casimer Perier having read the Charter in a stern and manly voice, Louis Philippe addressed the assembled Peers and Deputies : *' T have read with great attention the declaration of the Cham- ber of Deputies, and the act of adhesion of the Chamber of Peers. I have v^^eighed and meditated every expression therein. I accept, without restriction or reservation, the clauses and engagements contained in that declaration, and the title of King of the French which it confers on me, and I am ready to make oath to observe the same." He then rose, uncovered himself, drew off his right glove, raised his right hand, and repeated after Dupont de I'Eure the oath. " In presence of God I swear faithfully to observe the constitu- tional charter, with the modifications set forth in the declara- tion ; to govern only by the laws, and according to the laws ; to cause good and exact justice to be administered to every one ac- cording to his right, and to act in every thing with the sole view to the interest, the welfare, and the glory of the French people." The hall resounded with cries of " Vive le Roi," as Louis Philippe turned towards the table, and signed three copies of the charter and of his oath, to be deposited in the archives of the kingdom, and in those of the two Chambers. Four Marshals of France presented him with the sceptre, the crown, the sword of state, and the hand of justice, while the table and the stool were removed. Louis Philippe, first King of the French, seated himself upon the throne, and thus delivered his inaugural speech : "Gentlemen of the Chambers: — I have just performed a great act. I am fully aware of the extent of the duty it imposes upon me. I have confidence in myself, and trust I shall fulfil it. With a firm conviction of this, T have become a party to the com- pact, which has been proposed to me. IG 182 RISE AND FALL " It has ever been an ardent desire with me never to nccnpy the throne, to which the national wish has called me ; but France, her liberties in danger, saw her pviblic order in peril. The violation of the charter had shaken our civil system in its foundation It was necessary to re-establish the supremacy of the laws. It was the duty of the Chambers to make the provisisons. "Gentlemen, you have well performed your duty. The wise modifications which have been effected in the Charter, guarantee security for the future, and France, I hope, will be happy at home, ajid respected abroad, and give greater assurances than ever for the peace of Europe." Fresh acclamations welcomed these hopes for the future, and the monarch left the hall amidst peals of cannon and the loud chaunts of the " Marseillaise." His first care was to organize a Ministry. Dupont de I'Eure received the portfolio of the Department of Justice, Gerard * that of War, Guizot that of the Interior, Louis t that of Finance, (which they had previously held temporarily,) de Broglie | that of Public Instruction, Mole § that of Foreign Affairs, and Sebastiani H that of the Marine. In addition to these Ministers, there were four other members of the Cabinet, who, without any other duties to perform, had a voice in its deliberations, and partook in its general responsibility — Lafitte, Casiraer Perier, the elder Dupin, and Benjamin Constant. Charles X. was meanwhile journeying towards the coast, attended by a few faithful adherents, and the remnants of his body guard, who were so worn out with fatigue that one fell on the road near Nonancourt and instantly expired. The deposed monarch entered every church on the way- * Gerard. Note G. t Lcuis. Note H, t De Broglie. Note I. § Mo e. Note K. II Se'.iastiaui. Note L. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 183 side to " tell his beads and patter prayer," but no shout of •* Vive le Roi " burst from the assembled peasants as he came out ; and he looked at them with a vacant stare. His lips were dry and livid, and the assumed smile that occasionally phiyed upon his countenance only added to the ghostly ex- pression of his fea.tures. Yet he insisted on tiie strict ob- servance of court etiquette, apparently resigned to exile, pro- vided he might make a show of carrying with him the lustre of his race, and the trappings of royalty. The other mem- bers of the royal family were cheerful, — even the Duchess of Berri, who had assumed male attire, and endeavored to soothe her son, who, like young Napoleon at Rambouillet in 1814, was unwilling to leave his heritage. At Cherbourg, we learn from Louis Blanc, "two vessels had been prepared to receive the King, his family, and the persons of his suite. They were the Gj^eat Brilain, and the Charles Carroll, under the command of Captain Duraont d'Arville, vessels of republican build, launched in the American waters, and belonorincr to members of the Bona- parte family. The people are fond of remarking these con- trasts ; they are the poetry of history." *' At last the parting moment was come. Standing on the deck, the old Kina bade farewell to France ; and the Great Britain, towed by a steamer, unfurled her sails, whilst the guards silently took their way back up the cliffs of Cherbourg. Some spectators who lingered on the beach watched the course of the vessel, when suddenly they saw it turn about and stand in with all speed for the port. Was this in consequence of some violent order given by Charles X. to the crew ? It might have been feared so ; but every thing had been assiduously provided for : a brig commanded by Captain Thibault, had received orders to convoy the Great Britain, and to sink it if Charles X. made the least attempt to act as master." This inexorable forethought was not justified by the event. The vessel only returned to take in the provisions which had been forgotten. 184 RISE AND FALL " When every thing was ready, the word of command was again given, and the Bourbons sailed away for England, crossing perhaps the track once made by the vessel of the defeated Stuarts. The sky foreboded no storm ; the wind iilled the sails; and the ship disappeared over the sea." FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNj^TURE OF GUIZOT. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 185 CHAPTER XXIV. Thk result of the '' three days of July " burst upon en- slaved Europe like light from Heaven, and the news of Liberty, as it was borne over mountain and vale, plain and forest, with the speed of Clan Alpine's fiery cross, awakened high hopes in the breasts of starving and vassal millions. In Belgium a republican majority wished to shake off the phlegmatic rule of Holland, to ally themselves with France, whose laws were in their language, and vv^hose established religion was their creed. Rhenish Germany, that old empire-home of Charlemagne, which for centuries had been the nursery of feudal rule, was awakened from her slavish slumber by the student-bands of her Universities. Poland, so long crushed beneath the iron heel of the Rus- sian Autocrat, longed to cast oiF the yoke imposed by the treaty of 1815, and combat for freedom with those stern purposes and that iron courage which has ever animated her brave sons, wherever their swords have flashed in de- fence of the inalienable rights of man. Italy, *'the mother of nations," was in a state of political fermentation which needed but a signal to burst out into open revolt, drive home the Austrians, and establish an united government, whose flag could wave in security over the tombs of Cicero, of Brutus, and of the Gracchi. Switzerland sought to shake off the yoke of an oligarchy, republican indeed, but inso- lent, as all republican institutions are. The llluminati at Vienna, and the proud nobles of Hungary, were ready to fisrht shoulder to shoulder ao-ainst the imbecile head of the House of Hapsburg and his despotic Minister, the crafty Metternich. Old Spain had lost the American colonies, those brightest jewels of her crown, and their people well IG* 186 RISE AND FALL knew that the priests but awaited the accession of Don Carlos to rekindle the fires of the Inquisition. Portugal, though cowering under the bloody rule of that capricious maniac Don Miguel, only waited for a friendly hand to open the way for her resurrection. In short, the chord struck in Paris vibrated from one end of Europe to the other, and a signal from France would have swept away princes, kings, and emperors. Such being the state of affairs, what ought to have been the external policy of Louis Philippe 1 Should he have entered into the traditional system of ancient alliances, which compelled him to refuse countenance to every revolu- tionary movement, or should he have created for Europe a new political code, having for its basis, not traditions, but necessities 1 Should he have boldly defied the " Holy Alliance " of monarchs, and aided their subjects in accom- plishing the great work of their regeneration 1 — or should he have isolated France from the surrounding nations, and exerted his power to crush at home and abroad the republican principles which had elevated him, to strengthen his dynasty ? The Propagandists 'thought, if one of their ablest writers is correct,* that a monarchy produced in three days by the sovereignty of the people, could not long co-exist with the old doctrines of legitimacy, which the late revolution had so violently bruited in France. In their opinion the mo- ment was decisive for the glory and security of the country ; and the interests, as well as the duties of a monarchy, resting upon an act destructive of the spirit and the letter of the treaties of 1814 and 1815, were evidently, to allow the revolutionary movement to travel over its whole national sphere, to sweep away, as far as the Rhine, the ignominy of those treaties, and from thence to call forth an entire change of the public law of Europe, which was a work of violence. Monsieur B. Sarrans, Jr., Aid-de-camp to General Lafayette. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 187 a conglomeration of alliances against nature, and of burdens without compensation, which certainly could bind the oppressed nations only so long as they should want the means of emancipating themselves from it. As to the faith of treaties, it appeared to the Propagan- dists that in political morality it was a horrible perversion of right, to make them an instrument of oppression and ruin. In proof of this, they cited all the wars which even those who invoked the treaties had undertaken, to get rid of obligations they had imposed upon themselves. What, said they, did Austria care about all the treaties which she concluded with the republic, the consulate, and the empire? In what manner did England observe the treaty of Amiens, Prussia those of Presburg and of Tilsit, and Russia that same treaty of Vienna, which had granted to heroic Po- land a semblance of nationality, and some appearance of liberty 1 They saw no stability for the Revolution of July but in a combination of analogous disturbances, which should destroy all the bonds of patronage and inferiority established by the treaties of 1814 and 1815. Treaties by virtue of which Prussia ruled from Thionville to Memel, Austria from the Lake of Constance to the gates of Belgrade, and from the Tanaro to the frontiers of Turkey ; and — what is far more alarming to the civilization of Europe — by virtue of which a serai-barbarous empire had established itself upon the Oder, from whence it menaced the Elbe, the Weser, and the Rhine. All these nations had immoderately extended their territories, and every one knows the rich dominions which British disinterestedness is constantly subjugating, at the expense of the conquered. The prevalent idea that the Propagandists wished to seize upon half of Europe, is incorrect. They merely hoped to restore the balance of power, not by the tearing asunder of States, but by a just return to the principle of natural nationality, which would not have bound Louis Philippe to 188 RISE AN'D FALL have ratified the spoliation of Landau, of Philippeville, of Chamberry, or of Huninguen. In their opinion, France ought to have made herself as strong by her alliances as by her own weight; and they beheld her allies not in the great powers, but in the states of the second order, which from the war of the Reformation she had taken under her pro- tection — in the Poles, the Belgians, the Swedes, the Danes, the independent members of the Germanic family, the free men of every country. Above all, the Propagandists^ recollecting with pride that France had at all times united her cause with that of weak and oppressed nations — that, though Catholic herself, she had undertaken the de- fence of Protestantism — that although an absolute monar- chy, she had fought for a republican insurrection, and demanded loudly that her popular doctrines should now be conveyed to the Rhine, to the Pyrenees, to the other side of the Alps. That presenting herself there either to assist or arbitrate, she should have guaranteed to those nations that wished to be free, the ri^ht of becominop so, and to those, if such were to be found, who preferred absolute power, the liberty to keep it. They did not think that a dynasty, whose power sprang from the popular cannon, should reject the traditional system of its ancient alliances to consolidate itself by enslaving popular rights at home, and aiding to crush them abroad. " I know not," says M. Sarrans, " what would have been the result if the external policy of the Propagandists had been carried into effect. But I do know that the over- turning of the most ancient throne in Europe, the unex- pected return of England to ideas liberal beyond expecta- tion, the resurrection of Belijium, the wonderful combats of Poland, the convulsions of Italy, the movements in Switzerland, the commotions in Germany, and even the patriotic reminiscences of Spain, seemed to announce that the time had arrived fur the complete restoration of French liberty, and for the emancipation of all Europe." OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 189 Louis Philippe had not been seated on his throne a fort- night, before it was evident that he was decidedly opposed to Propagandism, and that he sought to rule France by cunning management, sacrificing her interests to a misera- ble, almost morbid, and in a monarch, contemptible nepo- tism. The progress of Republicanism would endanger his throne, and it was not only well to have the friendship of the great powers to sustain him as he moved on with stealthy craft towards absolutism, but that his sceptre might descend to his son. Besides, if he adopted a warlike policy, there w^as no hope of his increasing his revenues, or ren- dering his dynasty permanent. Napoleon had bound up the shattered fragments of French society in the chains of a vast military despotism, weighty beyond measurement, which had defied and menaced the whole world, but it had no vital principle. It was a machine capable of work- ing great ends whilst the strong arm drove the wheel ; without that it was nothing — it had no active power native to it, or adherent in it. Louis Philippe undertook to incor- porate the elements of French moral and political life in a new form, substituting the purse for the sword, and advocat- ing peace that he might amass wealth and marry his chil- dren among all the royalties in Europe. Apparently uncon- scious of his duty towards his subjects and the principles to which he owed his aggrandizement, his coffers and his family seem to have been his first thoughts. His kingdom was but the means by which the one might be filled and the other aggrandized. The lourgeoisie supported the ''Napoleon of Peace," (as Louis Philippe christened himself,) for the same reasons that led him to humiliate France. Peaceable shopkeepers and manufacturers, they were nervously alive to the fear of unforeseen contingencies, and the very name of war inspired them with dread, for in it they beheld only the interruption of commercial relations, the loss of markets, failures, and bankruptcy. They could not comprehend the difference 190 RISE AND FALL between a war spirit, which leaves little behind but the memory of the blood and treasure that has been wasted, and that necessary attitude of armed defiance which it behooved France to assume, in justice to herself and to the cause of liberty. Louis Blanc asserts, that even without stepping out of the narrow sphere to which a constitutional monarchy con- fined the revolution of July, the new dynasty might have carved out for itself an independent and original course in Europe, had it been happily inspired. Louis Philippe mio;ht have said to the Powers, "In the name of the French bourgeoisie, of which I am the representative, I adhere to the territorial arrangements stipulated by the treaties of 1815, and I repudiate every idea of conquest. I pledge myself, moreover, to set up a permanent barrier against the torrent of revolution. But in order that I may fulfil this twofold mission, it is essential that the principles, by virtue of which I am king, and which are those of the bourgeoisie^ shall acquire force and authority in Europe. I cannot bridle democratic and conquering France, without the help of constitutional Europe. My cause being identical with that of the bour- geoisie, I cannot long count on its sympathies at home, unless I make its doctrines and its interests triumphant abroad. In proclaiming that all governments were responsible to, and for each other, the Holy Alliance laid down a just principle, of which it only remains to make an application, conforma- ble to the course of events and ideas. The constitutional system exists in England; it has just obtained the upper- hand in France; it may easily be introduced into Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium ; it aspires to be perfected in Germany. Well then, in the name of bourgeois France, which has placed the crown on my head, I offer my support to the bourgeoisie in all the countries of Europe, and I offer the alliance of France, and the peace of the world, as the price of the adoption of the constitutional principle." This language, Blanc goes on to say, certainly would OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 191 not have been the adequate expression of all the noble passions, or of all the legitimate interests of France; but it was the only language that could have been held becom- ingly and judiciously, in a monarchical and bourgeois point of view. Had war broken out in this case, royalty would have found support within and without ; it would have engaged in its favor the popularity acquired by a show of energy ; and far from exposing itself to the assaults of the democratic spirit, it would have turned its own wea- pons against it. But Louis Philippe had another path marked out, and wrote to the sovereiiins of Europe, representing his acces- sion " as an unfortunate but inevitable act of resistance to imprudent aggressions." William IV. of England, was the first to recognise the " Citizen King," and the adhe- sions of Austria and of Prussia soon followed, while the Kinof of Holland was delicrhted to see one on the throne of France who renounced the left bank of the Rhine and Belgium. Ferdinand VH. of Spain, postponed his answer, and published a diplomatic circular, as insulting to the new monarch as to the nation that had chosen him, while the Duke of Modena, the ruler of a petty Italian province, insolently protested against the usurpation. And finally, the Emperor Nicholas, unprepared for war, thought it expedient to write the following rather contemptuous letter, omitting the appellation of My Brother, which had been lavishly used in Louis Philippe's notification. " Zarskoe-Scho, Sept 18,1830. " I have received from the hands of General Aihalin the letter of which he has been the bearer. Events for ever to be deplored have placed your Majesty in a cruel alternative. Your Majesty has adopted a determination which appeared to you the only one fitted to save France from the greatest calamities, and 1 will not utter any judgment upon the considerations which have guided your Majesty, but I pray that Divine Providence may be pleased to bless your intentions and the e^brt^ you are about to make for 192 RISE AND FALL the welfare of the French people. In concert with my allies, I accept with pleasure the wishes expressed by your Majesty to maintain relations of peace and amity with all the states of Europe. As long as these relations shall be based on the existing treaties, and on the firm resolution to respect the rights and obli- gations, and the state of territorial possession which those treaties have ratified, Europe will find therein a guarantee for that peace which is so necessary to the repose of France herself. Called in conjunction with my allies to cultivate these conservative relations with France, under her government, I w^ill for my part bring to them all the solicitude they demand, and the dispositions of which I gladly offer your Majesty the assurance, in return for the sentiments your Majesty has expressed to me. I pray your Majesty to accept at the same lime, &lc. &c. " Nicholas." The ominious reserve of this letter was not to be mis- taken, and, to conciliate its imperial writer, Poland was doomed to find verified the touching phrase of its despair, " God is too high, and France is too far." The other hostile sovereigns were forced into recognising the Orleans dynasty by a profuse distribution of money to the Spanish and Italian revolutionists, who were deserted when Louis Phi- lippe had gained his desired ends ; it was to them, and to the agents who brought about the French struggle, that he paid away the immense wealth of the house of Orleans, employing the very money which had been granted him by Charles X. for his overthrow. Meanwhile Louis Philippe continued to play the Bour- geois, and acted his part to perfection. The only guard at his palace was a corps of one hundred men, who had en- rolled themselves voluntarily during the three days' convul- sion, appointed their own officers, and wore their citizens' dresses. These did not accompany him in his promenades through the city, with his broad hat and large umbrella, and sometimes " his wife," as he called the Q,ueen. The people were enchanted with his smiles and humility, all Paris echoing with his request one day when incommoded OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 193 by the pressure of the crowd in the Palais Royal, to have *' a portion of that liberty which was the birthright of every Frenchman." The Princesses used frequently to go unat- tended to the shops of their trades-people to make purchases, refusing to let them be sent home unless too cumbrous for them to carry with propriety, and when buying any thing for the use of the dueen, invariably speaking of her as " Maman." A dozen people had only to cry *' Vive le Roi/' under the palace windows to bring Louis Philippe out upon the balcony, and the Valets-de-place used to give strangers a sight of him, bowing, laying his hand upon his heart, and swearing to support the charter, &c. An English traveller who had paid two francs for witnessing this patriotic demon- stration, was persuaded by his cicerone to give him five francs more, for which he promised to make Louis Philippe sing the Marseillaise. No sooner did the valet pocket the money than he again shouted "Xe Roi ! Le Roi!" — again did the crowd assembled echo the cry most loyally — once more did the King appear, show himself to the people and proclaim his readiness to defend the charter. But just as he was making his parting bow, the hoarse voice of the valet bellowed "La Marseillaise ! La Marseillaise ! " — and he began himself to scream the air in a discordant tone. The strain was caught up by the bystanders, while Louis Phi- lippe, leaning against the iron railing of the balcony, joined in it right lustily — beating the time with his glove upon the crown of the shako of the national guard, which he held in his hand. Notwithstanding this want of moral elevation, the patri- otic bankers and "free and independent" grocers were delighted with their " Citizen King," he was such a good father, and shook hands vi^ith them all so kindly. Paternal love is a highly commendable feeling, but is no plea in defence of crime or breach of trust, yet in the brain cov- ered by that often doffed beaver, there lurked even the idea 17 194 RISE AND FALL of fortifying Paris, and depressing France, that the children of that " hon fere de famille," might be dowered at home, or wedded abroad at the risk of the peace of Europe. While thousands of intelligent Frenchmen felt a profound conviction that their beloved land was at last in a fair way to attain perfect liberty, and placed entire confidence in the republican sentiments and revolutionary enthusiasm which they had credulously decked with a citizen-crown, Joseph Bonaparte, an exile in America, thus strikingly predicted the course of the Orleans dynasty. Overshadowed in the proximity to his brother, whose immense genius so obscured all those who were about him, historians are too apt to undervalue the talents and wisdom of the Ex-King of Spain. " September 18, 1830. " To the Chamber of Deputies at Paris : " Gentlemen : — The memorable events which have again raised in France the national colors, and destroyed the order of things established by the invader in the intoxication of his success, have shown forth the nation in its true light ; the great capital has re- suscitated the great nation. " Proscribed far from the soil of my country, I should have pre- sented myself there along with this letter, had I not read amongst many names acknowledged by the liberality of the nation, that of a Prince of the house of Bourbon, The events of the last days of July have placed in a strong light this historical truth; it is im- possible for a family, reigning by divine right, to maintain them- selves upon the throne, after they have been once driven out by the nation, because it is not possible that princes born with the pre- tension of having been predestined to rule over a people, should ever divest themselves of the prejudices of their birth. Had not the divorce, too, between the house of Bourbon and the French people, been pronounced? Yes; and nothing could destroy the recollections of the past. So much blood, battles, glory, progress in every sort of civilization, such miracles worked by the nation under the influence of liberal doctrines, were so many firebrands of discord every day rekindled between the governing and the governed. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 195 " Wearied with so many revolutions, and anxious to find peace under a charter given and accepted as the anchor of safety after so many storms, the good were in vain ready fur all sacrifices ; more powerful than men, the f*)rce of destiny was there, and no- thing could reconcile the man of former times, and who had stood still, with those whom thirty years of revolution had elevated and regenerated. In vain the Duke of Orleans abjures his family in the moment of their misfortunes; Bourbon hmiseif having re- turned to France sword in hand with the Bourbons in the train of the invaders, what concerns it that his father voted the death of the King, his cousin, to put himself in his stead? What concerns it, that the brother of Louis the Sixteenth appoints him Lieuten- ant-General of the kingdom and Regent of his grandson? Is he the less a Bourbon? Has he, on that account, the less pretension to have been called to the throne by the right of birth ? It is in- deed upon the choice of the people, or upon divine right, that he relies to establish himself on the throne of his ancestors. Will his children think otherwise ? Do not the past and the present clearly enough predict the future under a branch of this family? Did not the 14th of July, and 10th of August announce well enough these last days of July, 1830 ? And these days in their turn, threaten the nation with a new 28th of July, at a period not far distant! You build on sand, if you forget these everlasting truths ; you will be accountable to the nation and to posterity, for the new calamities to which you subjectthem. No, gentlemen, there is no legitimacy upon earth, but in government which is the choice of the nation. ^'Joseph Bonaparte." 196 RISE AXD FALL CHAPTER XXV. Prior to the '' three days of July," there was no organ- ized Republican party in France, which could make any pretensions to the fruits of that revolution, but no sooner was Louis Philippe seated upon the throne, than the liberal ideas which had been engendered by the organization of a new government began to take root. In proportion as men compared more carefully what they had obtained, with what it seemed to them they might have obtained, was their dis- affection increased at the thoughts of the chance they had lost ; and they at length began to conceive themselves de- frauded of a prize which might indeed have been within their reach, but for which in reality they had never con- tended. Hence arose the Republican party which after- wards triumphed in 1848, and although it gradually assumed an affinity with the parties of 1789 and 1793, it is certain that it was not derived by any continuous tradition or descent from the factions of those famous periods.* It was composed of men whose spirits had never settled into quietude since the three days' fermentation, and who had persuaded themselves, too late, that a republican form of government was that which alone was fitted for France, and which they had unhappily missed. Finding that in their constitutional King they had got a master, not a servant, their rage was intense in proportion to the degree to which they had duped themselves. The first decisive step taken by Louis Philippe was a display of clemency towards the imprisoned ex-ministers, who had, by their counsels, induced Charles X. to violate * Edinburgh Review for April, 1848. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 197 the charter. *' To turn them over to the executioner would be a bloody pledge given to the revolution, at the risk of still more exasperating kings," so it was determined to try them by the Chamber of Peers, instead of the legal tribu- nal. This incensed the populace, whose desire for equality was offended at thus committing its justice to an unpopular and antiquated authority, composed of men in power, and when the King's personal influence procured a resolution from the Chamber of Deputies, recommending the abolition of the penalty of death, there were serious disturbances. Some of these originated at the clubs which had sprung up with the revolution, many of them organized on the old Jacobin model. It was in these assemblies that political and social questions were discussed with that freedom and enthusiasm, which subsequently generated so many strange principles and elicited so many strange projects, and it was by the organization which they rendered practicable, that such concert and vigor was given to demonstrations, which would otherwise have been insignificant. The rules of several required each member to own a musket, and a regu- lar attendance at weekly drills. When the Belgian revolu- tion broke out, the " Societe des Amis du Peuple," despatched a battalion to aid the insurgents, which it had armed and e«iuipped at its own expense. Odilon Barrot, then Prefect of the Seine, (an office equivalent to Mayor of Paris,) published a proclamation denouncing the agitators, but also casting a slur upon the resolution presented to the King by the Chamber of Depu- ties, This proclamation was a source of great vexation to Louis Philippe, to whom its author had previously made himself unpopular by his liberal principles, and his opposi- tion to monarchical forms. His dismissal was resolved on, but Lafayette and Dupont de I'Eure both opposed it in council, and said that in case it was ordered they would resign. The matter was postponed until the next day, when I he King entered with a smile on his face, and going up to 17* 198 RISE AND FALL Dupont de I'Eure, said, '' Well, mon cher, Barrot is to resign, for Lafayette consents to it," " Lafayette consents, sire ! your Majesty must be mistaken," was the reply. " I had it from his own lips, Monsieur." " Permit me, Sire," rejoined Dupont de I'Eure, " to believe that there is some mistake on your part. Monsieur de Lafayette has held very different language to me, and I do not think the General capable of such contradictory language — but now let me speak of myself. Since Odilon Barrot retires, let me repeat my request that your Majesty will accept my resignation." " But you said quite the contrary to me this morning." "I, Sire ! this time I affirm that you are in error." " What, Monsieur, you give me the lie ? Every one shall know how you have affronted me." " Sire," replied Dupont de I'Eure, with dignity, " when the King shall have said, yes, and Dupont de I'Eure shall have said, no, I know not which of the two France will believe." This strange scene, says Louis Blanc, had thrown the Min- isters into indescribable confusion. The King's emotion was extreme. The Garde cles Sceaux had risen and was retiring, when the Duke of Orleans, who was present at the council, immediately went up to him, and taking him by the hnnd, led him to the King and said, " Father, M. Dupont de I'Eure is an honest man. All this matter can be nothing more than a misunderstanding." The King was softened and embraced his Minister, who, likewise affected, consented to retain an authority, the possession of which was still not without danger. As for Messieurs de Broglie, Guizot, Mole, Casi- mer Perier, Dupin, and Bignon, they well knew that the exercise of power, such as they understood it, would be paralyzed in their hands as long as they should have Lafay- ette for their superior, Dupont de I'Eure for their colleague, and Odilon Barrot for their subordinate. They resolved therefore to withdraw for a time from office. Another obnoxious measure was the appointment of Talleyrand as Ambassador to London, which annihilated all OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 199 hopes of joining Belgium to France, and brought about the English alliance. Nor was the past life of this prostituted diplomatist, such as to lead the friends of progress to hope for any advancement of their principles, from one whose greatest merit consisted in a thorough knowledge of every form and degree of human baseness, from having experi- mented upon them in his own person. He had risen through the protection of the courtezans who dishonored the last days of the monarchy, and who contributed to its ruin. He had become Bishop of Autun on the eve of th^ church's down- fall. He, a Grand Seigneur, had been seen on the famous anniversary of the 14th of July, officiating at the altar of the country as high priest of that revolution, which gave the death-blow to the aristocracy whereof he was a member. He had his share of authority, when the I8th Fructidor smote his patrons. He had won the portfolio of foreign affiiirs by the revolution of the ISth Brumaire, directed against his friend Barras. In 1814 he had proclaimed him- self head of the provisional government, whilst his bene- factor, Napoleon, was meditating at Fontainbleau over the ruins of the empire. And now that the dynasty, to which he had offered his patronage in 1814, was exiled in its turn, he reappeared on the stage once more to bid good day to fortune. The English alliance being secured by relinquishing all claim to Belgium, Louis Philippe alarmed Ferdinand VH. into apologizing for the insult he had offered to his government, by encouraging the revolutionary projects got up by Span- iards against their own government. Mina and Valdes received a liundred thousand francs from the King's privy purse, to enable them to raise the standard of revolt in the Basque provinces and on the frontiers of Catalonia, armed bands set out from Paris, depots of muskets were estab- lished, and every assurance of protection was given by the government. But when Ferdinand VIT. made the amende honorable, and professed a desire to maintain friendly rela- 200 RISE AND FALL tions with the King of the French, Louis Philippe sent counter orders by telegraph to the frontier, and not only suspended his pledged assistance, but permitted the royalist troops to pursue the defeated insurgents into the French territory. Those who escaped the massacre, were sent into the interior of France, and placed under strict surveillance. The trial of the ex-ministers created a great excitement, and was considered a test of the strength of Louis Philippe's power. Thanks to General Lafayette, and his devoted national guards, order was preserved, and an immense mob held in check, which had assembled to besiege the Cham- ber of Peers, and sully the sanctuary of justice with the blood of the accused. Louis Philippe was profuse in the expression of thanks to his " dear General," but now that the danger was past, determined to cast him oflf. Meditat- ing the revival of that royal etiquette and antiquated pomp which Lafayette thought were buried forever, the ambitious monarch felt humiliated under the influence of a citizen, whose very presence reminded him incessantly cf the pro- gramme of July, and the republican conditions of the barricades — one who styled himself "the man of public order and of liberty, loving his popularity much better than his life, but determined to sacrifice both rather than neglect a duty or suffer a crime." * The Chamber of Peers beheld in the General the declared enemy of hereditary right, and the Deputies were so alarmed at his wish to convoke a Primary Assembly, that they were easily persuaded to take from him, (by abolishing the office,) the title of Commander General of the National Guards of the kingdom, and this too while at Paris, still throbbing though tranquillized, was attesting the riiagnitude of the service he had rendered in maintaining order. Without any previous intimation, and when the General was absent from the Chamber, the law * Lafayette's Order of the Day, December 19, 1830. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 201 was passed on the 24th of December. The next morning Lafayette wrote the following letter to Louis Philippe : " Paris, December 25, 1830. *' Sire, — The resolution passed yesterday by the Chamber of Deputies, with the assent of the King's ministers, for the sup- pression of the office of Commander-in-chief of the National Guards, at the very moment the law is going to be put to the vote, ex- presses already the opinions of two branches of the legislative power, and above all of that which I have the honor to be a mem- ber. I should consider myself as failing in respect, if I awaited any other formality before tendering to the King, as I now do, my resignation of the powers which his ordinance had conferred upon me. Your Majesty knows, and the correspondence of the general staff will prove it, if required, that their exercise has not been so illusory, up to this period, as was represented in the tribune. The patriotic solicitude of your Majesty will supply its place ; and, for example, it will be important to dispel by ordinances which the law has left at your discretion, the uneasiness which has been produced by the parcelling out of the rural battalions, and the apprehension of seeing confined to the frontier towns and those of the coast, that very useful institution, the citizen artil- lery. " The President of the Council has been so good as to propose to bestow on me the title of honorary commander ; he will, him- self, be sensible, and your Majesty will conceive, that those nomi- nal decorations are suitable neither to the institutions of a free country nor to myself. " In delivering up, respectfully and gratefully, into the hands of your Majesty, the sole ordinance which invests me with author- ity over the national guards, I have taken measures to prevent the service from suffering by it. General Dumas will take the orders of the Minister of the Interior; General Carbonnel will reg- ulate the service of the capital, until it shall please your Ma- jesty to appoint another in his place, which he requests may be done. " I beg your Majesty to accept the cordial tribute of my attach- ment and respect. " Lafayette." Who will believe it 1 On the 25th, at noon, Louis Philippe 202 RISE AND FALL was yet ignorant of the debates that had taken place the evening before, in the Chamber of Deputies, upon a ques- tion which, for two months, had wholly occupied the Court and the town. Be that as it might, here follows the King's answer : — "I have this instant received, my dear General, your letter, which has grieved as much as surprised me by the decision you have taken ; / have not yet had time to read tJie journals. The Council of Ministers meet at one o'clock ; I shall then be at liberty ; that is to say, between four and five, when I hope to see you, and to persuade you to retract your determination. " Accept, my dear General, &c. " Louis Philippe." Lafayette attended the King's appointment, and was re- received with the liveliest marks of affection. Louis Philippe seemed inconsolable at what had taken place the day before in the Chamber of Deputies, and above all, at the part which his Ministers had unwillingly taken in it, and without any evil intention. " But," added the King, " the deplor- able article has not yet become law, and I shall be very well able " _- " Sire," said Lafayette, " the dis- trusts of my colleagues, and the dismissal they have pronoun- ced against me, as far as in them lay, impose on my delicacy the duty of not holding any longer an authority which offends them, and the principle of which, notwithstanding its temporary utility, has, besides, been at all times con- demned by myself. Moreover, being entirely resolved to prosecute by every means in my power the abolition of the hereditary peerage, it does not become me to await, on the part of the Chamber of Peers, a confirmation which would place it in a species of hostility towards me, or a favorable amendment which would lay me under obligation to it. Besides," added he, " I will candidly confess to your Ma- jesty, that in this I find for myself not only a duty, but a fit occasion." — " Explain yourself," said the King. — " Sire," OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 203 replied Lafayette, " your system of government is no longer mine It appears to me that public confidence has placed a trust in my hands ; I cannot refer you to it in writing ; it exists in opinion, in the air perhaps ; but in short, the French people, and many patriots of all countries, persuade themselves that where I am there is no risk that liberty will suffer. Now, I see that liberty is menaced, compromised, and I will deceive no one. Both at home and abroad, the measures of your government not being such as 1 consider conducive to the interests of liberty, there would be a want of candor on my part were I to remain longer, like an opaque body, between the people and the executive. When I am removed from the government, every one will know better how the matter stands." The question being placed upon this ground, the King strove earnestly to combat what he called the prejudices of Lafayette. But neither his manifestations of an un- bounded friendship, nor his reiterated offer to revoke the deplorable clause, could blind the General to the real state of things ; and they had no other effect than to make him repeat to the last moment of that conversation ; " Sire, you offer me many personal concessions, but nothing for the pub- lic weal ; and it is that, and not myself, which is in ques- tion." The King requested twenty-four hours to consider the questions which had arisen between him and the Com- mander-in-Chief of the National Guards. Lafayette as- sented to that delay, in the hope that it would be employed in mature reflection, and perhaps produce a return to better courses. Vain hope ! In that interval the President of the Council, the Minister of the Interior, and some of the principal officers of the National Guard, came to repeat to him the assurances of regard, and the offers of reparation, which he had received at the Palais Royal ; but of the guaran- tees he had claimed for the disregarded principles of the revolution of July, not a word was said, Lafayette answered 204 RISE AND FALL them as he had answered the King, '' Every thing for lib- erty, nothing for myself." On the same occasion, the Prime Minister having deputed a common friend to sound the intentions of Lafayette relative to the forming of a new Cabinet, the General replied that if certain patriots, whom he named, or any others of the same way of thinking, should come into power in place of the men whose proceedings appeared to him contrary to the principles and the engagementsof July, he should consider that change as the precursor of a better future. He also wrote to that effect to M. Lafitte, who laid his letter before the Council, which displeased several of its members in the highest degree. The pretended exactions of Lafayette went no further. To impose entire silence upon his own susceptibility ; to lay aside all self-love ; to consent to every insignificant re- paration, such as the postponement of the execution of the article of the law which concerned himself; in short, to give way to every thing they desired, in the hope of obtain- ing, under favor of that difficult conjuncture, a better sys- tem of government ; such, and such only, whatever may have been said of the matter, were the exorhitant 'preten- sions of the man who had consented to place the crown upon the head of the new King. But since, whilst over- whelming him with praises and professions of attachment, the disastrous system of a g'wasi-restoration was undeviatingly persisted in, it became the duty of Lafayette to satisfy the adversaries of his influence, by divesting himself of a com- mand from which the Chamber and the government had dismissed him five times in a single sitting, and to cease to serve as a cloak to the anti-French combinations which his remaining at the head of the National Guards might have hidden from the patriots. When, therefore, the re. quired twenty-four hours had elapsed, without having brought any symptom of a change of system, he wrote to the King : — OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 205 Sunday, Dec. 25, 1830. •'Sire, — Your Majesty told me yesterday that the subject of our conversation should be concluded this day. I have seen MM Lafilte and Montalivet ; they have spoken to me of the amendment wliich tiie I'resident of the Council intends to propose. But, Sire, you know well that it does not remove the objections which I took the liberty of submitting to you. I mentioned to M. de Montalivet that I looked upon myself as having given in my resignation, and I imagine he will have issued his orders in consequence. However, I think it my duty to repeat it to the King, because, General Carb(mnel and ray son having followed my fortune, as likewise Major General Tracy, it is necessary that orders should be issued for to-morrow's service. Believe me. Sire, the duty which I con- sider I am fulfilling, is more painful to me than 1 can express ; and now, more than ever, it behooves me to join with the tribute of my respect, that of my profound and unalterable attachment. " Lafayette." The preceding accounts of the quarrel between Louis Philippe and Lafayette, is translated from a work by Sar- rans, the General's Aid-de-camp at the time, who wrote it under his direction. A distinguished American gentleman was told by Lafayette that " he and Louis Philippe had vir- tually given each other * the lie^' as respects the celebrated programme of the Hotel de Ville. The good old General regarded the King as the prince of dissimulation." * Dupont de I'Eure resigned at once, for he could not re- main in a cabinet whose political sympathies were so little in accordance with his own, or serve a monarch whose po- litical tergiversation was so notorious. Lafayette, his dis- tinguished patron, carried with him to the grave the repub- lican principles which he maintained in youth ; Napoleon, even after his crushing defeat at Waterloo, still held in the Chambers the language of the despotic Emperor ; Charles X, could risk a throne, but could not, notwithstanding the pres- ent necessity of the case, abate one jot of his prerogative ; * J. Fenuimore Cooper. 18 206 RISE AND FALL Dumoiiriez, Carnot and Lafitte, all died, as they had lived, steady, inflexible advocates of the revolutionary principle of democracy; bat Louis Philippe — apparently either hypo- critically cunning, or incapable of deep-rooted impressions — changed to suit his purpose with the change of times. The upholder of republicanism in his youth, in age he tasked the utmost powers of his intellect to crush it, setting public opinion as much at defiance as any of the old Bour- bons in the most palmy days of their rule. FACSIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF ARAGO. LOUIS PHILIPPE EECEIVING THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 207 CHAPTER XXVI. The Belgians selected two candidates for their constitu- tional crown, the Duke of Nemours, and the Duke of Leuch- temberg, a son of Eugene Beauharnais. Louis Philippe opposed the former, because he was objected to by England, and the latter, because he feared the presence of one of the Napoleon family so near France. When his son was elected by a majority of one, he refused the offered crown, using language which could not have expressed his real thoughts, unless his opinions were afterwards entirely changed. '* The examples of Louis XIV. and of Napo- leon," he said, " are sufficient to save me from the tempta- tion of procuring thrones for my children." The time had not arrived, he should have said, and by refusing the crown offered to his son, he acquired a right, of which he availed himself, to forbid its acceptance by his dreaded rival. But above all, Louis Philippe thus secured the alliance of England. Just then there arrived at Paris the Manifesto of Poland, setting forth her rights and woes in a determined tone that showed how unavailing had been all that the most ruthless and the most inhuman use of the most unlimited earthly power could effect, to annihilate her people, destroy her language, and root out her nationality. It concluded with these words. " Convinced that our liberty and our independence, far from ever having been hostile as regards conterminal States, have on the contrary served in all times as an equipoise and a buckler to Europe, and can still be more useful to it than ever, we appear before sovereigns and nations with the certainty that the voices alike of policy and of humanity would' be lifted up in our favor. 208 RISE AND FALL Had Providence destined this land to perpetual servitude, and if in this last struggle the liberty of Poland must sink under the rnins of her cities and the corpses of her defenders, our enemy- shall reign only over deserts ; and every good Pole will have this consolation in his dying moments, that in this battle to the death, he has for a moment shielded the threatened liberty of Europe." In commenting on this grand and melancholy appeal, Louis Blanc pays a just tribute of praise to the United States, as well as to those gallant men, who, with a noble literature, and a history which may challenge that of any other State for heroism and brilliant achievements in the cause of Christianity and mankind, preferred death or exile to the Russian yoke. '' With her face turned towards the west," he says, " Poland invoked the tutelary genius of that French people which of yore had gone to save the Chris- tians of the Holy Land; which had filled all the history of the middle ages with the valor of her knights ; which on the eve of a deep-searching and memorable revolution had sent the noblest of her children to succor the young free- dom of the new world ; which at the close of the eighteenth century had deluged the battle-field and the scaffold with her blood, to propagate a doctrine of fraternity; which lastly, under the Empire, had lavished her strength in mortal efforts to open the free paths of the ocean to the weaker nations : — a people of fiery soldiers and generous adventurers ! But by a strange combination of historical fatalities a government of cold-blooded calculators hung heavy on the necks of those soldiers and adventurers. At the very moment when from the banks of the Vistula all arms were outstretched towards France, the cabinet of the Palais Royal suffered the most humiliating and rigorous conditions to be imposed on it as the price of a reconcilia- tion between it and the court of Russia." Austria had also been forced into friendship by insurrec- tions in her Italian provinces, planned at the Palais Royal, and carried out by drffts on Louis Philippe's bankers. The OF LOUIS PIIILirPE. 209 constitution framed for the Neapolitans by General Pepe, with the insurrections of Modena and Bologna, soon brought M. d'Appony from Vienna to the Tuileries to offer the hand of friendship and the olive-branch of peace from the Emperor his master. Both were readily accepted, and Louis Philippe, having gained what he desired, left the political missionaries he had sent forth, to die under the fire of Austrian troops, or linger out a miserable exist- ence in the dungeons of Speilburg. Having thus by accessions or threats secured the alliance of the European powers, Louis Philippe commenced pursuing the same policy at home, where anarchy and riot were con- tinually breaking out. On the 14th of February, 1831, the anniversary of the death of the Duke of Berri, the adherents of the fallen Bourbons determined to make a demonstra- tion. A high mass for the dead, accompanied with all the pomp of the Roman Church, was commenced at the old chapel of St. Germain I'Auxenrois, but interrupted by a frantic mob, who took the sacred edifice by storm, to enact within its walls a shameful saturnalia. The next morning the Archbishop's palace was entirely destroyed, with its valuable furniture and costly library, rich in old missals and rare manuscripts — among them ten volumes of unpublished letters from those devoted Jesuits who, in civilizing the Abenaquis tribe of American aborigines, performed what no other missionaries have succeeded in accomplishing. Both the altar and the tomb were polluted by sacrilegious hands during this fearful outbreak, while the cross, that august and sacred symbol of our redemption and of the intellectual renovation of humanity, was pulled down from the steeple tops as the insignia of sedition. Louis Blanc significantly remarks that after the destruction of the chapel, a threatening mob collected in the neighborhood of the Palais Royal, " but mysterious instigators, going among the people, skilfully diverted the current of its fury, and turning 18* mi^. ' 210 RISE AND FALL from the Palais Royal, hurried it away to the archiepiscopal residence." On the 13th of March, Casimer Perier succeeded Lafitte as President of the Council of Ministers, and aside from politics, this instant setting aside of men to whom Louis Philippe owed his throne, created a painful feeling in every generous and liberal mind. The only excuse was a desire on the part of the monarch to organize a strong and mon- archical administration, which would put down all disorder with the bayonet and grape-shot. In the royal speech at the opening of the parliamentary session in July, after announcing that treaties had been renewed with the United States, with Mexico, and with Hayti, and that the French squadron had forced Don Miguel to terms in Portugal, — Louis Philippe concluded by declaring that the time had arrived " to put an end, by a uniform action of all the powers of the state, to those prolonged agitations, which serve as food for the culpable hopes of those who dote upon a fallen dynasty or still dream of a republic." For some years Paris, Lyons, Grenoble, and in fact almost every place of any size in France, witnessed bloody con- flicts between the government and the discontented factions, who availed themselves of all public occasions for an out- break. Republicans, Legitimatists, and Imperialists, each mustered their forces, shouldered their guns, sharpened their swords, and descended deliberately into the streets, for the chance of subverting and seizing a government in a possible melee. It was the game on which all parties alike were calculating in France — a turn-out and a scramble; and if any thing can be more strange than the speculation, it would be the fact that on one occasion it almost actually succeeded. Each successive defeat increased the ancrer of the vanquished, and there were many attending circum- stances well calculated to infuriate them. Imagine, for instance. Marshal Soult — - a minister under Louis Pliilippe, who had become Kina^^Jpcause the troops of Charles X. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 211 had refused to fire on the people in 1830 — harshly upbraid- ing General Roquet's division at Lyons in 1831, because they had hesitated to fire upon a band of unarmed silk- weavers, vi^ho could earn but seventeen and a half cents for eighteen hours' labor ! * The Republicans, though unable to seize the reins of government, increased rapidly in numbers, and had an able organ in '*Le National,'^ a newspaper which had been estab- lished to support Louis Philippe. Carrel and Marrast wrote the most pointed attacks against the King ; Lafayette, Gar- nier Pages, Laraarque, and other bold orators denounced his absolute policy from the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies, and the heroic Duchess of Berri made an attempt to recover the throne of France for her infant son, by appear- ing in the southern provinces, in opposition to the wishes of her advisers, * Louis Blaac's History, &c. (See preceding notes.) 212 KISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXVII. The Duchess of Berri landed near Marseilles on the night of the 29th of May, 1831, her ardent Neapolitan having induced her to believe that as the mother of Henry v., success would crown her movements if she but shew herself in the kingdom. Some drunken sailors betraying the plot to the authorities of Marseilles, the disappointed Duchess was obliged to hasten to La Vendee, where her adventures were of the most hazardous and romantic nature. She assumed the dress of a peasant boy, a dark wig concealing her blond hair, and known as Petit Pierre^ 'inhabited miserable hovels, where she eat the coarse food of the shepherds. But the troops were always upon her track, notwithstanding her ingenious evasions and the fidelity of the peasants ; she never had an entire night of sleep, and, when daylight came, danger and fatigue woke with her. To avoid this constant harassing she was induced to go to Nantes, where an asylum had long been prepared for her. To enter the city in safety was the next point deliberated upon by her friends ; but the Duchess closed all discussion by saying that she would enter it on foot in the disguise of a peasant-girl, accompanied only by Mademoiselle Eulalie de Kersabiec and M. de Menars. In consequence of this decision they started at six o'clock in the morning from the cottage in which they had slept. The Duchess and Made- moiselle de Kersabiec dressed alike as peasants, and M. de Menars as a farmer. They had five leagues to journey on foot. After travelling half an hour, the thick-nailed shoes and worsted stockings so hurt the feet of the Duchess, that she seated herself upon the bank, took them off, thrust them OF LOUIS THILIPPE. 213 into her large pockets, and continued the journey bare- footed. Having, however, remarked the peasant-girls who passed her on the road, she perceived that the whiteness of her ankles was likely to betray her ; she therefore went to the roadside, took some dark-colored earth, and, after rub- bing her ankles with it, resumed her walk. Strange con- trast this, from the body-guards resplendent with gold and silver, and the double carpet from Persia and Turkey which covered her bedchamber, to have for her escort an old man and a young girl, and walking barefoot on the sand and pebbles of the road 1 Her companions had tears in their eyes, but she had laughter and consolation on her lips. The country people had no suspicion that the little peasant- woman who tripped so lightly by them was any other than her dress indicated. At length Nantes appeared in sight, and the Duchess put on her shoes and stockings to enter the town. While trav- ersing the streets, somebody tapped the Duchess on the shoulder ; she started, and turned round. The person who acted thus familiarly was an old apple-woman, who had placed her basket of fruit upon the ground, and was unable by herself to replace it upon her head. *'My good girls," she said, addressing the Duchess and Mile, de Kersabiec, " help me, pray, to take up my basket, and I will give each of you an apple." The Duchess of Berri, with her com- panion, put the load upon the head of the old woman, who was going away without giving the promised reward, when the Duchess seized her by the arm and said, " Stop, mother, where's my apple?" The old woman having given it to her, she was eating it with an appetite sharpened by a walk of five leagues, when, raising her eyes, they fell upon a placard headed by these three words, in. very large letters, " State of Siege." This was the decree which outlawed the four departments of La Vendee, and set a price upon the Duchess's head. She approached the placard, and calm- ly read it through, while the alarm of her companions may 214 RISE AND FALL be easily imagined. At length she resumed her walk, and in a few minutes reached the house at which she was ex- pected, where she took off her clothes, covered with dirt, which are now preserved there as relics. She soon after- wards proceeded to the residence of Miles. Deguigny, No. 3, Rue Haute du Chateau, where an apartment was pre- pared for her, and within this apartment a place of conceal- ment. This was a recess within an angle, closed by the chimney of the innermost room. An iron plate formed the entrance to the hiding place, and was opened by a spring For five months the Duchess remained concealed, and, though the authorities were positively assured she was within the city, no clue to her discovery could be procured. An apostate Jew, of the name of Deutz, who had for- merly been employed by the Duchess at the recommendation of the Pope, was her betrayer. This wretch, whom General Dumoncourt says, he should never pass in the street without bestowing a horsewhipping upon him, did he not think that his horses would be degraded by being afterwards flogged with the same whip, succeeded in discovering her residence, and immediately acquainted the Governor of Nantes with it. The whole neighborhood was invested with military, and a detachment was observed to be in full march towards the house. The Duchess and her companions hastened to the recess ; the entrance to this was by no means easy, on account of its smallness. The Duchess insisted upon being the last to enter, and she was in the act of closing the ap- erture when the soldiers opened the door of the room. The party consisted of four persons, M. de Menars, M. Guibourg, Mile, Stylite Kersabiec, and the Duchess. Sentries were immediately posted in all the rooms. Drawers, cupboards and other pieces of furniture were unlocked or broken open. Sappers and masons sounded the floors and walls v/ith hatchets and hammers. The Duchess and her com- panions heard workmen hammering with all their might against the wall of the apartment contiguous to her recess, OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 215 \ and some of these blows were struck with such force, that the fucritives feared the entire wall would fall and crush them to death. After a useless search, which lasted during the greater part of the night, the police officers, despairing of suc- cess retired, but left sentries throughout the house, and two gend'armes w^ere stationed in the very room containing the secret recess. The poor prisoners were, therefore, obliged to remain very still, though their situation must have been most painful in a small closet, in which the men could not stand upright even by placing their heads between the rafters. Moreover, the night was damp and cold, so that the party was almost chilled to death. But no one ventured to complain, as the Duchess did not. The cold was so piercing that the gend'armes stationed in the room could bear it no longer. One of them therefore went down stairs, and re- turned with some dried turf, with which he kindled a fire. This at first was a orreat comfort to the Duchess and her companions, who w'ere almost frozen ; but after a short time the wall became so hot that neither of them could bear to touch it, and the cast-iron plate was nearly red-hot. Al- most at the same time, though it was not dawn, the labors of the persons in search of the Duchess recommenced. The wall of the recess was struck so violently, that the prisoners thought that they were pulling dow^n the house and those adjoining, so that the Duchess thought, that, if she escaped the flames, she would be crushed to death by the falling ruins. During the whole of these trying moments neither her courage nor her gaiety forsook her. In the meantime the fire was not kept up, so that the wall gradually cooled. .M. de Menars also had pushed aside several slates, so that a little fresh air was admitted, and after a while, the workmen abandoned their labors in that part of the house. One of the gend'armes had been asleep throughout all the noise, and was now awakened by his companion, who wished to have a nap in his turn. The other had become chilled 216 RISE AND FALL daring his sleep, and felt almost frozen wlienbe awoke. He, therefore, relit the fire ; and, as the turf did not burn fast enough, he threw in it some newspapers which were in the room. This produced a thicker smoke, and a greater heat, so that the prisoners were now in danger of suffocation. The plate, too, became heated to a terrific degree ; and the whole place was so hot, that they were obliged to place their mouths against the slates in order to exchange their burning breath for fresh air. • The Duchess, who was nearest the plate, suffered the most ; she, however, refused to change her place. The party was now in danger of being burned alive. The plate had become red-hot, and the lower part of the clothes of the four prisoners seemed likely to catch fire. The dress of the Duchess had already caught twice, and she had ex- tinguished it with her naked hands at the expense of two burns, of which she long after bore the marks. The heat had now become so great, that their lungs became greatly oppressed ; and to remain ten minutes longer in such a fur- nace would have endangered the life of her Royal High- ness. Her companions entreated her to go out, but she positively refused. Big tears of rage rolled from her eyes, which the burning air immediately dried upon her cheeks. Her dress again caught fire, and again she extinguished itj but in so doing, she accidentally pushed back the spring which closed the door of the recess, and the plate of the chim- ney opened a little. Mile, de Kersabiec immediately put forward her hand to close it, and burned herself dreadfully. The motion of the plate having made the turf roll back, the gend'arme perceived it, and fancied that the heat had driven some rats from a hiding-place. He woke his companion,, and they placed themselves, sword in hand, on each side of the chimney, ready to cut in two the first that should ap-' pear. At the same time the Duchess declared she could hold out no longer, and M. de Menars kicked open the plate. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 217 The gend'armes started back in astonishment, and called out, ** Who's there?" "I," replied the Duchess; "I am the Duchess of Berri ; do not hurt me." The gend'armes immediately rushed to the fire-place and kicked the blazing fuel out of the chimney. The Duchess came forth the first, and as she passed, was obliged to place both her hands and feet upon the burning hearth ; her companions followed. It was now half past nine o'clock in the morn- ing, and the party had been shut up in their recess for six- teen hours without food. The Duchess was removed to the castle, and thence in November, 1832, to the citadel of Blaye, which was the scene of her dishonor. In narrating: the adventures of the Duchess of Berri, si- multaneous events at Paris have been passed over, which will now be chronicled. 19 218 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXVIII, One fine spring afternoon in 1832, the compiler of this work, then a lad, was in high glee with a large party of com- rades in the garden of the Tuileries, that finely-shaded play- ground, which, like a health-imparting lung, lies near the heart of populous Paris. Hoops were the favorite play- things just then, (for boys change their pastimes as ladies do their bonnets,) and as a score of them were bounding along before the adroit blows of the drivers, a dark-eyed Creole boy made a mis-step and fell, striking his head with great violence against one of the boxes in which are planted those large orange trees that shadow the walk and perfume the air. There he lay, poor fellow, apparently senseless, sur- rounded by his horror-stricken playmates, and a rapidly in- creasing crowd of nurses, each recommending something that should be done, but no one offering to do any thing. A stout, elderly bourgeois gentilhomme, who had the appear- ance of a wealthy merchant, elbowed his way through the crowd, and was soon efficiently engaged. Kneeling upon one knee, he raised the lad upon the other, chafed his tem- ples, sent a garde-du-jardin to the neighboring cafe for some water, and in five minutes he was walking towards the pal- ace, leading his restored patient, while shrill voices shouted " Vive le Roi ! " It was the Citizen King, and at that time he used fre- quently to walk through Paris, or ride out to Neuilly in an omnibus which he had built for his family use, bowing with great politeness to all who raised their hats as he passed. Yet at that very time he was preparing a demand on the Chamber for a civil list of 18,533,500 francs, " a yearly allowance thirty-seven times greater than was paid to Bona- OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 219 parte when first Consul, and a hundred and forty-eight times greater than that which in America is deemed sufficient for the President of the flourishing republic of the United States." * In addition, he claimed the four millions of francs' revenue from the crown forests, eleven magnificent palaces, and the sumptuous jewels and personal endowments of the fallen dynasty. The " Orleans appanage " of upwards of two millions of francs per annum, which it was intended should revert to the state if the younger branch ever as- cended to the throne, he insisted upon retaining. As to the edict of Henri IV. in 1566, the constitution of 1761, and the law of 1814, by which every prince called to the throne was at the same time called upon to unite his private prop- erty with that of the state, Louis Philippe had cunnningly evaded it by assigning his personal wealth to his children before his accession. Such items as that of 200,000 francs per annum for royal liveries, were not very palatable to the Republicans, who quivered with indignation when, in debate upon the bill, one of the Ministers said: "If luxury is l)anished from the palaces of the King, it will soon disappear from the houses of the svhjects.^' Odilon Barrot, followed by a hundred and four deputies, withdrew from the hall, and drew up a formal protest against a.word which they considered irreconcilable with the principle of the sovereignty of the nation. The arrest of several editors for attacks on the King^ soon showed that he considered them as subjects, and having proved to the discontented that their fighting would not undo what their fighting had done, he now bridled the spirit of wit, sharpened by hatred, which unmercifully libelled him. In April, 1832, came the cholera, a terrible scourge, which threw a deeper shade over the horror of its ravages by the mystery in which it stalked enveloped. It has * Louis Blanc's History of Ten Years. 220 RISE AND FALL been officially ascertained that 18,402 persons died by it in 189 days, and a deep gloom overspread the city. "Here," says Louis Blanc, "you saw choleric patients carried to the hospital on mattresses or litters : there you beheld persons engrossed with the thoughts of yesterday's or to- morrow's calamities, passing along in silence, pale as ghosts, and almost all clad in black. As there were not hearses enough, new ones were ordered, and seven hundred workmen were employed on them ; but the work did not speed fast enough ; the dead were waiting. The men were then asked to w^ork during the night, but they answered, * Our lives are more to us than your high pay.' Recourse was then had to artillery wagons for conveying the dead to burial ; but the rattling of the chains by night painfully dis- turbed the sleep of the city. These wagons, too, having no springs, the violent jolting burst the coffins, and it was necessary to employ huge spring carts, which were painted black, for collecting the dead. They rolled from door to door, calling at each house for corpses, and then set out again, showing, when the wind lifted their funeral drapery, bier upon bier, so heavy and ill-secured, that the passer-by dreaded to see them break and discharge their dismal freight upon the public road. Bat night was, above all, the most disastrous season ; for the most numerous ravages of the disease took place, commonly, between midnight and two o'clock. The remains of fires, lighted in the faint hope of purifying the atmosphere, the lanterns burning at the doors of the offices of aid, the anxious haste of men hurrying in the darkness on errands too well known, the stifled cries in the interior of the houses, which the silence of night made audible in the lonely streets, — all this produced an awful and an appalling effect." The royal family remained in their doomed metropolis until the epidemic had subsided, and the Duke of Orleans visited the hospitals, administering comfort and succor. Casirair Perier, who accompanied him, sickened and died, OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 221 the last independent statesman who held power under Louis Philippe. Taking pattern from Louis XIV. who cut and clipped his minister's ideas just as Le Notre, his celebrated gardener, clipped and cut the trees of Versailles, the Citizen King repeated " L'Etat c'est moi ! " and autocratically un- dertook to carry out his views by means of channels called ministerial offices. All the foreign ambassadors were re- quired to send him a duplicate copy of their reports to the foreign office. He presided at every ministerial council, and no minister could sign any paper of importance without his concurrence, while his power ended the day he refused to be a mere instrument of the King's family and personal aggrandizement. The Cabinet thus became little more than an agency for the "head of the house" in the Tuileries, who vras not to be disturbed by changes in the policy of the firm. Each partner had only to keep things as they were in his ministerial department, and be ready to defend any questionable stroke of trade on the part of his principal, and he might waste the capital, and mortgage the resources of the concern, provided a due share of the loans and credits went into the royal strong box, or was paid to the account of " the family," The 5th and 6th of June were marked by a desperate insurrection in Paris, which commenced at the funeral of General Lamarque. Louis Philippe declared the city to be in a state of siege, and the insurgents were put down by the immense force brought against them, which included 30,000 regular troops, 50,000 National Guards, and a formidable train of artillery. During the struggle, a deputation from the Chamber of Deputies repaired to the palace, where Odilon Barrot addressed Louis Philippe in their name. He ended with entreating the King to stop the effiision of blood which was yet flowing, and to silence the cannon, the roar of which was then resounding even in his royal residence ; to be merciful to the vanquished, and to prevent fresh dis- 19* 222 RISE AND FALL urbances, by a prompt and cordial return to the principles upon which the revolution had established the dynasty. Louis Philippe very coolly answered, that, being attacked by his enemies, he was justified in defending himself; that it was high time to curb revolt, and that he employed can- non only to fut it down the quicker ; that as to the pre- tended engagements at the Hotel de Ville, and those repub- lican institutions about which the opposition made so much noise, he did not know what all that meant; that he had more than fulfilled the promises he had made, and had given France as many and more republican institutions than he had promised her ; that the programme of the Hotel de Ville had never existed except in the brain of M. Lafaj^ette, whose incessant demands on that head were evidently the effect of some mistake ; that as to the system he pursued, it was the effect of his own convictions, the result of his own reflections, and the expression of his notions of policy and government ; that he, Louis Philippe, had consented to take the crown only on the conditions indicated by the develop- ment of that system, and from which he would not deviate, were Tie even drayed in a mortar. In August, the St. Simonian community at Menilmontant was broken up by law, and Fourierism came into notice, *' expanding into all conceivable forms, from the most rank and thoroughgoing communism, to the mildest advocacy of the extention of the co-operative principle. Upon the whole, the result of the labors of Saint Simon and Fourier may be summed up in this, that their systems deposited in the mind of the French nation two great ideas, which were not there before — the^rs^, that European society was approaching a crisis, the peculiarity of which, as compared with former ones, would consist in this, that it would be an industrial revolution — in other words, a revolution by which not only would industrial interests come to predominate in politics, but the industrial mind itself would be admitted to the mas- tery in the administration ; the second, that the instrument OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 223 in this change, or at least its accompaniment, would be an organization of the laboring classes into compact bodies, on the principle of co-operation and common responsibility. The first of these ideas is more Saint Simonian ; it is the summary expression of Saint Simon's two fundamental prin- ciples, ' L^ Amelioration,^ &c., and * A Chacun,^ &c. The other is more peculiarly Fourierist, involving as it does all that is general, and possibly all that is valuable, in Fou- rier's bewildering system of Phalanxes." * Both of these speculative doctrines were taken up and adopted as fundamental principles by the Republican party, who deserted politics for the science of reconstructing society on entirely new bases. Particular forms of govern- ment or constitution were completely subordinated to con- siderations regulating the social relations of citizens, and it seemed assumed in the arguments, that when such relations could be placed on a proper footing, good government would follow naturally as a matter of course. On the 15th of November, a French army entered Belgium and invested Antwerp, which the King of Holland had re- fused to evacuate. Marshal Gerard commanded, accompanied by the Dukes of Orleans and of Nemours, who displayed great gallantry during the long siege ; and the ruined condi- tion of the citadel when it capitulated, indicated all the skill of the French engineers and the resolute courage of the Dutch garrison. It was now decided that Prince Leopold should be sustained by France and England on the Belgian throne. The opening of the Chambers was fixed for the 19th of November, and never, at that ungenial period of the year, did a finer day shine out of the heavens. The National Guards and the picturesque population of Paris mustered to see the procession in their gayest costumes, yet in their midst stood a would-be regicide, bent on a murderous at- * The North British Review for May, 1848. 224 RISE AND FALL tempt that, ere the close of that fair, that fine, that deceitful day, might have deluged the streets of the capital with blood, and heralded scenes of horror throughout the whole country. He undoubtedly supposed that when he had struck the first fatal blow, the factious masses of all parties would rush into open revolt, and was constantly surrounded by about thirty individuals, w^ho, to avert suspicion, shouted " Vive le Roi ! " In order to place himself in the foremost rank of the specta- tors, as Louis Philippe was passing, the assassin rudely pushed back a young female recently arrived at Paris, and stationed himself behind a soldier and a corporal of the line. The young woman was obliged to stand on tiptoe, and to look over the assassin's shoulder to see the King. Suddenly she perceived him stretch out his arm with a pistol, which was aimed at the King, and seizing his hand, she diverted his aim. Louis Philippe displayed his usual sang froid, declared he was not hurt, and desired that the circumstance should re- main unnoticed to the Chambers, and especially to the dueen, till after he had delivered the royal speech, which he accomplished with firmness, but not without emouon, amidst much applause. The audacity of this infamous at- tempt on the King's life excited the strongest feeling of indignation among the assembled crowds, and was favorable for the government in the Chamber of Deputies, as many of the members moderated their opposition, pro tempore, to prove their abhorrence of so detestable a crime. The cul- prit escaped, so that his name is wanting to head that dark catalogue of gloomy and revengeful natures, which brooded over public wrongs or fancied private injuries, until they worked themselves into that fiendish fanaticism which nerves the arm of the regicide, who, by destroying the keystone of the political government, hopes to overthow the whole edi- fice. " The arrow that flieth by night " is, in the unseen terror it awakens, a type of the fear that casts its shadow on the brightest of earthly thrones, and we find traces of the crime OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 225 and its terrors in every chapter of regal history — in the present and past, in the lives of great usurpers as well as in those of legitimate kings. Shakspeare's deposed sove- reign speaks of " graves, worms and epitaphs ; " and the train of thought in which his Richard II. indulges may be taken as a short, but eloquent comment on what has too often been the doom of monarchs : " Some sleeping killed. All murdered ! for within the golden crown That rounds the hollow temples of a king, Death keeps his court ; and there the antic sits, Mocking his state, and grinning at his pomp, Allowing him a breath, a little scene To monarchise, be feared, and kill with looks — Then comes at last " — Yet there is a divinity that " doth hedge a king," and Louis Philippe has apparently possessed an immunity from the worst consequences of that time and chance, which, says the Psalmist, happen to all. After surviving unharmed political convulsion, battle, proscription, and exile, in his youth and manhood, h& again and again escaped from re- peated and desperate attacks on his life when King in his old age, in that land where Henry IV. and the Dauphin fell at the first blow, and Napoleon so quailed before regicide, that it hurried him into one of his greatest crimes, the exe- cution of the Duke of Enghien. 226 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXIX. On the 9th of May, 1833, a scene in the drama of French history was acted in the citadel of Blaye, on the banks of the Gironde, which blasted the hopes of the legitimate party, as it did the character of their champion. The reg- ister of births had been brought into the dreary prison, and on it was inscribed, with due formality, ''a female child, the daughter of the Duchess of Berri, and of Count Hector Luchesi Palli." As this proof of her infidelity to the mem- ory of her husband deprived her of political influence, the Duchess was now permitted to return to Italy, loaded with the execrations of her former adherents, who had main- tained her innocence. Their editors went so far as to chal- lenge the liberal editors en masse, who had thrown out hints of her situation. The acceptance of this wholesale challenge, shows the chivalric spirit of the middle ages, and in the duels which ensued, several were severely, though not mortally wounded. " We send you a first list of twelve persons. We demand, not twelve simultaneous duels, but twelve successive duels, at times and places on which we shall easily agree. No excuses, no pretexts, which would not save you from the disgrace of cowardice, nor, above all, from the conse- quences which ensue from it. Henceforth there is war, man to man, between your party and ours ; no truce till one of the two shall have given way to the other." It would require a volume to describe the conflicts which took place in 1832, 1833, and 1834, in the streets of Paris, Lyons, St. Etienne, Grenoble, Marseilles, Toulouse, Tou- lon, Metz, and other places, between Louis Philippe's sup- porters, and the discontented factions who had nothing to OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 227 lose, but every thing to gain. The Societe des Droits de V Homme, published Robespierre's *' Declaration of the Rights of Man," as a rallying creed, and tranquillity was only restored by placing the large cities under martial law in 1834, when the army 'was increased to 360,000 foot, and 65,000 horse. The centre of all these disturbances was Paris, and Louis Philippe determined to surround it with a circle of en- trenchments and detached forts, which would, if properly manned, insure its subjugation. To carry out this project, he used Monsieur Thiers,* a man of adventurous imagina- tion and undisciplined will, to whom repose seemed synony- mous with decay, and who found a more congenial excite- ment in the bare description of Napoleon's victories than in planning a more peaceful policy for his country. " Fortify my capital," said his cunning sovereign, " and then we can declare war," and Thiers, perfectly blinded, presented a bill to the Chamber of Deputies in 1833, providing for a series of works, whose guns could command every house in Paris, except the royal palace. Dazzled by a hope of coming war, the Republicans themselves supplied the King with instruments of tyranny and means of dictatorship! In April, 1835, there were violent debates in the Chamber of Deputies, on the adoption of a treaty made with the United States in 1831, which General Jackson had insisted upon in menacing terms, not very welcome to the ears of a people whose fathers had established American indepen- dence. Whether Louis Philippe had purchased a large share of the claim or not, will never probably be known, but it is stated, on the authority of Lafayette, that when the treaty was first signed, the monarch said among his cour- tiers, " I will cut it down to fifteen millions." The market value of the claims was reduced by the long delay and * Thiers. Note M. 228 RISE AND FALL rumors of this determination on the part of the King — a large portion of them were purchased by stock-brokers for unknown parties — and then the payment of the whole twenty-five millions so uncourteously demanded, was voted by 289 voices against 137. Lafayette boldly opposed the monarchical schemes which were gradually enslaving France, and was a prominent member of the *' Association for the Liberty of the Press," which his powerful influence sheltered from persecution. " Death, however," says Louis Blanc, " soon delivered the executive from the apprehension with which it constantly viewed him, who, on the '31st of July, 1830, gave Louis Philippe, on the steps of the Hotel-de-Ville, the investiture of royalty. On the 20th of May, 1834, Lafayette, breathed his last sigh. His dying moments were filled with bitter- ness; the ingratitude with which his services had been repaid, had been the slow poison of his old age ; and words of malediction not unnaturally marked his parting adieus. His funeral was rendered truly magnificent, by mourning hearts, and tearful, downcast eyes. In M. de Lafayette the republican party lost that which had been almost more use- ful to it than even an active chief — a name." On a bright morning in July, as Louis Philippe was reviewing the National Guard, surrounded by his sons, and as gallant a staff as ever grouped around a monarch, Fieschi's " infernal machine " scattered death and destruction into the royal cortege. The bullets respected Louis Philippe as the arrows did Southey's Roderic : — " they passed him to the right and left, And harmed him not." But old soldiers, who had survived many battles, young men in the prime of life, and a girl who had seen but fourteen summers, were stretched in death beside him. "I am not wounded," said the King, while large tears rolled down his OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 229 cheeks as he gazed on the expiring form of Marshal Mor- tier ; but not a moment was to be lost. *' My mother ! " said the young Duke of Orleans. The King comprehended his meaning, and despatched an orderly officer to the palace. ** March!" cried the King; and on his review proceeded. If it had not done so — if the King had hesitated — if he had appeared paralyzed — if the review had been broken up, confusion would have followed ; some tens of thousands of miscreants, who had all prepared themselves to profit by anticipated disorder, would have pillaged Paris, overthrown the government, and involved France in war and anarchy. The cool, calm, dignified, manly conduct of Louis Philippe in that moment of real danger and alarm won for him the golden opinions of all moderate men of all parties, and saved France from years of civil war. Fieschi and two accomplices were beheaded ; but their punishment did not deter Alibaud from attempting to commit the crime they had attempted, ere the expiration of a twelvemonth. The war party, which Louis Philippe had used as one of his stepping-stones to the throne, found themselves com- pletely disappointed so far as a war of Propagandism was concerned, but by pursuing the ill-starred conquest of Al- geria, the King provided an outlet for that military spirit which is so dominant in French character. Each succes- sive year of his reign was marked by its panic, its coup de main, its alerte, its razzia, or its victory, to awaken the annual sound of that martial chord of which each son of Gaul so loves to feel the vibration, just as an Italian has a national passion for a new opera, or a Spaniard for a bull fight. Algeria, it may be well to state, was taken by order of Charles X., in 1820, to satisfy " the injured honor of France," whose consul had received a slap on the cheek from the Dey, in a moment of passion. It was useful to Louis Phi- lippe in catering for the sanguinary thirst of the war party, or in disposing of a troublesome spirit in the army, but bore 20 230 RISE AND FALL a striking resemblance to those fatal bequests with which, in Eastern romance, the murdered prince or baffled magi- cian inflicts a posthumous vengeance on his successful foe. The throne is left empty for the conqueror, and the royal corse cast out for a living sepulchre — but there still arises ex ossihus nltor, and the palace is tenanted in dire partner- ship with the names of an extinct dynasty, which hamper the victory with some impossible condition. Such, in Algeria, was the slow and secret avengement of that proud race of Bourbons, which, after centuries of power and greatness, fell a victim to cunning treachery. Charles X. slowly retired from his capital and his kingdom, and silently appealed to the potentates who had once before reversed a like disaster, but he found no refuge but in historical pal- aces, and he met with no consolation, save the solemn an- nouncement that his reign had ceased. Yet had revenge been in his heart, he had left a sting behind him, deeper, more gangrenous and exhausting than the whole legitimacy of Europe could have inflicted. A campaign against all the enemies of the empire did not cost more life and more treasure than were annually expended in the African con- test, which Charles X. had just achieved in time to relin- quish with his throne. On the morning of November 6, 1836, the deposed King of France breathed his last at Goritz, in the mountains of Slyria, aged seventy-nine, after wandering in exile for six long years, to expiate the evils he had inflicted upon France, by the advice of bad men, and the ingratitude which had requited his kindness to his relative, Louis Philippe. These were Charles X.'s dying words : '' I forgive, from my heart, those who have made themselves my enemies, and, more particularly, those who have been led away by the advice of others. I have forgiven them for a long time before God. To my grandson will devolve the happiness and glory of pardoning thembefore men." From the time that Louis Philippe had married his eldest OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 231 daughter to the King of the Belgians, he was seeking a suitable alliance for the Duke of Orleans, heir to the throne. Sent to visit the courts of Europe, the Duke became inter- ested in the Princess Theresa, daughter of the Arch-Duke Charles of Austria, but Prince Metternich would not listen to what he considered a misalliance. The fate of Marie Antoinette and the dethronement of Marie Louise, were well remembered at Vienna, and when the matter was men- tioned to the mother of the Princess, she merely remarked : " It is quite out of the question for my daughter to be sub- jected to ride in a carriage, which, the chances are, will be pierced with bullets on its way." Humiliated, and eagrer to heal the wound thus inflicted upon his pride, the Duke now sought a bride at the minor courts, and made the fortunate selection of the Duchess Helena of Mecklinburg-Schwerin, a Protestant, of such great worth, that a clergyman who was conversant with her whole life said : " Es war ein himmlisches Gemuth,'^ — it was a heavenly character. The wedding was celebrated at Fontainbleau on the 30th of May, 1836, and the public festivities were on a scale of unusual magnificence. The Palace of Versailles was thrown open, its galleries filled with sculptured and painted memorials of the history of France — a vast monument raised by art. An exhibition of fireworks was the scene of a frightful disaster which clouded the popular rejoicing, for by a fatal pressure as the crowd dispersed, numbers were thrown under foot, trampled on, and smothered. Old people recalled the marriage of Marie Antoinette when there were great re- joicings, and numbers stifled to death ! The Court was now organized with the usual number of attendant officers, and many of the usages of the ancien regime, yet there was one member of the royal family who seized every opportunity to escape from the ceremonious saloons to a small studio, where she gave the impress of her living genius to inanimate marble. It was the Princess 232 RISE AND FALL Marie, who was born in 1813, and brought up by her mother's side in that comparative seclusion to which the habits of France destine its unmarried women. When very young, she manifested an extraordinary talent for design ; but her attention to sculpture was first excited by a bust of Napoleon, which was brought to her father by a young sailor, and which she immediately placed in her own study. It would require a catalogue raisonne to note the various designs, historical and domestic, which the Princess pro- duced from time to time. She would take up a volume of Goethe, Shakspeare, Schiller, or Sir Walter Scott, and group from it in a way that left no doubt of the power she possessed of presenting to the eye, in a most perfect and extraordinary manner, the poet's dream, or the historian's story. Nor was hers a young lady's art, although it combined a delicacy and power which showed how completely her mind was imbued with all the grace and loveliness that soften the heart in woman. In the great work which the Princess presented to the Versailles Gallery, her " Joan of Arc," there is a blending of these qualities with those of a far higher character. She has not depicted the heroine, whose death is a foul blot on the annals of English history, as a bold, brave woman, but as a maid urged by a great and virtuous impulse to acts of noble daring, for that pure and holy purpose, the liberty of her country. Her eyes are bent on the ground, her arms folded over her bosom ; she strives, as it were, to shield herself behind the consecrated sword of France ; and but for the firmness with which she stands, the figure would want strenorth. You see that though her heart is subdued before God, she fears no other power. She is partly clad in armor, but nothing that distinguishes the woman is lost; her head and hands are uncovered ; the helmet and the gauntlet are by her side. The original work is the size of life ; it is in white marble, sculptured by the hand, as well as conceived by the mind, of the accomplished Princess. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 233 it Wan the maiden was ; Of saintly paleness ; and there seemed to dwell In the strong beauties of her countenance Something that was not earthly " This second '' inspired Maid of Orleans" married Prince Alexander of Wirtemburg, from whom she was soon sum- moned by the stern leveller, Death, — an afflicting event which came home to every domestic hearth and heart in France. Fathers, forgetful of all political feeling, saw Louis Philippe standing beside the grave of his daughter, and buried all animosity there, only remembering the moral and elevated example he had set to the world as a husband and a parent. Mothers, familiar with the talents and virtues of the deceased Princess, drew, with the unerring instinct of a mother's heart, their own treasures more closely to their bosoms, and shed tears of sympathy with the bereaved dueen, who, when she learned her daughter's death, had touchingly exclaimed : " Oh God ! thou hast an angel more, and I A daughter less ! " 20^ 234 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXX. In 1840, after ten years of revolutionary struggle, France was comparatively quiet, -and Louis Philippe congratulated himself that his administration had attained that perma- nence and tranquillity for which he had so unceasingly labored. The young Bourbon prince was in Italy, with such faint hopes of ever regaining the throne of his ances- tors, that the old noblesse, who so long avoided all contact with the Court of the Citizen King, had gradually and silently allowed their younger sons to slide into the ranks of the army, and to re-appear in public life. Louis Bonaparte's fool -hardiness had damped the enthusiasm of the Emperor's devoted admirers, whose hearts beat with joy at any prospect of seeing a relative of their imperial idol on the throne, but whose reason revolted against mad attempts to revolu- tionize France by the unbacked magic of a name. Besides, Louis Philippe had brought the remains of Napoleon to the spot he had chosen in his last moments, " on the banks of the Seine." The Republicans had been defeated in a last deadly struggle, singing the Marseillaise as their dirge, and digging their graves behind barricades — while the same determined use of force which annihilated their final con- spiracy checked the bold virulence of the opposition presses. The Church had rallied around the throne which so liberally endowed it, the country was apparently pros- perous, and the embellishment of the cities advanced with a rapidity unknown even to the best ages of the French monarchy. Having thus consolidated his government, and, by judi- ciously fostering the " war spirit," made the Parisians blindly enchain themselves with a line of Bastilles, Louis OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 235 Philippe shook off Monsieur Thiers and his liberal friends, and calling Monsieur Guizot into his councils, applied, with unflinching courage and with blind presumption, that theory of absolute power, based on constitutional laws, which was finally trampled under foot by his outraged people. " Shut up in his palace, like the veiled prophet of Khorassan, and entrenched in military power, with a haughty ministry, pursuing an unbending course of policy, he seemed rather a despot of the old school — a Bourbon of the last century — than a Citizen King, crowned at the barricades. A great change had indeed come over the monarch ; the possession of power had seduced his heart and turned his head ; and forgetting his pledges, and blind to his true interest, he was busy in building up a dynasty that should hand down his name and fame to posterity." * Monsieur Guizot, a man of great learning and eloquence, proved himself to be no statesman or politician, and although he reigned supreme in the Chamber, captivating, enchain- ing and domineering over his fellow deputies, there were scores of Frenchmen who surpassed him in tact, in far- sightedness, and, above all, in conciliation. His entire character and style partook more of the Genevese school in which he was educated, than of the larger, freer, more social, and more catholic, (the word is used in a moral, not in a religious sense,) manner of France. He was grave, he was proud, he was severe, he was dictatorial, he was pedantical ; and although these qualities or accidents were part of the nature of the man, incidents of his char- acter, in keeping with his inner life and conduct, they were not the attributes most likely to captivate a gay, supple, and generous people. However copious and fertile he may have been in argument, however powerful his pen, his austerity and dogmatism rendered his sway irksome to his adherents ; while the gigantic proportions of his ambi- * Hon. S. G. Goodrich. 236 RISE AND FALL tion, the withering scorn of his eloquence, the inaccessible height of his disdain, inspired his antagonists and the people generally with an inconceivable amount of personal hatred. The one single merit that can be ascribed to Monsieur Guizot as a minister, is, that he restrained a people from war who are intoxicated with the mere name of glory, and think that the existence of a great nation should be forever rushing towards a catastrophe, like the hurried plot of a melo-drama. But this merit, says an English writer, belongs not chiefly, nor yet in the greatest degree to him, for during his sway, the whole of Europe was disposed to be peaceable, and with Great Britain the desire to be so was a predomi- nant passion. Peace was a necessity to Louis Philippe and his family policy ; but, could he have gained his ends better by war, he would have as little scrupled to have sacrificed the lives of a million of Frenchmen as Napoleon himself " La Paix partout, la Paix toujours," was Guizot's creed, but in maintaining it, he too often lost sight of the dignity and honor of his country. It has been said that it does not become a great, a chivalrous, and gallant nation like France, to be tricky, dishonest, or Jesuitical ; yet tricky, dishonest, and Jesuitical that great and civilized country appeared, while Monsieur Guizot was Minister of Foreign Affairs. The fact is, Guizot was the Minister of the bourgeoisie, or middle classes, whose distinguishing traits are economy and the absence of fanaticism. But there is also a want of elevation, of depth, and of high tone in many of their sen- timents and opinions. They do not loathe intrigue, nor abhor trickiness, where a national object is to be gained, and, therefore, many of them who had no love for Monsieur Guizot's person, approved of his tortuous diplomatic policy. By his conduct, both abroad and at home, M. Guizot has done too much, far too much, to promote that egotism, selfishness, and love of material enjoyment, which the ' FRANCIS ANDREW GUIZOT OF LOUIS PHIIJPPE. 237 French bourgeoisie of our day have felt as a passion, and worshipped as a virtue. To hear those men talk, and to see them act, one would think the height of human felicity consisted in having a dinde truffee or a supreme de volaiUe for dinner, and 100,000f. de rente, no matter how obtained. Rem, quocumgue modo, rem, is their mercenary motto ; and provided the money be produced, they will, like the Roman emperor, never smell the coin to discover the inodorous source from which it has been produced. On such a basis of selfishness as this a superstructure of freedom was never yet erected, for liberty is not the product of such a soil. It is a wild flower, spontaneously springing up, and needs neither the muck of selfishness nor corruption to stimulate it into mushroom maturity.* The Duke of Orleans was universally popular, often opposing the subtle schemes of his father, and conciliating the Liberals by his repudiation of all the affectation of liberty and progress which was used at Court to conceal servility, oppression, and fraud. General Cass described him as a well made young man, with a symmetrical, grace- ful figure, a remarkably handsome countenance, and some- thing very prepossessing in his whole appearance. In conversation he was ready and unassuming, evincing the general knowledge of a well educated man of the world. Having no direct constitutional position with reference to the administration of the government, he evidently kept himself aside from the course of its operations, and bid fair to become the most popular monarch that had ruled France since Henri Quatre. It was his hope to unite tradition with progress, and to create from the monarchy of the Fleurs-de-lis, and from the empire of the sword, and from the noble reason of the Chambers, and from the all-powerful press, a new system, the youth and freshness of which would be blended with the majesty of the past. * British Quarterly Review. 238 ' RISE AND FALL The Duke had two sons, Louis Philippe, Count of Paris, born August 24, 1838, and Robert Philippe, Duke of Chartres, born in 1840. Their mother, (said by the Rev. Dr. Baird to be the most accomplished woman in France,) paid the strictest attention to their education, and, although a Protestant, conducted herself with such exemplary pro- priety, that all tongues were loud in her praise. General Cass mentions her acquaintance with American literature, and says, that when on one occasion she expressed a wish to read the novels of Cooper, he asked her permission to lend them. They were returned shortly after, with a note written by a lady of the Court in the name of the Duchess, expressive of her high gratification at their perusal. One bright morning in July, 1842, the Duke went into the nursery at Neuilly, to take leave of his wife and children, before he set out to attend a review. The scene has been portrayed by an eminent French artist, and one cannot imagine a more perfect picture of conjugal felicity, that the happy couple, side by side on a sofa, while the children, seated on their father's knees, played with the trappings of his glittering uniform. " Do not go with the soldiers, papa," lisped the young Count of Paris, as the Duke reluctantly rose to leave, *' stay with us here and we will have such a good time." " 1 must .go, my dear boy, but to-morrow we will have a romp together — adieu." In an hour the sorrow-stricken Duchess was summoned to a dirty back shop, where they had carried the Duke, who had attempted to leap from his carriage, thinking the horses were running away. The step was not a foot above the ground, yet he fell with such violence, that in a hour his bereaved family, who had hastened to his bed-side, saw that there was no hope. Whatever was the violence of his sufferings, he gave them no utterance, and when the last moment arrived, his dissolution was so calm and serene, that not a sigh revealed the flight of the emancipated spirit. The death of the Duke of Orleans was not only a OF LOUIS PHILIPPE, 239 political loss to France, but to society; for, taken all in all, a more amiable husband, a better-hearted man, or a more exemplary citizen, never trod the streets of Paris. Profes- sionally, as a soldier, he was not only admired, but almost adored by the army, of which he was considered the com- rade and protector. As an exalted member of society, he was always the liberal patron of charity and the feeling friend of humanity. Of the arts and sciences he was the most generous and ardent encourager. Open, generous, and frank — a steady friend and most attached master — a candid and forgiving adversary whenever assailed — the memory of Ferdinand, Duke of Orleans, received not only the respect, but the admiration of his countrymen. His fame " Smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust." 240 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXXI. Louis Philippe was deeply afflicted by the loss of his first-born, and his pride seemed for the moment humbled ; but the affairs of a kingdom are too pressing to admit of a sovereign's yielding, for however brief a time, to the sympa- thies of nature. A Regency law was passed, and the eldest surviving Prince, the Duke of Nemours, was chosen to wield the sceptre vicariously in case of his father's death, as his great ancestor, the Regent d'Orleans, did in the minority of a child who bore the same relationship to Louis XIV. as the Count of Paris did to Louis Philippe. The Duke refused, however, to accept the title of Duke of Orleans, not wishing to be compared with his lamented and popular brother, and also to avoid a parallel, should he be called to the throne, with that most dissolute prince, the Regent d'Orleans, who maintained his power by the most unblushing corruption. The Duke had been married some years previous to the Duchess Victoria Augusta, of the Kohary-Coburg family, a cousin of Prince Albert, and had two sons. He was proud, overbearing, and unyielding in his conduct, haughty in his demeanor, an unfaithful hus- band, and a man generally disliked, as possessing all the hereditary faults of the Bourbon race. Louis Philippe had ever regarded with longing eyes the colossal fortunes of the young dueen of Spain and her sister, who had passed several years at Paris during the disorrace of their mother, dueen Christina. She was a rela- tive of Q,ueen Adelaide, and although her life is replete with adventures of the most piquant, as well as lamentable char- acter, the wily King loaded her with kindness, even receiving OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 241 her favorite* paramour, Munoz, at Court. When she re- turned to Madrid, and her eldest daughter Isabella ascended the throne of Spain, a rare opportunity offered itself for securing the young dueen's dowry to the Orleans coffers, and at the same time re-establishing that political linking of Spain to France, which England attempted to resist, but ineffectually, in the war of succession at the begin- ning of the last century, and which she again resisted, but with better success, by the victories of the Dake of Wellington in the early part of the present century. Count Bresson, a cunning diplomatist, who had risen high in Louis Philippe's favor, was sent to Madrid, and the King himself undertook to conciliate England by cajoling her young Q,ueen. Acting by well paid discreet agents upon Queen Victoria's mind, she suddenly declared her intention of sitting for a while on her "throne of waters," to be for a time England's sailor-queen, and win all the fascinating prestige of such an association with the national feelings of her subjects. The opposition of the Duke of Wellington and others of her Privy Council, only added to her desires to sail under " The flag that braved a thousand years The battle and the breeze." And although able jurists said that it was against the prin- ciples of the British Constitution that her Majesty should leave her dominions, she, with a characteristic womanly determination, decided to take a marine excursion. No sooner was this known at Paris, than Louis Philippe con- tinued his Machiavellian plot by sending over two of his sons to invite her to his seashore palace — the picturesque Chateau d'Eu. Frankly and pleasurably her Majesty ac- cepted the invitation ; but at the very moment the visit was the topic of conversation among all classes in both nations, when royalty on both sides of the channel was making preparations for receiving or being received, the whole 21 242 RISE AND FALL current of public feeling was nearly turned by one of those accidents to which all are liable, and from which royalty has no exception. A few days before Queen Victoria's arrival, Louis Phi- lippe and dueen Amelia, the Queen of the Belgians, the Duchess of Orleans and the Count of Paris, went to ride in a char-d-hanc, (a large open carriage hung round with curtains,) drawn by six horses. Passing by the seashore, over a bridge at the head of a canal, the horses took fright at the noise of the water rushing into the lock. One of the leaders bounded forward, and breaking the slight chain placed as a protection to foot passengers, fell into the canal, dragging after him two of the other horses, whose weight fortunately caused the harness which connected them with the carriage to break. The postilion who rode the wheel horse, with much presence of mind and great physical strength, turned his horses so as to bring the pole of the carriage against one of the posts at the entrance of the bridge, and thus stopped its further progress. The King himself acted with great presence of mind ; he held the young Count of Paris in his arms, and refused to leave the carriage till every member of his family was placed in safety on terra Jirma, but the Queen wept bitterly. She, doubt- less, thought of the similarity of the occurrence to that fatal event which deprived France of the Duke of Orleans, and gave to her infant grandson the reversion of a sceptre requiring the firm hand and strong grasp of manhood. It was an impressive lesson, showing how near life, in its most imposing conditions, is to the brink of the grave, and at how little we should rate the splendor that a falling beam may crush. Here were two great nations watching their respective monarchs, anticipating a meeting between them, and feeling a generous pleasure at the royal interchange of good offices and attentions. That death had not stepped between them with a stern arrest, that the throne of France was not made vacant, the stability of a dynasty OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 243 shaken, and the peace of Earope endangered, seems to have been dependent on a mere chance — the stoutness of a leather thong, or the strength of a postilion's arm ! The Chateau d'En was the family seat of Louis Philippe's mother, from whom he inherited it, and has those high roofs, pinnacles, enormous chimneys, and other excrescen- ces, which do not accord with the architecture of modern palaces, but which still are not without beauty and effect. It stands in a picturesque park, surrounded with woods, orchards, green fields, and cottages, while two miles distant is the village of Treport, on the seashore. dueen Victoria's steam yacht arrived off Treport in the afternoon of September 1, 1S43, and Louis Philippe went to receive her in his state barge, rowed by twenty-four picked men. The moment he set foot on the deck of the steamer, he took the Q,ueen in his arms, kissed her on each cheek, and without waiting an instant for recovery from the surprise, descended into the barge with his burden. Prince Albert followed with the suite, and the barge returned to the quay, where the royal family of France were waiting to receive their visitors under a tent, the sides of which were drawn up, that all might see what was going on. It was a scene of high interest. The sea, as smooth as glass, was covered with ships, steamers, and barges ; the cannon of the bat- teries and forts roared forth a welcome ; the houses in the town were covered with spectators, and the bright sun threw its departing rays upon the burnished helmets, corslets and equipments of the cuirassiers. A gray-haired monarch, who, after undergoing all the vicissitudes that could befall a Prince, found himself on a throne from which the rightful heir had been thrust to make way for him, was welcoming, with a smile on his lips and a deep design in his heart, a sister sovereign to his kingdom. She, the graceful and amiable representative of a long line of kings, had ascended the throne of her forefathers without the aid of any revolution, but had taken her place — a gentle girl — 244 RISE AND FALL amid the applause of millions, and reigned — in herself the impersonation of all that is mild and feminine — over the mightiest nation in the world. Breaking through the tram- mels of distrust, she came, hoping that the opportunities thus afforded to each sovereign of appreciating the personal virtues and domestic relations of the other, mio-ht infuse into their political councils that reciprocal good faith, typified by the harmonious folds of the union jack and the tri-color, which waved together from the stern of the barge. The Q,ueen of England remained at Eu five days, during which there were banquets, gipsying parties, reviews, con- certs, theatricals, and receptions, attended also by the Queen of the Belgians, Prince Albert, the French royal family, Soult, Aberdeen, Guizot, and a host of official characters, down to the attaches, whose diplomatic button is always a talisman, enabling one, (Willis says,) to " see courts and defy custom-houses." There was little attempt at state or ceremony, and Queen Victoria's unaffected kindness to the young Count of Paris made such an impression upon the Duchess of Orleans, that she appeared in public for the first time after her bereavement. While the two sovereigns were walking arm-in-arm in the forest at a pic-nic, Louis Philippe called up his chief courier, an active, robust man, and presented him to Queen Victoria, saying, *' Here is Vernet, an old courier of the empire, who acted in that capacity for half a score of years to Napoleon. He has now been twenty-eight years in my service, and when once stunned by a fall from his horse as he was accompanying me on a journey, 1 myself bled and brought him to life." Among other anecdotes connected with the festivities, was the composition of an ode set to music, yer force. Auber, the celebrated composer, was sent for by the King, who received him with his usual affability, and said : '* JS/i hienl Monsieur Auber, we must have by to-morrow night an ode to celebrate and commemorate the auspicious visit of her OF LOUIS riiiLippE. 245 Britannic Majesty to Eu." " Sire, it is impossible," replied Auber, astounded. "Why?" "The time is so short." "Ah! you are always thinking of time, yet it must be done." " But I have no theme, Sire." *' Pooh ! pooh ! you have her Majesty — you will be inspired." "1 mean, Sire, that I have no poem." "No poem — a la honne heure — one of my under-secretaries writes verses." The poet was sought for, and by royal order locked up with Auber in a room, from which they were not to issue until the ode was written and set to music. In ten hours the work was accomplished, and when it >vas performed in the evening, Louis Philippe related the story with great gusto. The contemplation of this royal meeting naturally awakened many reminiscences. The last conference held between a French and Engrlish monarch was that of the " Field of the Cloth of Gold." What changes and vicis- situdes had marked the fortunes, not only of both the coun- tries, but of Europe, since that gorgeous day ! The Reformation and its innumerable consequences — the re- ligious wars of France and Germany — the decay of the great Spanish monarchy — the two revolutions in England, with their French counterparts — the long and dreadful wars entailed on Europe by the latter — these were among the many occurrences by which the mind marked the pro- gress of time, from the day that saw "bluff Harry" grasp the hand of Francois I., on the plain of Cambray, to that which witnessed the greeting between Q,ueen Victoria and Louis Philippe at the Chateau d'Eu. When the English monarch crossed the channel in 1520, he undoubtedly meditated his perfidious aggression two years afterwards against France, already engaged in a contest with Charles V. Queen Victoria was treated with equal duplicity by Louis Philippe, who completely deceived her as to his projects for marrying one of his sons to a Spanish* princess — an am- bitious scheme which ultimately cost him his crown, and was the beginning of the third French Revolution. ^^ 21* — ** " **" 246 RISE AND FALL Profoundly hating England as the cause of Napoleon's humiliation, the visit of Q,ueen Victoria was not acceptable to the majority of the French, although their Anglophobia was modified by the compliment paid to the nation, and by a wish to show that politeness for which they so desire to be celebrated, though little real courtesy is to be found in France. In order to quiet discontent, the Prince of Joinville made a tour through many of the provinces with his bride, a princess of the throne of Brazil, to whom he had been married a few months previous at Rio Janeiro. No one ever accused him of loving " perfidious Albion," and all Frenchmen remembered his remark on his return from St. Helena in 1841, with the Emperor's remains, when he heard that there were serious prospects of war : " Should I be attacked, rather than strike, I would blow up my vessel — the ashes of Napoleon shall never fall into the hands of the English." On the 6th of September, 1843, Louis Philippe was seventy years old, the first of the Bourbon race who had ever attained so advanced an age. Q,ueen Victoria's visit appeared to have rejuvenated him, and the completion of the detached fortresses around Paris assured him the power to suppress any popular demonstration against his dynasty. The combat of July, 1830, had proved the folly of letting troops en masse fight the people in the streets, and a new system of warfare was now planned in case of a revolt. Each of the fourteen detached forts was provided with 200 traversing rampart guns, of 1500 yards' range, which could be brought to bear on any house in the city — large bodies of troops were to be concentrated on either side of the city, from which detachments were to pass through the wide boulevards and quais ; and the insurrectionists were to be blockaded in the narrow streets, where it was thought that hunger and grape-shot would soon make them submis sive. One of the grand points d\fppui was the colossal . fortress of Vincennes, commanding the quarllers inhabited OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 247 by the workingraen, who are the material of all revolutions — the other was the Champ de Mars, at the opposite ex- tremity of the city, which, with its glacis and fosse, could easily have been converted into a fortified camp. Between these points were erected two lines of guard-houses — one on the quais, the other on the boulevards — ball proof, and each constantly occupied by a picquet of infantry, with provisions and ammunition for a week's siege. These forti- fications, built by the revolutionists themselves, were a master-stroke of Louis Philippe's, although in the hour of need he had not courage to avail himself of them. The bombardment of Barcelona by its citadel, in the fall of 1843, opened the eyes of the Parisians for the first time, and showed them that they had been placing themselves under the subjugation of their own government, rather than preparing to resist invasion. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF BERRYER. iW. 248 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXXII. The Court of Louis Philippe, with its receptions, balls, and theatrical representations, always presented a most powerful attraction to the most democratic citizen of the American Republic, and at the close of the year 1843, (with which the mourning for the Duke of Orleans ended,) upwards of fifty gentlemen were presented by the Hon. Henry Ledyard, then Charge d' Affaires of the United States. At these annual presentations, the visitors are ranged in a line, each nation by itself, with its representative in attend- ance at the head of his file. As Louis Philippe came along, the Minister preceded him, introducing in succession each of his countrymen by name, and stating their place of residence when at home. This enabled the King to show his accurate knowledge of history and geography, as he addressed a few words to each with great cordiality and tact, yet not without a certain appeal to effect, inseparable from sovereignty. After he had proceeded some distance down the line, the Queen commenced the same ceremony, and was in her turn followed by the remaining members of the royal family, all introduced in the same manner as the King, although they had less to say. Many amusing anecdotes are related of these presentations, among the rest one of a young American, who, in order to economize the expense of a court dress, had donned the uniform of a volunteer corps, and stood like a pike-staff, his eyes meeting the floor thirty paces in front, and his little fingers orthodoxly sticking to the regulated seam. " Mr. ," said the American Minister, " of Boston, Massachusetts." " Ah 1 " replied Louis Philippe, "you are from Boston — you have then been at Bunker Hill 1 " Inflated with national pride, OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 249 the militia-man evidently fancied himself taken for one of the survivors of that glorious struggle, and opening his mouth as w^ide as his glazed stock would permit, he replied, " I was'nt born then." Foreign ladies were presented on the first Wednesday night of each year, when all who had the entree at Court went to pay their respects to royalty. At an early hour car- riages congregated from all quarters of the metropolis in the Place Vendome, where they entered the file, and in due time deposited their brilliant occupants at the Palace of the Tuileries. On entering, each person gave a card to one of the ushers, (who, seated at a long table, entered the names and addresses in large visiting ledgers,) and passed on up VescaJier d* honneur — a magnificent staircase, whcse balustrades are in bronze and polished steel. The first saloon, one hundred and forty feet long by thirty-five broad, was called the Galerie Louis Philippe^ from a bas-relief of the King on horseback, which ornaments the chimney piece. Beyond this was the Salle des Marechaux, whose walls were adorned with full length portraits of the living Marshals of France — the ceiling reaching to the roof, with a bold projecting gallery midway up the sides, harmonizing the distance. Farther on, two spacious saloons, richly ornamented, and containing valuable works of art, led to the Salle du Trone. This was hung with crimson velvet and gold, a canopy of the former material hanging over the throne, which was a large gilt arm-chair, with the letters L. P. worked in gold upon its velvet back — it stood on a platform, and was surrounded by tabourets for the royal family. This splendid suite of apartments, with several smaller ones, refulgent with the light of myriads of wax candles reflected from the large mirrors, was thronged on these state receptions by nine o'clock. Ranged around the walls were upwards of three thousand of the female aristocracy of France, intermingling with fair ones from every Christian nation, all vying with each other in beauty and splendor of 250 RISE AND FALL costume — a magic frame-work to the dense masses of man- kind thus enshrined in the centre of each room. As the royal family passed through the intervening space, each lady was asked her name by an aid-de-camp, and he whispered it to another, who was thus enabled to introduce her to the King as he came opposite to her, re- turning a profound bow for her courtesy, with a kind word or compliment. The dueen, Princes and Princesses fol- lowed, a few yards apart, receiving, as they passed, the courtesies of the line, which rose and fell at intervals, like a sea of millinery. When they had gone the entire rounds, a most fatiguing task, they formed a group in the throne-room, the King in the centre, and the gentlemen defiled before them, each one's name being announced as he made his reverence. Groups of friends chatted in the ante-chamber — carriages and capucins were in demand — the company gradually thinned off — and by eleven o'clock the palace was deserted by its guests. In 1843, (the first of five seasons during which the com- piler frequented the French Court,) the American ladies presented were universally admitted to surpass all others, in beauty of person and charm of address. Most of the gentlemen, too, with true Yankee tact, appeared as much at their ease in their finery as if they had always frequented courts, and the uniforms of some members of the " Boston Cadets," were particularly admired. The Duke of Nemours, after questioning their gallant commander respecting his corps, paid him a high, though merited compliment, on his personal appearance. These presentations were requisite in order to obtain, from the hands of a porter in royal livery, a formidable looking envelope, containing a billet couched thus : " The Aid-de-Camp of the King on service, and Madame the Mar- quise Dolomieu, Lady of Honor to the Queen, have the ho- nor to inform Mr. that he is invited to a Ball, which will take place at the Palace of the Tuileries on , at 8 OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 251 o'clock." A postscript states that this ticket must be handed to the huissier at the door, and that it may not be counter- feited, it bears a seal. The compiler extracts an account of one of these truly regal entertainments from one of his let- ters from Paris to the Boston Atlas. " No sooner were these invitations issued, than preparations commenced, tailors and mantua-makers were met in every ante- chamber, and I have heard it estimated that upwards of fifty thou- sand dollars were expended amongst the trades-people by foreign- ers, thereby fully verifying the assertion of a French poet : ' Le bal n'est pas une folie, L'existence du pauvre au coup d'archat se lie.' "An old moralist, in deploring the uncertainty of all provisions in this existence, sorrowfully exclaims, ' Anticipation of dissipa- tion doth most ways far outstrip, in gratification and pleasure, the dissipation of anticipation,' that is to say, actual enjoyment rarely equals the picture previously formed of it. In this instance, however, the maxim was agreeably reversed, and genuine joy cheered the hearts of many who are too often tempted by the withered memory of youthful delusions to exclaim, in the quaint language of old Quarles : ' What's sweet lipped honor's blast — but smoke ? What's treasure But very smoke ? And what's more smoke than pleasure ? Alas ! they 're all but shadows, fumes and blasts ; That vanishes — this fades — the other wastes.' "The scene from the gallery in the before mentioned Hall of Marshals was the most brilliant it has ever been my lot to witness. 7'he King was seated between his Queen and her brother, the Prince of Salerno, watching with interest the dancing of his chil- dren, who were in the set immediately before him. After the quadrille, Straus, who led the music, struck up a waltz, and the eye was so dazzled by the whirlpool of embroideries, diamonds, epaulettes and satins, that I was glad to descend. At the foot of the staircase I encountered young Count d'Appony, whose velvet hus- sar uniform sets off the fortune of gems which deck it, conversing with a small bright looking man in a plain black suit — Thiers, the 252 RISE AND FALL graphic historian. Behind him, was Guizot, his oroad forehead bearing the stamp of that genius which even his enemies are con- strained to admire, in earnest discussion with Marshal Suult, a weather-beaten looking old soldier. Near by were a group of ' the Gentlemen of England,' who seem no longer to ' live at home in ease,' their tall, fair-haired partners wearing their ostrich plumes as the bird of paradise does her crest, and gazing with jealous interest upon the Countess Gaiccioli. The original of Duda, in Dun Juan, still possesses charms of fascinating power, her long, fair locks curling over a most glorious pair of shoulders. Kilted Highlanders, grave academicians, swarthy Arabs, dashing Suliotes and profound statesmen rapidly succeeded each other, al- most every face having its history or its poetry. To me, the most interesting were those clad in all '• the pomp and panoply of glo- rious war,' whose decorations of merit proclaimed that they had shared the campaigns of Napoleon. I can but respect these relics of the great conqueror, who have rubbed shoulders with Death in his most dreadful shapes, and passed through the most fiery or- deals, seeking ' The bubble reputation, Even in the cannon's mouth.' *' Refreshments were profusely circulated throughout the evening, and at one in the morning the royal host and hostess led the way to a magnificent supper, served in the theatre, where five long ta- bles were covered with game, fruit, jellies, confectionary, and choice wines. These were speedily diminished by the attack of upwards of nine hundred ladies, sparkling with jewels, upon which a hundred lustres shed a flood of light, while a concealed band of music poured forth lively strains. It was a truly magic spectacle, and the Orientals who looked down upon it from a gal- lery, might have fancied themselves transplanted into one of those fairy lands which their story-tellers love to dwell upon. I noticed, very near the Queen, two young ladies from the Bay State, who were pronounced the belles of the Anaerican set, all of whom ap- peared to great advantage, particularly several, whose simple at- tire could but bring the most cankered heart back to the freshness of life's Eden. Dancing was resumed after supper, and few left before four in the morning. I remained until five, and immediately after doffing my uniform, sat down to write this description, which OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 253 I will now close, despairing to do justice to the fairy scene I have beheld. " In a word, on what point can I fix niy ideas of this right royal fete — the confusion of equipages, the cries of coachmen, the lighting of torches, the distancing of intrusive gazers, the whirl- wind of pleasure, the glare of illuminations, the splendor of dresses, covered with gold, the scintillation of jewelry, the wav- ing of feathers, the beauty of flowers, not half so lovely as the faces they adorned, the rustling of brocades, the romantic beauty and sparkling animation of young and noble ladies, the renewal of youthful charms in others who had ceased to possess them, com- pliments a tort et a, travers, quiet flirtations, the sight of the noble and illustrious of this land, and of many others, and, above all, the presence of Louis Philippe, that truly great man, in a bad, (I fear,) as well as a good sense of the word ! " There were also each season a series of dramatic enter- tainments in the private theatre attached to the palace, to which all those who had been presented were invited. Some few strangers were asked to attend the weekly receptions of the Duke of Nemours, noted for the exclusiveness of the invitations, the postscripts of which, '' Gentlemen are to wear small-clothes," showed plainly the desire of the future Re- gent to restore the Bourbon etiquette. The Duchess of Nemours was no less punctilious in these matters than her husband, retaining all the formal ideas of her. mother, who was dame d^honneur to the Empress of Austria. Both were exclusive, haughty and arrogant, offending many and gaining the affections of none. Members of the diplomatic corps were occasionally invited during the summer to become guests of the King at one of the royal country-seats, and General Cass thus described a day spent at Fontain- bleau : — " Each guest is provided with proper apartments ; and soon after he rises he is offered a cup of coffee, as is usual in France ; and he then strolls out to Idok at the grounds, or to amuse himself as his inclination or caprice may dictate. About eleven o'clock he is 22 251 RISE AND FALL summoned to breakfast, or, as it is termed, a ddjeuner a la four- chette. He repairs to the saloon of reception, where he pays his respects to the royal family, and where he meets all the other guests who participate with him in the general hospitality. From here the company go to the breakfast room, a magnificent hall, where a splendid table is spread with perhaps one hundred covers. The breakfast — resembling in fact a dinner, rather than our morning meal — is served upon elegant dishes, and presents the greatest variety of the choicest fruits. It is introduced by soup, and at the termination tea or coffee is taken according to the taste of each person. At this time an intimation is given to the guests respecting the amusements of the day, which consist in hunting in the beautiful forest, visiting the circumjacent country, looking at the military manoeuvres, or recreations of a similar kind. The means of riding are placed at the disposition of each person, either in carriages or on horseback, and he joins the party, and the day passes cheerfully away. At six o'clock in the evening there is again a general reunion in the saloons of reception, and from these the company move to the dinner table, which is all that the epicure or the man of the most refined taste could wish. Among other amusements of the evening, is that of walking through the splendid apartments, one of which, by the by, contains the table at which the renunciation of Napoleon was written, together with the pen and inkstand which he made use of on that memorable oc- casion, and the original autograph instrument he wrote. The room is historical, and it is to be hoped that no Vandal will arise to destroy these interesting memorials. There is no danger of this during the life of the present King or that of his son. The rest of the evening is spent in music and conversation, and a cheerful day is brought to a cheerful close." The private life of Louis Philippe was methodical, and calculated to maintain his excellent health. He used to rise at six o'clock in the morning, at all seasons, from the single mattress, laid on a camp bedstead, where he had taken less than six hours' sleep; while enjoying a cold bath, he listened to the letters from his diplomatic agents, read to him by his secretary. Then, after drinking a cup of strong coffee, he repaired to his dressing room, where his family used to assem OP LOUIS PHILIPPE. 255 ble ; and while the Queen and her children carried on an animated and unreserved conversation, he shaved himself, bestowed careful attention upon his white and perfect teeth, had his bushy whiskers tinged with a glossy black dye, and when his flowing black peruke was adjusted, might have passed for a much younger man. At ten, he made a frugal breakfast, generally eating fried potatoes, and then went out to walk if in the country, or if in Paris rambled through the immense Palace of the Louvre, which he was incessantly altering, often returning with his habiliments covered over with mortar and dust. At one o'clock the Council of Ministers assembled, and Louis Philippe was invariably present, for he had no idea of letting any thing be done without his knowledge and sanc- tion. Sitting at the council table, he always took a sheet of paper, and while listening to the deliberations sketched with a pen a variety of grotesque or fanciful figures, with a good deal of freedom, which were much sought after by the ladies about the Court to place in their albums. He often became very much irritated when his Ministers hesitated in carrying out his projects, and used violent language, mingled with oaths. After the Council he almost invariably rode out, if in Paris, in a ball-proof carriage which was a load for eight horses. Its windows were of plate-glass three quar- ters of an inch in thickness, and it was the duty of an Eng- lish servant to keep it constantly under his supervision, lest some infernal machine should be attached to it. The King never traversed the city ; and while leaving by the broad avenues, was always escorted by a strong force, who sur- rounded his carriage. At dinner, Louis Philippe used to eat a plate of two kinds of soup, mixed, and then cutting up a fowl, boiled with rice, would nearly finish it, drinking pure water, about which he was very particular. At the end of his meal he drank half a glass of old claret wine, and then taking a bunch of grapes in his hand, unceremoniously left the table, and withdrew 256 RISE AND FALL into an adjoining apartment, where all the newspapers in France were laid out for his perusal, with the leading Lon- don journals. After he had read the papers, he joined the dneen in her drawing-room, where all members of the diplo- matic corps, statesmen, and superior officers, were freely re- ceived en famille. The ladies sat around a large centre table, in which each had her drawer, busily engaged in the fabrication of fancy articles, or worsted work, destined for presents, fairs, or charitable lotteries. Conversation generally took a religious turn, for the Q,ueen was so devout as to make her daughters- in-law almost so many nuns, exacting from them a strict ob- servance of all the duties of the Romish church. The King usually stood near the fire-place, chatting familiarly with his guests and the privileged few who had dropped in, bringing the news of the day. About eight o'clock, the Duchess of Orleans, having seen the eyes of her loved boy closed in sleep, came to relate his day's progress to the family, who looked upon him as their hope after Providence deprived his mother of her holiest object of affection. She was a stren- uous Protestant, and the Queen had great fears that she would instill anti-Catholic ideas into the young Count's mind, often saying harsh things on the subject to her, which the Princess was wont to receive meekly, sustained by that sense of duty which enabled her to support the sorrows of eternal mourning, softened by a mother's pride. When nine struck, the King used always to offer her his arm, and they took four or five turns around the saloon, when she retired to her private apartment, and was soon followed by the guests. Some of the Princes now usually dropped in to swell the family group, which enjoyed unrestrained the pleasures of a home fireside until eleven o'clock, when all said Ion soir, and Louis Philippe retired to his study to attend to his colos- sal private affairs. These were always managed with the most careful atten- tion, not a simple lease being signed by an agent, until it OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. ^57 had been read to the royal proprietor; and in few mercantile houses are the books and papers in as perfect order as were those of Louis Philippe. What his private fortune was, or where it was invested, will probably never be known, but it was notorious that he did not expend one half of the sums he received, directly or indirectly, from the State. Not a session of the Chambers passed without a fresh demand for more money, generally in the shape of a dowry or an allow- ance to the Princesses or Princes, and each was met with accusations of niggardly economy which could not be re- futed by the Ministers. " Why," concluded Monsieur L'Herbette on one occasion in the Chamber of Deputies, *' were the French people so attached to Napoleon ? Be- cause they saw that, although hostile to their liberties, he had a patriotic feeling — a feeling of generous self-denial, identified with the interests of the nation. And how was it with the Bourbons ? They, it is true, made large demands, and spent their revenues to advance their political interests ; but they did not hoard them. And you. Ministers of the new dynasty — you too are ever crying, give, give — you are ever demanding more gold. If it were to give away, we might bestow it — but it is to keep — always to keep." This auri sacra fames did much to complete the measure of Louis Philippe's unpopularity, for while the trades-people sighed for the prodigalities of the Imperial and Bourbon courts, the old nobility were mortally offended by the royal preference shown to the Rothschilds, Foulds, and other banking families. The proud-spirited Montmorencies, La- rochejacquelins, or Rochfoucaulds, might have transferred their allegiance to the cadet branch, but they could never give precedence to a parvenu, any more than the shop- keepers could uphold a monarch who cut down his grocer's bills, sold the candle-ends from his palaces, and contracted with a restaurateur to supply his dinner-table at four francs per head. In order to make a living, the contractor served up what was left at a cheap eating-house in the Palais Royal. 22* 258 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXXIII. In the spring of 1844, the war party, incensed because Louis Philippe relinquished Tahiti to Great Britain, accused him of compromising the honor and interests of France to England, and when in the month of October he returned the visit of Queen Victoria, a large majority of the popu- lace were induced to join in the cry " a has les Anglais.'^ Her Britannic Majesty gave Louis Philippe a right royal reception at her old castle of Windsor, where she invested him with the order of the garter, and the corporations of the cities through which he passed, vied with each other in their attentions to the " Napoleon of Peace." Among other places which he visited, was Twickenham ; and how many stirring recollections must have been awakened in his mind when he there stood again before the house which he had occupied many years previous, in the days of his compar- ative obscurity — days which for weeks and months together rose and set in gloom, and produced scarcely a single auspicious event on which to hang a hope for the future ! Notwithstanding his triumphant position, he could not but have thought, with a sigh, of the friends who once shared his exile under that roof — of the brothers who enjoyed his confidence, and were to him a second self — and more especially of Dumouriez, under whose auspices he made his first attempt to seize the French crown. Now that diadem was his, all those old associates had passed away, and with them all his old political associations. With a political tergiversation unparalleled in history, the Repub- lican of 1793 endeavored to govern in 1844 by ''right divine." OF LOUIS rniLippE. 259 Whom the " Gods destroy, they first make mad," and Louis Philippe seemed determined to verify Napoleon's con- temptuous definition of the Bourbon rule — "They had learned nothing, and they had forgotten nothing." Seated on a throne founded on the wrecks of the Republic, the Empire, and the Legitimate. Monarchy, he might have profited by the errors of his predecessors, and the calami- ties of the past ; but that intense selfishness which ultimately proved his ruin, led him to incorporate all the faults of his predecessors into the system which he followed for his per- sonal aggrandizement, regardless of the interests of France. Never did a reign commence more auspiciously, and never did a ruler more completely falsify the confiding hopes of his subjects, who found to their cost that their country, under the Constitutional Monarchy, was but a family estate held for the benefit of Louis Philippe and his relations. He even went so far in this personal use of the nation, as to violate the fundamental canon on which rests the safety of any constitutional throne — that the sovereign is incapa- ble of wrong, only so long as he abstains from personal interference in public affairs : he did interfere to the extent of being his own Prime Minister, and thus made himself ministerially responsible. Yet a constant attempt was made to conceal the oppres- sion and fraud by an affectation of political virtues, and much cant about freedom, liberty, and progress, which no Frenchman believed, for the truth was too evident. The bloody campaigns in Algiers, and the immense standing army at home, proved that while he stimulated the war spirit, he curbed as he spurred, and kept France at peace merely in order to pursue his intrigues for private aggran- dizement. Demands for electoral reform were treated with scorn, and the Chamber of Deputies was notoriously corrupt — corrupt in the electoral origin, and corrupt, moreover, in the persons of the Deputies, by the King's abuses of his power and his patronage. The diplomacy of the nation 260 RISE AND FALL were occupied in arranging the marriage of the Infanta of Spain to the Duke of Montpensier. The public revenues were anticipated, and the annual deficit annually increased. The Catholic clergy were gradually allowed to steal into power, and the education of the people, so necessary to render them capable of the enjoyment of civil liberty, was shamefully neglected.* In short, " during a reign in which his real authority and influence were immense, he did little for his country, little for the moral and intellectual elevation of his people, and nothing for the gradual improvement of the political institutions of the kingdom, because his time and attention were absorbed in seeking splendid foreign alliances for his children, and in manoeuvring to maintain a supple majority in the Chambers, and to keep those min- isters at the head of affairs, who would second most heartily his private designs." f Soon after the unsuccessful insurrection in 1839, the Legitimists, the Republicans, the renegade Conservatives, and the faction of Odilon Barrot, had combined their motley forces under the supreme command of Monsieur Thiers. Unsuccessful in his attempts to become Prime Minister in * To form a more correct idea on this subject, it may be well to look at the state of instruction in France. Official returns divide in 1845 the whole population into six classes — three degrees of ignorance, and thiee of instruction — as follows : IGNOKANCE. 1st — Unable to read and to write 16,855,000 2d — Able to read, but not to write 7,097,000 3d — Reading and writing, but incorrectly .... 6,968,000 INSTRUCTION. 4th — Reading and writing correctly 2,430,000 5th — Having the elements of classical education . . . 735,000 6lh — Having completed their classical studies .... 315,000 Total 31,400,000 t North American Review for July, 1848. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 261 1840, he passed several years, like the genii who lay incar- cerated beneath the seal of Solomon, in magnificent prom- ises. At last, in March, 1846, he took a decided stand against Louis Philippe in the Chamber of Deputies, where he advocated electoral reform, and a curtailment of the royal prerogative. The discussion was on a bill to exclude public functionaries from the Chamber of Deputies, where 179 of the 376 members were then in the pay of govern- ment, and 132 of them obliged to act in obedience to ministerial orders, or forfeit their places. Monsieur Thiers did not, like Lafitte, '' ask pardon from God and man for having aided in the revolution of 1830," but boldly de- clared : "Some pretend to say that a representative gov- ernment is impossible in France, on account of her deeply- rooted aristocracy. Ah ! if that is true, it should have been told us in 1830 ; it should have been told us then — we, who were signing a protestation which might have cost us our heads ; it should have been told us, then, that the difficulty was above our hopes, and that we risked our lives for an illusion. It would have been preferahle to have had no revolution — and I only decided in favor of one, because I thought a representative government possible." " You know well," he remarked, in conclusion, " that England has passed through the same train of events — that she also killed a King — that she had her revolution of 1830 in 1668 — after which William of Holland took the throne of England ; and it is from that, the true representative gov- ernment dates in England. Well, William would be master, HE, ALSO ! He claimed that power which all princes claim — and I say, on this subject, truly foolish are those ivho are astonished — truly feeble those who submit J^ This speech was a masterpiece of eloquence, and from that moment the days of Louis Philippe's reign were numbered. It was thus commented on by the " National,'' which was established as the King's organ, but was at this time the leading opposition paper : — 262 RISE AND FALL " Never have vi^e found him so full of life and spirit, of happy, brilliant, and frequently elevated inspirations. His language, which is sometimes erratic, beating about the bush, and break- ing out into eccentric sparklings, was condensed, but animated ; tracing, in one direct line, its luminous course, it went on and on, following its path, without fearing to push aside whatever obstacle it might meet with ; and we may add, that when the throne came in its way, the throne did not stop it. It is not permitted to us, who are not free, to point with the finger at the figure so clearly designed under a veil of transparent gauze. The whole speech of M. Thiers was an accusation against the personal government. We might have fancied ourselves brought back to the times of those tempestuous debates in which the coalition launched its thunderbolts." This determined opposition was for a time quieted by sympathy. A forest-keeper, an ill-conditioned and discon- tented man, who had seen better days, and who had been an officer in Greece (though but a game-keeper at Fontain- bleau,) fired two shots from his double-barrelled gun into the carriage of the royal family of France. He was one of the best shots in the forest, and how the eight or ten persons in the char-d-hanc so completely escaped this fire was a miracle. *' There is a salute for grandpapa ! " said the little Prince of Wurtemberg, in the simplicity of his heart, but a second afterwards, his grandmother picked the smoking wadding of this first shot from her bosom with a trembling hand, and gave it to the King. While he was reassuring her, the assassin again fired, but again without effect, and the unhappy Queen fainted. The char-d-hanc went its way — the would-be-regicide was captured, and soon afterwards beheaded, though all efforts to trace the crime to party feeling failed. It is the worst of centralized systems of administration, that all ill or wrong can be attributed to the head of the state, more especially when that head is active and dictatorial ; so that in France, where so large a portion of the population are employed by gov- ernment, there were perhaps a million of malcontens, who by OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 263 a little exaggeration of each one's personal importance miglit have been led to consider the King as their personal enemy. This seems to have been the madness of Lecomte; fortune jilted him, and he sought to avenge himself on Louis Philippe, and, instead of harming him, contributed im- mensely to consolidate his throne. It insured the monarchy three months of that strong popularity which is elicited by sympathy, at the important moment of the elections. It was owing in part to this sympathy, but in a great measure to the monstrous system of corruption organized throughout France, that at the election in September, 1846, two hundred and eighty-six ministerial candidates were returned, to one hundred and seventy-three of the opposi- tion. In eighteen of the eighty-six departments not a single opposition candidate was returned. And yet the various shades of the opposition were indefatigable in their exer- tions; but the condition of the official influence shows in a still stronger light the inevitable action of the throne upon the independence of the nation. It is distinctly stated that, of the 240,000 electors of France, 160,000 shared among themselves and their families no less than 628,000 offices, held at the pleasure of Ministers, with emoluments amount- ing to nearly one hundred and ten millions of dollars. It was also well known that honors were bought and sold, titles bartered for political and literary support, and priv- ileges, both commercial and theatrical, bargained for, and bestowed for a price. The only gain for France, which the royalists attempted to show, was the marriage of the Duke of Montpensier to the Infanta of Spain by a dark series of intrigues, and the most immoral contrivance that has disgraced the history of modern Europe. Her dowry of thirty millions of francs was paid into the coffers of the Orleans family, but it was an inadequate compensation for political embarrassments of the most serious nature, for England could not forget that she had been deceived by a royal falsehood. It was in vain 264 RISE AND FALL that Guizot attempted to clear up his master's prevarication by a wretched subterfuge. Queen Victoria continued inex- orably indignant, even after Louis Philippe himself under- took to cajole her by sending a large doll to her eldest child, with a wardrobe of all the different peasant-costumes of France, and an autograph letter. This epistle of the " old cousin " read thus : " Paris, January 27, 1846. '*7t) her Royal Highness Princess Victoria. "My dearest little Cousin: — Your charming little letter has given me the greatest pleasure ; and I am very happy to have received from you a proof of that precious affection which your illustrious parents feel for me, and which I entertain so deeply for them. If I have been so long in replying to you, it is because I wished my letter to go at the same time with a little Parisienne^ whose services I thought might be agreeable to you, without giving you any trouble, or exciting any jealousy on the part of those about you. The little wardrobe, however, which I ordered Madame Bassine [a marchande des modes in the Place Vendome] to arrange for her, in order that she might appear before you with all the fashions in use among forty-six of her fellow country- women, has taken so long a time to complete, that it is only just now that the Queen has begged me to come to her, to see her before she is sent to Lord Cowley for her passport, I hope you will be kind enough to receive my little protigde. I am very glad that your brother Albert has not forgotten me also, and I hope that he still uses his gun to go through the exercise. I do not know whether I can flatter myself that Princess Alice has not forgotten me ; but as to Prince Alfred [then a baby of a year and a half,] it is quite out of the question [in English.] But what is in the ques- tion is, that I love you all very tenderly, and that I take the liberty of kissing you all as your old cousin, "Louis Philippe." On the first of January, 1847, Louis Philippe, in replying to the fulsome congratulations of the diplomatic corps, prayed God to preserve other nations from revolutionary struggles, and hypocritically hoped that the example of France mio-ht " convince States and Kinors that monarchy OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 2G5 and liberty might live and prosper together, but that they could not do so, except at the price of mutual confidence." Yet at that very moment there was a growing feeling throughout the country, of irritation at the abuses practised by this would-be-model King, and his government had begun to totter, not under the assaults of its enemies, but by the dissolution of its own majority and the corruption of its own principles. Yet Louis Philippe, still intoxicated with power and sanguine of perpetual success, went boldly on to carry out the vast designs of Louis XIV. in the middle of his reign, as if he had forgotten that his throne had been raised by a revolution and supported by individual will. Secured by his fortresses and bayonets, he apparently never dreamed that a few hours would suffice to turn the fury of the Parisians against his own person and family, and while urging Guizot on to execute his projects, he held him in reserve ready to be sacrificed as a convenient con- cession, which would quiet the popular tumult. M. Duvergier de Hauranne made an attempt to carry a bill for electoral reform through the Chamber of Deputies, but it was defeated by the ministerial party. " In the first revolution," said Gustave de Beaumont in the debate upon it, ''the ruling passion was the maintenance of principles ; under the restoration it was a love of liberty ; at present it is a desire for material amelioration ; first came ideas, then passions, now interests. M. Guizot has himself de- clared, that in democratic governments it was necessary to oppose the masses to the aristocracy : yet what voice have now the masses of France in her councils ? " * * The electoral position of the French at this time was as follows : 8,184,887 individuals paying 1 to 20 francs each 96,000,000 764,749 " " 21 " 30 " 18,000,000 705,312 *' " 31 " 50 " 29,000,000 549,817 " " 51 " 100 " 36,000,000 291,696 " " 101 '• 199 " 27,000,000 10,496,461 non-voting- tax payers pay a total of 206,000,000 francs. 23 [!?ee next page.] 266 RISE AND FALL At the King's fete, on the first of May, the public addresses were even in a more fulsome style of congratula- tion than before, and Louis Philippe said in reply, laying his hand on his heart, '' I thank th^ Chambers for the support which has permitted me to accomplish the great task imposed upon me; and now that France enjoys all the advantages of peace and prosperity, I might exclaim, ' Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace.' " This declaration was received with scorn, as all France knew that thirty of the Deputies, who were pledged to support the administration at the commencement of the session, had become so indignant at the bare-faced corrruption which reigned, that they had taken a high independent ground of opposition. This Spartan band of seceders, who were not to be bribed or flattered, gave most deplorable pictures of the actual condition of the country; and as- serted that, although Louis Philippe had maintained peace and order, seventeen years' tranquillity ought to have pro- duced other fruits. *' What have the government to show, as the results 1 " asked ^'La Presse," the organ of the Young Conservatives. 146,572 individuals paying 200 to 300 francs each 34,000,000 36,227 (( (( 301 400 (( 12,000,000 17,521 u (( 401 500 C( 7,000,000 10,374 (( (( 501 600 (( 5,000,000 6,735 u (( 601 700 (( 4,000,000 4,316 C( (( 701 800 (( 3,000,000 3,175 t( (( 801 900 (( 2,500,000 2,548 l( C( 901 1,000 C( 2,500,000 3,773 (( (( 1,001 1,500 (( 4,500,000 3,419 (( (( 1,501 2,000 (I 5,000,000 1,620 (( (C 2,001 2,500 t( 3,500,000 876 (( (( 2,501 3,000 cc 2,500,000 882 (C (( 3,001 4,000 cc 3,000,000 997 voting tax- above 4,000 payers, pay in g a total of 4,500,000 239,015 93,000,000 francs. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE, 267 "Order! a budget of expenses, constantly increasing until it amounts to more than $3,000,000. Peace ! an army which ruins us, alienates from us our natural allies, and prevents our having a powerful navy — churches in ruins — communal schools without light and air — primary teachers receiving an annual salary of $40 — long and deep ruts pompously dignified with the name of vicinal roads — departmental roads, commenced, it is true, but which our children will not live long enough to see finished — broken sections of railroads — canals unconnected with each other, so as to be unser- viceable to the country — maritime ports in bad condition — building yards without materials — arsenals filled with arms and ammunition, which appear to have been manufactured for no other purpose than to attest the superiority of England over us — fortifications without any affinity to the constitution of our armies — colonies in a state of decay — razzias and bulletins in Africa — sinecures without num- ber, and yet, at the same time, an infinity of useful employments inadequately remunerated — useful expenses you are unable to incur, on account of useless expenses you have not courage to suppress — men without ideas placed in positions that require men of genius and understanding — excessive taxes, which you cannot reduce — unequal taxes, which you know not how to bring to a proper level — abuses in every department — administrations in which mediocrity and want of good-will reign in sovereignty, and in which emulation and zeal are systematically stifled — speeches, an exuberance of speeches, without any acts — treaties concluded, but which cannot be ratified — expeditions undertaken, the glory of which is dearly paid for — marriages contracted, which are proudly proclaimed as the only great achievement won by France single-handed during seventeen years, the result of which is but to raise us to a summit, rendering our fall the more deep and dangerous. These are facts which cannot be denied. Are they such results as justify exultation on surveying the country — this country, which, if the right means were taken, would become so rich, so powerful, so glorious, as to render it an example to all governments — to the people of all nations'? " Thus far, Louis Philippe's government had been sup- ported by a general impression among the monied and trading classes that it was " safe," but its rottenness was 268 RISE AND FALL shown by the trial before the Chamber of Peers, which re- sulted in the conviction of two ex-cabinet Ministers, men occupying high stations in public life, of open bribery. Other cases followed, disclosing equally frightful pictures of public and private life, and even the austere Guizot was im- plicated — for his severe political morality could not exempt him from the influence of the means by which Louis Phi- lippe's Prime Minister was forced to sustain himself. First, he had to serve the King ; next, he had a Chamber elected by a constituency, which, for a population of thirty-five millions, was the mere mockery of a representation. The King was powerful ; the people were legally and constitu- tionally weak ; between the King and the people, were the two Chambers, almost entirely governed and swayed by the immense number of offices and places in the gift of the crown. Under these circumstances, a Minister might aifect political purity, and "praise the lean and sallow abstinence " from official gains, as much as he would, individually ; he might practise what he preaches, but he must connive at corruption in others ; he must subdue his nature to the element he works in, and rule by the influences nearest his hand. He could not appeal to free principles ; it would not suit the "system;" he could seek no support from great masses of public opinion ; its expression was proscribed and forbidden ; he must play the lackey to the power above him as the first condition of his official existence, and he must buy support from those who have it to sell, as the second. On the 15th of May, 1847, the compiler of this work wrote from Paris to the Boston Atlas : " Until very recently, I have thought the Orleans dynasty secure upon the throne, but I now fear it will end with the life of Louis Philippe — destroyed by the corruption of its own principles." On the 20th of July he wrote to the same paper : " The French begin to see their real position ! They find that the promises made to them in 1830 have been grossly violated. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 269 and that the Democrat then seated on the throne as * the best of Republics,' put on the purple cap (like the radicals in the United States,) to amuse the populace while he fleeced them. Once in power he commenced a steady rule — now with a rod of iron, and row by moral suasion — which gave hopes of progress, but no good effects are manifest, save a long peace, and this peace was for the King's private interests. Public confidence is impaired, the recent disclosures have added disgust to dislike, disquiet is gaining ground, nor will it take much to rouse the people into open revolt. The French acquiesce in the decisions of the ruling power without much comment, until the yoke becomes too oppres- sive — then, rising as if by magic, they cast it to the ground. " Meanwhile, the opposition are rallying with a political ardor not seen here since the revolution, and begin to show open defi- ance — upwards of a thousand Deputies and electors having dined together at the Chateau Rouge on the 13th, without drinking the King's health. Thiers did not dare to join in this political insult ; but Barrot, De Lasteyrie, De Beaumont, Pagnerre, George W. Lafayette, his son Oscar Lafayette, and other influential Deputies were present to express in bitter language their disappointment at the King's desertion of the principles he espoused in 1830, Many of these Deputies attended just such a banquet in April, 1830, manifesting on that occasion the same opposition to the ruinous policy of the government-— and many other similar signs of dis- content warrant the expression of my belief, that unless some im- mediate change takes place in his administration, Louis Philippe will meet the fate of Charles X. " His safeguard is the army, and never was a monarch more closely guarded — all the palaces being but so many citadels. The Tuileries, for example, contains eighteen guard-houses, occupied by six hundred picked men from the infantry regiments, fifty dra- goons, and three hundred national guards — the former with per- cussion locks and twenty rounds of ball cartridge, while the guns of the national guards have flints, and are never soiled by powder. In addition, the five barracks of the Carrousel, rue St. Thomas, Assomption, d'Orsay, and Bourbon, contain each a regiment within five minutes' march, and electric telegraphs communicate with the other garrisons scattered over Paris. At night, fifty trusty guardiens mount guard within the palace, armed with double- barrelled carbines, and seventy-three sentries are posted around the 23* 270 RISE AND FALL walls, with loaded muskets. These last have orders to let no one come near the palace, and the benighted pedestrian has to make a wide circuit, instead of passing through its court, as in the day- time. Some years since, a young recently imported American, who was ignorant of this regulation and of the French tongue, re- turning one night from a party, pursued the route which he had several times taken in the daytime, but to his surprise found a bayonet brought to his breast. ^Qui viveV muttered the sentry. ' Don't understand you,' was the reply ; but the ominous click-click of the lock brought to full cock, was rather scarish, even though our Yankee friend had ' seen the elephant ' in Florida. ^Pass- port — Amirique — Parlez Anglais,' were shouted by him with such evident innocence, that the sentry raised his muzzle and called the corporal of the guard ; but ere the young traveller was liberated, he had to send for a French friend in authority, to vouch that he had no design of assassinating the King." Even the *' Siecle,'' a moderate political paper, which en- joyed a larger circulation than any other journal in Paris, and wielded a powerful influence over public opinion, began to use bold language, and draw comparisons between the existing state of affairs, and those in 1827, '28 and '29. At last its editor concluded an article by saying — " We for a long time imagined that well-intentioned, courageous men, firm in their resolutions, might succeed in leading the gov- ernment from the fatal course in which it has entangled itself We no longer believe it possiile." But the trumpet- notes of defiance came from Macon, where, at a public dinner, Alphonse de Lamartine launched his thunderbolts against the throne, in the midst of a tempest. The wind carried away the tent, and the lightning flashed salutes to his bold words, which marked him as the future leader of the French, while his auditors braved the elements to hear of honesty and liberty. The following passages will give an idea of the whole speech : " If the royalty, monarchic in name, democratic in fact, adopted by France in 1830, comprehends that it is only the sovereignty of OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 271 the people, raised above electoral storms, and crowned in one head, to represent, at the summit of the public interests, the unity and perpetuity of the national power ; if the modern royalty, a delega- tion from the people, so different from ancient royalty, the property of the throne, considers itself as a magistracy decorated with a title, which has changed its signification in the languages of man- kind ; if it satisfies itself with being the respected regulator of the mechanism of government, marking and moderating the move- ments of the general will, without constraining it, without falsify- ing it, without changing or corrupting its source, which is opinion ; if it contents itself with being in its own eyes but as the fronts of those old demolished temples, which the ancients replaced to de- ceive the superstitious respect of the people, and give to the modern edifice some recollections of the ancient, representative royalty, it will exist a number of years, sufficient for its work of preparation and transaction ; and the duration of its service will be to our children, exactly commensurate with the duration of its existence. " If, on the contrary, the royalty deceives the hopes, which the prudence of the country placed, in 1830, less in its nature than its name ; if it isolates itself upon its constitutional elevation ; if it does not incorporate itself entirely with the feelings and the legit- imate interests of the mass ; if it surrounds itself with an elec- toral aristocracy, instead «f making itself one with the people ; if, under pretext of favoring the religious sentiments of the popu- lation, the most beautiful, the noblest, the holiest sentiment of humanity, but which is only holy and noble so far as it is free, it leagues itself with the machinations of sacerdotal familiars, to pur- chase from their hands the superstitious respect of the people ; if it encamps itself in a fortified city ; if it suspects the national organization of a civil militia, and disarms it little by little, as an enemy ; if it caresses the military spirit, at once so necessary and so dangerous to liberty, in a continental country as brave as France ; if without openly waiting for the will of the nation, it corrupts this will, and buys, under the name of influences, a dictatorship, the more dangerous, that it will be purchased under the shield of the constitution ; if it succeeds in making of a nation of citizens a vile horde of traffickers, who have conquered their liberty at the price of their fathers' blood, only to sell it out to the highest bid- der for sordid favors; if it causes France to blush at her official 272 RISE AND FALL vices, and if it allows us to sink, (as we see at this moment, in a deplorable lawsuit,) if it allows us to sink into the tragedy of cor- ruption ; if it allows the nation to be humiliated and afflicted by the dishonesty of the public power — it will fall, this royalty — be ye sure it will fall — not in its blood, like that of '89 — but into its own snare ! And after having had the revolution of liberty, and the counter-revolution of glory, you will have the revolution of public conscience, and the revolution of public contempt." Guizot boldly braved the storm, letting no opportunity pass of proclaiming his innocence, and the great services he had rendered to France. " Men in power," he said at the Chamber of Peers, " in other lands, have been strangely outraged by similar insinuations. George Washington, the greatest citizen the United States ever produced, was for two years accused of having sold his country to England, and forged letters were brought forward in support of the accusation. At present the names of his calumniators are no longer remembered, and in order to discover them, the historian has to search the journals and obscure pamphlets of the day. The conclusion to be drawn from this is, that every man in power must expect similar insult — whether I form an exception to the rule, it is for you to judge." This hypocritical assertion of innocence was actually received with a general laugh and several audible negatives, for every one present knew that M. Guizot had given places for votes, if he had not, (like Teste, Soult, and Duchatel,) pocketed bribes. In the Ministerial Councils, Guizot urged the necessity of taking a decided stand against all reform movements, while the Prince of Joinville and Madame Adelaide in vain strove to persuade Louis Philippe to pursue a more conciliatory cause. They were unheeded, and as if Heaven meant to rebuke the infatuated monarch, his sister died on the morn- ing of the 31st of December. She had been indisposed for some months, but her indisposition did not inspire any seri- ous uneasiness, and she had determined to be present at the OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 273 new year's receptions. On the 30th she was busy in selecting etrennes, aided by her favorite nephew, the Duke de Montpensier, from the assortments sent her from the glittering repertories on the boulevards, and was unusually particular in choosing for all her friends some offering which would probably be acceptable. In the evening she said that she felt fatigued, and asked her attendants to leave the room while she reposed on a sofa ; but hearing the step of the Duke de Montpensier in the corridor, she called him in, to be sure that her new year's gifts would all be sent. About ten the King paid her a visit, and finding her asleep, left without disturbing her, expressing his satisfaction to the Queen at finding her resting so quietly. An hour after- wards her physician arrived, and his science detected, in this profound sleep, tokens of speedy death. Midnight struck on the palace clock, and the whole royal family were kneeling around her, while the Cure of St. Roch offered up prayers for her departing spirit. Louis Philippe, his hands clasped in agony, and tears streaming down his cheeks, seemed unable to speak, but the fatal death-rattle roused him. " Adieu, my dear sister," he said in a voice broken by sobs ; '' may we soon meet in a better world." A few moments more, and her soul had returned to God. The King's favorite companion through all his chequered life, his grief at her loss was violent ; and when on the following Wednesday he saw her body deposited in the sepulchral vaults at Dreux, by the side of his mother, brother, and son, he said to his aid-de-camp, ''It will soon be my turn to follow them." 274 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXXIV. Louis Philippe opened the session of the Legislative Chambers on the 29th of December, 1847, with the usual pomp ; forty thousand bayonets keeping the crowd at gun- shot distance from the route traversed by the royal carriage, to preclude all possibility of another attempt at assassination. The ceremony took place in the Chamber of Deputies, which by one o'clock presented a most brilliant appearance. On the platform stood the throne, with crimson velvet stools on either side for the Princes, surmounted by crimson drapery, trimmed with gold, and crowned with tri-colored flags. One side of the hall was occupied by the Peers, in their richly embroidered costumes, the other side by the Deputies ; in front were seats for the higher crown officers, and all around were the fairer portion of the auditory, clad with that harmonious elegance for which the French ladies are so justly famed. Soon after the cannon of the Invalides had given notice that Louis Philippe had left his palace, he was announced, and the whole audience rose to receive him. He was followed by the Princes, and a numerous staff, who ranged themselves behind the throne and on the steps of the platform, presenting a serried mass of glittering uniforms, embroidery, and decorations. The King wore the uniform of a colonel in the national guard, and ap- peared quite dispirited — his voice, which on former occa- sions had ever been remarked for the richness of its modulations, was weak and inaudible — and his '* most hearty congratulations" upon the happiness and prosperity of the nation were received in silence. In the concluding paragraph were the expressions which cost him the throne^ which he then occupied for the last time : OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 275 ** Gentlemen, the more I advance in life, the more I dedicate with devotedness to the service of France, to the care of her interests, dignity, and happiness, all the activity and strength which God has given, and still vouchsafes me. Amidst the agita- tion which hostile and blind passions foment, a conviction animates and supports me, which is, that we possess in the constitutional monarchy, in the union of the great powers of the state, sure means of overcoming all those obstacles, and of satisfying all interests moral and material. Let us firmly maintain, according to the charter, social order and all their developments. We shall transmit unimpaired to the generations that may come after us the trust confided to us, and they will bless us for having founded and defended the edifice, under shelter of which they will live happy and free." The Deputies who had attended the reform banquets, as was to be expected, were indignant at being thus stigma- tized as promoters of anarchy and discord, by fomenting " hostile and blind passions." Smarting under the charge, they determined to attend a banquet in Paris itself, and then the struggle commenced^ by the disinterment by the Ministers of an obsolete police law of 1790, passed by the AssemhUe Nationale, proclaiming such assemblages illegal. Such a stretch of power as this, and the attempt to enforce such doctrines in the year 1848, not merely in France, but in Paris, sixty years after the first revolution, and eighteen after the second, was fraught with temerity and danger. Stormy debates ensued in the Chamber of Depu- ties, in one of which Guizot had thrown in his teeth an extract from one of his own speeches in 1831, when he said: — *'The association of citizens for the exercise or the defence of their constitutional rights, is indicated by the charter, and it cannot have any thing in it that is illegal. These associations may be grave, and even danger- ous for the government, but that is the fault of the gov- ernment itself; when it menaces these associations, it is in the wrong." Yet in 1848, this same man declared that 276 RISE AND FALL all public meetings were illegal, and that he would not permit them. The Deputies received this reckless bravado with tumultuous cries, that seemed the forerunners of revo- lution. The Ministry was compared to that of Polignac, whose misdeeds led to the outbreak of 1830, which lost Charles X. his throne, and Odilon Barrot thundered forth from the tribune : " I wish to have my words recorded, and echoed to every extremity of the kingdom. Ministers of July, you have violated, and still continue to violate, a right which the Ministers of the Restoration respected, up to the day when they and the royal dynasty were overthrown together." The King followed up his injudicious course by ordering large military forces into Paris, but the preparations for the banquet went on in defiance of all his measures. Though France, notwithstanding two revolutions, wsls young in con- stitutional liberty, yet it could not be forgotten, that, under her ancient kings and despotical monarchy, she possessed her Assemhlee des Etats du Royaume, her Assemblees Ordi- naires des Etats, her Assemhlee des Etats d'un Province, and her Assemblees Generales d' Habitants. The kings of the first race, too, held assemblies, or great convocations, of their people on the 1st of March, which Pepin changed to the 1st of May ; and these continued till the tenth century, when, from the violence of the armed counts and barons, they became impossible. Under every phase of the ancient monarchy, the right to meet and to complain, under some shape or other, existed, and in the proces-verbal of that very AssembUe Nationale of 1790, from which the police law sought to prohibit these meetings, it was laid down by the great constitution-monger, the Abbe Sieyes, that " Un peuple a toujours le droit de revoir et de reformer la constitution." In the Bases de la Constitution, proposed in the same year by Rabaut de St. Etienne, it was also proclaimed that within the limits of the law " LViomme est libre dans ses discours, car la parole est libre comme la pensee;" yet it OF LOUIS riiiLipPE. 277 was from such a liberal repertory as this that the indiscreet Ministry took their authority. To aggravate the matter, news had arrived since the difficulty commenced, of so startling a character as to change the political aspect of Europe. There had been a revolution in Sicily — a revolu- tion in Naples — a constitution granted to the Tuscans — and great concessions made to the Piedmontese. It was not the time to enslave France, or, as Lamartine well said, " to clap the hand of the policeman on the mouth of the country." Louis Philippe might at this time have maintained his throne by changing his Ministers, conceding a proper elec- toral reform, and promising to govern on a system less dynastic — but his obstinate counsellor persuaded him that nothing more than a mere emeuie could ensue, which the military could soon suppress. He listened to Guizot as Charles X. listened to Polignac, in 1830, and selected Mar- shal Bugeaud (the man who once roasted a tribe of Arabs to death) to enact the part Marmont then so feebly filled. Several regiments of picked men were added to the garri- son at Paris, and arrangements made, by which from 70,000 to 80,000 men could, with the assistance of the railways, be brought in as a reinforcement. Artillery cais- sons rumbled through the streets, conveying auimunition to the numerous fortified guard-houses scattered over the city, which were also supplied with food, fuel and water enough to stand a six days' siege. Each company of infantry were supplied with axes, picks, and saws, in order to clear away barricades, and all the batteries of flying artillery were con- centrated at Vincennes, well supplied with canister and grape shot. Yet it was known that when General Jacqueminot called the colonels of the National Guard together, to question them as to the feelings of their battalions, he found that they were little disposed to sustain arbitrary power. Gen. Tiburce Sebastiani also questioned the higher officers 24 278 RISE AND FALL of the garrison as to the feelings of the army, and the answer was, that it was to be little depended on, if the National Guard should support the resistance to the prohibi- tions of the Ministers with respect to the Reform banquets. The King distributed large numbers of crosses of the Legion of Honor to the officers, invited a number of them to the Tuileries on Saturday evening, February 19th, and spoke of a general promotion, in reward for any services they might be called upon to render. Conversing with an American diplomatist who dined at the palace that even- ing, Louis Philippe alluded to the threatened troubles with an indifference verging upon gaiety, and even later this serene sentiment of security had not abated, although urgent rep- resentations of the danger that threatened, and of the ne- cessity of timely concessions, were made to him. It was, however, generally understood that government did not intend to stop the Banquets, but would permit the guests to assemble, while the opposition leaders, on their part, promised that if allowed so to do, they would obey the first summons to disperse, under protest, and the matter would then be brought before the courts of justice. Had this compromise been carried out, all would have gone on quietly ; but Armand Marrast, with several other radicals, determined to seize upon the moment for an outbreak, and issued a manifesto, calling out the National Guards in uni- form to join the procession. This changed the face of things, and the Minister of the Interior stated in the Cham- ber of Deputies, that although government had been inclined to allow the question of public assemblages to be settled judi- cially, it could not allow an imperium in imperio. The Banquet was forbidden. After this declaration, the Chamber at once adjourned until the next day, and the Opposition Deputies repaired to the house of Odilon Barrot, whence, after consultation, the following paragraph was sent to the evening paper, "ia Patrie : " — OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 279 *' We stop the press to announce that the Opposition, not wish- ing to take, directly or indirectly, the responsibility for the conse- quences which may result from the new measures adopted to-day by the government, has resolved not to attend the proposed ban- quet to-morrow. The Opposition Deputies entreat the good citizens to abstain from all public assemblies, and from every proceeding which may afford a pretext for acts of violence. At the same time, the Opposition is sensible that the new measures taken by the Ministry impose on it new and grave duties, which it will not fail to fulfil." With this notice came proclamations from the police, forbidding the banquet, which were placarded on the walls, but soon torn dovv^n by the mob, who had read them and the "P«^He" by torchlight, forming a sight of wild interest all along the boulevards. It was by main struggle that a paper could be procured ; and so soon as the fortunate purchaser had fought his way back, with the paper crushed in his hand, to save it from being snatched away, he was sur- rounded by a number of anxious listeners, to whom he read the contents by the light of the nearest torch lamp, or shop window. In an incredibly short time, the papers had disap- peared, and not one was to be had. After a long interval, more papers were printed ; and the boys who carried them to the stands at which the evening journals are sold would be intercepted, and the papers forced from them by competitors, who seemed ready to pay any price. At an early hour on Tuesday morning, crowds of people began to throng the principal thoroughfares, most of them evidently belonging to the working classes, with many of those scowling, and, as the French say, sinistre faces which only show themselves in daylight at times of great popular convulsion. About twelve, a long procession of students arrived at the *' National,'^'' office, with the copy of a petition addressed by them to the Chamber for the impeachment of Guizot, and soon after a dense mass, mostly wearing bloi/scs, formed in the Rue Royale and marched to the Hotel des 280 RISE AND FALL Affaires Etrangh^es, singing the refrain of the Girondiii's death song in Dumas's drama : " Mourir pour la patrie, C'est le sort le plus beau, le pus digne d'envie." A body of Municipal Guards, under the direction of a commissary of police, succeeded in dispersing the crowd, who assembled from all quarters to join the students in the imprecations they heaped upon Guizot in front of his hotel. Thence the populace spread over the city, and began to organize a systematic opposition to the troops, by taking arms from the gunsmiths' shops, and throwing up barricades across the streets. The main point of interest was the Chamber of Deputies, which presented a gloomy aspect. Few Deputies were in attendance. The benches of the Op- position were completely vacant. Guizot arrived at an early hour J he looked pale but confident. He was followed by the Ministers of Finance, Public Instruction and Com- merce. Marshal Bugeaud, who was believed to have ac- cepted the military command of Paris, in the event of a revolt, took his seat close to the ministerial bench. The Cham- ber then resumed the adjourned discussion on the bill rela- tive to the renewal of the privileges of the Bank of Bor- deaux. At three o'clock Odilon Barrot entered the hall, accompanied by Messrs. Duvergier de Hauranne, Marie, Thiars, Garnier Pages, and shortly afterwards Duvergier de Hauranne went up to the President, and handed him a paper containing articles of impeachment against the Min- istry. It was at once shown to M. Guizot, who had the bad taste to affect to conceal his real anguish by a peal of inter- minable laughter. The Chamber soon adjourned, the Pres- ident having decided to take up the impeachment on Thursday. It ran thus : " We propose to place the Minister in accusation as guilty — 1. Of having betrayed abroad the honor and interests of France. II OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 261 *' 2. Of having falsified the principles of the constitution, violated the guarantees of liberty, and attacked the rights of the people. " 3. Of having, by a systematic corruption, attempted to substi- tute, for the free expression of public opinion, the calculations of private interest, and thus perverted the representative government. "4. Of having trafficked for ministerial purposes in public offices, as well as in all the prerogatives and privileges of power. " 5. Of having, in the same interest, wasted the finances of the state, and thus compromised the forces and the grandeur of the kingdom. " 6. Of having violently despoiled the citizens of a rightinherent in every free constitution, and the exercise of which had been guaranteed to them by the charter, by the laws, and by former precedents. " 7. Of having, in fine, by a policy overtly counter-revolutionary, placed in question all the conquests of our two revolutions, and thrown the country into a profound agitation. " That night Paris was filled with patrols, and several skir- mishes took place between them and the populace, in which three of the latter were shot dead, and others wounded ; at sunrise the drums of the National Guard were heard, beating the rappel. Composed in a great measure of traders, this important body were undoubtedly opposed to all revolution- ary movement, but their pride had been wounded by the distrust which had been shown the day previous, in not calling them out to maintain order. " A has Guizot f" was their cry, and at noon they set out on their march to the palace with the populace, to demand the dismissal of the Cabinet. In vain were the troops of the line sent to oppose them, for such dialogues as the following took place, as the populace would retreat behind their bayonets : " Who are these men?" asked an officer of cuirassiers. " They are the people," answered an officer of the National Guard. *' And those in uniform? " " They are the Second Legion of the National Guard of Paris." " The people must dis- perse." "They will not." "I shall use force." ''Sir, the National Guard sympathize with the people, the people 24* 283 RISE AND FALL who demand reform." "- They must disperse." *' They will not." " I must use force." '' Sir, we, the National Guards, sympathize in the desire for reform, and will defend them." " Vive Reforme ! " was the cry of the troops, who refused to act, and fraternized with the insurgents. When the re- quisition of this armed multitude reached the King, all resistance seemed to be at an end ; Count Mole was sent for to head a new Cabinet, and the Ministry of Guizot per- ished in presence of this anomalous and unexpected act of popular sovereignty. That system of absolutism, which Louis Philippe had for seventeen years spared neither pains, expense, nor chicanery to consolidate, was swept away as a spider's web by popular will, without the use of as many arms as would fill Diana's quiver, or any serious loss of life. Twenty-four hours sufficed for the monarchy of July to slide precipitate from the height it had so laboriously at- tained ; and the Prince who was dreaming but yesterday of the schemes of Louis XIV., the subjugation of Spain, the repression of Italy, the intervention in Switzerland, and the forcible coercion of the radical party at home, wakes the following morning in the rough harness and the equivocal position of the Citizen King. His humiliation, and the dis- missal of Guizot, appeared to give entire satisfaction. The city was illuminated spontaneously, and a feeling of relief seemed to pervade every bosom. The Hon. S. G. Goodrich wrote home : " There can be no doubt that, but for a fatal occurrence which soon after took place, the farther progress of the revolt would have been stayed. Many wise people now say, that the revolution was all planned beforehand ; they had foreseen and predicted it ; and from the beginning of the outbreak, every thing tended to this point. The fact is unquestionably otherwise. The opposition, with their various clubs and societies distributed through all classes in Paris, and holding constant communication with the ouvriers or blousemen, no doubt stood ready to take advantage of any violence > OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 283 on the part of the government which might justify resistance, but they had not anticipated such a contingency on the present occa- sion. It is not probable that the Mole ministry would have satisfied the people ; but the King had yielded, Guizot, the special object of hatred, had fallen, and it was supposed that farther con- cessions would be made as concessions had been begun. But accident, which often rules the fate of dynasties and empires, now stepped in to govern the course of events, and give them a charac- ter which should astonish the world." FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF TOCaUEVILLE. 284 RISE AND FALL CHAPTER XXXV. The prospect of restoring order and tranquillity was any thing but pleasing to the ultra niembers of the Opposition, and a Republican Fourierite, named La Grange, (who had been condemned to imprisonment for taking part in the con- spiracy of 1832,) finding that affairs were likely to take a favorable turn for royalty after all, determined to make a desperate attempt to arouse the angry passions of the popu- lace against the military. Working his way through a large crowd in front of Guizot's hotel, comprising many persons drawn to the spot by curiosity, he fired a pistol at the troops on guard, and wounded the horse of the Lieutenant-Colonel in command. Thinking his party was attacked, that officer, without any reflection, or warning, rashly cried out " En feu — feu ! " and a fusillade followed which proved the fare- well salute to Louis Philippe's reign. Fifty-two persons, of all ages and sexes, fell, killed or seriously wounded, and every thing was then forgotten, save a blind desire of ven- geance for the slaughter of so many innocent persons. This the Republicans adroitly fanned, and those who wit- nessed the scene tell us how they placed the mangled bodies of seventeen victims on a tumbrel, their limbs disposed and their wounds displayed with artistic effect, and promenaded them all night through the streets of Paris by the lurid glare of torches. Over those bleeding corpses, like Antony's over the dead body of Coesar, incendiary harangues were delivered, which kindled in the people flames of indignation as inextinguishable as the Greek fire. Those bleeding wounds and burning words spoke, like fiery tongues, to the popular heart. Revenge ! to arms ! This was the universal cry, both deep and loud. The tocsin mingled its sinister knell OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 285 with groans, impreccitions, and cries of indignation. The stones leaped, as it were, from the pavement; the trees of the boulevards were felled without remorse, and barricades without number sprung up as if by magic. Houses were entered for arms, not for plunder ; the railings were torn from the churches, to serve as pikes; and the night was passed in those terrible preparations which bespoke an event- ful morn. This dawned upon a city so fortified and so de- fended, that it could not have been taken by two hundred thousand resolute soldiers. The troops were silent, sad, and hesitating ; the populace full of rage, fire, and deter- mination ; the more sober citizens were breathless with agitation. Bloodshed was inevitable — traffic was impeded — most of the shops were closed — and, as during the great plague of London, the ejaculation " Lord have mercy upon us ! " was chalked upon the doors of those houses where the inhabitants were stricken with the pestilence, so the doors of most of the tenements in Paris were marked with the in- scription. ^' Ici on a donne les armes .' " as a protection from assault and pillage. The reformers of France now drew their swords, and a deadly conflict commenced, every quarter of the city resounding with the rattling fire of musketry and the roar of cannon. The Municipal Guards fought desperately in behalf of the King to the last, but the troops of the line gradually fraternized with the insurgents, giving up their arms and ammunition, until the Marseillaise was trium- phantly sung in nearly every one of the fifteen hundred barricades thrown up in different parts of the city. One of these hastily erected fortresses, and one of their defen- ders, are thus described by an eye-witness : — " At the point where the Rue Montmartre crosses the boulevard, the whole pavement was torn up, and something like a square breastwork was formed, in which a cannon was planted. The whole space around was crowded with the populace. As I stood 286 RISE AND FALL for a moment, surveying the scene, a young man about twenty, pressed through the crowd, and, stepping upon the carriage of the carmefi, cried out, 'Down with Louis Philippe!' The energy with which this was spoken seemed to arrest general attention, and the remarkable appearance of the youth gave effect to his words. He seemed the very personification of revolution. He was short, broad shouldered, and full chested. His face was pale, his cheek spotted with blood, and his head, without hat or cap, was bound with a handkerchief. His features were keen, and his deep-set gray eye was lit with a spark that seemed borrowed from the tiger. As he left the throng, he came near to me, and I said inquiringly, ' Down with Louis Philippe 1 ' ' Yes ! ' was his reply. 'And what then?' said I. 'A Republic!' was his answer ; and he passed on, giving the watchword of ' Down with Louis Philippe' to the masses he encountered. This was the first instance in which I heard the overthrow of the King, and the adoption of a Republic, proclaimed." Mole having declined the task of forming a new ministry, the King had sent before sunrise for Thiers, who at eleven o'clock issued a proclamation announcing that Barrot, Lamorciere, de Hauranne, and himself had been created ministers. It also stated that orders had been given to suspend the firing, and ended with " liberty ! order ! union ! reform!" The night before, or even earlier in the day, this proclamation would have satisfied the Parisians, but they now knew their power, and stimulated by the Republi- cans, determined to guarantee the freedom within their grasp. A piece of duplicity on the part of the superior officers, who, instead of ordering the troops to their bar- racks, concentrated them around the royal palace, changed the popular indignation into fury, and from all parts of the capital immense bodies of insurgents, mingled with the National Guards, began to march upon the Palais Royal and the Tuileries. When the Duchess of Orleans, the most loved and popular woman in France, proceeded on foot to the Cham- ber, and placed herself and sons under the protection of OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 287 the Deputies, they seemed touched with this proof of confi- dence. But ere the applause with which they greeted her had subsided, an omnious voice sounded from one of the galleries, solemnly and distinctly — " II est trop tard ! " It is too late ! The Dynasty and the Legislature were deposed by an armed crowd of the populace, who broke in upon their deliberations, — a combined repetition of what occurred in the Constituent Assembly on the 10th of August, 1792, and of the decisive blow struck by Bonaparte on the 18th Brumaire, when he turned the legislative body out of doors with his grenadiers. Some of the insurgents directed their muskets at the President, others ascended the tribune, tri- colored flags were waved, and the Chamber presented a scene of almost unimaginable violence, during which several of the members vainly endeavored to make themselves heard. At last Monsieur de Lamartine seemed to shake off the poet and the philosopher, and suddenly became a man of action. Ascending the tribune, he said : — " Gentlemen, I share in the sentiments of grief which just now agitated this assembly on beholding the most afflicting spectacle that human annals can present — that of a Princess coming for- ward with her innocent son, after having quitted her deserted palace, to place herself under the protection of the nation. But if I shared in that testimony of respect for a great misfortune, I also share in the solicitude — in the admiration which that people, now fighting two days against a perfidious government for the purpose of re-establishing order and liberty, ought to inspire. Let us not deceive ourselves — let us not imagine that an acclamation in this Chamber can replace the co-operation of thirty-five millions of men. Whatever government be established in the country, it must be cemented by solid definitive guarantees. How will you find the conditions necessary for such a government in the midst of the floating elements which surround us 1 By descending into the very depth of the country itself, boldly sounding the great mystery of the right of nations. Instead of having recourse to these sub- terfuges, to these emotions, in order to maintain one of those fictions which have no stability, I propose to you to form a 288 RISE AND FALL government, not definite, but provisional — a government charged, first of all, w^iththe task of staunching the blood which flows, of putting a stop to civil war — a government which we appoint without putting aside any of our resentments and of our indigna- tion ; and in the next place, a government on which we shall impose the duty of convoking and consulting the whole peo- ple — all that possess, in their title of man, the right of a citizen." The Duchess of Orleans, seated between her two sons, had thus far preserved the most admirable self-possession, assured by Dr. Powell, of New York, and others around her, that there were no fears for her personal safety. But when she heard her son thus set aside, and saw him sur- rounded by a mob fierce with the passions of unrestrained triumph, brandishing their weapons, she must have realized one moment of the long martyrdom which his great-grand- father imposed upon Marie Antoinette. They were escorted from the Chamber by a private door, while the Duke of Nemours saved himself by jumping from a window. The entire contents of the Palais Royal were soon ruth- lessly demolished, and an attack commenced on the Chateau d'Eau, a strong military post occupied by the Municipal Guard, which formed apart of the defences of the Tuileries. After a desperate siege of two hours, the post was set on fire in the rear, and those of its brave defenders who had not been shot, were burned or suflfocated. The insurgents were now victorious, and the following proclamation was posted up : " Citizens of Paris — the King has abdicated. The crown be- stowed by the revolution of July, is now placed on the head of a child, protected by his mother. They are both under the safe- guard of the honor and courage of the Parisian population. All cause of division amongst us has ceased to exist. Orders have been given to the troops of the line to return to their respective quar- ters. Our brave army can be better employed than in shedding its blood in so deplorable a collision. OF LOUIS piiiLiprE. 289 " My beloved fellow-citizens ! — From this moment the mainte- nance of order is intrusted to the courage and prudence of the peo- ple of Paris and its heroic National Guard. They have ever been faithful to our noble country. They will not desert it in this grave emergency. " Odilon Barrot." Immediately after the act of abdication was signed, the Duchess of Orleans, accompanied by her two sons, left for the Chamber of Deputies, and as the insurgents advanced upon the Tuileries, Louis Philippe and his family fled in different directions. No sooner had they left the palace, than it was taken by storm, the furniture and pictures destroyed, the windows and mirrors smashed, the wine in the cellars drunk, the throne carried to the site of the Bastille to be burned, and a wild saturnalia enacted, which Mr. Goodrich thus graphically describes : "I entered the palace, and passed through the long suite of apartments devoted to occasions of ceremony. A year before, I had seen these gorgeous halls filled with the great and the fair, the favored and the noble, gathered to this focal point of luxury, refinement and taste, from every quarter of the world. How little did Louis Philippe, at that moment, dream of ' coming events! ' How little did the stately Queen — a proud obelisk of silk and lace and diamonds — foresee the change that was at hand ! I recollected well the effect of this scene upon my own mind, and felt the full force of the contrast, which the present moment pre- sented. In the very room, where I had seen the pensive Princess de Joinville and the Duchess of Montpensier — then fresh from the hymeneal altar — her raven hair studded with a few diamonds, like stars of the first magnitude — whirling in the mazy dance — I I now behold four creatures like Caliban, gambolling to the song of the Marseillaise. • " On every side my eye fell upon scenes of destruction. Passing to the other end of the palace, I beheld a mad scene in the chambers of the Princesses. Some rolled themselves in the luscious beds, others anointed their heads with choice pomade — exclaiming, ' Dieu — how sweet it smells!' One of the Ganiins, grimmed 25 290 RISE AND FALL with gunpowder, blood, and dirt, seized a tooth brush, and placing himself before a mirror, seemed delighted at the manifest improve- ment which he produced upon his ivory. " In leaving the palace, I saw numbers of the men drinking wine from bottles found in the cellars. None of them were posi- tively drunk — to use the words of Tam O'Shanter — ^ They were na' fou, hut just had plenty — perhaps a little more.' They flourished their guns and pistols, brandished their swords, and performed various antics, — but they offered no insult to any one. They seemed in excellent humor, and made more than ordinary display of French politeness. They complimented the women, of which there was no lack — and one of them, seeming like a figure of Pan, seized a maiden by the waist, and both rigadooned merrily over the floor. " I had previously had my attention directed to a small side door, about twenty or thirty steps on my right, opening out from the narrow passage behind the last row of benches, and I made up my mind that that was the only door which afforded any chance to the Princes to escape from the Chamber. Several times, during the speeches of Lamartine, I proposed to the National Guard in front of me to endeavor to remove the Duchess by that route, but he said ' there was no danger ! ' I was getting every moment more and more anxious on her account, and when at last the mob broke into the upper gallery, I saw no time was to be lost. Seizing her by the wrist with one hand, and pointing to the little door with the other, I cried out, ''Par ici, madame, par id T ' This way, madam, this way ! ' " The National Guard next to me, took up the Count of Paris in his arms, and another the Duke of Chartres, and we all advanced towards the little door. The little semi-circular passage soon became obstructed, as persons rushed up the other side passages for the same door, so that when we reached it, it was with much difficulty we got through. I kept only one step in advance of the Duchess all the time, determined to adhere to her to the last. This door proved to be at the top of a narrow staircase, down which we de- scended very rapidly, and when we reached the bottom, where there was a small lobby, the doors of which were shut, the crowd and press were so great that, at one time, I feared we should be suffocated or crushed to death. At last, however, we got a door open, and pressed through into a narrow corridor, along which we OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 291 hurried the Duchess, and thence through several small rooms and passages, until finally, we arrived at a small library, where we placed her quite exhausted in a chair. After getting out of the lobby at the foot of the little staircase, it seems the party took different directions, and the children were separated from the mother. The first words of the Duchess after being placed in a chair were, ' My children ! my children ! where are they ! ' A gentle- man brought her a glass of water, but she said, ' I don't want any water, I only want my children ! ' All the persons around her (our own party consisting of six or eight, the rest having taken different directions) assured her that they must be safe, but she continued to clasp her hands and call for her children. A gentleman then left the room in search of them, and soon returned with the news that the Count of Paris was safe, whereupon the Duchess took his hand eagerly, and said she should never forget him. Soon another gentleman entered, saying that the Count of Paris was found and would soon be here, and in two or three minutes he was brought in the arms of a gentleman. The meeting of mother and child was very tender and affecting, and every body around was greatly touched. The little boy had been crying, and his face was red, and his cheeks wet with tears. A few minutes afterward, the Lady of Honor, whom I lost sight of since the middle of the session, en- tered with a gentleman, and the two ladips embraced each other very tenderly. The gentleman accompanying the lady assured the Duchess that the Duke of Chartres was safe, and after some dis- cussion it was determined to take the Duchess to the Invalides in a carriage. The next day she traversed France to Germany." After the departure of the Duchess of Orleans from the Chamber of Deputies the tumult increased, and while the disorder was at its height, Ledru Roilin read a list of the Provisional Government (which included himself,) and proposed adjourning to the Hotel de Ville. Here they met another Provisional Government, which had named itself at the office of the " Reforme,^^ and after some deliberation, ad- mitted them as secretaries, but they were received as members in a few days. The next morning's " Moniteur'^ contained the inaugural proclamation of these self-constituted rulers, 292 RISE AND FALL the suQi^essors of Louis Philippe. To use an old French proverb, it was the beginning of the end : " To the French People. — A retrograde and oligarchical govern- ment has been overthrown by the heroism of the people of Paris. " The government has fled, leaving after it a trace of blood, which precludes for ever its return. " The blood of the people has flowed as in July ; but this time the generous blood shall not be deceived. It has achieved a national and popular government, to accord with the rights, the progress, and the will of this great and generous people. " A Provisional Government, sprung by acclamation and urgency from the voice of the people, and the Deputies of the departments in the sitting of the 24th, is invested momentarily with the care of the organizing and insuring the national victory. " When blood flows, when the capital of France is on fire, the commission of the Provisional Government is derived from the pub- lic peril and the public safety. The whole of France will under- stand it, and will afford it the concurrence of patriotism. Under the popular government proclaimed by the Provisional Govern- ment, every citizen is a magistrate. " Frenchmen, give the world the example that Paris has given to France ; prepare yourselves, by order and by confidence in your- selves, for the powerful institutions which you are to be called upon to give to yourselves. " The Provisional Government wills for a Republic, saving the ratification of the French people, which is to be immediately con- sulted. " Neither the people of Paris nor the Provisional Government pretends to substitute their opinion for the opinion of the citizens on the definite form of the government, which the sovereignty of the nation will proclaim. " The unity of the nation, formed henceforth of all the classes of the nation which compose it ; " The government of the nation by itself; ** Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, for principles ; '* The People, for motto and mot d^ordre. " Such is the democratic government which France owes herself, and from which our efforts should be insured." FRANCIS ARAGO. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 293 CHAPTER XXXVI. Having been forced to descend from his throne by the very steps on which he had ascended to it — the barricades of Paris — Louis Philippe sought refuge in fleeing as do the '' wicked when none pursueth," instead of listening to the prayer of his noble-hearted wife, that he should " mount his horse, and die as a King." History has preserved the melan- choly passage of Louis XVL from that same Palace of the Tuileries to the Hall of the National Assembly on the 10th of August, 1792. Even Charles X., after having waged a most unequal fight in the streets of Paris, passed the days during which he remained at St. Cloud and Rambouillet like a King and a gentleman — though a defeated one. But Louis Philippe, at the head of ample resources, and with a Cham- ber of Deputies not adverse, but perfectly prepared to sup- port the Government, absconded from the back door in a vulgar equipage — dispersed his pusillanimous family, who had not even the spirit to stand by their own wives and chil- dren, and left the country, as far as he was concerned, to all the horrors of total anarchy. Twelve hundred years after the long haired Pharamond entered Paris in his slow pon- derous bullock-car, his degenerate successor left it in a one- horse carriage, at a furious gallop, nor do the intervening pages of history present such an example of reverse. Louis Philippe, (eloquently remarked the Hon. Edward Everett,) was '' sovereign but yesterday, of a kingdom stretching from Mount Atlas to the Rhine ; master of an army to bid de- fiance to Europe ; with a palace for every month, and a revenue of three millions of francs for every day in the year ; and to-day^ (let me not seem to trample on the fallen as I utter the words,) stealing with the aged partner of his throne 25* 294 RISE AND FALL and of his fall, in sordid disguise, from his capital; without one of that mighty host to strike a blow in his defence, if not from loyalty, at least from compassion ; not daring to look round, even to see if the child was safe, on whom he had just bestowed the mockery of a crown ; and compelled to beg a few francs, from the guards at his palace door, to help him to flee from his kingdom ! " * Arriving at Dreux, Louis Philippe shaved off his whis- kers, discarded his wig, and altogether so disguised himself as to defy the recognition of even his most intimate friends. For a week the banished couple wandered about on the Norman coast, lodging in farmhouses, and passing as Mr. and Mrs. William Smith. At length they embarked on board a British steamer, one of whose officers communi- cated the following account of their voyage over the channel : " The vessel had been lying off Havre for two days, when ' an old man, apparently lame, dressed in a large travelling cloak, and his face nearly covered with a shawl, a pair of green spectacles, and a travelling cap, came on board, assisted by the British consul and Captain Goodridge. While coming on board, I heard the consul say to him, " Take care, uncle," as if he was speaking to a relative, and warning him to be careful how he stepped on the ladder. The passenger was immediately conducted to the engi- neer's room, (a most unusual place for a passenger to be shown into.) but, owing to its small size, and a fire burning in it, he was unable to remain there, and was obliged to go into the saloon. As soon as the old gentleman was on board, Captain Goodridge handed an elderly lady down the gangway. I heard her say to him, " I am obliged to you," and from her pronunciation I knew she was not an English woman. She was very plainly dressed. Her hair was as white as silver, and I thought I never saw a countenance in which anxiety, fatigue, and fear, were so visibly depicted. As soon as she was in the saloon, I could perceive that * Eulogy on John Q,uiney Adams. OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 295 she had been, and still was, weeping.' We need not say that it was the Ex-King and Queen. ' About midnight we were nearly run down by a large brig. No vessel ever had a more narrow escape than ours. We were within three or four yards of the brig. Fortunately we were going at about half speed. The noise and confusion on deck arising from this disaster aroused the pas- sengers. Her Majesty rushed out from her cabin into the saloon, exclaiming, "Oh, where is my dear gentleman ! " The King endeavored to console her. She embraced him affectionately, crying bitterly, and talked to him, lamenting that his dangers were not yet over, notwithstanding the many he had escaped. The King was much affected, and he wept and sobbed violently. Her Majesty was implored to return to her cabin, but she declared that she would not again leave the King, and she lay down by his side, on the floor of the saloon, during the remainder of the night.' " By a curious coincidence, Louis Philippe landed at New Haven, (the very harbor where, but a few months before, his sailor-son had proposed to disembark an army of inva- sion,) and emphatically exclaimed as he set his foot upon the shore, " Thank God, 1 am on British ground." He was entirely destitute of baggage, and had not been shaved for a week. He wore a rough pea-jacket — borrowed of the captain of the Express — and grey trousers ; had on his head a close blue cloth cap, and round his neck a common red-and-white *' comforter." The Queen was muffled in a large plaid cloak, and carefully concealed her features with a thick veil. The Princes and Princesses, who had landed one by one m England like foreign birds dashed by a storm against a lighthouse, had taken up their temporary residence with Mr. Joshua Bates, (an American gentleman in Baring's banking firm,) at East Sheen, in Surrey county, about ten miles from London. On the arrival of their parents, who had assumed the title of the Count and Countess of Neuilly, they all removed to Claremont House, a few miles farther from the city, in the same county, the English residence of 296 RISE AND FALL Leopold, King of the Belgians. Again among the scenes of his youth, Louis Philippe found himself once more the banished son of Egalite, " an old man, broken with the storms of state," and his frequent exclamation, " like Charles X.," betrays the remorseful current of his thoughts. He read, as recorded in Scripture — " We are verily guilty concerning our brother — therefore is this distress come upon us." The rise and fall of Louis Philippe is an impressive commentary upon the vi^ords of the Psalmist, "Put not your trust in princes." Never did a monarch commence his reign more auspiciously, for his strong intellect had been tempered in prosperity and adversity under a monarchy, an anarchy, a democracy, an empire, and again a monarchy, while the enthusiastic people were devoted to his support. Never did a ruler more completely falsify the confiding hopes of his countrymen. From his childhood he has known no motive but interest, no criterion but success, no deity but ambition, and when by complicated intrigue " he from a shelf the precious diadem stole," he slipped it into his pocket, unsparingly sacrificing the moral and material interests of the French people to a miserable nepotism. Ambition, that redeeming vice of sovereigns, was but in him a miser's clutching of gold — paternal love, a scheming desire to make "profitable matches" for his children, though in so doing, he outraged humanity and alienated his firmest allies — peace, a self-interested desire to promote the main chance — public virtue, according to his creed, should only exist in name — popular rights, not only natural and inalienable, but recognised, were not to be regarded — popular interests were to be sacrificed to his own private ends — truth, said to have taken refuge in the breasts of princes, had evidently done so in this instance to be smothered by hypocrisy and deceit. This severe judgment was pronounced by the outraged Parisians at the cannon's mouth, written in characters of blood, and exhibited by the OF LOUIS PHILirPE. 297 torchlight of rebellion. But it is yet to be seen whether this event is a progressive step in the march of rational liberty. Recent incidents seem to indicate that France is little better prepared for constitutional freedom than she was sixty years ago. How far this ominous aspect of the nation is to be referred to the selfishness, avarice, falsehood and nepotism of Louis Philippe, the reader of the preceding narrative can determine. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. NOTES. [Note A.] THE HOUSE OF ORLEANS. The Orleans family is the cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, which took its name from the Duchy of Bourbon, conferred upon a branch of the royal family of France, some centuries since. By marriage, the Bourbons became connected with the King of Navarre, a small independent sove- reignty in the Pyrenees, on the borders of France and Spain ; and on the extinction of the male line of the royal family of Navarre, the Bourbon in- herited the throne of that little kingdom, and occupied it until, on the death of the last De Valois (Henry HI.) the crown of France also became the hereditary right of Henry De Bourbon, King of Navarre. After a vio- lent civil war, principally caused and maintained by the hostility of a large portion of the French nobility and people to the Protestant faith, which was professed by Henry De Bourbon and his adherents, he succeeded in estab- lishing himself in undisputed possession of all his hereditary rights, as Henry IV., King of France and Navarre. From him all the kings of France since the close of the sixteenth century, and all the royal Bourbons are lineally descended. Henry IV. died in the vigor of life, (assassinated by a Romish monk, and left an infant son, — who became King Louis XIII., and is best known in history from having had Cardinal Richelieu for his Minister and master. To him succeeded Louis XIV., whose eldest son, bearing the title of Dauphin, died before him, leaving a son who also died with the same title, leaving also a son, who, at the close of the very long life and reign of Louis XIV., (his great-grandfather,) finally inherit- ed the throne, with the title of Louis XV., — and being a mere boy, re- mained for several years in tutelage, while his kingdom was governed in his name by a Regent. This regent was Philippe, grandson of Louis XIV., and son of his second son, on whom had been bestowed the title of Duke of Orleans, which had been created long before as an appanag-e for the cadet branch ; 300 THE HOUSE OF ORLEANS. but though hereditary, it had uniformly returned to the crown, either by the death of the Duke without issue, or by his accession to the throne on the failure of the elder line. The first Duke of Orleans was Gaston John Bap- tista, second son of Marie of Medicis and the renowned Bourbon, who, after the death of the last De Valois, (Henry III.) ascended the throne as Henry IV., King of France and Navarre. On espousing, in 1626, Mary of Bourbon, daughter and heiress of Henry, Duke of Montpensier, Gastou received as an appanage the Dukedom of Orleans, and commenced those political intrigues for which the house has been since famed. Plotting against Richelieu, he left the Court in 1631, joined Montmorency, and meeting the armies of his brother at Castelnaudari was defeated. Par- doned by King Louis, he a second time took up arms, was again forgiven, and subsequently engaged^ in . the Cinq Martian conspiracy. The king pardoned him a third time, and appointed him on his death-bed Lieutenant General of the kingdom during the minority of his heir, Louis XIV. The Regent, Philippe's mother, was Elizabeth Charlotte of Bohemia, grand-daughter of James I. of England. From this lady the Orleans family are descended, and through her trace a direct relationship to the line of Stu- art, and the present royal family of England. Corrupted early in life by his tutor, Dubois, Philippe enjoyed the reputation of being the most systemati- cally profligate man at the licentious court of Versailles, gathering around him a set of infamous debauchees, to whom he gave the name of " 7'oues," (meaning " wheeled," or " broken on the wheel ") because, as he is report- ed to have said, " there was not one who did not deserve to be broken on the wheel," for his wickedness. Yet, though the most extravagant as well as dissolute man of his time, he managed to add to the hereditary value of the House, and built the Palace Royal, so called, though it was never the residence, or even the property of a reigning king, until 1830. In 1715, he was declared Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV., and under his administration the Mississippi scheme of the Scotchman, Law, reduced the people to beggary and despair. In 1723, when the King entered upon the discharge of his royal functions, Philippe was made Prime Minis- ter, but died in the same year. The Regent, Philippe, was succeeded by his son, Louis, inferior to him in intellect, but even superior to him in wickedness. He married Henri- etta Stuart, daughter of Charles I. of England, and undoubtedly poisoned her ; remorse for which act afterwards led him to abandon the world, and give himself up to a life of penitence, austerity, religion, and literature. He retired to the Abbey of St. Genevieve, and there died, an accomplished scholar, especially in Hebrew and the cognate tongues, as well as a great master of botany and chemistry. He was succeeded by his son, Louis Philippe, the father of Louis Philippe, Ex-King of the French. His eldest son being killed in 1842, the present head of the House of Orleans is Louis Philippe Albert of Orleans, Count of Paris, born at Paris, on the 24th of August, 1838. m'lLES DE FERNIG. DUPONT DE l'eURE. 301 [Note B.j THE MADEMOISELLES DE FERNIG. These young heroines were the daughters of a quarter-master of cavalry, who, after their father's house in Flanders had been burned by the Aus- trians, accompanied the troops until they had attained a certain degree of attachment to military exploits, and even an enthusiasm against the invad- ing enemy. Dressed in male attire, they headed detachments with the bold spirit of Joan d'Arc, although, unlike her, they pretended neither to prophecy nor to revelation. " Tasso," says Lamartine, "never invented in Clorinda more heroism, more of the marvellous, and more love than the Republic was compelled to admire in the exploits and in the destiny of these two heroines of liberty." Dumouriez, who never let slip any occasion of inspiring his army with confidence, invited these ladies lo the camp at Maulde, giving them the rank of aids-de-camp, and making their father captain of his guide-com- pany. After the battle of Jemappes, he made such a flattering report to the Convention of their intrepidity and good conduct, that they received a house, land, and sabres d'honneur, as a present from the Republic. Felicite is said to be the only woman Louis Philippe ever loved, but his passion was soon absorbed by schemes of ambition. [Note C] DUPONT DE L'EURE. Jacques Dupont, surnamed De I'Eure, to distinguish him from the families of Dupont de I'Etang and Dupont de Nemours, was born at Neu- bourg, in Normandy, on the 27th of February, 1767. He devoted himself early to the study of law, became Parliamentary Advocate for his native province, and at the age of twenty-five was chosen Mayor. During the revolution and the empire he held various offices of trust and power, in all of which he displayed great rectitude of principle, and possessed the entire confidence of the government. In the year VIII., (Revolutionary style,) he was a member of the Council of Five Hundred — under Napoleon he was Chief Justice of the Rouen Circuit — in 1813, he was chosen President of the Legislative Assembly — in 1815 he proposed the famous Declaration of the Rights of Citizens, and as Deputy during the reign of Charles X. he is mentioned by Louis Blanc, along with Lafitte, the Abbe Gregoire, D'Argenson, and Tarayre, as " five Deputies who be- longed to the people by their sympathies." Lafayette ever loved him as a brother, and after the Revolution of 1830, nominated him Minister of Justice, but he resigned on discovering how Louis Philippe had deceived his adherents, determined not to aid him in subjecting France to a rule more tyrannical than the yoke it had thrown 26 303 THE BARONESS DE FEUCHERES. off — although the " King of the Barricades " called himself a Democrat. Refusing a seat offered him on the Bench of the Court of Appeals, he stur- dily opposed the government, and wrote some very able articles against its usurpations. At the election of 1842, indignant at seeing the Deputies of his native department "of the Eure," who had sustained Guizot, about to be re-elected without opposition,, he offered himself as a candidate to four districts simultaneously — was elected in all four — and chose that of Evreux. Entering in early life upon his political course, in possession of a quality than which there is scarcely a higher attainable — the power by which, when the judgment has worked its way to certain fixed conclusions, they are no longer permitted to he matters of speculation or uncertainty, but are invested with entire supremacy over the conduct, M. Dupont is one of the few co?isis^eni politicians in France. It is this high quality which has given him an earnestness and simplicity of purpose, which, with his undeviating directness of aim, has made him a great man, though he is not possessed of great abilities. Having settled himself in living convic- tions of right, they became the established laws of his moral being, nor could frowns or allurements seduce him from his integrity. When he ad- dressed the multitude at the Column of July, on the inauguration of the Provisional Government, "Listen," shouted Arago, " It is eighty years of a pure life that speaks to you," — a far better expression than the forty centuries looking down from the Pyramids on the French army. [Note D.] THE BARONESS DE FEUCHERES. •This vilest ally of Louis Philippe was the daughter of John Daw, and one of a family of ten children, who were inmates of the workhouse in the Isle of Wight, from 1796 to 1805, when Sophia was put out as a parish apprentice. She was afterwards sent to London as an apprentice to a milliner there, and her resistless beauty soon proved her ruin. For some years she was the reigning courtezan of the city, and the exiled Duke of Bourbon coming within the influence of her attractive charms, the last of the proud race of Conde became the devoted slave of the English fisher- man's daughter. When he returned to France to resume his ancestral dignities, the object of his affection shared his elevation, and was enthroned mistress of the Palace Bourbon, the successor of a long line of titled dames, whose very pictures must have frowned as they looked down upon her, flaunting in the ancient hall, the scene of their past triumphs. In 1818, the Baron de Peucheres, aid-de-camp to the Duke, a young and gallant soldier, possessed of every advantage that nature and high rank could bestow to render him an object of interest in the eyes of the fair and courtly, was struck with her beauty, and proposed for her hand. The Duke of Bourbon, anxious to promote the ambitious views of his mistress, and obtain for her a recognised rank and position^ eagerly consented. The THE BARONESS DE FEUCHERES. 303 young nobleman, blinded by his love to the real relation between the ob- ject of his afleclions and the Duke, and receiving from the latter the posi- tive assurance that Miss Dawes was his natural daughter, made her his wife, and she became the Baroness de Feucheres. The Baron, with the frank confidence of a noble nature, trusting in the honor of his master, became the victim of an unprincipled prince and an ambitious, designing woman. The transaction is unequalled for its baseness, and never was the altar more desecrated than by this unholy marriage. There stood the licentious Duke, in the false character of a father, ihe unchaste woman in the borrowed garb of purity, deceit and falsehood personified, the dark shades of a revolting picture thrown into broader contrast by the bright beaming virtue of the young Baron de Feucheres. It was not long before the Baron was awakened to a suspicion of llie true position of his wife. He sought an interview with the Duke of Bour- bon, and spoke boldly of his wrongs, but left his presence assured of the innocence of the Baroness and the injustice of his suspicions. His senti- ments of lo}'alty forbade him to suspect the honor of his prince. He did not, however, remain long in suspense ; vexed by his own doubts and the whisperings of his friends, so galling to a man of spirit. His wife became the witness of her own dishonor; in a moment of rage she confessed that she was the mistress of the Duke, and that she had ever been devoted to his passions. The Baron de Feucheres hurried to the pre- sence of the Duke of Bourbon, and boldly reproached him with his wrongs. He relumed his commission, and resigned the various lucrative offices, for which he had been indebted to the patronage of the Prince, and resolved to leave the scene of his dishonor. The Duke alternately availed himself of threats and promises to change his purpose, but he was inflexible. He abandoned the service of the Duke and the worthless Baroness forever. His wife witnessed his departure without a passing regret. She had no sorrow to expend upon the absence of one whom she had neverloved. She had gained her purpose, and the instrument of her advancement was of no longer service. His presence served only to constrain her relations with the Duke, and bis reproaches to embitter her life of pleasure, aad to dis- turb her wanton repose. The Baroness, with the additional eclat of her separation from her husband, continued to lead a life of gaiety and fashion. Her influence over the Duke of Bourbon increased with his years, until that relation which had been sought to bring pleasure, became an insuffer- able burthen. The Duke, wearied with the importunities of his mistress, and impatient of her control, sought refuge in death. He was found killed by his own hand in his bed-chamber, though there were not wanting sus- picions of foul play. He left the greater part of his immense possessions, diminished only by his bounties to the Baroness, and to the Duke d'Aumale, the third son of the Ex-King of France. Louis Philippe, then Duke of Orleans, ever alive to the personal interests of his family, Avas known to have intrigued with the Baroness de Feucheres, for the purpose of directing his influence upon the Duke of Bourbon, to his own advantage. He was desirous of addina; the immense fortunes of the 504 BERANGER. House of Conde to those of Orleans. He industriously courted the friend- ship of the Baroness; she was ft constant guest at the Palais Roj^al, and his family bestowed upon her every attention that could flatter her vanity and obtain her good will. Through the influence of the Duke of Orleans, she was admitted at Court, the object of her highest ambition. The Duke of Bourbon shared, with most of his family, a jealous suspicion of the Orleans branch. The political treason of King Egalite, the father of Louis Philippe, served to destroy all cordiality between his family and the Bourbons. The Duke of Bordeaux, the legitimate successor by hereditary right to the throne of France, was the nearest heir by law to the succession of the Condes, and would have probably succeeded to the possessions of the Duke of Bourbon had not this, natural disposition of his fortunes been counter- acted by the influence of the Baroness de Feucheres. The Duke of Orleans was anxious to have obtained for himself or his eldest son the succession, but the Duke of Bourbon could not be prevailed upon to conform to his ambitious views. As a compromise to satisfy the importunities of his mistress and his own prejudices, he declared the Duke of Aumale his heir, rendering him the richest man in Europe after his father. The char- acter of Louis Philippe gains no credit in connection with these facts, and his political enemies of the ISational and the Gazette de France, the expo- nents of the extreme opinions in France, have not spared their reproaches. The Baroness de Feucheres, after the death of the Duke of Bourbon, abandoned by her friends, and finding that society in which she had acted so prominent a part, a desert of friendship and affections, retired to Lon- don, to enjoy in private life the bounties of the Duke. She resided in great style in a house in Hyde Park Square until December, 1840, when she died, and her property became the subject of litigation. Her husband, the Baron de Feucheres, claimed a right to the property, which right he ceded. to the Hospitals of Paris, (unwilling to enjoy the wages of sin.) The case has been decided in the courts of law of London and Paris, in favor of the heirs of the Baroness. [Note E.] BERANGER. The present volume having already been swelled beyond its projected limits, the compiler reluctantly finds himself obliged to relinquish his in- tention of giving biographical sketches of all the prominent Frenchmen of Louis Philippe's reign, and must content himself with a mere glance at a few of them. Generally speaking, the life of a French notable is in a great measure hut a chronicle of repeated tergiversations, oaths taken to support new governments, followed by treasonable plots to overthrow them — but there is one bright exception. Beranger, the printer-poet, born in a garret at Paris ow. the 1 7th of June, 1780, has, for many years, wielded a greater influence with his simple lays than did Napoleon, Charles X., or Louis Philippe, with their imperial, absolute, oy constitutional sceptres, and yet CHATEAUBRIAND. GERARD. S05 lie has nobly refused all honors, places, and emoluments. Mingling the quaint, heroic, bacchanalian, and political, he enlists the senses of the French by glowing strains, and then entering the mind by a soul-stirring burthen, wins the heart by noble and daring thoughts. His ballads arc the lullabies of the infant, the carols of the child, the serenades of the lover, the toil-cheerers of the artisan, the stirring odes of the politician, the lay of the belle, the chorus of the actor, and, — above all, — the terror of the tyrant. Popular as was old Homer in the cities of Greece, Beranger has laughed alike at the terrors of imprisonment and the seductions of power, and, since the overthrow of Louis Philippe, (whom he so cordially hated,) has refused the senatorial purple, preferring to remain a simple chanson- nier (as he styles himself) in his modest retreat at Passy, near the metrop- olis. One present at the burial of the victims of February, 1848, describes him as a little bald-headed, humble looking, old man, whose whole mien denoted one unaccustomed to the pomp and circumstances of such scenes, — he had no badge of office, no mark of distinction, yet there was not a man in that vast crowd of half a million, who had a better right to a place among the nobles of the land. [Note F.] CHATEAUBRIAND. Chateaubriand refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis Philippe in 1830, and was consequently deprived of his seat in the Chamber of Peers, with its yearly salary of twenty-four hundred dollars. This only made him more chivalrously devoted to the fallen Bourbons, — the restoration of the Duke of Bordeaux occupying the first place in his thoughts. Next come his own Memoirs, to be published after his death, and going back to 1739 — thus embracing an epoch, which the French say has witnessed more glory, and heavier reverses, than any three centuries in their history. The extracts from it read at the weekly receptions of Madame Recamier, show that the author has concealed no part of his life, and has not spared his contemporaries. He has described himself as a traveller, a sceptic, a believer, a poet, a philosopher, a Christian, a Frenchman, a royalist, an advocate of freedom, a gentleman, a citizen, a soldier, a historian, an actor in the days of strife, a confidential minister of powerful monarchs, and a faithful defender of fallen kings. It is, in short, Chateaubriand — young and old, — his passions, pleasures, fancies, losses, despair, — the soul, the mind, the heart. [Note G.] GERARD. Stephen Maurice Gerard enlisted in 1792 as a private in the French army, where he soon attracted the notice of Bernadotte, and afterwards became one of Napoleon's favorite generals. Nearly all the hard fought 26* 306 LOUIS. DE BROGLIE. fields of the imperial campaigns witnessed his military talent and hraveiy, and at Ligny, the last of Napoleon's victories, he performed prodigies of valor. A true friend of constitutional liberty, he refused to accept ofSce under the Bourbons, and ere he died, publicly expressed his deep regret that he had aided in sealing Louis Philippe on the throne. [Note H.] LOUIS. Baron Louis commenced his public career in the diplomatic service of Louis XVI., but soon went into the treasury department, which he di- rected, with some intervals, under Napoleon and the Bourbons. By accepting the same post under Louis Philippe he contributed to the resto- ration of public confidence and credit ; but afterwards became so much dis- gusted with the Citizen-King's course, that he ordered all his government stock to be sold, as unsafe property under such an administration. [Note L] DE BROGLIE. Achille Charles Leonce Victor, Duke de Broglie, was born in 1785, and was only in his ninth year when his father died on the scaffold. His first studies were conducted at the Central School of Paris. In very early life he applied himself closely to literary pursuits; and while yet a youth, he had already attained some distinction as a writer in the public journals. His youthful style was marked by a certain roughness and vigor of diction, which foretold that firmness of character so conspicuous in the man of mature years. The young De Broglie had already attracted a large share of public attention, when Napoleon offered him a commission in the army, but he declined on the plea that his studies and his tastes pointed at the civil service of the state. On which Napoleon turned indignantly to those about him, and exclaimed — " Le croiriez-vous, Messieurs ? J-ai offert une epee d un Jeune homme qui conte trois Marechaux de France dans sa famille, et il me demande une plume ! " When the Conseil d'Etat was established, M. de Broglie was attached, as auditor to the department of foreign relations. But his strictly diplomatic career may be said to have been commenced at the embassy of Varsovie, under the celebrated Abbe de Pradt. In 1815, M. de Broglie resumed his seat in the Chamber of Peers, which (being at once too liberal and too aristocratic) he had repudiated during tlie Hundred Days. He took part in the proceedings relative to Marshal Ney ; and to his immortal honor, he was one of the three or four who were alone found to vole against the decree of death, in an assembly which contained not fewer than forty of the companions in arms of the accused. MOLE. 307 It was about this period that M. de Broglie married M'lle de Stael, who was heiress to two millioas of francs, which had been lent by her grand- father, M. Necker, to Louis XVI., and had been reimbursed by the re- stored government. Madame de Stael herself is said to have been peculiarly gratified by this union, which solved the grand problem at which she had aimed — that of obtaining for son-in-law a high aristocrat, who was also an accomplished man of letters, and an actual Duke, who was at the same time a " Liberal." From 1830 to 1836, M. de Broglie was almost the whole time in the Ministry ; but quarrelling with Guizot, he could not afterwards be per- suaded to accept a portfolio. He has for some years been at the head of the French Abolitionists, and at the time of the overthrow of Louis Phi- lippe was Minister at London, a post which he had accepted in order to carry out his schemes for the amelioration of the condition of the negro population in the West Indies. [Note K.] MOLE. Louis Mathieu Mole was born in 17S0. At the commencement of the Revolution he emigrated with his father, but returning to France without permission, they were arrested; the father died on the scaffold, and young Mole was set at liberty. Although threatened with death, Ptlole refused divulging the secret residence of his mother, his sister, and the Marcliion- ess of Lamoignon, his grandmother. Not feeling in security in France, Mole and his family retired into Switzerland, and from thence to England. At the death of Robespierre he re-entered France. In 1806 Mole was named by Napoleon auditor to the Council of State, and pleasing his imperial master, rose in ofRce, until in 1813 he was named Minister of Justice. The Bourbons created him a Peer of France after their restoration, and in the month of August, 1817, he was named Minister of Marine, but was obliged to retire at the end of the first ses- sion. In 1820 he separated himself from the Ultra-Royalists ; in 1822 took his seat in the Chamber of Peers, during the administration of M. Villele, on the benches of the Opposition. The 7th of August, 1830, in the first Ministry named by Louis Philippe, Mole took the portfolio for Foreign Affairs, and assured Europe of his determination to preserve peace ; he at the same time laid down the princi- ple of non-intervention, and Talleyrand proposed the Quadruple Alliance. Mole remained only three months in office, and was replaced by M. Sebas- tiani. In the month of September, 1833, Mole formed an administration with Guizot, but was driven from office by Thiers and Soult. On the 15th of April, 1842, Mole formed an administration which lasted two years, but was overthrown by the King, whose selfish plans he refused to carry out, and thenceforth he rarely mingled m the discussion of politi- 308 SEBASTIANI. THIERS. cal subjects. Mole was the personal friend and political counsellor of the Duke of Orleans, and advocated a conciliatory policy, which would com- bine in harmonious action monarchical and liberal principles — the only form of isrovernment suitable for Franc6. [Note L.] SEBASTIANI. Marshal Sebastian! is a Corsican by birth, and was educated in a dra- goon regiment, where he attracted the notice of Napoleon, to whom he remained constant until his death, constantly opposing the Bourbons. He was obliged to leave the Ministry in 1834, so strong was, public feeling against him for the part he took in concluding the treaty which bound France to pay the twenty-five million of francs' indemnity to the United States, but afterwards filled several diplomatic stations. The Marshal was terribly bereaved by one of the fatal demonstrations of that licentious libertinism which existed in Paris under Louis Philippe. His daughter, the Duchess de Praslin, was most atrociously murdered by her husband, who, by the device of the King, was permitted to poison him- self, the whole affair forming a horrible tragedy. [Note M.] THIERS. Louis Adolphe Thiers was born on the 16th of April, 1797, at Marseilles, where his father was a locksmith. Distinguishing himself at school, he went to Paris as a literary adventurer, and obtaining a situation as assistant editor of a political journal, soon became a leading man, and did much to accomplish the overthrow of the Bourbons. He was several times named Minister, whenever Louis Philippe wished to encourage the war spirit, and each time continued to involve France in some quarrel which would lead to hostilities. Through his bellicose propensities, Louis Philippe was enabled to cajole the Chambers into the erection of the fortifications of Paris. Thiers's greatest source of popularity is his History of the Revolution, with its continuation, all displaying the author's innate love of power, and a tacit aversion from the principles of radicalism, which elevated him from his obscure origin. Ushered into public life by a civil war, and cradled amongst all the vicissitudes of the last half century, he finds a congenial excitant in describing the bloody scenes and propagating the principles of the French Revolution, The evident aim of the last series, " The Consu- late and the Empire," is to impress on all whom it may concern (and whom, in civilized Europe, does it not concern?) that the Revolution of 1789 is still in progress in 1845 — that it is just and fitting, for the well-being of mankind, that it should continue to progress — that the war which "the GUIZOT. 309 child and champion " of this Revolution waged with Europe for its ad- vancement, was not merely a wise and necessary, but a holy war — that the despotism of the Empire was no less wise, necessary, and holy — that the downfall of that despotism was merely an unlucky accident, which the innate and invincible force of the "principles" in question has already overcome — and that, in point of fact, we have only now arrived at " le commencement de la Jin." (M. Thiers, it will be recollected, was the pet and pupil of him who originated this mot.) Such, in brief, is the political bearing of Thiers's works — such is the political confession of faith of its writer — that writer being the statesman, who has not been merely lying in wait, day by day, to seize the reins of government of the country he treats of, but almost certain of seeing them either drop into his hands, for lack of the power of others to hold them, or forced upon him by popular. feeling in his favor. A proof of this is to be found in his own words, as applied to his idol, and in some sort his model, at the moment when he was on the point of assuming the supreme poAver in France, on his return from Egypt. " Less glory " — (glory and popu- larity are controvertible terms in France) — "Less glory than he (Na- poleon) had acquired would have sufficed to enable a man to seize the reins of government. ^^ Here is the key to the brilliant compositions of Thiers, if key one may call the peculiar instrument usually carried by a certain unscrupulous class of the community, and sometimes impolitely denom-i- nated a picklock. [Note N.] GUIZOT. The son of a victim to the guillotine of Robespierre, Francis Andrew Guizot raised himself by an industrious use of his literary talents to a high position in French literature, and in January, 1829, (he then being forty- one years of age,) he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies. Though he had held ofRce under Napoleon and the Bourbons, his devotion to constitutional monarchy was not doubted, and as the head of the Doctri- naire party, he in 1840 took the permanent direction of the Ministr5^ This was at first thought to be a great blessing for France, and the English imagined that the peace of Europe was identical with Guizot's tenure of office, but subsequent events showed that he was but another cat's paw of the King, one of the many political adventurers who lorded it at the Tuile- ries and then gave place to another, just as the sea casts a worthless weed upon the shore, sucks it back, and another succeeds. His conduct in the negotiation of the Spanish marriages was a deliberate tissue of falsehood, which lowered him in the estimation of every honest man at home and abroad, blasting a name whose moral dignity stood, if possible, higher than its possessor's intellectual power, until he served too well a power to which moral dignity was unknown. 310 LAMARTINE. An English writer says of Guizot, that, placed in the position in which he was for seven }^ears,he had rarer opportunities of doing good, not merely to France, but to the world, than any man since the time of Canning ; but of these opportunities he did not avail himself, and history must hold him accountable for allowing great and glorious occasions to pass away, often imimproved, oftener still altogether unused. To please party, and to please a monarch, he dedicated abilities, powers of speech, expression, and action which might have been used more highly — osve may add, more honorably, in the service of his country — in the service of the whole human race. In administrative knowledge, and in the art of conciliating men and majorities, Guizot was far surpassed by very ordinary common-place men in his own cabinet. Though, therefore, the ex-Prime Minister of France is fully en- titled to the epithets of able, gifted, eloquent, and learned, still the historian must refuse to him the epithets of a great man or a great statesman. [Note O.] LAMARTINE. Alphoxse db Lamartine was born on the 2lst of October, 1792, at Macon, a town of some twelve thousand inhabitants, on the banks of the Soane, some hundred miles to the south-east of Paris. His father, who was a convert to the educational theories of Rousseau and Madame de Genlis, accustomed him to all kinds of physical hardships until his twelfth year, while his mother, whom he has described as " most tender and affectionate by nature," with " clear and silvery voice," taught him to read, when very young, from a pictorial Bible. " When I had read about half a page," he says, " with tolerable correctness, my mother allowed me to see a picture ; and placing the book upon her knees, she explained the subject to me, as a recompense for my progress." The Peres du Foi, who completed his edu- cation in their College at Belly, matured the religious germs implanted at home, and Lamartine's manner has always preserved a shade of the auster- ity of cloister life. Leaving, in 1809, he went to Lyons, and then spent two years in travel, with a wealthy friend, visiting Italy, Austria, and Prussia, and returning to Paris. There, by turns, he studied, frequented the green-rooms, roamed in the forest of Vincennes, and wrote verses, not over contented with his condition, and unable to satisfy his innate taste for luxury. His health becoming impaired, Lamartine returned to Italy in 1813, and while traversing that " land of song and sunny skies" became inspired, and commenced his Harmonies. The fall of Napoleon recalled him to France, where he entered the body-guard of Louis XVIII. and completed his work, but he found great difficulty in obtaining a publisher, for a small volume of poems by an unknown youth did not promise great profits. At last, one Nicolo, bolder than his brethren, consented to usher it into the world, though, as it was without name or preface, it would have suffered the fate ALPUONSE DE LAMARTINJE LAMARTINE. 311 of an untimely birtli, had not Jules Janin accidentally seen it on a book- stall, bought and read it. " Never," says he, " shall I forget my delight as I perused this volume of a nameless poet. For what was my surprise and admiration, when suddenly my dazzled eyes and heart devoured this new world of poesy ! when at length they found combined in one book all the sentiments of the soul and all the passions of the heart; all the joys of earth and all the ecstacies of heaven ; all the hopes of the present and all the doubts which shadow the future." Janin wrote an elaborate review of the poems, and Lamartine, like Byron, whom in many respects he is said to resemble, " awoke one morning' and found himself famous." In four years forty-five thousand copies were sold, and the young poet at once look rank with the most distinguished of his European contemporaries. Grate- ful for Janin's fostering appreciation, Lamartine has always treated him with marked affection, and has in his turn introduced to notice Jean Rebougl, the baker of Nismes, now one of the most popular poets of France. The brilliant success of the Harmonies procured him the post of paid attache to the French Legation at Turin, where he engaged in a round of dissipated extravagance, which soon involved him deeply in debt. While at a ball one night, he heard a strange but melodious voice murmuring in his ear a quotation from his own poems : " Perchance the future may reserve for me A happiness v/hose hope I now resign ; Perchance amid the busy world may be Some soul unknown responsive still to mine !" The " hope" mentioned in the second line, was that of being united to Elvira, the object of his first love, who had been his inspiring theme ; and the soul "who thus indirectly declared its love," was that of Miss Birch, an English damsel, on rather the shady side of twenty-five, who had become passionately enamored of the poet. She was the possessor of a fortune large enough to atone for want of youth and beauty; so they were married at Naples, and returned to France to pass the honeymoon near Macon. It was there, says a Paris correspondent, that the conversion of Madame de Lamartine to Romanism was effected, by the simple eloquence of the village priest, whose church, as lady of the manor, she had thought it her bounden duty to attend on Sundays, in spiteof her difference of creed. Like all neophytes, her ardor soon surpassed that of her spiritual master, and she has ever since been remarkable for her religious enthusiasm, and her unceasing perseverance in pursuit of good and holy w^orks — among which her patronage of the religious orders has stood foremost. After having been Secretary of Legation at Naples and London, Larmar- tine returned to Turin as Charge d'Affaires, where he remained for some years, publishing Harmonies Poetiques, Socrates, and the " Last Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," designed to complete the master-piece of Byron, whose memory he almost worships. Returning to France in 1829, he had just been named Minister to Greece, when the revolution of July 312 LAMARTINE. overturned the Bourbon throne. Most of the diplomatists remained faith- ful lo their fallen master, but Lamartine chose the new path opened by the Revolution. " The past," said he, " is but a dream ; we may regret it, but we must not lose the day in weeping fruitlessly over it." He offered him- self as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies, to the electoral colleges of Toulon and Dunkirk, but was defeated in both places by large, majorities. In May, 1832, Lamartine started lo visit the Holy Land, the scene of the pictures in his mother's great Bible; and one must follow in his foot- steps, as I have done, to appreciate the journey, or his account of it, which is the pious outpouring of a philosophic mind over the old Oriental world, that first born of the sun, from whence sprang humanity, and whiiher it is to return. With that sumptuousness which is one of his characteristics, Lamartine sailed over the Mediterranean in his own ship, well armed, with a devoted crew, and wrote under an awning on the quarter deck. His journal, says Cormenin, is a varied m.osaic, confused but attractive, with moral reflections, with reliances looking backward at the past, with bab- blings of the present, with thoughts thrown towards the future; the whole intermingled with landscapes, the colors of which might have been envied by Claude Lorraine. The poet notes as he passes, the ship flies, the waves flow, and meanwhile valleys, mountains, m.onuments, men, sea and sky, all are seized and fixed, by the aid of a goose quill, and described with an inexpressible charm. The interest goes on increasing. The varied episodes of maritime and oriental life accumulate. Nothing is deficient in the drama — not even the catastrophe. For each time that the name or image of Julia comes under the pen of M. de Lamartine, they cause an oppression of the heart, and we sympathize with the passionate accents of a father, who broods with love over his beautiful child, and is pleased to paint her as " detached from amid all those harsh and masculine figures, her locks unbound and falling on her white robe, her beautiful rosy face, happy and gay, surmounted with a sailor's straw hat, tied under her chin, playing with the white cat of the captain, or with a nest of sea pigeons, woke up as they were sleeping on the carriage of a cannon, while she fur- nished crumbs of bread to their taste." Would that I had space to follow that nobly freighted ship, and describe the classic shores she passed, ere casting her anchor in the port of Athens ; the shrine where the three greatest poetic minds of the age have worshipped as pilgrims, and each left his imprint upon Minerva's shrine. Byron gazed upon " august Athena" with a feeling akin to worship, likening her to a white and perfect statue, reclining upon a tomb, and with his volume in hand, he can gaze upon her almost imperishable monuments, bask under her cloudless skies, or pour forth his love to her gazelle-eyed maidens, until he reverences her, bowed as she is in the dust. Chateaubriand also knelt before the deathless beauty of the city of Pericles, and exclaim- ed: " Athens ! oh Athens, the eternal city !" and tells how the " sun went down, amid clouds, which it colored with rose hues. It buried itself in the horizon, and twilight succeeded to it for half an hour. During the passage of the twilight, the sky was blue in the west, bluish in the zenith, and LAMARTINE. 313 pearl-grey in the east." How beautiful ! — and yet this display of nature's loveliness on classic soil, did not touch the heart of the other equally famed one of the poetic trio. " Where," says Lamartine, " is Greece, that vaunted land? All there is dull and wearisome, as in a gorge of Savoy on an autumn day." He quietly entered in his journal : " April 22 — drank some water from the muddy and putrid stream of the Ilissus ;" while Chateau- briand tells us how he knelt upon the bank of that classic stream, and having quenched his thirst, uttered the Spartan prayer for " Virtue and Glory." Janin accounts for this indifference on the part of his friend, by saying that Lamartine cared not for Greece — as she was not the point to which his longing vision had turned. What to him was Thermopylae ? he pined for the hills of Lebanon. What the city of Athens ? he sought Jerusalem. Again we change the scene. The poet's bark doubles Cape Sunium, where Plato taught — he catches the meanings of the Cyclades — he threads the islands of the Archipelago — Rhodes smiles upon him, like a tuft of verdure in the bosom of the waves — Beyrout is reached, and Lamartine is reclining upon the odorous slopes of Carmel, in the finest vegetation on the earth, by the side of Lilla, " that beautiful daughter of Araby, whose long, fair locks, falling over her naked bosom, were braided on her head in a thousand tresses, which rested on her bare shoulders amid a confused minglement of flowers, of golden sequins , and of scattered pearls." There, too, he met Lady Hester Stanhope, whose sybil-like prophecy he thus re- cords : " No matter ; believe what you please, I see evidently that you are born under the influence of three fortunate, powerful and good stars ; that you are gifted with analogous powers, which conduct you to one aim ; which I could, if you were willing, point out to you at once. It is God who has conducted you hither to enlighten your soul ; you are one of those men of a good disposition, whom he requires as his instruments to accomplish the marvellous works which he will soon accomplish among mankind. Let your religious belief be what it may, you are not the less one of those men whom I expected, whom Providence has sent to me, and who has a great part to perform in the world that is preparing. In a short time you will return to Europe. The fate of Europe is decided. France alone has a great mission to accomplish — You will participate in it ; I do not yet know in what manner ; but if you be anxious to know, I will consult the stars to-night and tell it to you. I do not yet know the name of all ; I see now three, at present — four — perhaps five, and there may be more. One of them is certainly Mercury, which imparts clearness and color to the mind and tongue. You must be a poet ; it is legible in your eyes, and in the upper part of your countenance. Lower down, you are under the in- fluence of very different stars, almost in opposition ; there is an influence of energy and action." Leaving his wife and daughter at Beyrout, Lamartine set out upon his pilgrimage in a most ostentatious manner. His rich tent was stored with arms and luxuries, eighteen horsemen formed a body guard, the Sheiks came out of their villages to salute him, and the Arabs of the Desert bowed themselves as he passed. Janin tells us how in this array he traversed the plains of ancient Tyre, the city fallen beneath the immortal curses of Ezekiel 27 314 LAMARTINE. — visited the land of Canaan and of Judea — climbed the heights of Zebulon and of Nazareth — skirted the hill of Carmel — beheld the narrow and gloomy valley in which Christ was born — and finally paused on the banks of the river of the prophets and of the Gospel — on the banks of Jordan. The poet could not find a drop of water in the Ilissus, but the Christian bathed "in the sweet, warm, and blue waters of Jordan" — which may prove that imagination can not only draw the spring of living water from the rock, but dry up the river too. How comes it, otherwise, that, while Chateaubriand drinks delightedly at the same Greek river, in which Lamar- tine could find nothing better than a fetid ditch, — the latter, in his turn, plunges joyously into those " sweet, warm, and blue waters," which Cha- teaubriand describes in the following magnificent language of desolation and of death? " Through the midst of the valley, glides a discolored stream, dragging itself reluctantly towards the pestiferous lake which swal- lows it up. Its course through the sand is distinguished only by the reeds and willows that grow on its brink — that river is the Jordan." Now, look at the Jordan of Lamartine ! " It passes with a slight bubbling, and uttering its first murmur, under the ruined arches of a bridge of Roman architecture. The Jordan far surpasses the Eurotas and the Cephisus. It flows gently, in a bed of about one hundred feet wide, a stream of water two or three feet deep, clear, limpid, transparent, reflecting every pebble on its banks, like a mirror that colors what it shows. I took of the water of the Jordan, in the hollow of my hand, and found it quite sweet, of a pleasant flavor, and of great purity." I, who have bathed in the Jordan, and drank its water, found it slightly discolored and warm, agreeable to the taste but not pure, flowing with a slow current through a shrunken channel bordered with reeds and willows. Each of the poets was correct, having described the sacred stream as he saw it, through his poetically distorted imagina- tion. Returning to Beyrout, he sufiered a severe affliction in the loss of his beloved Julia, " Sole daughter of his house and heart," and we learn how keenly his heart was wounded, from an entry made in his journal, after leaving the house in which Julia had embraced him for the last time — " I kissed the floor of her chamber a thousand limes, and steeped it with my tears, for it is to me a sainted relic. I still beheld her in every part of it." One would not suppose that so poetic a spirit would wish to mingle in politics ; but Larmartine's ambition is boundless, and in January, 1846, he made his first speech in the Chamber of Deputies. He here endeavored to stand independent of party, and occasionally made long speeches in favor of a new European system of regeneration for the Holy Land, foundlings, -and other strange topics, which he handled with a poetic license. The Fourier- ites seeing this, seized upon him, as they have upon many other master (though ill-balanced) minds, and persuaded him that he was the champion of the abolition of capital punishment, to procure which he established a LAMARTINE. 815 newspaper at Macon, called "Z/e Bien Public." His life during the intervals of the session, as passed at his fine old chateau of Saint Point, near Macon, is thus described in one of his letters to Monsieur Bruys d'Ouilly. " With the twilight of dawn, the steeple of the village tolls the angelus : in the rocky paths which lead to the church, or the casile, we hear the noise of the wooden shoes of the peasants, the bleating of flocks, the barking of the shepherds' dogs, and the rough jolting of cartwheels over the ground frozen by the night. The stir and bustle of day commence around me, they seize and carry me along until night. The workmen ascend my wooden staircase, and ask me for directions for the day's work. The Cure comes and solicits aid for the sick, or for his schools. The Mayor comes and begs me to explain to him the confused passages of a new law, relating to the neighboring roads — a law which I have made, but do not compre- hend any better than he. Neighbors come and request me to go with them to determine a boundary, or follow a road. My vine-dressers come and assure me that the harvest has failed, and that nothing remains to them but one or two sacks of coarse rye, to nourish their wives and five children during a long winter. The courier arrives, loaded with journals and letters, which shower, like a rain of words, upon my table, words, sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter, very often indifierent, but which all require a word, a thought, a line. " The guests, if I have any, awake and wander about the house ; others arrive, and fasten their tired horses to the iron bars of the lower windows. These are farmers from the mountains, in black velvet waistcoats, and leather spatterdashes; mayors from neighboring villages; good old cures, with their crown of while locks bathed in perspiration; poor widows of neighboring hamlets, who would be thankful for a post or stamp — who believe in the unbounded power of a man of whom the journal of the chief town of the district has spoken — and who keep back timidly under the great linden trees of the avenue, with one or two poor children by the hand. Each one has his anxiety., his dream, his business. I must hear them, press the hand of one, write a note to the other, give some hope to all. All this is done in a hurry, on the corner of the table, loaded with verses, prose writings, and letters, a portion of the sweet smelling rye bread of our moun- tains flavored with fresh butter, with fruit from the garden, and grapes from the vine. Frugal breakfast of the poet and the laborer, the crumbs of which the birds are awaiting upon my balcony. The hour of noon strikes. I hear my favorite horses neighing and stamping their feet on the sand of the court yard, as if to call me. I say good morning and farewell to the guests of the mansion, who remain until night. I mount my horse, and set off" at a gallop, leaving behind me all the cares of the morning, to go to other cares of the day. I busy myself in the rough and descending paths of our village ; I ascend, and descend, to again ascend our mountains. I fasten my horse under many trees, I knock at many doors. Here and there, I find a thousand things to be done, for myself or for others. I do not return home until night, after having enjoyed, during six or seven hours of solitary riding, all the rays of the sun, all the varied tints of the fading foliage, all the odors, all the sounds, gay or sad, of our great landscapes in the autum- nal days. Happy if, when I return, worn out with fatigue, I find perchance, at the corner of the fire, some friend, arrived in my absence, with a simple heart, and a poetic tongue, who on the road to Italy or Switzerland, has re- membered that my roof is near his route, and who, like Hugo, Nodier, Quinet, Sue, or Manzoni, comes to bring us a distant echo of the noise of the world, and taste, with freedom, a little of our peace." When Lamartine was employed to write the History of the Girondins, Clio was dethroned from her historiographic shrine, and Improvisation, the tenth Muse of the day, seated in her place by the poet-historian; who 316 . LAMARTINE. sought to raise matter-of-fact prose to the dignity of epic poetry, by ar- ranging his subject in the most dramatic form, and clothing it in the most beautiful language he could draw from his mind and heart. Portraying horrid scenes en couleur de rose, as one sees a landscape through a pane of bright crimson-stained glass, animated by the fervid feeling and buoyant fancy of a true poet, he so identified himself with his subject, that, like Livy, in his history of Rome, he overlooked all the faults of his heroes, and raised them from their frail natures to a godlike attitude, congenial to the sublimity of his genius. This work had an immense sale, and revived in the hearts of the Paris- ians the thrilling scenes of the first Revolution, so f .11 of excitement, that grand desideratum in la grande ville. The ex-royalist, who, for years, had been wheeling over the political arena in a series of undefinable circles, after the manner of a hawk, now became identified with the Opposition, and in the Chamber of Deputies pronounced the doom of the infant Count de Paris. For a time his star was in the ascendant, but he unfortunately 3aelded to the advice of theory -mongers, who would thresh to the very chaff" the elements of society and human nature. Fraternization has ended in bloodshed, and it may be said of Paris as of Egypt, when the first-born were smitten, " there was not a house in which there was not one dead." " To love — to pray — to sing," wrote Lamartine, " such is my life," and in so doing he commanded the respect and admiration of Christendom. But when he descended from cloud-land into real life, it is to be feared that the history which will bear his actions will reflect little real credit upon him who might have been (had he followed the dictates of common sense, in place of wild theory,) the Washington of France. The acts of the Provisional Government, when made public, will be found more censur- able than those of Napoleon, the Bourbons, or even Louis Philippe. FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF LAMARTINE. LRBMr^ W 109 89 • ■• '«« * ...» ^0 V • ^^ .0 >:' ^"^^^ -0' HECKMAN JINDERY INC. ^ SEP 89 .V -. "^^/^ ^^'5'