FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>  
hoped that she saw in him a guarantee for the stability of royalty in France. In September, 1824, she stood by the death-bed of Louis XVIII., and thenceforward her chief occupation was directing the education of the little Duc de Bordeaux, who generally resided with her at Villeneuve l'Etang, her country house near St. Cloud. Thence she went in July, 1830, to the Baths of Vichy, stopping at Dijon on her way to Paris, and visiting the theatre on the evening of the 27th. She was received with "a roar of execrations and seditious cries," and knew only too well what they signified. She instantly left the theatre and proceeded to Tonnere, where she received news of the rising in Paris, and, quitting the town by night, was driven to Joigny with three attendants. Soon after leaving that place it was thought more prudent that the party should separate and proceed on foot, and the Duchess and M. de Foucigny, disguised as peasants, entered Versailles arm-in-arm, to obtain tidings of the King. The Duchess found him at Rambouillet with her husband, the Dauphin, and the King met her with a request for "pardon," being fully conscious, too late, that his unwise decrees and his headlong flight had destroyed the last hopes of his family. The act of abdication followed, by which the prospect of royalty passed from the Dauphin and his wife, as well as from Charles X.--Henri V. being proclaimed King, and the Duc d'Orleans (who refused to take the boy monarch under his personal protection) lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Then began the Duchess's third expatriation. At Cherbourg the royal family, accompanied by the little King without a kingdom, embarked in the 'Great Britain', which stood out to sea. The Duchess, remaining on deck for a last look at the coast of France, noticed a brig which kept, she thought, suspiciously near them. "Who commands that vessel?" she inquired. "Captain Thibault." And what are his orders?" "To fire into and sink the vessels in which we sail, should any attempt be made to return to France." Such was the farewell of their subjects to the House of Bourbon. The fugitives landed at Weymouth; the Duchesse d'Angouleme under the title of Comtesse de Marne, the Duchesse de Berri as Comtesse de Rosny, and her son, Henri de Bordeaux, as Comte de Chambord, the title he retained till his death, originally taken from the estate presented to him in infancy by his enthusiastic people. Holyrood, with i
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>  



Top keywords:

Duchess

 

France

 

Dauphin

 

thought

 

Duchesse

 

theatre

 
kingdom
 

Comtesse

 

received

 

family


royalty

 

Bordeaux

 
accompanied
 

Charles

 

remaining

 

embarked

 

Cherbourg

 
Britain
 
passed
 

protection


lieutenant

 
general
 

personal

 
noticed
 
monarch
 

refused

 

Orleans

 

expatriation

 
proclaimed
 

Angouleme


Weymouth

 

subjects

 

Bourbon

 

fugitives

 

landed

 

Chambord

 

enthusiastic

 

infancy

 

people

 
Holyrood

presented

 
estate
 

retained

 

originally

 
farewell
 

Thibault

 

Captain

 

orders

 
inquired
 

vessel