of it."
Charles X. was greatly indebted to this letter for the cordiality
of his reception at Edinburgh, where he lived in dignified retirement
for about two years; then, finding that the climate was too cold
for his old age, and that the English Government was disquieted
because of the attempts of the Duchesse de Berri to revive her
son's claims to the French throne, he made his way to Bohemia,
and lived for a while in the Castle of Prague. At last he decided
to make his final residence in the Tyrol, not far from the warm
climate of Italy. It is said that as the exiled, aged king cast
a last look at the Gothic towers of the Castle of Prague, he said
to those about him: "We are leaving yonder walls, and know not to
what we may be going, like the patriarchs who knew not as they
journeyed where they would pitch their tents."[1]
[Footnote 1: Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Angouleme.]
On reaching the Baths of Toeplitz, where the waters seemed to agree
with him, and where he wished to rest awhile, he found it needful
to "move on," for the house he occupied had been engaged for the
king of Prussia. The cholera, too, was advancing. The exiled party
reached Budweiz, a mountain village with a rustic inn, and there
it was forced to halt for some weeks, for the Duc de Bordeaux was
taken ill with cholera. It was a period of deep anxiety to those
about him, but at last he recovered.
After trying several residences in the Tyrolese mountains, to which
the old king had gone largely in hopes that he might enjoy the
pleasures of the chase, the exiled family fixed its residence at
Goritz towards the end of October, 1836. The king was then in his
eightieth year, but so hale and active that he spent whole mornings
on foot, with his gun, upon the mountains.
The weather changed soon after the family had settled at Goritz.
The keen winter winds blew down from the snow mountains, but the
king did not give up his daily sport. One afternoon, after a cold
morning spent upon the hills, he was seized at evening service
in the chapel with violent spasms. These passed off, but on his
joining his family later, its members were struck by the change
in his appearance. In a few hours he seemed to have aged years.
At night he grew so ill that extreme unction was administered to
him. It was an attack of cholera. When dying, he blessed his little
grandchildren, the boy and girl, who, notwithstanding the nature of
his illness, were brought to him. "God
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