f the tyranny of Madame de Feucheres
and the dangers of Revolution.

He arranged his flight with a trusted friend; it was fixed for
the day succeeding Aug. 31, 1830,--a month after the Revolution.
That evening he retired to his chamber in good spirits, though
he said good-night more impressively than usual to some persons
in his household. The next morning he was found dead, hanging to
one of the _espagnolettes_, or heavy fastenings, of a tall French
window. The village authorities were summoned; but although it
was impossible a man so infirm could have thus killed himself and
though many other circumstances proved that he did not die by his
own hand, they certified his death by suicide. The Catholic Church,
however, did not accept this verdict, and the duke was buried with
the rites of religion.

There was certainly no proof that Madame de Feucheres had had any
hand in the murder of the old man who had plotted to escape from
her, and who had expressed to others his dread of the tyranny she
exercised over him; but there was every ground for strong suspicion,
and the public lost no time in fastening part of the odium that
attached to the supposed murderess on the king, whose family had
so greatly benefited by her influence over the last head of the
house of Conde. She retained her ill-gotten wealth, and removed
at once to Paris. She had been engaged in stock operations for
some time, and now gave herself up to them, winning enormous sums.

The new throne was sadly shaken by these events, added to discontents
concerning the king's prudent policy of non-intervention in the
attempted revolutions of other countries, which followed that of
France in 1830 and 1831. The next very interesting event of this
reign was the escapade and the discomfiture of the young Duchesse
de Berri.

About the close of 1832, while France and all Europe were still
experiencing the after-shocks which followed the Revolution of
July, Marie Caroline, the Duchesse de Berri, planned at Holyrood
a descent upon France in the interests of the Duc de Bordeaux,
her son.[1] Had he reigned in consequence of the deaths of his
grandfather and uncle, Charles X. and the Duc d'Angouleme, the
duchess his mother was to have been regent during his minority.
She regretted her inaction during the days of July, when, had she
taken her son by the hand and presented him herself to the people,
renouncing in his name and her own all ultra-Bourbon traditions
and ideas,