Orleans princes, in 1886, the year of M. Grevy's second
election, they were summarily ordered to quit France; not that they
had done anything that called for exile, but because Prince Napoleon
(who called himself the Prince Imperial and head of the Bonaparte
dynasty) had put forth a pamphlet concerning his pretensions to
the imperial throne. This led to the banishment of all members
of ex-royal families from French soil, and their erasure from the
army list, if they were serving as French soldiers.

This decree was particularly hard upon the Duc d'Aumale, who was a
French general, and had done good service under Chanzy and Gambetta
in the darkest days of the calamities of France.

The Comte de Paris deeply felt the outrage. He gave the world to
understand that he had never conspired against the French Republic
while living on his estates in France, but felt free to do so after
this aggression.

The Duc d'Aumale avenged himself by an act of truly royal magnificence.
He published part of his will, bequeathing to the French Institute, of
which he was a member, that splendid estate and palace of Chantilly
which he had inherited from his godfather, the old Duke of Bourbon.
With its collections, its library, its archives, and its pictures,
the gift is valued at from thirty-five to forty millions of francs.
The revenue of the estate is to be spent in enriching the collections,
in encouraging scientific research, in pensioning aged authors,
artists, and scientific discoverers.

"It is the grandest gift," says M. Gabriel Monod, "ever given to
a country. It is worthy of a prince who joins to the attractive
grace of noble breeding and the finest qualities of a soldier,
the talents of a man of letters, the learning of a scholar, and
the taste of an artist."

M. Grevy--_le vieux_, "the old fellow," as his Parisians irreverently
called him--was deeply attached to his daughter, whose husband,
M. Daniel Wilson, a presumptuous, speculative person, had made
himself obnoxious to society and to all the political parties.
This man lived at the Elysee with his family, and made free use of
presidential privileges. It is said that by using the president's
right of franking letters for his business affairs, he saved himself
in postage forty-thousand francs per annum. He also made use of
information that he obtained as son-in-law of the president to
further his own interests, and once or twice he got M. Grevy into
trouble by the unwarrant