ther implements of their calling, soon came forth; and the Duchesse
assured the intruder that, unless he immediately retired, he should be
forcibly expelled.

Seeing the courage and determination of this high-spirited and
beautiful woman, the officer withdrew, and the horses were saved. It
has since been ascertained, as the Duchesse anticipated, that General
Lafayette had never given any orders to the officer who had used his
name.

_7th_.--The Duke of Orleans has at length accepted the crown; and
various are the conjectures and reports to which his doing so has given
rise. Many of them, as may be easily imagined, are not creditable to
him; but on this occasion, as on most others, the least charitable
motives are generally assigned to those whose conduct is judged by the
mass often wholly ignorant of the reasons on which it is based. The
vast wealth of the Duke of Orleans has a powerful influence; and those
who a few days ago exclaimed against royalty, and vaunted the superior
advantages of a government without a king, are now reconciled to having
one whose immense private fortune will exempt the nation from the
necessity of furnishing funds for a civil list. Should the new
sovereign hereafter demand one, his popularity will be endangered; and
the King of the French, as he is styled, will be likely to find as
little favour in the eyes of his subjects as the King of France
experienced.

Popularity, always, and in all countries, an unstable possession, is in
France infinitely more so; and Louis-Philippe must have more luck, as
well as more wisdom, than falls to the lot of mankind, to retain this
fleeting good when the novelty of his reign has worn away. That he is a
man of great ability no one seems to entertain a doubt; but his wisdom
would, in my opinion at least, have been more surely manifested had he
declined instead of accepting the crown.

Those who profess to be best acquainted with his sentiments declare,
that he only acceded to the wishes of the people in ascending the
vacant throne, in order to preserve the charter, and to preclude the
dangerous theoretical experiments into which the republican party was
so desirous to plunge. It remains to be proved whether, in a few years
hence, those who have subverted one monarchy by violence may not be
tempted to have recourse to a similar measure in order to free
themselves from the successor they have chosen; for even already it
appears clear to me, that the expecta