ords of the Duc d'Aumale, as a '_pur sang_,' a straightforward, dashing
young French prince demanding the right of performing his military duty
to the State, had him condemned, tardily resolved to pardon him, and
wound up finally by sending him to Clairvaux to placate the criminal
bullies of the Commune!

What has been the result? It cannot be more exactly stated than in the
words of the official organ of the Russian Empire at Brussels, _Le
Nord_, a journal certainly not predisposed in favour of the House of
Orleans by the success of the Orleanist Prince Ferdinand in Bulgaria.
'The appearance of this young exile,' said _Le Nord_, 'on the soil of
France, not as a pretender or with political ideas, but simply as a
Frenchman coming to establish his moral rights as a citizen by claiming
to be allowed to perform his civic duties, and this with a rare
combination of youthful dash, irreproachable modesty, and skilful
self-possession was admirably fitted to awaken, and it has awakened, the
sympathy of all who are politically disinterested.'

This is strong language coming from the only great power in the world to
which France can look as a possible ally in the present condition of
Europe. It was emphasised by the ablest and most active of the French
Imperialists, M. Paul de Cassagnac. 'To keep this young prince in prison
is impossible. To do so would make him King of France within three
years. To let him go, after keeping him for a week, is no longer a
generous and magnanimous act. It is simply obeying the vigorous kick
administered by the masters of the Government, the French people, who
have been saying of the Orleans princes, "they won't move," and who now
see a young Duc d'Orleans move forward with a gay virility which has a
flavour of Henri IV.! If the young Duc d'Orleans is as intelligent as I
am told, and believe that he is, he wouldn't change places with Carnot
to-day!'

Every 'ministerial crisis' which weakens the Government will strengthen
the prestige acquired for the Monarchy by the young duke. He has won the
women by his pluck, the fathers of families by his deference to the
Comte de Paris, the Catholics by asking for a chaplain at Clairvaux, and
the _chauvins_ by his military ardour.

A friend of mine showed me in Paris ten days after the arrest of the
prince a letter from Normandy, in which the writer said, 'Millions of
francs would not have done what has been done by this simple act to
revive and invigorate