Paris on the 21st
of June 1791. He constantly expressed his wish of keeping as near as
possible to the frontiers of France. He at first took up his abode at
Coblentz, and I knew from good authority that all the emigrants did not
regard him with a favourable eye. They could not pardon the wise.
principles he had professed at a period when there was yet time to
prevent, by reasonable concession, the misfortunes which imprudent
irritation brought upon France. When the emigrants, after the campaign
of 1792, passed the Rhine, the Comte de Provence resided in the little
town of Ham on the Lippe, where he remained until he was persuaded that
the people of Toulon had called him to Provence. As he could not, of
course, pass through France, Monsieur repaired to the Court of his
father-in-law, the King of Sardinia, hoping to embark at Genoa, and from
thence to reach the coast of Provence. But the evacuation of Toulon,
where the name of Bonaparte was for the first time sounded by the breath
of fame, having taken place before he was able to leave Turin, Monsieur
remained there four months, at the expiration of which time his
father-in-law intimated to him the impossibility of his remaining longer
in the Sardinian States. He was afterwards permitted to reside at
Verona, where he heard of Louis XVI.'s death. After remaining two years
in that city the Senate of Venice forbade his presence in the Venetian
States. Thus forced to quit Italy the Comte repaired to the army of
Conde.
The cold and timid policy of the Austrian Cabinet afforded no asylum to
the Comte de Provence, and he was obliged to pass through Germany; yet,
as Louis XVIII. repeated over and over again, ever since the Restoration,
"He never intended to shed French blood in Germany for the sake of
serving foreign interests." Monsieur had, indeed, too much penetration
not to see that his cause was a mere pretext for the powers at war with
France. They felt but little for the misfortunes of the Prince, and
merely wished to veil their ambition and their hatred of France under the
false pretence of zeal for the House of Bourbon.
When the Dauphin died, Louis XVIII. took the title of King of France, and
went to Prussia, where he obtained an asylum.
--[His brother, Charles X., the youngest of the three grandsons of
Louis XV. (Louis XVI., Louis XVIII. Charles X.), the Comte
d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. emigrated in 1789, and went to
Turin and Mantas for 1789 and
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