the Duke of Orleans, in the north of
France, made very great efforts, by visiting all the posts, to
inspire the soldiers to fidelity to the Bourbons, and to rouse them
to oppose the emperor. "Finding," says a writer, who was in sympathy
with his efforts, "his great exertions as fruitless as the assaults
of the winds upon the mountain's rocky ridge, he at length abandoned
the project. The conduct of Louis XVIII. was but little calculated to
inspire his subjects with respect, or to restore their fading
fidelity. Having reached Lille on the 22d, on the next day he fled,
with indecent haste, towards the frontier, not remaining long enough,
even if his faculties had been sufficiently collected to do so, to
give final or further instructions to the lieutenant-general. Terror
of Napoleon occupied his every thought; and the wings of the wind
were unequal to keep pace with the eagerness of his mind to escape
from the iron grasp of the mortal enemy of his race. Louis Philippe
had lent the protection and encouragement of companionship to his
majesty to a distance of five miles from Lille; yet the timid monarch
never delivered to him any instructions or command as to the
operations of the army, nor confessed his future project."[R]

[Footnote R: Life and Times of Louis Philippe, by Rev. G. N. Wright.]

The Duke of Orleans was annoyed and irritated by the pusillanimity
displayed by the king, and by the mortifying reserve with which he
himself was treated. He called upon the commandants of the different
towns, and informed them that the king had left France without giving
him any authority to act. He then issued a public proclamation, in
which he resigned his entire command to Marshal Mortier. In this he
said:

"I go to bury myself in retirement and oblivion. The king
being no longer in France, I can not transmit you any further
orders in his name; and it only remains for me to release you
from the observation of all the orders which I have already
transmitted to you, and to recommend you to do every thing
that your excellent judgment and pure patriotism will suggest
to you. Farewell, my dear marshal. My heart is oppressed in
writing this word."

On the 22d Louis Philippe broke up his establishment at
head-quarters, and set out to rejoin his family in England. He had
but little hope then of ever again revisiting France. His sufferings
must indeed have been agonizing in finding all his newly-born