erred to the citadel of
Blaye, one of the most gloomy of prisons, on the left bank of the
Gironde. All the effects of this princess of royal birth, who had
entered France as regent, were tied up in a pocket-handkerchief.
Measures were apparently adopted to keep her in close captivity,
without trial, for a long time. The fortress was thoroughly manned
with nine hundred men, and put in a state of defense, as if
anticipating a siege. Three gun-boats were stationed in the river.
The small building within the walls of the citadel, which was
assigned to the duchess, was surrounded with a double row of
palisades ten or twelve feet high. The windows were covered with
strong iron bars, and even the apertures of the chimneys were closed
with an iron grating. Even the gay spirit of the princess was subdued
by the glooms in which she was enveloped.

Still, from many eminent men of her own party she received gratifying
proofs of fidelity. Chateaubriand issued an eloquent pamphlet which
won the applause of the Legitimists throughout Europe. In this he had
the boldness to exclaim, "Madame, your son is my king." In a letter
of condolence to the princess, in which he offered his professional
services in her defense, he said:

"MADAME,--You will deem it inconsiderate, obtrusive, that
at such a moment as this I entreat you to grant me a favor,
but it is the high ambition of my life. I would earnestly
solicit to be numbered among your defenders. I have no
personal title to the great favor I solicit of your new
grandeur, but I venture to implore it in memory of a prince
of whom you deigned to name me historian, and in the name of
my family's blood. It was my brother's glorious destiny to
die with his illustrious grandfather, M. de Malesherbes, the
defender of Louis XVI., the same day, the same hour, for the
same cause, and upon the same scaffold. CHATEAUBRIAND."

But a terrible secret was soon whispered abroad, which overwhelmed
the princess with shame, and which filled the court of Louis Philippe
with joy, as it silenced all voices which would speak in her favor.
It became evident that the duchess was again to become a mother. For
a princess, the child, sister, and mother of a king, secretly to
marry some unknown man, was deemed as great a degradation as such a
person could be guilty of. The shame was as great as it would be in
New York for the daughter of a millionaire secretly to