overwhelmed with consternation. Some of
them, however, still persisted in their daring incredulity; and they
did not hesitate to denounce the document, upon which their enemies
relied as the denouement of an intrigue which had begun with violence
and ended with a lie. Separated from her friends, deprived of their
counsels, dead to the world, to the laws, to society, was it possible
for Marie Caroline to make any valid deposition against herself, and
that, too, surrounded by her accusers, by her keepers, by the men who
had vowed her destruction?"

Thus, while one party affirmed that there was no truth in the alleged
birth or marriage, the Orleanists declared that the Duchess of Berri
had not only given birth to a child of no legitimate parentage, but
that the Duke of Bordeaux, who was born seven months after the
assassination of the Duke of Berri, was also the child of dishonored
birth, and had, therefore, no title whatever to the crown. Such is
the venom of political partisanship.

On the 8th of June, Marie Caroline, who could no longer claim the
title of Regent of France, but who had sunk to the lowly condition of
the wife of an Italian count, was liberated from prison. She had
fallen into utter disgrace, and was no longer to be feared. With her
child and her nurse, abandoned by those friends who had gathered
around the regent, she sailed for Palermo. Her brother, the king,
received her kindly, and she was joined by Count Lucheri Palli. Few
troubled themselves to inquire whether she were ever _married_ to the
count or not. We hear of her no more.

These events broke up the Legitimists into three parties. The one
assumed that, under the circumstances, the abdication of Charles X.
was not to be regarded as binding; that he was still king, and to him
alone they owed their allegiance. The second took the position that,
in consequence of the suspicions cast upon the birth of the Duke of
Bordeaux, the abdication in favor of the duke was null, and that the
dauphin, the Duke de Angouleme, was the legitimate heir to the crown.
The third party still adhered to the Duke of Bordeaux, recognizing
him as king, under the title of Henry V. Thus terminated in utter
failure the Legitimist endeavor to overthrow the throne of Louis
Philippe.

While these scenes were transpiring, the Duke of Reichstadt, the only
son of Napoleon I., and, by the votes of the French people, the
legitimate heir to the throne of the Empire, died in Vienna