Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

at Cherbourg. On the 30th of July he had left St. Cloud; for a day he halted at Versailles. He halted there amidst the recollections of bygone times; every tree had a story linked with far distant days; and melancholy must it have been to have seen him as he looked fondly over those stately avenues-as he lingered (and long, his attendants say, he did linger) upon the steps of that royal palace, which he had known so early, and which he will never see again. When he arrived at Rambouillet it was night. The moon threw a ghastly light on the antique tower, and into the dim court-yard of the old château, as bent with fatigue, and worn by agitation, the old King descended amidst the scanty crowd, collected less from affection than curiosity. Here he determined to abide. The great body of the troops were bivouacked in the woods and park, and in spite of many desertions, a large force was still devotedly attached to the royal family.

There is something mysterious in the transaction of this period. In a letter, published by the Dauphin (1st of August), an arrangement is spoken of as being then entered into with the Government at Paris. Almost immediately after was announced the abdication of the King and the Dauphin in favour of the Duc de Bordeaux. This certainly seems to have been the arrangement previously alluded to. Whether the Lieutenant-General, or the Government at Paris, had held out any expectations, which they never had the wish, or which, if they had the wish, they had not the power to realize, must long remain a mystery; because, if any communications did pass, it is improbable that they should have been of that direct nature which leaves the matter capable of a positive decision. But certain it is, that up to the time that the Duke of Orleans accepted the throne, Charles the Tenth believed that it would be given to his grandson. Even the Commissioners * did not combat this belief. M. Odillon Barrot said—“ Votre majesté sentira que le sang versé pour le Duc de Bordeaux servira mal sa cause-il ne faut pas que son nom, qui n'a pas été encore compromis dans nos débats civils, se mêle un jour à des souvenirs de sang."

Why this language, from a man so sincere as M. Odillən

⚫ M. Schonen, M. Odillon Barrot, Marshal Maison, sent by the Government.

Barrot, if the Duc de Bordeaux was at that time out of the question?

This was on the 3rd; already on the 2nd the Commissioners had attempted to obtain an interview with the King for the purpose of inducing him to withdraw from France, or at all events from the neighbourhood of Paris. They passed through the camp; Charles the Tenth refused to see them. They returned to Paris, and their return was the signal for one of the most singular expeditions by which a monarch was ever yet driven from his dominions. The drum beat in the streets-the still excited populace collected:"Charles the Tenth is coming to Paris!"—" Charles the Tenth will not go away from Rambouillet;" all the women in accents of terror-all the little boys in accents of fury screeched out the name of "Charles the Tenth,"" to Rambouillet!-to Rambouillet!--after Charles the Tenth to Rambouillet!" was the cry-as on a no less memorable occasion it had once been-" to Versailles!" ----And to Rambouillet, in carolines, and hackney coaches, in carts, in cabriolets, running, riding, driving, without plan as without preparation, rushed the population of Paris. The Commissioners preceded this incongruous cohort, and to-day they succeeded in obtaining an interview with the King.

Charles the Tenth, even as a young man, wanted personal courage. He had been accused of this weakness in the court of Louis XVI. Years had not invigorated his spirit. His nerves were shaken and his mind unstrung by the quick succession of adventures and calamities that had so rapidly followed one another during the last few days. He received the deputation in a state of great agitation.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Qu'est-ce qu'ils veulent ? me tuer!" was his address to Marshal Maison.

He then asked advice of the Duc de Raguse. What can you say to a man who at the head of a gallant army asks, what he should do?

There were that day at Rambouillet twelve thousand infantry, three thousand five hundred cavalry, and forty pieces of cannon. The Royal Guards were on foot, at the head of their horses, one hand on their pistols, one foot ready to put into their stirrups! A prince of courage, wisdom, and resolution might still have extricated himself from the difficulties sur

rounding Charles X.; but in these difficulties such a prince would never have been involved. Alarmed by an exaggeration of the numbers of the approaching multitude; fatigued with the toil of thinking and planning, which he had already undergone; and incapable of a new mental effort to meet the new crisis; flattering himself that the Duc de Bordeaux would still, as the best political combination, be named to the throne; conscious that blood spilled, even in victory, might endanger the peaceful establishment of this prince, in whose favour he had himself already abdicated; swayed in some degree, doubtless, by these considerations, but urged more especially by his fears and his irresolutions, Charles threw away the sword, where others might have thrown away the scabbard, and resigned himself quietly to the destiny which doomed his exile. The soldiers of the hackney coaches returned to Paris, and the late King of France set out for Maintenon, where, reserving a military escort, he bade adieu to the rest of his army.

His journey was now made slowly, and under the delusion that all France would yet rise in his favour. Betrayed, and left by many of his courtiers, his hopes remained by him to the last; and perhaps still remain-alone faithful in sorrow and in exile.

REVIEW OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1830.

IV.

The two parties among the Royalists and the Liberals.-The wishes and ideas of each.-Young Napoléon and a Republic, or Henry V. and the Monarchy, the two best combinations.-Reasons why not adopted.-Having formed the existing Government, it is wise to maintain it.-Astonishment at the hostility shown by those who put the present King on the throne to the natural consequences of his accession.-What Louis Philippe's system must be.-Title adopted by him.-Triumph over the more moderate party:-Constitutional changes caused by the revolution.

To any one who has followed the events of this revolution, there will seem to have been on the side of the people, as on

the side of the King, two factions. The Royalists were divided into the friends of the ordonnances and the ministry, and the friends of the monarchy without the ordonnances.

The liberal deputies also were divided. There were those who, without any personal affection for the reigning family, wished for the old form of governmment, popularly administered (M. Guizot and M. Sébastiani). There were those (MM. Laffitte, de Laborde, Mauguin)* who wished for a new dynasty and new institutions. M. C. Périer seems to have been between the two parties, and General Lafayette to have gone beyond them both. To M. Guizot, and those who thought like M. Guizot, Henry V. ought to have been more acceptable than the Duc d'Orléans-by M. Laffitte the Duc d'Orléans, even if not personally recommended, would have been preferred to Henry V.-To M. C. Périer the claims of the one whom circumstances most favoured were likely to appear the best.-To General Lafayette the American republic was the dream of a long life.

In the nation, if it could have been polled, the liberal nobility would probably have been for Henry V.; the bourgeoisie for the Duc d'Orléans; the old army for young Napoléon; the masses for a republic. If the Duc d'Orléans was selected, it was because, while his accession promised the least to any particular party, it promised something to all, and was least likely to offend any one party. "The multitudes would have been passionately opposed," say many, "to the legitimate line of the family they had been fighting against." The army would have despised, and the bourgeoisie dreaded the red cap, which had presided over the confiscations and proscriptions of the Comité de Salut Public. M. Guizot and his friends accepted the Duc d'Orléans as a Bourbon; M. Laffitte and M. Mauguin, as a member of the opposition during the time of the Bourbons; General Lafayette, as the soldier of Jemmapes, as the aidede-camp of Dumourier. Besides, Louis Philippe was the first person proposed, when everybody was uncertain. "Take the Duke of Orleans for your King," said M. Laffitte. "Liberty will be satisfied with the sacrifice of legitimacy! Order will thank

It is these two parties that have formed the Government and the Opposition of Louis Philippe's reign.

you for saving it from Robespierre! England, in your revolution, will recognize her own!"

All declared against Charles X. None spoke of young Napoléon, noneof Henry V.-and yet, if circumstances had favoured, a government might perhaps have been formed, under the sanction of either of these names, more popular and more strong than the one which was adopted. The Legitimate Monarchy and Henry V.; the Republic and young Napoleon; these (I venture the opinion as an historical speculation) would have been the two great and most reasonable alternatives.

For the legitimate monarchy there was, the past; for a republic, the future. The claims of the one were in the tombs of St. Denis; it was sanctioned by time, and it promised repose. A desire for new things could alone justify the pretensions of the other; and its existence could only have been an existence of action, and glory, invasion, defence, conquest. As for a republic, with Lafayette, it would have been the vision of an hour-for the title of a republic would have been a declaration of war; and, if war were to ensue, what name but that of "Napoléon" had a military prestige?

Nor had young Bonaparte without a republic any chance of success. The soldier of France would have rallied round his cause the citizen of France would have shrunk from it. A name possessed by one, a boy in the Austrian capital, was not alone a sufficient basis for a government. If France were desirous of throwing herself at once into a new position-of braving Europe, and defying, the propagande in hand, the legions of the Holy Alliance-the young Napoléon, the first consul of a military republic, would, I say, have aroused and united all the energies demanded for this daring career. If, on the other hand, the revolution was a combat for what had been obtained by the Charta, and not for a new system that was to succeed the Restoration ;-if the internal policy of France was to be conservation; the external policy-peace; if monarchy was to be preserved and royalty respected; it was better to keep a crown that nine centuries had hallowed, and to preserve to majesty its history and its decorations. Tranquillity and the past, with Henry the Fifth-agitation and the future, with young Napoleon-these, I repeat, were the two great and complete ideas between which the people, if they could then have reasoned

« VorigeDoorgaan »