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to adopt this measure by the most lavish assurances and most solemn protestations, on the part of the Duke, of devotion to the abdicated family. To insure the complete deception of the King, his Royal Highness even earnestly requested that the Duke of Bordeaux should repair from Rambouillet to the Palais Royal, and intrust himself to his protection; but the Duke, in this instance, reckoned too much on the bonhommie of the royal family. No sooner was the Orleans party assured of the King than they repaired to the most influential popular leaders, and informed them in strict confidence of the royal intention, and impressed upon them, that if it took place, the Duke of Orleans would feel himself bound at all hazards to defend the rights of the Duke of Bordeaux; but that if he were nominated to this high post by the people, he should, under these circumstances, consider it a paramount duty to assist in bringing about whatever arrangement was deemed most advantageous to the nation.

The popular party were so uncertain as to the strength of Charles, and so mistrustful of the attitude of the foreign powers, that, fearing if they hesitated they might lose all, they swallowed the bait, and adopted the Duke as Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. No sooner was this achieved,

than his Royal Highness paid that memorable visit to La Fayette, the memory of which now excites in Paris a universal laugh; he exhibited himself in a balcony of the Hôtel de Ville with the venerable patriot, embraced him in the sight of enthusiastic thousands; while the General, privately assured by his Royal Highness that he considered, in this enlightened age, that the office of a king was only the office of a president in disguise, introduced the son of Egalité to the enraptured people as "le meilleur des républiques:"thus, according to him, this prince personified the very government they desired. Loud and long were the plaudits excited by a scene worthy of the Opera House; and when we remember that, at the present day, Louis Philippe scarcely deigns to notice the aged dupe whom he publicly embraced, we really must consider the whole affair not only as striking, but as fictitious, as a scene in "Masaniello," or "Robert le Diable."

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The abdication in favour of Henry the Fifth now arrived in Paris, dated August 2., together with the nomination of the Duke of Orleans as Lieutenant-General, as had been previously arranged; but as his Royal Highness was now nominated by the people, all was changed. He would not even condescend to receive the Ram

bouillet nomination; and instantly called a council of his advisers to devise means of disembarrassing themselves of the whole family.

It was determined that the Bourbons should be frightened out of the kingdom. An eminent lady of the highest rank, and filling a most important office in the household, was the individual who, both from her situation and her admirable talents for private theatricals, was the agent fixed upon to effect this purpose. This eminent lady had all her connections and fortune in France; and confiding in the good faith of the house of Orleans, a hallucination from which she has now recovered, and her vanity being gratified by playing a grand part in this important drama, she painted to the King in frightful colours the imminent peril of his situation, dilating on all the barbarities and horrors of the first Revolution, and expatiating on the duty of the King at least to save his children. This eminent lady was not on the best terms with the Duchess de Berri; she may even fairly be described as her personal enemy. She was not slow in perceiving that the Duchess, by becoming Regent, would be the personage who would derive the most important results of the nomination of Henry the Fifth. This eminent lady, therefore,

performed her part with all the zeal of private pique stimulating personal ambition.

At the same time, commissioners were sent from Paris to expedite the result by describing, in horrible colours, the state of the capital. These commissioners were not received. They returned in the night with the report of their non-admission; and the faction then resolved that the unhappy family should be forced to depart by a more urgent

terror.

On Tuesday, about eleven, the day after the Duke of Orleans had received the nomination of the King to act as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, the drum was beat in all the quarters of Paris, announcing that Charles the Tenth was determined to remain with the force he had at Rambouillet, and await reinforcements from La Vendée, and that he had also carried off all the crown jewels. Nothing was omitted to excite the people; and the whole concluded in inviting all patriotic volunteers to assemble in the Champs Elysées to receive further orders.

It will be easily conceived that the moment there was a talk of the crown jewels, every vagabond in Paris pricked up his ears, and became a patriotic volunteer. Eight thousand of those ferocious and

desperate ruffians, who always come to light when society is convulsed, assembled in an instant. Every hackney-coach, omnibus, and private equipage that could be seized, were immediately taken for this expedition of patriots, who departed to Rambouillet with the most criminal intentions, every one imagining that he had already in his possession a star of brilliants, or a cross more valuable than that of July. Conceive this caravan of eight thousand desperadoes, irregularly armed, on a public road in the immediate vicinity of a rich capital!

The three Commissioners had anticipated their cortège by many hours, and returned to Rambouillet. These gentlemen were, M. Odillon Barrot, a cock-brained, hot-headed youth, and a famous orator —just the person who would have described the Revolution as "those three beautiful days," M. de Schonen, a Counsellor of the Cour Royale, an old conspirator, and the inconceivable Marshal Maison, the same man who, a few months before, had been appointed to the Moreote expedition, and made Marshal of France by Charles the Tenth. M. de Schonen had lived on the bread of the Bourbons ever since the restoration. M. Odillon Barrot was the only one of the three who was in his natural place. He

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