France in the Nineteenth Century | Page 9

collision with Marshal Marmont. In attempting to tear the
marshal's sword from his side, he cut his fingers. At sight of the royal
blood the marshal was arrested, and led away as a traitor. The king,

however, at once released him, with apologies.
When the leaders in Paris had decided to offer the
lieutenant-generalship of France to Louis Philippe during the minority
of the Duc de Bordeaux, he could not be found. He was not at Raincy,
he was not at Neuilly. About midnight, July 29, he entered Paris on foot
and in plain clothes, having clambered over the barricades. He at once
made his way to his own residence, the Palais Royal, and there waited
events.
At the same moment the Duchesse de Berri was leaving Saint-Cloud
with her son. Before daylight Charles X. followed them to the Trianon;
and the soldiers in the Park at Saint-Cloud, who for twenty-four hours
had eaten nothing, were breaking their fast on dainties brought out from
the royal kitchen.
The proposal that Louis Philippe should accept the
lieutenant-generalship was brought to him on the morning of July 30,
after the proposition had first been submitted to Talleyrand, who said
briefly: "Let him accept it." Louis Philippe did so, accepting at the
same time the tricolor, and promising a charter which should guarantee
parliamentary privileges. He soon after appeared at a window of the
Hôtel-de-Ville, attended by Lafayette and Laffitte, bearing the
tricolored flag between them, and was received with acclamations by
the people. But there were men in Paris who still desired a republic,
with Lafayette at its head. Lafayette persisted in assuring them that
what France wanted was a king surrounded by republican institutions,
and he commended Louis Philippe to them as "the best of republics."
This idea in a few hours rapidly gained ground.
By midday on July 30th Paris was resuming its usual aspect. Charles X.,
finding that the household troops were no longer to be depended on,
determined to retreat over the frontier, and left the Trianon for the small
palace of Rambouillet, where Marie Louise and the King of Rome had
sought refuge in the first hours of their adversity.
The king reached Rambouillet in advance of the news from Paris,[1]
and great was the surprise of the guardian of the Château to see him

drive up in a carriage and pair with only one servant to attend him. The
king pushed past the keeper of the palace, who was walking slowly
backward before him, and turned abruptly into a small room on the
ground floor, where he locked himself in and remained for many hours.
When he came forth, his figure seemed to have shrunk, his complexion
was gray, his eyes were red and swollen. He had spent his time in
burning up old love-letters,--reminiscences of a lady to whom he had
been deeply attached in his youth.
[Footnote 1: All the Year Round, 1885.]
The mob of Paris having ascertained that the fugitive royal family were
pausing at Rambouillet, about twelve miles from the capital, set out to
see what mischief could be done in that direction. The Duchesse de
Berri, her children, and the Duc d'Angoulême were at the Château de
Maintenon, and the king, upon the approach of the mob, composed
only of roughs, determined to join them. As he passed out of the
chateau, which he had used as a hunting-lodge, he stretched out his
hand with a gesture of despair to grasp those of some friends who had
followed him to Rambouillet, and who were waiting for his orders. He
had none to give them. He spoke no word of advice, but walked down
the steps to his carriage, and was driven to the Château de Maintenon to
rejoin his family.
The mob, when it found that the king had fled, was persuaded to quit
Rambouillet by having some of the most brutal among them put into
the king's coaches. Attended by the rest of the unruly crowd, they were
driven back to Paris, and assembling before the Palais Royal, shouted
to Louis Philippe: "We have brought you your coaches. Come out and
receive them!" Eighteen years later, these coaches were consumed in a
bonfire in the Place du Carrousel.
At the Château de Maintenon all was confusion and discouragement,
when suddenly the dauphine (the Duchesse d'Angoulême) arrived. She,
whom Napoleon had said was the only man of her family, was in
Burgundy when she received news of the outbreak of the Revolution.
At once she crossed several provinces of France in disguise. Harsh of
voice, stern of look, cold in her bearing, she was nevertheless a favorite

with the household troops whose spirit was reanimated by the sight of
her.
From Rambouillet the king had sent his approbation of the appointment
of the