Memoirs

Memoirs

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs, by Prince De Joinville
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Title: Memoirs
Author: Prince De Joinville
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5716] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 14, 2002]
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Language: English

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MEMOIRS (VIEUX SOUVENIRS) OF THE PRINCE DE
JOINVILLE
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY LADY MARY LOYD

CHAPTER I
1818-1830
I was born at Neuilly-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris, on the 14th of
August, 1818. Immediately after my birth, and as soon as the
Chancellor of France, M. Dambray, had declared me to be a boy, I was
made over to the care of a wet nurse and another attendant. Three years
later I passed out of female hands, earlier, somewhat, than is generally
the case, for a little accident befell my nurse, in which my eldest
brother's tutor, an unfrocked priest, as he was then discovered to be,
was also concerned. My earliest memory, and a very hazy one it is,
mixed up with some story or other about a parrot, is of having seen my
grandmother, the Duchesse d'Orleans-Penthievre, at Ivry. After that I
recollect being at the Chateau of Meudon with my great-aunt, the
Duchesse de Bourbon, a tiny little woman; and being taken to see the
Princesse Louise de Conde at the Temple, and then I remember seeing
Talma act in Charles the Bold, and the great impression his gilt cuirass
made upon me.
But the first event that really is exceedingly clear in my recollection is
a family dinner given by Louis XVIII. at the Tuileries on Twelfth Night,
1824. Even now, sixty-six years after, I can see every detail of that
party, as if it had been yesterday. Our arrival in the courtyard of the

Tuileries, under the salute of the Swiss Guard at the Pavillon Marsan
and the King's Guard at the Pavillon de Flore. Our getting out of the
carriage under the porch of the stone staircase to the deafening rattle of
the drums of the Cent Suisses. Then my huge astonishment when we
had to stand aside halfway up the stairs, to let "La viande du Roi," in
other words, his Majesty's dinner, pass by, as it was being carried up
from the kitchen to the first floor, escorted by his bodyguard.
At the head of the stairs we were received by a red-coated Steward of
the Household, who, as I was told, bore the name of de Cosse, and,
crossing the Salle des Gardes, we were ushered into the drawing-room,
where the whole family soon assembled: to wit, Monsieur, who
afterwards became Charles X., the Duc and Duchesse d'Angouleme, the
Duchesse de Berri, my father and mother, my aunt Adelaide, my two
elder brothers, Chartres and Nemours, my three sisters, Louise, Marie,
and Clementine, and last and youngest of all, myself. There was only
one person present who did not belong to the Royal House of France,
and that was the Prince de Carignan, afterwards known as Charles
Albert, a tall, thin, severe- looking person. He had just served in the
ranks of the French army, with all the proverbial valour of his race,
through the Spanish campaign of 1823, and he wore on his uniform that
evening the worsted epaulettes given him on the field of battle by the
men of the 4th Regiment of the Guard, with whom he had fought in the
assault on the Trocadero. Presently the door of the King's study opened,
and Louis XVIII. appeared, in his wheeled chair, with that handsome
white head and in the blue uniform with epaulettes which the pictures
of him have rendered so familiar. He kissed each of us in our turn,
without speaking to any of