The Duchess of Berry and the Court of Charles X | Page 6

X. grief at the loss of his brother was
quickly followed by the enjoyment of reigning. Chateaubriand, who,
when he wished to, had the art of carrying flattery to lyric height,
published his pamphlet: Le roi est mart! Vive le roi! In it he said:
"Frenchmen, he who announced to you Louis le Desire, who made his
voice heard by you in the days of storm, and makes to you to-day of

Charles X. in circumstances very different. He is no longer obliged to
tell you what the King is who comes to you, what his misfortunes are,
his virtues, his rights to the throne and to your love; he is no longer
obliged to depict his person, to inform you how many members of his
family still exist. You know him, this Bourbon, the first to come, after
our disaster, worthy herald of old France, to cast himself, a branch of
lilies in his hand, between you and Europe. Your eyes rest with love
and pleasure on this Prince, who in the ripeness of years has preserved
the charm and elegance of his youth, and who now, adorned with the
diadem, still is but ONE FRENCHMAN THE MORE IN THE MIDST
OF YOU. You repeat with emotion so many happy mots dropped by
this new monarch, who from the loyalty of his heart draws the grace of
happy speech. What one of us would not confide to him his life, his
fortune, his honor? The man whom we should all wish as a friend, we
have as King. Ah! Let us try to make him forget the sacrifices of his
life! May the crown weigh lightly on the white head of this Christian
Knight! Pious as Saint Louis, affable, compassionate, and just as Louis
XII., courtly as Francis I., frank as Henry IV., may he be happy with all
the happiness he has missed in his long past! May the throne where so
many monarchs have encountered tempests, be for him a place of
repose! Devoted subjects, let us crowd to the feet of our well-loved
sovereign, let us recognize in him the model of honor, the living
principle of our laws, the soul of our monarchical society; let us bless a
guardian heredity, and may legitimacy without pangs give birth to a
new King! Let our soldiers cover with their flags the father of the Duke
of Angouleme. May watchful Europe, may the factions, if such there be
still, see in the accord of all Frenchmen, in the union of the people and
the army, the pledge of our strength and of the peace of the world!" The
author of the Genie du Christianisme thus closed his prose dithyramb:
"May God grant to Louis XVIII. the crown immortal of Saint Louis!
May God bless the mortal crown of Saint Louis on the head of Charles
X.!"
In this chant in honor of the King and of royalty, M. de Chateaubriand
did not forget the Duke and Duchess of Angouleme, nor the Duchess of
Berry and the Duke of Bordeaux. "Let us salute," he said, "the Dauphin
and Dauphiness, names that bind the past to the future, calling up
touching and noble memories, indicating the own son and the successor

of the monarch, names under which we find the liberator of Spain and
the daughter of Louis XVI. The Child of Europe, the new Henry, thus
makes one step toward the throne of his ancestor, and his young mother
guides him to the throne that she might have ascended."
Happy in the ease with which the change in the reign had taken place,
and seeing the unanimous manifestations of devotion and enthusiasm
by which the throne was surrounded, the Duchess of Berry regarded the
future with entire confidence. Inclined by nature to optimism, the
young and amiable Princess believed herself specially protected by
Providence, and would have considered as a sort of impiety anything
else than absolute faith in the duration of the monarchy and in respect
for the rights of her son. Had any one of the court expressed the
slightest doubt as to the future destiny of the CHILD OF MIRACLE,
he would have been looked upon as an alarmist or a coward. The
royalists were simple enough to believe that, thanks to this child, the
era of revolutions was forever closed. They said to themselves that
French royalty, like British royalty, would have its Whigs and its
Tories, but that it was forever rid of Republicans and Imperialists. At
the accession of Charles X. the word Republican, become a synonym of
Jacobin, awoke only memories of the guillotine and the "Terror." A
moderate republic seemed but a chimera; only that of Robespierre and
Marat was thought of. The eagle was no longer mentioned; and as to
the eaglet,