news of the revolution. De Semonville, d'Argout, of the gendarmerie, were collected at St. Cloud, and and Vitrolles arrived at the Hôtel de Ville about ten guarded the bridges, the road, and the heights. At at night, with the news of the ordonnances which Paris means were taken to resist any attack. The duc have been already mentioned: the fourth ordonnance de Mortemart came to Paris on the 30th, to try if he repealed those of the 25th of July, and appointed the could succeed better than De Semonville and his two 3rd of August for the meeting of the Chambers. A colleagues; but his mission failed. The new ordonfew hours earlier, and the throne of the Bourbons nances were carried to the Hôtel de Ville by M. de might have been saved, for the men who had now Sussy, after having been rejected at the Chamber of seized on power had been slow in assuming this weighty Deputies; and they were rejected there also.. But the responsibility. The three messengers from St. Cloud Deputies were far from being resolved; things were in came to negotiate: the king had yielded, and he hoped a critical state; and it was necessary to find a new to secure his crown. But they were interrupted in representative of authority in order to secure the their address by the words, "It is too late!" which victory. The new representative was the duke of are attributed by some authorities to Mauguin; and Orleans, and Laffitte suggested him as the only person these words determined the fate of the monarchy. who could save the nation from a third restoration, or Lafayette, the man of 1789, exercised a great influence from a republic, and the disorder which many men also in 1830. He sat in a room of the Hôtel de Ville, feared who still remembered the year '93. Laffitte, it surrounded by his staff-the heroes of the three days, is said, was encouraged in this notion by the poet the pupils of the Polytechnic School, and all the most Béranger, who, though he did not like kings, saw that ardent members of the liberal party-and listened to it was easier to set up a new throne and a constituthe various proposals made to him; for opinions were tional monarchy than to establish a republic.* Thiers, by no means agreed. The majority begged him not Mignet, and Lareguy, three journalists, agreed upon an to allow a new head to be given to the nation without Orleanist proclamation, which Thiers drew up. On the first consulting the people in the primary assemblies. 30th, some placards printed at the office of the 'NaOn the 30th, the Parisians buried their dead; and tional,' and posted up in Paris, declared the necessity subscriptions were opened for the relief of widows, of calling the duke of Orleans to the head of affairs, in orphans, and the wounded. order to prevent a civil war, and to secure the public liberties. When power is tumbled down in the dust, There was still some ground for alarm. The Garde Royale, the Gardes-du-corps, the pupils of the school of St. Cyr, some battalions of the line, and the remnant it is uncertain what hands will pick it up. CHAPTER C. LOUIS PHILIPPE. ON the 31st of July, 1830, the Municipal Commission of Paris published a proclamation, addressed to the Parisians, which began in these terms: "Inhabitants of Paris, Charles X. has ceased to reign." The Commission announced the provisional commissioners: Dupont de l'Eure, for the department of justice; the baron Louis, for finance; general Gérard, for the department of war; Rigny, for the marine; Bignon, for foreign affairs; Guizot, for public instruction; and the duc de Broglie, for the interior and public works. On the 30th proposals had been made to the duke of Orleans to accept the direction of affairs. Thiers, accompanied by Scheffer, paid a visit to Neuilly, where the duke was then residing; but he was not at home, and the two envoys had only an audience of the duchess of Orleans and madame Adelaide, the duke's sister. The fears, the hesitation, the unwillingness of the duke, real or simulated, to accept the power that was offered to him, put the Orleans party in a difficult position. A deputation went to the Palais Royal about eight in the evening, to offer to the duke the office of lieutenant-general of the kingdom; but they found only a few servants there, who knew nothing about their master. This news being reported to the hôtel of Laffitte, greatly disconcerted the Deputies, who were assembled there. This absence of the duke was unaccountable; the friends of Laffitte grew alarmed, and at eleven o'clock he was left alone with Adolphe, Thibaudeau, and Benjamin Constant. "What will become of us to-morrow?" said Laffitte to Benjamin Constant. "We shall be hanged," was the reply.* At one o'clock in the morning Laffitte was informed that the duke of Orleans was in Paris. He entered the city about eleven at night, on foot, in the dress. of a bourgeois, accompanied only by three persons. It was about nine o'clock in the morning of the 31st of July, when a deputation of Deputies again appeared at the Palais Royal, to offer to the duke the lieutenancy-general. He hesitated, or appeared to hesitate; and perhaps he had his fears; but who in such a situation would have refused? and would the duke | ported on one side by the revolutionist of '89, and on the other by Laffitte, his patron, one of the prime movers of 1830, he made his way to the great hall, which was crowded with officers of all ranks, and men of all conditions. The proclamation of the Deputies was read, and received with applause. The duke replied in a few words, and then appeared at the windows of the Hôtel de Ville, holding Lafayette by the hand, and waving a tricolour flag. The lieutenant-general's first official act was to order the resumption of the tricolour cockade, and to convoke the Chambers for the 3rd of August. At the same time (the 1st of August) Dupont de l'Eure was named provisional minister of justice; Gérard, for the department of war; Guizot, for the interior; Louis, for finance; and Girod de l'Aix, préfet de police. Three of these persons had already been named by the municipal commission. have served his country better if he had refused? He asked for a moment's deliberation, and sent to consult Talleyrand, whose answer was, "Let him accept;" and the duke accepted. A proclamation was immediately published in the name of the duke of Orleans, in which he announced to the inhabitants of Paris, "that the Deputies of France, now assembled at Paris, had expressed a desire that he should repair to the capital, to exercise the functions of lieutenant-general of the kingdom;" that he had not hesitated to accept; that the Chambers would forthwith meet to consult about the means of securing the reign of the laws and the maintenance of the rights of the nation; that henceforth the Charter would be a truth. The Deputies met to hear the report of the deputation which had waited on the duke: his proclamation was read, and received with acclamations of applause. Laffitte, who was in the chair at this meeting, made a proposal, the effect of which was to compromise the Chamber in such a way that they could not recede. His proposal was, that a proclamation to the French should be drawn up. The motion was adopted; and Guizot, Villemain, Bérard, and Benjamin Constant, were appointed to draw up the proclamation, which was said to be chiefly the work of Guizot, whose part, during the last few days, had been that of a conciliator between the throne and the people. The proclamation announced to the French people that "France is free: absolute power was raising its standard; the heroic population of Paris has dashed it to the ground." It was true that the workmen of Paris had overthrown the dynasty of the Bourbons: it remained to be seen what they would get for their pains. The proclamation promised the re-establishment of the National Guard, with the intervention of the National Guards in the choice of the officers; the intervention of the citizens in the formation of the departmental and municipal administrations; the jury in matters concerning proceedings against the press; the legally organized responsibility of the ministers and of the secondary agents of the administration; the condition of the military class to be legally secured; and the re-election of Deputies promoted to public functions; all which very little concerned the men who had won the battle. It was, however, received with applause by the Deputies, put to the vote without discussion, printed, and thousands of copies sent all over the kingdom. The Deputies, about ninety-two in number, rose in a body and went to the Palais Royal to pay their respects to the lieutenant-general, who, on hearing the proclamation read, made a suitable reply, and set out to the Hôtel de Ville, accompanied by a numerous body of National Guards and citizens. Yet everybody was not satisfied with the duke's declaration : it was found to be ambiguous, and was the subject of much unfavourable comment. General Lafayette, surrounded by his staff, in his full revolutionary glory, advanced to the steps to meet the duke, who embraced him most eagerly; and sup In the mean time, Charles X. was on his way to exile. On the 30th of July, it was known at St. Cloud that the king's authority no longer existed, and the people who were about him dropped off rapidly, and he was left almost alone. He left St. Cloud at three o'clock on the morning of the 31st of July with the duchess of Berri and the duc de Bordeaux, and on his road to Versailles he saw the tricolour cockade. All the emblems of royalty on the road had disappeared, but no one showed him any personal disrespect, and he reached Trianon without molestation, followed by his troops, who arrived there about mid-day, exhausted with fatigue. But the king would not stay at Trianon, and he resolved to set out for Rambouillet, much to the annoyance of the soldiers, who followed however, with the exception of one regiment. At Trianon, the king separated from his ministers, except Polignac, who accompanied him for a few days. The king was on horseback at the head of his troops, and the duchess of Berri, in a man's dress, in one of the royal carriages with her two children. It was late when the king and his body-guard reached Rambouillet, where all was silent and desolate. The troops, under the command of the dauphin, wearied by the march and the disorderly retreat, stayed at Trappes-nine or ten thousand men-for whom no provision of any kind had been made. At Rambouillet, the king was joined by the duchess d'Angoulême, who, on her return from Vichy, at Dijon, heard the first warning of the coming tempest, and hurried away to join the king, disguised as a waiting-woman. On the 1st of August, the king learned that there was a lieutenant-general of the kingdom, upon which he addressed a letter to the duke of Orleans, his cousin, on whose sincere attachment he relied, and he appointed him lieutenant-general. He approved of the assembling of the Chambers for the 3rd of August, and declared that he would wait for the return of the person who was charged with carrying his message to Paris. On the 2nd of August, Charles X. addressed to the lieutenant-general a formal act of abdication in favour of his grandson, the duke of Bordeaux; and the king's son, Louis Antoine, duke of Angoulême, by the same act renounced all his rights in favour of his were nephew. The troops now began to fall away from the flags became more numerous; on every village belfry king. At Paris, there was some uneasiness as to the floated the National Standard; and the National Guards intentions of Charles, and as to the disposition of the presented themselves in a line as the king passed 'troops that he had with him. The lieutenant-general along. On the 14th, Charles was at Valogne, where instructed Lafayette to send six thousand men of the he halted while the commissioners were urging the National Guard towards Rambouillet, in the hope that preparations for the embarkation at Cherbourg. On this demonstration might induce the king to disband this day, the companies of the Garde-du-corps gave his troops. At the same time Marshal Maison, De up their colours to the king: every eye was suffused Schonen, and Odilon-Barrot, were sent by the lieu- with tears; and Charles X., his voice almost stifled tenant-general to Charles X. to urge him to withdraw with sobs, thanked each company in turn for its fidelity. as soon as possible from the kingdom; and the duke, He said, "he received their colours, which it is said, sent him money. As soon as the National without stain, and he hoped that one day the duc of Guard was preparing to march, a host of men joined Bordeaux would restore them still unsullied." On the expedition in vehicles of all descriptions. The the 16th, the royal family was at Cherbourg, and the king had determined to remain at Rambouillet until king, who had hitherto worn his usual blue dress, half the accession of his grandson; and he refused at civil and half military, with the cross of the legion of first to see the three commissioners; but the defection honour and other decorations, now assumed the cosof the heavy cavalry, and exaggerated reports of tume of a plain citizen. The princesses were dressed the approach of the Parisians, induced him to grant in a negligent manner, for they had come off in such a the commissioners an interview in the evening of hurry that their wardrobe was left behind. From the the 3rd of August. The king consented to leave, and heights above Cherbourg the royal fugitives saw the his route to Cherbourg was fixed, up to which place sea, and in the distance the vessels which were to he was to be escorted by the Garde-du-corps. He convey them from France. Two American vessels, the disbanded the Garde Royale, gave up the crown-jewels, Great Britain and the Charles Carrol, which belonged and set out for Maintenon, where he bade farewell to to Mr. Patterson, whose daughter had once been the his troops. On the 8th of August he reached Argen- wife of Jerôme Bonaparte, were engaged to carry the ton, and stayed there on the 9th to hear mass in the royal family away. A regiment lined the approaches to cathedral. The slowness of the journey gave rise to the port: the soldiers presented arms, and the officers suspicions of the king's intentions: some said that he saluted the king with their swords, without the word was going to La Vendée; but he was waiting to hear of command being given, by a spontaneous movement, the result of his abdication in favour of the child who and in deep silence. Captain Dumont d'Urville comaccompanied him. The 'Moniteur' put an end to manded some vessels of war which were to convoy the all his hopes and illusions. On the 7th of August, the king, and on asking him whither he would go, the reply' two Chambers gave the crown of France, with the was, to England. The vessels set sail for that country, title of king of the French, to Louis Philippe, duc which is the place of refuge for all the exiles of the d'Orleans. Charles X. continued his journey. "Of world, and carried the royal family to the coast of this pompous Court," says an eye-witness, "of this Dorsetshire, where they resided for a time in Lulworth crowd of tinselled courtiers who surrounded the king, Castle. They afterwards removed to Holyrood House, who filled the rooms of the Tuileries, or of St. Cloud, in Edinburgh, where Charles X. had resided before. there remained only some civil and military officers, The king maintained his dignity during the painful and some officers of the Garde Royale." As the royal period of his progress through France; and the people fugitives went on, the national cockades and tricolour on the road treated his misfortunes with decent respect. CHAPTER CI. THE NEW CHARTER. On the 3rd of August the duke of Orleans opened the legislative session in the Chamber of Deputies, where the Peers had been invited to attend. About sixty Peers were present, and about 240 Deputies. The session was opened with the usual ceremonial; the signs of royalty still remained on the place of the throne, but the crown was surmounted with a tricolour flag. The duke did not occupy the throne. He read an address in a firm voice, which was well received, though the last paragraph, in which he spoke of the abdication of Charles X. without mentioning the duke of Bordeaux, caused some murmurs among the royalists.* But the legitimist party was without power. All France had accepted the Revolution. Mayors and *Annuaire Historique, &c., pour 1830,' p. 195. |