XXIX. 1832. the feeling in her favour among the people, that although CHAP. all the posts had been doubled, and every precaution taken, the movement at first met with surprising success. The insurgents, to the number of above two thousand, composed chiefly of fishermen from the coast, assembled at the appointed rendezvous on La Tourette, the highest point in the city, from whence Cæsar directed his attacks against it, and where the Marseillaise women gloriously defended it against the assault of Charles V. Soon the whole quarter was in their possession. Cries of " Vive Henri Cinq!" were heard on all sides; and from the cottage where she had passed the night, the Princess, with speechless delight, beheld the white flag waving on the summit of the steeple of St Laurent, the highest point in the city. But her joy was of short duration. The tocsin indeed sounded loudly from the steeple, and the Royalists assembled in great numbers but few leaders appeared; a great proportion of the crowd was composed of women. First uncertainty, then anxiety, appeared on their countenances. A body which attempted to get possession of the Palais de Justice, where a company of military was stationed, was dispersed by a charge of the bayonet, and their leaders, MM. de Candole, de Bermond, and de Lachau, seized. This proved fatal to the whole enterprise. The crowd dispersed; the Duchess had the pain of seeing the white flag pulled down and replaced by the tricolor on 1 L. Blanc, the steeple of St Laurent; and at one o'clock in the iii. 271,273; afternoon she received from an unknown hand a note 11; Ann. containing the words, "The movement has failed; you 174, 176. must leave France. "1 Cap. vi. 109, Hist. xv. 44. resolves to to La Ven The Princess was sad but not discouraged. At Massa she had had a dream, in which she saw her husband, who The Duchess said to her, "I approve of your designs: but you will cross France not succeed in the south; you will have no success but in La Vendée." This dream took such possession of her imagination that it produced all the effect of reality: she saw in her present failure a confirmation of her vision, dée. 1832. CHAP. and the herald of future triumph. Instantly she took XXIX. her determination, and declared she would cross France to La Vendée. In vain her few counsellors strenuously represented that the enterprise was hopeless; that M. Kergolay had been arrested the moment he stepped ashore; and that nothing remained but to re-embark on board the Carlo-Alberto, and make for Spain, where a secure asylum would be found. Nothing could shake the determination of the heroic Princess. "I am here now," she said," and I will remain. Too many people have been compromised for me; I will not abandon them." She set out accordingly on foot, attended only by Marshal Bourmont, disguised as a peasant. Directing their course across fields and by bypaths, to elude pursuit, they lost their way before night in a wood; and the Princess, overwhelmed with fatigue, sank to the ground at the foot of a tree, and fell asleep. The marshal, standing near, watched her slumbers without reiii. 274,275. posing himself; and thus passed the first night of the regent's sojourn in her dominions.1* 1 Cap. vi. 116, 117; L. Blanc, 45. into La Vendée. May 17. Louis Philippe, with great humanity, and not less She escapes wisdom, had given orders to his cruisers that if the Duchess de Berri was taken she should not be brought to France, but conveyed to Naples, and redelivered to her parents. He felt the same anxiety to save her life which he had done to spare those of the ministers of Charles X. at their memorable trial. This circumstance slackened the pursuit of the Duchess, and was the main cause of her reaching La Vendée in safety. The CarloAlberto was soon captured; and among the other attendants of the Princess was a young lady, Mademoiselle Lebeschu, who was taken for her, and taken to Corsica, where ere long the error was discovered. While * What a scene for a picture! When the time comes, as come it will one day, that the free expression of feeling is permitted in France, the adventures of the Duchess de Berri during her romantic expedition to La Vendée will form a favourite subject of the painter's pencil and of melodramatic representation. XXIX. 1832. the delusion lasted, however, it was universally credited, CHAP. and contributed very much to the safe passage of the Duchess across France. The adventures of the Princess during that long journey, from the rocks of Marseilles to the Bocage of La Vendée, exceed anything that ever figured in romance or described in poetry. Though she lodged in general in the houses of the Royalist proprietors, where she was perfectly secure, she sometimes ran very great risks on the road, from which she was extricated only by her admirable courage and presence of mind. On one occasion, having lost her way when wandering alone in a wood, she was obliged to pass the night in a miserable shed, of which she herself forced open the door on another, when driven by hunger to seek human habitation, she boldly presented herself to a Republican, saying, "I am the Duchess de Berri." He had the generosity not to betray the trust. The gendarmes, however, were everywhere on the alert, and but for the fortunate report of her seizure on board the Carlo-Alberto, she would in all probability have been taken. But that mistake stood her in good stead; and at length, after having surmounted a thousand perils, and frequently 1 L. Blanc, passed unknown through large bodies of gendarmes, she iii. 273,275; reached the chateau of Plassac, near Saintes in La Ven- 121; Ann. dée, on the 17th May, and a general rising of her fol- 178, 179. lowers was appointed for the 24th of the same month.1 Cap. vi. 119, Hist. xv. tude, and Great was the disquietude and uneasiness of the 46. Royalists in Paris at these unexpected events. The in- Disquietrepid character and unalterable resolution of the Prin- measures of the Royalcess were well known, as well as the ardent spirit and its at these sanguine temperament of the preux chevaliers by whom events. she was immediately surrounded, so that no modification of her determination was to be looked for. At the same time, the Royalist committee in the capital, far better informed, and awake to the signs of the times, were painfully alive to the perils, it might be said the hopelessness, of the attempt. Not less chivalrous or loyal than M. de 1832. CHAP. Bourmont and M. de Kergolay, they were more aware XXIX. of the difficulties it had to encounter. La Vendée was no longer what it had been during its first immortal struggle. Material interests had invaded the Bocage, and divided the feelings of its heroic inhabitants. They were not less brave or loyal than they had been in the days when they followed the standards of Henri Larochejaquelein or M. de Lescure, but they were more dependent on the capital. The great roads which Napoleon had constructed through every part of their territory had not only let in knowledge and information, but opened up to their industry the market of Paris. Their cattle, the produce of their dairies, their sheep, lambs, and wool, were bought up and sent to the metropolis. Men paused before they adventured on a contest of which the dangers were now well known, and which threatened not only to endanger their lives and families, but to deprive them of the means of subsistence. A considerable part of the richest proprietors in the country had bought the national domains, and were attached to the new order of things. Thus, though the majority retained their traditional feelings of loyalty, and the influence of the old families over their tenantry was undiminished, there was a much greater division of opinion in the country, and the same unanimity as formerly in any Royalist movement was no longer to be looked for. M. de Chateaubriand, M. Hyde de Neuville, M. Berryer, and the other enlightened leaders of the Royalists in Paris, were well aware of these changes, and earnestly dissuaded any insurrectionary attempt. Their constant doctrine was to let the Revolution work out its own fruits, the people experience the consequences of their own actions; and in the end suffering would alter their opinions, and the Citizen King would be dethroned by the Chamber which had created him.1 1 Cap. vi. 121, 124; L. Blanc, iii. 276, 284. Although there are probably few persons who will doubt that these opinions were, in the circumstances, well XXIX. 1832. 47. insurrec founded, and that it would have been well for the Princess CHAP. if she had adopted them, they were far from being agreeable either to herself or the gallant, though inconsiderate, cavaliers by whom she was surrounded. They persisted Vain atin attempting a general rising; the orders to that effect tempt at an were transmitted to all the Vendean chiefs and a few tion. days before the day appointed, the Princess, dressed in the costume of the young peasants of La Vendée, repaired May 21. on horseback to Mesliers, the rendezvous appointed for her followers. An artificial head-dress of dark hair concealed her beautiful light locks, and she had quite the look of a handsome youth, and took the name of " Petit Pierre." But few obeyed the summons, and such as did come portrayed in the strongest terms the hopelessness of the attempt. They represented respectfully, but firmly, that La Vendée had engaged to take up arms only on the occurrence of one of three events-a foreign invasion, the proclamation of a republic, or an insurrection in the south-none of which had occurred, and that it was impossible to induce the peasants to rise. The Princess, with fervent eloquence, and all the passionate earnestness of her sex and country, represented how much she had risked in behalf of the cause, and conjured them to alter their resolution; but in vain. With a smile on her lips, 1 L. Blanc, but despair in her heart, she was obliged to dismiss them iii. 276,277; Cap. vi. 122, with a request for a written opinion, which they sent her 123. next day.1 cess resolves which May 26. But next day a letter arrived from Toulon, addressed 48. to the Princess by the name of Bernard, which she was The Prinknown by in the south, which overcame all hesitation on on a rising, her part. The moment she read the letter, she exclaimed, proves abor"Oh my God, all the south is in flames! No, I will not tive.. depart ;" and immediately sitting down, she wrote to M. Berryer that she had changed her mind, and was determined to persist; and to the Baron de Charette a letter ordering the rising, which terminated with the words: My dear friend, do not resign your situation, since 66 |