674 Mr. Walter Freicen Lord [March 11, 



him to say that the idea was only a philosophic dream. If Lord 

 William Bcntinck, he added, is subject to dreams of this kind he is 

 not a lit person to be accredited to my master's court. His demand 

 for Bentinck's recall was not acceded to ; but Bentinck soon after re- 

 signed his post, and so passes from our history, where he figures as 

 Murat's evil genius. In that capacity he was succeeded by Louis 

 Philippe, who was even now hastening to Paris, and whom we must 

 follow in his efforts to overtLrow the last Bonaparte throne lef1, in 

 Europe. 



For we have now arrived at June 1814 ; the Emperor is installed 

 at Elba, and Louis XVII I. is on the throne of Fiance. The first 

 rumours of the Congress of Vienna are in the air, and the watchwords 

 of that Congress are to be Legitimacy and Restoration. Hence the ex- 

 tremely awkward position of the Allied Powers with regard to Murat, 

 who certainly was not a legitimate monarch in this sense, and at whose 

 gates there resided a legitimate monarch in the person of Ferdinand 

 of Sicily, w^ho claimed to be also Ferdinand of Naples. Nevertheless 

 the most ardent chamjDion of legitimacy, the Emperor of Austria, had 

 in fact recognised Murat, and had undertaken to engage England to 

 recognise him also. These promises had been made under the stress 

 of military exigencies, as I have endeavoured to make plain. But 

 Austria was loyal to them ; and it seemed that Murat was to be made 

 the solitary exception to the rule " Legitimacy and Restoration," and 

 that one Bonaparte kingdom would survive the general wreck. Thus 

 all that Bentinck had achieved by his perfidy and disobedience was to 

 postpone the fulfilment of Murat's dream. We shall see this if we 

 follow Louis Philippe through his interviews with various notables 

 throughout the year 1814. 



Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, had married, under the protec- 

 tion of British shijDS and bayonets, Maria Amelia, daughter of Maria 

 Caroline, Queen of Sicily, and Ferdinand her husband. He was des- 

 tined to seek the same protection for himself and his aged wife in their 

 flight from France in 1848, and to die, as he had wedded, in an island 

 — exile, and under the British flag. He now betook himself to Paris in 

 order to do the best he could for his father-in-law, and to overturn, if 

 possible, the throne of Murat. He met with a cold rece[)tion. First, 

 the Emperor of Austria : " Tell your father-in-law that he must give 

 up all idea of returning to Naples. It is out of the question for him 

 to think of it." The Emperor of Russia was even more firm : " Tell 

 your father-in-law that peoples are no longer to be ruled by holding 

 out a hand to be kissed. Unless he can make up his mind to a really 

 liberal and constitutional form of government, he must give up all 

 idea of regaining the kingdom of Naples." 



Seeing that Ferdinand was at this moment occupied in plunder- 

 ing and persecuting every upholder of the constitution who had not 

 already fled the country, the Emperor's words were not very en- 

 couraging. But the vanity and tenacity of Ferdinand were of that 

 colossal stamp that almost exalts potty failings into greatness. On 



