104 



CHAMBORD, COMTE DE. 



scription was opened, and with the proceeds 

 the beautiful castle and estate of Chambord 

 were purchased, and presented to the Prince 

 as a public offering. The title of Due de Bor- 

 deaux was given him out of compliment to the 

 city which was the first to proclaim the Bour- 

 bons after the fall of Napoleon. He was now 

 created Count de Chambord by the King, his 

 great-uucle. 



The birth of the Prince occurred at the time 

 when a reaction against liberal ideas had set in, 

 the main cause of the revival of royalist ideas 

 being the murder of his father. The Duke of 

 Orleans, who was descended from Philippe of 



COMTE DE CHAMBOBD. 



Orleans, second son of Louis XIV, and was the 

 son of Philippe Egalite of the Revolution, stood 

 heir to the murdered Duke in default of male 

 issue. He was the hope of the party of liberal- 

 constitutional ideas. Between the throne and 

 the Duke of Orleans were, in the regular line of 

 succession, the Comte d'Artois, brother to the 

 reigning King, the infirm Louis XVIII, and 

 the Comte's surviving eldest son, the childless 

 Due d Angouleme. It was in the hope of de- 

 stroying the elder branch of the Bourbons that 

 the saddler Louvel assassinated the Due de Ber- 

 ry, under the portico of the Opera-House, Feb. 

 13, 1820. The< Liberal ministers were driven 

 from office, and the supporters of the Duke of 



Orleans were accused of inspiring the crime. 

 When the Duchesse de Berry gave birth to a 

 prince, the report was circulated by the Lib- 

 erals that the child was a changeling. 



The education of Henri was planned to fos- 

 ter in his mind the principles of absolutism 

 and divine right. The chiefs of the ancient 

 nobility, who served him as tutors and gov- 

 ernesses, filled his brain with their romantic 

 ideas of the ancient regime. When he was in 

 his fifth year his grandfather succeeded the 

 shrewd and prudent Louis XVIII, as Charles 

 X, and the glories of the old monarchy were 

 revived, and, in the exhibitions of royal splen- 

 dor, the handsome little prince was 

 made a central figure. Dressed in 

 white and blue until he was six 

 years old, in token of his dedication 

 to the Virgin Mary, he reviewed his 

 regiment of hussars, and distributed 

 boons and pardons to suppliant 

 crowds. In 1830 Charles X, with 

 the assistance of his minister, Prince 

 Polignac, attempted to reassume the 

 prerogative of the kings of France. 

 After twice dissolving the Liberal 

 Chamber, he issued an ordinance, 

 on the 25th of July, 1830, abrogat- 

 ing the charter of 1815. At the end 

 of three days of barricade-fighting, 

 the royal troops were beaten by the 

 people of Paris. The Duke of Or- 

 leans accepted the crown as King 

 of the French, and the deposed mon- 

 arch journeyed slowly in royal state 

 to Cherbourg, still expecting to be 

 restored to the throne by an upris- 

 ing of the provinces, and then set 

 sail with all his family, followed by 

 a frigate, which had orders to sink 

 the ship if she should put back for 

 the coast of France. 



The proscribed King set up a court 

 in the palace of Holyrood, at Edin- 

 burgh, until the ministry of William 

 IV gave him to understand that there 

 were political inconveniences attend- 

 ing the^stay of the royal family in 

 Great Britain. Before settling at 

 Hradjin, near Prague, where they 

 next established themselves, the 

 Duchesae de Berry, & princess of energetic 

 character and adventurous spirit, undertook 

 an expedition into France, for the purpose 

 of heading a movement to place her son 

 on the throne. With her boy she landed se- 

 cretly in the Vendee. The plans of the ex- 

 pedition were well laid, and the Legitimists 

 formed in a military body without detection. 

 But the Breton peasants did not flock to the 

 white flag as was expected, not understanding 

 the grounds for upsetting one Bourbon King 

 to establish another. In a single engagement 

 with the King's troops the insurgent band was 

 routed. The Duchess was betrayed into the 

 hands of the Government, anc 1 , when confined 



