FROM HOWL FOR ' RECiritOCITY ' TO PRESENT DAY 329 



in 1838, He entered the army, but had to leave 

 through ill-health in 1864 ; in which year he married a 

 daughter of Baron Sina. She brought him an immense 

 fortune, and gave him the Princesses Ypsilanti and 

 Mavrocordato and the Countess Zichy (who were her 

 sisters) for his near connections by marriage. His sister 

 married the Marshal Duke de MacMahon, and his 

 mother was the Countess de Castries, a d'Harcourt by 

 birth. He became Duke on the death of his uncle, who 

 married Mile. Henriette de Maille, but left no issue, and 

 he himself died without issue, so that his title became 

 extinct, unless his cousin were authorised to adopt it. 

 The house of la Croix de Castries is said to be origin- 

 ally of Languedoc, and to have numbered among its 

 members Guillaume de la Croix, President of the Cour 

 des Aides of Montpellier, who was in great favour at 

 the courts of Louis XL, Charles VIH., and Louis XII. 

 The de Castries property was made a marquisate in 

 1645 ; at the Ptevolution in 1789 the head of the family 

 was the Marquis de Castries (Marshal of France and 

 Knight of the King's Orders), who died in 1801. His 

 son Armand is said to have received the title of duke 

 by patent in 1784, and to have been summoned to tlie 

 peerage in 1814 with the title and rank of hereditary 

 duke. He was appointed governor of the Chateau of 

 Meudon (where the great ' haras ' was) in 1822, was 

 created a Knight of the King's Orders at the coronation 

 of Charles X., and died in 1842. He left two sons, of 

 whom the elder, Edmond, Duke de Castries, died with- 

 out issue, and the younger having predeceased him, the 

 title devolved upon the last Duke. 



The Duke's colours (white, cherry cap, gold tassel) 

 had been barely four years known upon the turf, and 

 already he had won nearly everything (in France) with 



