Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 403, May, 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 403, May, 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
affair appears in his eyes little more than "much ado about nothing,"
by such means alone, in declaring the whole truth, he can establish
simple facts. The very same sentiment, he says--that, probably, of
delicacy--which enjoined his silence at first, now, combined with a
love of truth, enjoins his giving publicity to an account in which he
affirms that all is truth, simple truth, and no more nor less than the
truth. It was as a republican that he presented himself, he goes on to
say, and as a republican that he was received. In support of his
words, although refuting all pretensions to discuss politics, he gives
his republican "_profession de foi_." "I have been thus driven," he
continues, "to paint, from nature, an interior of an exiled family,
which struck me by its politeness and dignity. Such was the task
before me; and I have accomplished it conscientiously, without any
regard for persons, and without any sacrifice of opinion. The prestige
of rank has exercised no influence on me. I have been simply true."
And what has been the result? The supposed friends of M. Didier, the
arch-republicans, have _forced_ him, an ardent republican himself--a
republican _de l'avant-veille_, as he calls himself, but genuine and
sincere--to forward the cause of legitimacy, to publishing an
eulogium, of the most striking description, of the young prince who
represents legitimacy in France. Dreamers might almost see the hand of
Providence in this result of factious calumny.
It is needless, here, to follow M. Didier into the details of the
mission given him by Lamartine, when minister of foreign affairs, of
which he explains neither the cause nor the purposes, although he
dwells at some length upon the cause of his journey through Austria,
Hungary, Croatia, and a part of Germany, and more especially upon the
dates of his progress, probably with the intention of refuting the
calumny which asserted that he was officially sent as a spy upon the
ex-royal family of the elder branch. It may be remarked, however, _en
passant_, that he speaks not over-well of the Austrian revolutionists,
with whom he mixed, and that he readily acknowledges the veritable
anti-revolutionary spirit of the army and the masses. On the
conclusion of his mission, and his return to France by the north of
Italy, he heard by chance, on his passage to Trieste, for the first
time, he declares, that not far from his road lay the chateau of
Frohsdorf, and that this same chateau of Frohsdorf was inhabited by
the exiled family of France. It was only many months afterwards,
however, when he returned to Germany, for his own pleasure and
information, and as "_simple voyageur_," that having received, by
chance, a letter from a friend in Paris for the Duc de Lévis, one of
the faithful adherents attached to the little court of the exiled
Bourbons, he determined to profit by it, in order to visit Frohsdorf
on his way once more from Vienna to the north of Italy. Before
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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