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
The following remarks about the habits of the young prince are not
without their historical interest, and complete the eulogium forced
from the mouth of the republican. "His life is far from being an idle
one; before and after breakfast he reads several letters, several
newspapers, and reports, often of a very voluminous description,
relative to the different questions which are the order of the day in
France; then he gives a few hours of the afternoon to exercise. He
scrupulously observes his religious duties, attending divine service
two or three times a-week in the chapel of the chateau, and every
Sunday at the parish church. He writes with considerable grace, and
his letters are remarkable for their correctness and elegance."
Perhaps the most striking, and certainly the most touching, part of
the book of M. Charles Didier, is that in which he speaks of the
Duchess d'Angoulême. It belongs not exactly to the subject of
legitimacy or its prospects in France; but the interest attached to it
is so full of pathos, and, in an historical point of view, so
considerable, that we cannot refrain from quoting a few words of the
author's account of his interview with this remarkable princess.
M. Didier seems to have hesitated about being introduced to the aged
duchess. He was naturally scrupulous as to the effect which might be
produced upon the mind of this victim of revolutions, by the
presentation of one of those republicans, to the very name of whom,
the disastrous calamities of her early life must have inspired her
with an unconquerable horror. But he was led on by the Duc de Levis,
"not without a degree of uneasiness," and his reception by the austere
princess, in her plain dark attire, and in her severely simple room,
was as amiable as could be expected from one naturally stern,
reserved, and cold almost to harshness in manner. M. Didier appears to
have been inexpressibly touched by her appearance, as well as by her
kindly reception of him. It is thus that he speaks of the poor
"_orpheline du Temple_:"--"All party hatred must be extinguished in
the presence of the reverses of fortune she has undergone. I had
before me the woman who has suffered what woman never suffered here
below, can never suffer again. What matter that she be princess? She
is no less the daughter and the sister, thrice proscribed! She belongs
no less to a human family. This is certainly the most striking
historical figure in Europe. She produced the most profound impression
upon me, and I could not conceal the emotion that thrilled through me.
My heart was divided betwixt respect and pity. I seemed to see before
me one of those victims of fatality, immortalised by antique art. Only
Christian resignation has impressed upon the daughter of Louis XVI. a
more touching stamp, and raised her on this Christian elevation far
above the types of antiquity." What a homage is this, complete as it
is pathetic, from the mouth of the descendant of the enemies of her
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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