On the following evening, the Duke gave a splendid _fête_ at his hotel,
in honor of the coronation of Charles X., and of his admission into the
Order of the Garter. The King and Queen of Wurtemburg were present,
with some fifteen hundred persons of less rank, but many of whom were
of greater importance in society. Perhaps not the least remarkable
feature of the evening was the presence together, in one group, of the
Dauphin and that Duchess of Angoulême who was popularly known as the
“orphan girl of the Temple,” with the Duchess of Berri, the Duke of
Orleans (Louis Philippe), and Talleyrand. The last-named still wore
the long bolster-cravat, of the time of the Revolution, and looked as
cunning as though he knew the destiny that awaited the entire group,
three of whom have since died in exile--he alone breathing his last
sigh, in calm tranquillity, in his own land.
Charles X. conferred on the ducal bearer of the insignia of the Garter
a splendid gift--one of the finest and most costly vases ever produced
at the royal manufacture of Porcelain at Sèvres. The painting on it,
representing the Tribunal of Diana, is the work of M. Leguai, and it
occupied that distinguished artist full three years before it was
completed. Considering its vast dimensions, the nature of the painting,
and its having passed twice through the fire without the slightest
alteration, it is unique of its kind. This colossal vase now stands in
the centre of the ball-room in Northumberland House.
The last monarch to whom a commission has carried the insignia of
the Garter, was the Czar Nicholas. It was characteristic of the man
that, courteous as he was to the commissioners, he would not, as
was customary in such cases, dine with them. They were entertained,
however, according to his orders, by other members of his family.
It is since the reign of George III. that Mr. Macaulay’s remark
touching the fact of the Garter being rarely conferred on aliens,
except sovereign princes, may be said to be well-founded. No alien,
under princely rank, now wears the Garter. The most illustrious of the
foreign knights are the two who were last created by patent, namely,
the Emperor Louis Napoleon and the King of Sardinia. The King of
Prussia is also a knight of the order, and, as such, he is bound by
his oath never to act against the sovereign of that order; but in our
struggle with felonious Russia, the Prussian government, affecting to
be neutral, imprisons an English consul on pretence that the latter has
sought to enlist natives of Prussia into the English service, while, on
the other hand, it passes over to Russia the material for making war,
and sanctions the raising of a Russian loan in Berlin, to be devoted,
as far as possible, to the injury of England. The King is but a poor
knight!--and, by the way, that reminds me that the once so-called poor
knights of Windsor can not be more appropriately introduced than here.
THE POOR KNIGHTS OF WINDSOR, AND THEIR DOINGS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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