Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume I.Scott, Walter
History
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume I.
Scott, Walter
France -- History -- 1789-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
office, as the source of danger to the popular cause. Some of the
Republican chiefs had probably expected a more sudden termination to the
reign of Louis from an insurrection so threatening; at least these
leaders had been the first to hail and to encourage the female
insurgents, on their arrival at Versailles.[121] But though the issue of
that insurrection may have fallen short of their hopes, it could not but
be highly acceptable to them so far as it went.
[Sidenote: ORLEANS SENT TO ENGLAND.]
The party of Orleans had hitherto wrapt in its dusky folds many of those
names which were afterwards destined to hold dreadful rank in the
Revolutionary history. The prince whose name they adopted is supposed to
have been animated partly by a strong and embittered spirit of personal
hatred against the Queen, and partly, as we have already said, by an
ambitious desire to supplant his kinsman. He placed, according to
general report, his treasures, and all which his credit could add to
them, at the disposal of men, abounding in those energetic talents which
carry their owners forward in times of public confusion, but devoid
alike of fortune, character, and principle; who undertook to serve their
patron by enlisting in his cause the obscure and subordinate agents, by
whom mobs were levied, and assassins subsidized. It is said, that the
days of the 5th and 6th of October were organized by the secret agents
of Orleans, and for his advantage; that had the enterprise succeeded,
the King would have been deposed, and the Duke of Orleans proclaimed
Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, while his revenge would probably have
been satiated with the Queen's assassination. He is stated to have
skulked in disguise about the outskirts of the scene when the tumult was
at the highest, but never to have had courage to present himself boldly
to the people, either to create a sensation by surprise, or to avail
himself of that which his satellites had already excited in his
favour.[122] His resolution having thus failed him at the point where it
was most necessary, and the tumult having ended without any thing taking
place in his favour, the Duke of Orleans was made a scape-goat, and the
only one, to atone for the whole insurrection. Under the title of an
embassy to England, he was honourably exiled from his native country.
[Oct. 14.] Mirabeau spoke of him in terms of the utmost contumely, as
being base-minded as a lackey, and totally unworthy the trouble which
had been taken on his account. His other adherents gradually and
successively dropped away, in proportion as the wealth, credit, and
character of this besotted prince rendered him incapable of maintaining
his gratuities; and they sailed henceforth under their own flag, in the
storms he had fitted them to navigate. These were men who had resolved
to use the revolutionary axe for cutting out their own private fortunes,
and, little interesting themselves about the political principles which
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