Louis Philippe: Makers of History SeriesAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
Louis Philippe: Makers of History Series
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Louis Philippe, King of the French, 1773-1850
The landing occurred without accident, and Marie Caroline scaled the
rocks, along a path which tried the nerves even of the boldest
smugglers, till she reached a temporary hut which had been reared to
afford her shelter. The vigilance, however, of the Government police
had not been entirely eluded. That very evening the authorities, in
some way, received the rumor that the duchess had landed, or was
about to land, at Marseilles, to commence the uprising there.
Immediate and vigorous preparations were adopted to quell it. The
force of every military post was doubled.
A band of about two thousand of her partisans was the next morning
assembled at an appointed rendezvous in the city. They ran up the
white banner of the Bourbons upon the spire of St. Laurient, and
began shouting vociferously, "_Vive Henri Cinq!_"--hoping to excite a
general insurrection, and that the whole populace of the city would
join them. They did create intense agitation, and wonder, and
bewilderment. Men, women, and children ran to and fro, and the
alarm-bells were violently rung from the steeples. The duchess was
still in her hut, waiting for the favorable moment in which to make
her appearance. When she saw the Bourbon flag unfurled from St.
Laurient, she was deluded by the hope that the success of the
enterprise was secured.
But soon the regular troops appeared in solid battalions. The crowd
fled before them. A few of the insurgents who attempted to make a
stand were dispersed by a bayonet charge, their leaders captured, and
the Bourbon flag disappeared! By one o'clock it was all over--the
_emeute_ had utterly and hopelessly failed!
Her despairing friends urged her immediately to repair to the
steamer, and to take refuge with the Bourbons of Spain. Heroically
she replied, "I am in France now, and in France will I remain." We
have not space here to enter into the detail of her wonderful
adventures, which she seemed to enjoy as if she were merely engaged
in a school-girl frolic. Probably she felt assured that if she were
taken prisoner, her royal blood, her relationship with the queen, as
her niece, and the sympathy of most of the courts of Europe in what
they deemed the righteousness of her cause, would save her from any
very severe treatment.
"Disguised as a peasant-boy, and accompanied by no one but
Marshal Bourmont, also in disguise, she set out on foot to
walk across France, through fields and by-paths, a distance
of four hundred miles, to the department of La Vendee, where
the Bourbon party was in its greatest strength. The first
night they lost their way in the woods. Utterly overcome by
exhaustion, the duchess sank down at the foot of a tree and
fell asleep, while her faithful attendant stood sentinel at
her side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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