"The king, desirous of putting a stop to the troubles that
exist in the capital and in another part of France, _relying
especially on the sincere attachment of his cousin the Duc
d'Orléans_, appoints him Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom.
The king, having seen fit to withdraw the Ordinances of 25
July, approves the assembling of the Chambers on 3 August,
and he hopes they will be able to re-establish tranquillity
in France. The king will await at Rambouillet the return
of the person charged to bear this declaration to Paris.
If any attempt is made upon the lives of the king and his
family or upon his liberty, he will defend himself to the
last.
"Drawn up at Rambouillet, I August 1830.
"_(Signed)_ CHARLES"
The courier left Rambouillet at six in the morning, and reached Paris
at half-past eight. The Duc d'Orléans received the despatch at a
quarter to nine. M. Dupin was already with him. It is well known how
early M. Dupin could be the day, or day but one, after revolutions had
taken place; moreover, thanks to the _Caricature_, the impressions of
the shoes of this famous lawyer, printed along the route to Neuilly,
both going and returning, and _vice versâ_, acquired a celebrity
that afterwards became proverbial. M. Dupin, then, was with the Duc
d'Orléans when he received the letter from Charles X. The Duc d'Orléans
read it and passed it on to him. M. Dupin, remember, was head of the
prince's Privy Council. M. Dupin read the proclamation in his turn, and
advised that they should break openly and even brutally with the Older
Branch.
"Diable!" said the prince, "such a letter as you suggest my writing
will be anything but easy to draw up!"
"Shall I draw it up, your Highness?" asked M. Dupin.
"Yes, certainly. Try ... we will see."
M. Dupin wrote a letter as rough as himself. The Duc d'Orléans read it,
approved, re-copied, signed, put it in an envelope and was going to
seal it when, all at once, he said--
"Good gracious! I was going to send off a letter of such importance
as this without showing it to the duchess.... Wait a moment, Monsieur
Dupin, I will soon come back."
The letter must have been brutal indeed, for M. Dupin has himself
confessed that it was; he was by nature rough and the plane of
education had not effaced this roughness. He continued to argue with
King Louis-Philippe in just the same fashion as he had done when he
was Prince of Orléans. Once, during a political discussion, he forgot
himself so far as to say to the king--
"Look here, sir, we shall never agree!"
"I was thinking the same thing, Monsieur Dupin," replied
Louis-Philippe, "only I dared not tell you so."
I know few sayings more insolently aristocratic than this. King
Louis-Philippe was diabolically witty. In proof whereof, he returned
holding the same envelope and a letter that was to all appearances the
same.
"Poor duchess!" he said, "it made her very sad; but, by Jove, it can't
be helped!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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