Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815 -- Fiction; War stories
The marriage, the prospect of which failed to commend itself to the
coloured maid, took place in due course. The contract which expressed
the business side of that alliance was graced by the signature of a
Prince of the blood and by two other signatures of a most aristocratic
complexion. The French colony in London refrained from audible comments.
The gracious behaviour of H.R.H. the Duc de Berry to the bridegroom
killed all criticism in the very highest circles of the emigration. In
less exalted circles there were slight shrugs and meaning glances, but
very little else besides, except now and then a veiled sarcasm which
could be ascribed to envy as much as to any other sentiment. Amongst the
daughters of the emigration there must have been more than one who in
her heart of hearts thought Adèle d'Armand a very lucky girl. The
splendour of the entertainments which were given to the London society
by the newly wedded couple after their return from the honeymoon put it
beyond all doubt that the man whom Aglae described as wearing a
"too-much-laced coat" was very rich. It began also to be whispered that
he was a man of fantastic humours and of eccentric whims of the sort
that do not pass current in the best society; especially in the case of
a man whose rank was dubious and whose wealth was but recently acquired.
But the embittered and irreconcilable remnant of the exiled aristocracy
gave but little of its sympathy to Adèle d'Armand. She ought to have
waited till the King was restored, and either married suitably--or else
entered a convent for ladies of rank. For these too would soon be
restored.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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