The Idler in FranceBlessington, Marguerite, Countess of
History
The Idler in France
Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of
France -- Description and travel; France -- Social life and customs
Comte ---- has just been here; he has been to the Collége of Ste.-Barbe
to take charge of the sons of the Duc de Guiche, in order to conduct
them to the country; a service of no little danger, as all connected
with the court, and known to be faithful to the royal family are liable
to be maltreated. How painful and trying a part is the Duc de Guiche
now called on to act: compelled to leave his wife and family in a town
in a state of siege, or to desert the monarch to whom he has sworn
fealty! But he will perform it nobly; and if Charles the Tenth had many
such men to rally round him in the present hour, his throne might still
be preserved.
The Duchesse de Guiche, in the trying situation in which she finds
herself, has displayed a courage worthy of olden times. The devotion of
her husband and self to the royal family is so well known that their
house has been a marked one during the last three days, the mob
repeatedly stopping before the gate uttering cries and menaces. All her
friends have urged her to leave Paris, and to remove with her children
to the country, for she would not consent to seek an asylum with her
grandmother or brother; urging, as a reason, that, in the absence of
the Duc, she felt it her duty to remain, that her presence might induce
the household to a more strict discharge of theirs, in protecting the
property of the Dauphin.
---- and ---- have been here, and have told us that the provisional
government were installed in the Hôtel-de-Ville, General La Fayette at
its head, and my old acquaintance Monsieur Alexandra de Laborde taking
an active part. How all this is to end I cannot imagine; the cry for a
republic, though strongly echoed, will, I think, be unavailing; and the
reasonable part of the community cannot desire that it should be
otherwise, inasmuch as the tyranny of the many must ever be more
insupportable than that of one, admitting that even a despotic monarchy
could in our day exercise a tyranny, which I am not disposed to admit.
The tri-coloured flag now floats on many of the churches, while that of
the _Fleur-de-lis_ still waves from the column in the Place Vendôme, on
other public buildings, and the Tuileries. What a strange state of
things! but every thing is strange in this eventful crisis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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