BOOKS.
LIMARTINE'S RESTORATION OF MONARCHY IN FRANCE—VOLUME FOURTH.* THIS volume commences with the Ministry of Villdle, and closes with the close of its subject—the forcible end of the Restoration by the Revolution of July, and the embarkation of the dethroned old King and his family at Cherbourg. The principal intervening subjects, in foreign affairs, are the invasion of Spain to restore Ferdinand, Greece with the battle of Navarino, and the conquest of Algiers. At home, the narrative is occupied with the intrigues or violence of factions rather than of parties, the " characters" of successive Ministers, the death of Louis the Eighteenth, and the strange infatuation both civil and military which led to the down- fall of the monarchy of the elder Bourbons. The work is more cumbrous than heretofore. In part this is owing to the nature of the events. Civil affairs, especially relating to a foreign country, and dealing with debate or intrigue, can never have the interest which attaches to a great military narrative. A portion of the defect is due to the author. For he handles his subject too much in detail, at least for English readers ; drawing por- traits of ministers and politicians, forgotten here, and at a length which belongs rather to the minuteness of biography than the breadth of history. The same error is visible in his political nar- rative ; it is too detailed, and too much encumbered with speeches. Perhaps, too, the " quorum pars fui" appears disadvantageously in the form of personal feeling. The diminished interest, however, is mainly owing to the smaller interest of the persons and the actions' seen from a present point of view. They may have interest enough hereafter, when the entire result on France will be per- ceived, and their influence estimated as part of a fearful whole. Yet the book is not without the importance which arises from a political moral. Throughout the whole narrative, that blind and reck- less spirit of faction is visible which has cast so much discredit on Parliamentary government in France, and, by leading to the notion that it was impossible, has caused its destruction. Louis the Eighteenth appears to have been blameless. His whole reign was one of prudent resistance to extreme measures ; sometimes of resistance to Liberal rashness, ever to the violent mea- sures of the old noblesse and the priests. Even the earlier portion of Charles the Tenth's reign was moderate, though a monarch with his ideas and advisers would be sure eventually to have gone ; but impulsive vivacity furnished even him with some excuse for anger, though not for folly. The worst feature throughout, however, is the want of principle and self-respect in French poli- ticians. The two extremes were always ready to coalesce to gain a victory over an opponent, even when the opponent's measure was approved by one party of the coalition. Every sect seemed utterly careless of the consequences of their acts ; they would destroy anything, without regard to what they should erect, or whether anything could be erected. The Republicans, when per- sonally respectable, seemed to have the most disinterestedness and principle.
By the nature of the case, or by a formed design, a character of meanness or littleness pervades the entire action. Where the actors are not dramatically exhibited as vicious or morally weak, they are painted as incapable. The "glorious three days" themselves ap- pear as a very sorry affair. Charles and his Ministers are exhi- bited as bigoted, besotted, and blind to consequences, rashly pro- voking an insurrection, yet making no provision to meet it. The bulk of the Legitimists are described as treacherous and silly ; the party that afterwards became Orleanists, as incapable, fearful, waiting upon Providence, and forced at last to decide by the reso- lution of two or three men. The humbler Republicans and Im- perialists, assisted by the gamins of Paris, who chiefly did the fight- ing, appear more respectable from their active courage ; yet even the combat itself is treated as something like a riot, that would never have broken out, or might easily have been put down, had the Ministry prepared a sufficient force and a proper commander ; nay, Marmont, though his heart was not in the work, might have done better had not his troops been too much spread. A kind of halo is thrown over some of the Royal Family, by their courage, their misfortunes, and their alleged personal virtues ; but it is pro- duced at the expense of their discretion and common sense. The exception to this implied universal censure is Louis the Eighteenth. He stands forth in Lamartine's pages as a mode- rating and controlling power ; capable, with less infirm health and longer life, of amalgamating the Revolution and the Restoration and founding a solid constitutional government, instead of merely keeping parties quiet by his prudence. As Lamartine, in a former volume, painted the Monarch in youth, manhood, and exile, so he now limns him in age and death; ascribing to him a simplicity of habits which will be new information to many.
" The court by its splendour certainly recalled that of the Grand Monarque ; only that, behind all this official and external pomp of his palace, Louis XVIII. preserved some images of his original mediocrity, and some habits of private life, retired and studious, contracted in the changeable residences of his long exile. The King loved to remind himself of his proscription. "All the great offices of the court had been reestablished, and restored to the great families by whom they had been held before the Revolution. The titular possessors of these honorary employments exercised them ostensibly with solemn xegularity ; but their functions were nothing more than show with the King, who required the presence but rarely the services of these • • The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France. By Alphonse de La- martine, Author of The History of the Girondists." Translated by Captain Rafter, Author of " The Queen of the Jungle." Vol. IV. Published by Vizetelly and CO. great officers of the crown. In the midst of his vast apartments and by the aide of his bed of state, all was a solitude, where every night a little truckle- bed on castors was brought in for the King, with green curtains, resembling a child's bed. On retiring to rest, he appointed the hour at which his at- tendant should awake him the following morning for the business of the day. At that hour precisely, etiquette resumed its empire ; his servants entered the chamber, lit the fire, opened his bed-curtains, brought him water to wash in a silver gilt basin, drew ou his stockings, dressed him, presented him with holy water, and waited in silence while he offered up his mental prayer, fixed by etiquette as well as piety for the first act of the King on his awaking. "After he had made the sign of the cross, the King ordered the door to be opened to the officers of his 'household, and to the great dignitaries of the court, the church, and the army, who had the privilege of entering the royal 'bedchamber ; princes, ambassadors, cardinals, bishops, dukes, marshals of France, lieutenant-generals, first presidents of courts of justice, Peers, or Deputies. These courtiers formed a circle, or passed before him, whilst his pages and his valets-de-chambre finished his toilette, held the looking-glass for him, and brought him, on golden trays, the coat, the decorations, and the sword, in which he was dressed for the remainder of the day. He occupied himself in this manner till the hour of dejeuner with the members of his family, or with these personages whom the privileges of their respective offices authorized to partake of this first royal meal. and he proceeded, accompanied by this cortege, to the breakfast-room. All the Royal Family, some of the great officers of his household, and the principal officers of the Royal Guard on duty, were admitted to his table, which was sumptuously served. Louis XVIII.—whom popular rumour, maliciously spread by pamphleteers, ac- cused of intemperance and a revival of the sensual refinements of Sueto- nius—only regarded the luxury of his table as a piece of royal pomp ; he eat nothing but two fresh eggs, and drank nothing but a small glass of foreign
wine, poured out by his cup-bearer. • • *
"The intellectual society, and the reading of Louis XVIII. before and during the Revolution, and his philosophical studies during his exile, had liberated his mind from many of the official superstitions of his childhood : on the other hand, his character of the Most Christian King, to be kept up in the face of Europe and of France—his relationship to the royal martyr— his ancient alliance with the religion of St. Louis—his train of bishops—his title of restorer of the throne and the altar—his intercourse, epistolary and social, in foreign countries, with the great writers, anti-revolutionary and anti-philosophical, such as De Bonald, De Maiatre, and De Chateaubriand- and finally, his court, and his government, full of the representatives of the clerical party, and the strength which the Restoration derived from this conscience-ruling party—had, if not converted, at least constrained Louis XVIII. to an official orthodoxy which clashed with his preconceived ideas, but which was becoming to his reign. During its first years, he spoke of re- ligion as a king when in public, as a philosopher in private, but always with decency, and like a sovereign who looked upon the church as the great pro- genitor of his dynasty and the great etiquette of his court. Such was Louis XVIII. since 1814 and 1815. His public life was conformable to these dis- positions of his mind : the assiduous exercise of divine worship formed part of Ms kingly ceremonial, and he attended it with all the solemnity of Louis XIV. In private life he preserved his freedom of thought, and even indulged in that light raillery at popular superstitions, and those occasionally bitter smiles at the prostration of his brother before the clergy, which exhibited the philosophical independence of the man under the external respect of the Bourbon and the sovereign. He did not like Louis XIV. give up his conscience to a Tether ; for though he had an official confessor, as a necessary adjunct to the royal household, he never appeared at court, nor did he govern the King's conscience, or exercise any influence over public affairs. An humble and obscure priest, exiled to the attics of the Tuileries, and a stranger to every ambitious faction of the clergy, had been . chosen by the King for the sanctity of his life and the disinterestedness of his faith; a man of God, concealed, for the religious consolation of the prince, behind the curtain of the temple, and in the deep shadows of the palace."
The King was quite aware of his approaching end ; but, accord- ing to the historian, neither his family nor the dignified clergy could get him to receive the last sacraments. It was only man- aged by recalling Madame du Cayla, who had been removed from court. At her persuasion he consented.
" She then retired ; and the King having immediately. summoned M. de Villele, terminated with him all those affairs which he wished to leave in a finished state behind him. Henceforward,' he said to him, you will transact business with my brother. I have nothing further to think of but the great business of death; and I do not wish to be distracted in that by worldly cares, which are now at an end with Inc.' He expressed with sensi- bility to this Minister and his colleagues his satisfaction with their services, and dismissed them as at the conclusion of a final council. He then sum- moned to his bedside the obscure and pious priest whom he had made his confessor, and opened his soul to him in private ; after which, he directed the usual pomp and solemnities for the deathbed of kings to be prepared; and while the royal chaplain, the cardinals, and the bishops, were assembling at the door of his bedchamber, to perform those funeral offices, he sum- moned all his family to his presence.
" It was about sunset on the 15th September 1824, and the King was
best waking from a long lethargic slumber, which had made his attendants lieve it was his last. His eyes had resumed their usual brightness, his voice was clear and distinct, and his countenance displayed his customary firmness and presence of mind. His brother was kneehng and weeping at the foot of his bed, the Duko and Duchess d'Anpouleme were praying by his side, and between them and the Count d'Artois was the Duchess do Berri, holding her two children by their hands ; the courtiers and attendants stood at a distance, so that they might see but could not hear the last fare, well of the dying King with his family. A few words only could be dis- tinguished. These were the adieus of a brother, an uncle, and a friend, but especiallv of a sage and a monarch, desirous of leaving behind him the wisdom, the experience, and the foresight, necessary for the guidance of the Throne. Love one another,' he said and let this affection console you for the disasters and the ruin of our house. Divine Providence has re- placed us upon the throne. I have been enabled to maintain you there by moderate measures, which have deprived the monarchy of no real power, but have given it the approbation and support of the people. The Charter is the best inheritance I can give you ; preserve it, my brother, for my sake, for the sake of our subjects, and for your own ! And also, he added, raising his hands and blessing the young Duke de Bordeaux, who was held forward by his mother towards the King, ' for the sake of this child, to whom you will transmit the throne after any son and daughter !' (titles of affection which he gave to the Duke and Duchess d'Angouleme.) Then, looking at the Duke de Bordeaux, he said, May you, my child, be more wise and happy than your parents!' " The rest was inaudible, being muttered in a low voice to the nearest and most afflicted group of the Royal Family ; nothing was heard but repeated adieus, sighs, and sobs, around the bed and in the halls. The princes and princesses arose, and, retiring a little, made way for the cardinals and bish- ops who came to administer the last offices to the King.
"He received these sacred ceremonies with collected' piety and midis. turbed attention.; responding sometimes himself by verses from the Latin pealing, to those chanted by the bishops and cardinals. He thanked them, and took an eternal farewell. of the officers of his household. One indi- eidtial who mingled with them, and was concealed amongst the crowd where the King's eye recognized him, prayed and wept over his master and his benefactor. This was M. Decazes ; to whom the jealousy of the ultra- Royalists and the hostility of the courtiers only permitted this stolen fare- well of a king who had loved ltimso much, and whom he had himself loved as a father.
" After these ceremonies and adieus, the dying monarch, surrounded only by his brother, his nephew, the Duchess d'Angouleme, and some attendants, continued in a lethargic state, broken by intervals of consciousness, without
• pain, delirium, or affiction. At daybreak on the 16th September, the day lie himself suggested to his medical attendants as likely to terminate his physical powers, his first physician, chewing aside the bed-curtain, felt his pulse to ascertain if it still beat : the arm was still warm, but the pulse was no longer perceptible. The King was in his final sleep. "lf. Portal raised the bed-clothes, and, turning round, said, Gentle- men, the King, is dead' ; then, bowing to the Count d'Artois, he concluded, Long live the King !'
The narrative exhibits the same.careleasness with.regard to.exact statements* or the author's poeticartendency to adorn them, which was-displayed in the.previonevolumes. For the closing scenes of Charles the . Tenth's- reign he has enjoyed access to some private
documents, .and forthe whole period he has possessed the advantage of personal observation.
Previous page
