kaili mat 5)ttaitr.

THE DUKE OF BOURBON'S WILL.

31. LAI-Aux, for the Baroness de 1"euch6res, commenced the defenceorr Friday, last week, and was to resume it yesterday. The ease has no-. thing peculiarly interesting-, unless in so for as it goes to implicate the King of the French, and the members of his family. The guilt or in- nocence of the late Duke de Bourbon's mistress, whether she be known as plain Sophy Dawes, or whether she figure as Baroness de Feucheres, is a very secondary consideration. 31. Lavaux's speech gives its the history of the fair lady in question. The Duke became acquainted with her family during his exile in England, and he selected her even then as the object of his attentions. The affection of the Duke continued proof against the sorest trials—the return of prosperity which opened upors him in 1814, and its confirmation in 1815. It is proper to add, that it does not appear at that time to have been of a very violent character; for in 1817, while her aged admirer was still enjoying the fogs and sea coal of London, we find Miss Dawes figuring amidst the gaieties of Paris.:. There, according to M. Laraux's-account, she was engaged in a corre- spondence with the Duke of rather- a whimsical kind, namely, on the propriety or impropriety of her marriage with a certain M. Barry, who, at the time, was a candidate for her band. M. Barry himself was the medium of communication between the young Englishwoman and the old French courtier; and the latter, it must be confessed, acquits him.. self very respectably, though somewhat after the Sir Roger de Coverly, ashion, in the advice he gave beta " M. Barry," he says, "lies been more anxious than I have been to be acquaintect with your inclination on this subject at the present moment ; and will surely have said, to you all that his heart has always dictated to hint for your happiness and your into. rests. Entertaining towards you the same sentiments of interest and friendship. which' you necessarily inspire by a demeanour which does you the greatest honour—embracing every opportunity in your power to please—it is impossible for me to do other thart yield entirely to the good advice which he will have given you. We can neither of us do any more in an affair of this importance. It remains, then, for you alone, with m pretty person, and a well-regulated and enlightened mind, to weigh carefully the enjoya ments on one side, and the troubles on the other, which may attend a marriage pnretz of inclination." The pretty person and the well-regulated mind weighed the enjoy- ments and troubles with all possible accuracy, and the latter preponde- rated—the marriage did not take place. In 1818, the Duke returned to Paris ; and in that year Miss Dawes bad another offer, which, after once again consulting with the Duke, she accepted, and became, in consequence, Baronne de Feucheres. Feucheres was a Frenchman, a courtier, a soldier, and yet, strange to be told, he was given to jealousy— it is hardly necessary to add, as ir.Lavaux states, that his jealousy was without cause. In 1824, it broke forth in a way that must have very much interested the salons ; M. de Feucheres abandoned his wife to save his honour. He did more, he abandoned his posts of Gentleman in Ordinary in the Duke of Bourbon's household, and aid-de-camp to his Highness. The answer of the Duke to the Baron's letter of re- signation is the choicest specimen of its kind that we have perused, since the publication of the well-known epistle of our great tragedian to a certain City Alderman. It runs thus— My dear Fencheres,—for I shall never speak of you in any place, at any time, or under any circumstances, except as the most sincere, the most fraok, and the most loyal friend 1 have in the world—in the name of God, in the name of your mother, in the name of all you hold most dear, come and see me for a moment. That engages you to nothing ; and you will, at least, enjoy the gat isfaetion of having, by this step. solaced the heart of a friend, oppressed by the misfortunes of every kind which overwhelm him. Do not be afraid of meeting your wife in spite of yourself. The poor unhappy lady is in her bed ill, and knows nothing of the letter which I am now writiug to you. Como, come, my dear Peuelth-es ; come and talk with your friend."

The Baron was obstinate ; and the kindness of the Duke was, in consequence, thrown away. In England, Madame Ia. Baronne would have jumped into her old green chariot and driven to her father's, even had the half of the road thither lain through the city; at Paris these things are managed differently :—she retired, from the suspicions of her husband and of persecutions of the world, to a convent. This was in the spring of 1824. The denouement may be anticipated : the Ba- ronne and her husband agreed, after some discussion, to separate for good and all ; the unfounded jealousy of the latter naturally produced a certain sympathy on the part of the Duke, which, but for such an ac- cident., he might never have entertained ; he sought the lady in her retreat; the lady had every good reason which a lady could have for responding to the sympathy of the Duke, and she yielded to her stars and her lover's importunity. The month of April, and the first day, of all days in it, of this same year 1824, was chosen as the date of a will, by which the property at St. Lea and the house at Boissy were bequeathed to Madame de Feuch6res. This was the first will.

M. Lavaux read, at this stage of the pleadings, a letter from the Baronne, dated Florence, July 1825. She was, at the time, on a jaunt for the sake of her health, which had been seriOusly injured "by the torments to which she had been subjected." It is curious, as indicating the character of the heads of the priesthood among our neighbours.

" Florence, 26th July 125.

' There is great truth," writes the Baronne, "in the saying, that one must travel, in order to see extraordinary things ; for, assuredly, nothing can be more extraordina. y than what has just taken place here. Can you, dearest.. figure to yourstlf the Arch- bishop of Paris cooling to make me a visit, with two ■t Ids giant vicars, in tu inn at Florence ! It must be confessed, dearest, tin,* it is telly to no, that such things happen. A man who has even refused to come into your paint'', I,,cause I was an inmate of it. For the rest, dearest, I should tell you that he behaved very charmingly. Ile remained here only twenty-tbar hours; he is returning from Bona., and hastens to reach Paris before the fbast of the 15th of next mouth. " 'When M. and Madame de Chottlot learned that the Archbishop had arrived at the inn, they went to sec him, and then it was that he was halm-mai of ray being in the house. After all tint had passed at Paris, you will easily imagine, dearest: that I would not tnztke him the lint visit. At last, all that was properly s,ttled. When he took his departure he came again to bid us good by, with a nosegay ii his hand, which he left us as a little remembrance of him, he said."

Several letters from the Duke were also quoted by M. Lavaux, to prove the affection which he continued to entertain for the Baronne; the most curious respects an attempt of a IL Boni to place another lady in the Palais Bourbon, with a view, we suppose, to distract the constant ;attentions of its owner, which were lavished on the lively Englishwoman. The Baronne was at the time in London. The Prince gives the following account of the affair.

"Chantilly, 9.0th June 1S26. Boni has paid me a visit ; he always has a great deal to say about the llaronoss ; there is always something running in his head about placing his lady in the chateau when he visits it. Ile pretends that she is necessary to him for his arrangements in pharmacy, 8:c. Under these circumstances, knowing that this is not your wish, I cry scandal, and have consequently broken it off. (Inc day, having forgotten the par- ticulars of the intrigue, I conceived a brilliant expedient, and told him lie ought to marry her. • But, Monseigneur,' he exclaimed, how am I to do this ? She has a husband and I have a witl.."11us my fine expedient fell to the ground. Ile might have added, • You are a sad Neddy, Monseigneur.'"

About this time the Princes of Bohan seem to have viewed the Baronne de Feucheres in a very different light from that in which they do now.

',It is only a few days since, dear Baroness, that I received your charming letter of the 1st of May : it has been following me in all the journica 1 have been obliged to make, but has happily reached me, arid I hasten to erpress to you my gratitude, that you have not fiwyotten me, and that you hare given me a proof of it with a certainty which I dare not hope. You give me good news if him for whom my attaehment can dispute with yours only on the ground of antkptity. Be very careful of him absstys, and ifyou believe that dnring your absence Icon be of any use to, him, write me a war,l, and I wilt set off.—nothing shall stop me; if I can be of no use whatever, I shall probably remain in this country till the end of August, to endeavour to arrange my affairs here, which is as difficult here as elsewhere. But I perceive that I think more of the pleasure of talking with you than of the vexation which you may experience in deciphering me ; therefore say no more, but request you to communicate my regards to those to whom they are due, and to keep a large portion to yourself, if you will accept of it."

This charming epistle is dated-

" From an old Chateau in the midst of a deep valley in the Botena."

We tinst4Sophy had sufficient English spirit remaining to despise its author. In 1827 the old Duke began to give symptoms of breaking up, mid it was then for the first time that the idea of adopting a son of the Duke d'Orleans appears to have been suggested, and certainly through a channel which we had not previously suspected.. The pro- perty of the Duke seems to have attracted a vast deal of interested at- tention throughout France ; and the will-hunters, a species of sportsmen which is very numerous in that country, seem one and all to have made a dead set at it, either to secure it for themselves, or, where that was hopeless, to catch some fragments of it by working in behalf of others whose circumstances rendered an attempt to direct it towards them more feasible. Among these a General Lambot had conceived the bright idea of bringing from Naples a Prince of the Naples family, the brother of the Duchess de Berri, on whom the Duke de Bourbon might impose the burden of managing his wealth when he had done with it.

Lambot communicated this scheme to the King, Charles the Tenth; the reply of the latter is important.

"I attended," says Lambot, " according. to the King's orders. In a conversation of considerable length, his Majesty communicated tome the desire he entertained that tha. Duke of Bourbon should adopt one of the sons of the Duke of 0&ans. The King charged me to speak specially on this point to Madame de Feucheres, and to tell her that shut would do what would be pleasing to him, by engaging the Prince to decide upon tins adoption."

This, be it observed, is copied from a pamphlet of M. Lambot;- rather a curious description of evidence ; but our friends on the other side of the water are not very particular. M. Lavaux put in some let- ters of the late Duke with a view to prove that he was, as early as 1824, on terms of the most familiar intimacy with the Orleans fianily ; he also produced copies of a will dated in 1828, by which the forest of Enghien and other property which M. Hennequin had led us to believe were given up only a few days before the Duke's death, and on much importunity, to the Baronne, were even at that date bequeathed to her for her sole benefit. With respect to the adoption, which is said to have been so rudely pressed upon the Duke .sid only consented to when actaal violence had been had recourse to, M. ssavaux showed, by a long letter from the Duchess of Orleans, that it was seriously contemplated in August 1827. It is remarkable that with the negotiation between the Baronne and the House of Orleans is mixed up the name of a man who seems to have had a share in all the plots, public or private, of his time. The following is the Duchess's letter to Madame de Feucheres-

" Nenilly, 10th August 1827.

" I have received, Madam, through hi. the Prince the Talleyrand, your letter of the 6th of this month ; and I am anxious to testify toyed myself, how much I am touched by the desire which you have expressed so positively to see iny son, the Duke d'Aumale, adopted by M. the Duke of lieurbon. I was already informed of your intention to ad- vise the Duke of Bourbon to make that adoption; and since you have thought it right to address me directly on the subject, I, in any turn, feel it right not to let you remain in ignorance how much my maternal heart would be gratified by seeing perpetuated. in my son the illustrious name of Condi., so justly celebrated in the annals of our house and in those of the French monarchy. " Every time that we heard this project of adoption spoken of,—and that has Imp- pened more frequently than we could have wished,—we have formally declared Oho Duke of Orleans anti myself), that if M. the Duke of Bourbon was himself determined ta realise it, and that the King deiyned to apprnee of it, we should hasten (empresses)' to second his views ; but we hare also thought it due to M. the Duke of Bourbon as much as to ourselves to atop there. and to withhold ourselves from every proceeding which could have the appearance of provoking his choice, or of seeming to press it. Wo have felt that the more advantageous that adoption would be to our children, the more Oil that account it became us to observe that respectful silence in which we have en- closed ourselves to the present moment. The painful reminiscences of which von speak, and which it is so natural our excellent uncle should he tormented with without inter- mission, furnish us with an additional motive to preserve it ; notwithstanding thin temptations that we sometimes experience to break it, in the hope of thereby contribut- ing to sooth his anguish; but we think it better in every maancr to confine ourselve,a to trusting to his. ereellent heart, and the friendship which he has constantly evinced towards us as well as to our children, for all that can be hoped for on that score. " 1 am very sensible, Madam, of what you say of your anxiety to bring about this result, and that you exert yourself as before to Nal the intentions of M. the Duke of Bourbon. I assure you I shall never forget it ; and be assured that if I am so happy as to have my son made his adopted son, you shall find in us, upon all occasions, and in all circumstances, Mr you and yours ,that support which you would ask of me, and for which the gratitude of a mother ought to be your surest guarantee. " I thank you, Madam, for the communication you make me with respect to the mar- riage of your niece with the Marquis de Croi. The King and the princesses, my seniors, will no dould receive her presentation with all the respect due to the family which she is about to enter; but I must inform you, that we cannot depart from the rides esta- blished at the Court for presentations. 'We cannot receive them in any other way than that in which they have been received by the King and the Queen, when Otero. -was a queen, or by Madame the Dauphiness aud by the Prince's and Princesses, who pre- erde its in the miler of primogeniture; and it does not lie with us to choose the ladies by whom the presentations are made. Believe, however, Madam, that the forms from which my situation forbids me to depart, make no alteration in those sentiments in your favour which 1 have now expressed, cuid of which, Madam, 1 beg again earuestly and sincerely to assure you. " MARIE AmEmE," At the close of M. Lavaux's statement on Friday, M. Hennequin made a curious complaint, that no answer had been given—not to his facts and arguments before the Court but—to a pamphlet which he had published on the subject of the Baronne's claims,—a writing, " under the weight of which she then remained crushed !" This from a counsel employed to prosecute a case before a legal tribunal ! When M. Hennequin alluded to this precious mode of obtainingjudgment—this "writing faith- fully drawn up and signed by him, which had been circulated, and had' now reached a second edition," and complained that M. Lavaux had not answered it by another pamphlet, in two editions, the people in the corners of the court cheered and clapped their hands ! And it is on the faith of the pleading of such a lawyer, that the Examiner, eight days ago, told its readers, that Louis Philip was not only unfit to reign, butsta, live !