One day, a courier from M. de Rothschild arrived in Vienna; he brought great news, news which, in former times, would have been announced by comets and earthquakes: Napoleon had died on May 1821! The news reached Vienna on 22 July—the day on which, three years previously, the Duc de Reichstadt had lost his name; the day on which, eleven years later, he was to lose his life.
The Comte de Dietrichstein was absent, and the emperor charged M. Foresti with the telling of the fatal news to the young duke, who had just reached his tenth birthday. M. Foresti adored the prince; he had been with him since 1815. He broke the news with all kinds of circumlocution, but, at the first words he uttered, the prince said—
"My father is dead, is he not?"
"Monseigneur ..."
"He is dead?"
"Indeed, yes!"
"How could one want him to live ... over there!" exclaimed the child, bursting into tears.
Contrary to the custom of Imperial etiquette, he wore mourning for a year; he insisted on it when they tried to make him give it up. They appealed to the emperor, who replied—
"Leave it to the child's own heart."
If you wish to know in what fashion the news was officially announced to the Court of Vienna, see the original letter of Sir Hudson Lowe to Baron Sturmer—