"As the Chamber has allowed me to speak," he said, "I will permit myself to point out to it that the right of petition laid down by the charter has, for some time past, become an illusory right in the Assembly. A great number of petitions relative to the law about the state of siege have been addressed to the Chamber, but as yet no report has been brought in upon it. Now I ask you, why has no such report been drawn up? If it is not done when the Chamber has decreed a law upon the subject, what becomes of the right of petition? But there are other petitions of a higher order which I am amazed not to see brought forward; I mean those relating to the captivity of an illustrious princess whose fate is attracting the notice of France and Europe. I cannot be ignorant of their existence, since they have nearly all been addressed to me to place before the Chamber; I will, therefore, seize the opportunity which is offered to me by the publicity of its debates to testify to the petitioners my deep gratitude for the confidence with which they have honoured me. I received a petition this morning relative to the same object, containing seventeen hundred signatures. How is it, gentlemen, that, in contempt of the right of petition, thousands of signatures are allowed to be buried in portfolios which demand the setting at liberty of Madame la duchesse de Berry? And under what circumstances? It is impossible not to feel the liveliest fear for her person and well-founded alarms in other directions; for, taking into account the unhealthiness of her place of detention, her captivity is not merely an arbitrary act, but becomes an attempt upon her life! I do not propose, gentlemen, to enter into a discussion here which, at this juncture, would be irrelevant; but I ask the Chamber to fix at once the day for a debate on the numerous petitions which plead for the liberty of Madame la duchesse de Berry."
The Keeper of the Seals next mounted the Tribune, and replied—
"The speaker complains of the place in which the Duchesse de Berry is detained. Would he allow perpetual civil war in la Vendée? That is doubtless not his idea, but one might reasonably interpret his views in that way, when he asks for the liberty of the Duchesse de Berry, seeing the use to which she put her liberty."
Next, the Ministre de l'Intérieur added a few words, saying that, even if the Château de Blaye were an unhealthy dwelling-place, it was a matter of public knowledge that the town had never been attacked by any sort of epidemic. He did not, therefore, understand the animosity of those persons who stated that the place of detention had been chosen with the intention of undermining the health of the august prisoner.
The incident led to nothing at all. The Chambre des Pairs, after the Duc de Fitz-James and M. de Chateaubriand's resignation, was nothing but a kind of record office where the laws of the Chambre des Députés were registered. Now, it came to pass, in spite of the Keeper of the Seal's statement and that made by the Ministre de l'Intérieur, that the health of the Duchesse de Berry soon caused enough uneasiness for the Government to dispatch MM. Orfila and Auvity to Blaye. Their departure was announced in a Government newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, I believe. It confined itself to saying that the two famous practitioners had to examine into an important question of forensic medicine. The vague curtness of the statement roused comments on all sides. Le Nouvelliste, being forced to give an explanation, inserted the following paragraph:—
"Many newspapers have printed a thousand conjectures as to the mission of MM. Orfila and Auvity at the Château de Blaye. That mission contains nothing to justify the multitude of comments to which it has given rise. The condition of Madame la duchesse de Berry presents nothing to cause disquiet; only, for some time, she has been sufficiently out of health for it to be deemed advisable to afford her the opportunity of consulting the two men who are the most deserving of confidence, M. Orfila, doyen of the medical faculty, and M. Auvity, one of whom is her ordinary doctor and the other her consulting physician. The situation of the prison in which Madame la duchesse de Berry is confined necessitates this natural proceeding, and it is in that sense we called the mission of the two doctors forensic."
In consequence of this declaration, Le Corsaire surmised that the Duchesse de Berry's indisposition was that of pregnancy. The following day, a young Carlist, M. Barbot de la Trésorière, appeared at the offices of the paper to call the author of the article out in a duel or, failing the author, the responsible manager, M. Viennot. M. Viennot replied that he could only accept responsibility for the article in the event of the author not accepting responsibility. He asked to be allowed a day before he could return an answer to M. Barbot de la Trésorière. That gentleman thought the request quite fair, but manifested a desire that the reply should be very definite, the aim of the Carlist party being to prevent any shadow of suspicion falling upon the reputation of the illustrious prisoner. Hardly had the last words been uttered before one of the editors of the Corsaire came out of the editorial office. He had heard everything and came up to M. de la Trésorière.
"Monsieur," he said to him, "I am the author of the article which you claim to regard as insulting. My name is Eugène Briffault and I am entirely at your disposition."
The duel acceded to, the rest of the affair was for the seconds to settle. The seconds had an interview and arranged that the meeting should take place next day at eight in the morning in the bois de Boulogne. At the agreed hour, the two adversaries met upon the ground. Pistols had been the weapons selected. The two adversaries were placed at a distance of thirty yards from one another: at the third clapping of hands they were to fire simultaneously. Both fired at the same instant. M. Briffault's bullet missed; M. Barbot de la Trésorière's buried itself in M. Briffault's shoulder to such purpose that it could never be extracted. The wound was serious. M. Briffault was carried to Étienne Arago's, manager of the Vaudeville. It need hardly be said that there the injured man was nursed with brotherly devotion. And yet, on the very same day on which the duel had taken place, La Quotidienne contained the following passage:—