[86] His marriage with the Princesse Clémentine.
[87] After the death of the Duc d'Orléans in 1842 the Chamber of Deputies passed a law nominating the Duc de Nemours as Regent of the Realm during the minority of the Comte de Paris in the event of the death of the old King. From this time the Prince sat in the Chamber of Peers and made official journeys of inspection through the departments.
[88] The country of Neuchâtel had been ceded to Frederick I., King of Prussia, in 1707, and became French territory from 1806 to 1814. The treaties of Vienna had restored it to Frederick William III., though it remained within the Swiss Confederation. The state of things was to continue until the revolution of 1848, when the mountaineers expelled the Prussians. Frederick William IV. did not finally abandon his rights until 1850, and a convention signed on May 24, 1852, secured the independence of Neuchâtel while reserving to Prussia her rights.
[89] M. de Custine had collected the memories of his journey in Russia in a work in four volumes, entitled Russia in 1839.
[90] The reference is to the marriage of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, afterwards Alexander II., with the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt, which was celebrated at St. Petersburg on April 16, 1841.
[91] Prince Sergius Trubetzkoi, when very young, had taken an active part in a conspiracy which broke out at St. Petersburg in 1825 with reference to the right of the Emperor Nicholas to the throne of Russia. He was accused of usurping the crown from his brother Constantine. Condemned to death by the Supreme Court of Justice, the punishment was commuted to perpetual exile in Siberia. There he was obliged to work in the mines as a convict. The Emperor Nicholas remained inflexible throughout his life, and would never pardon the conspirator against his person, who was not released until 1855 by Alexander II. on his accession to the throne. Princess Trubetzkoi, urged by passionate devotion, followed her husband into exile, and her action was regarded as the more heroic, as the married couple had previously lived on somewhat cold terms.
[92] Extract from a letter.
[93] Count Veltheim (1781-1848).
[94] Prince Pückler in his works had shown an independence and boldness of judgment which, in conjunction with his liberal ideas, seemed far too advanced for so retrograde a court as that of Prussia, and had obliged him to absent himself.
[95] This play, by Alexandre Dumas père, was then given at the Theatre Royal of Berlin (Schauspielhaus) from the German translation by L. Osten.