[84]. The Congress at Laybach.
[85]. Described in Lord Holland’s “Foreign Reminiscences” as “a man of strict veracity and accurate memory.” He had a very confidential interview with the Emperor Napoleon at the island of Elba.
[86]. The celebrated Baron Denon, Directeur-Général des Musées under the first Empire, and author of a remarkable work upon the monuments of Egypt.
[87]. The St. Swithin of the French calendar. His festival falls on the 8th of June.
[88]. The Abbé de Montesquiou-Fénezac was born in 1757, and was the chief author of the Charter of 1814. In the following month of July he was appointed Minister of the Interior, and rendered himself unpopular to the ultra-Royalists by his moderation and liberality. On one occasion, after he had been violently abused for his impartiality, which was called favouring the Revolutionists, he quietly remarked “que le Roi ne connaissait point de révolutionnaires; qu’il ne venait pas pour punir la révolution, mais pour la faire oublier.” During the Hundred Days he took refuge in England, and after the second restoration he was created a Peer of France, and allowed to retain the title of Minister of State, but he took no further part in public affairs.
[89]. Stanislas, Marquis de Boufflers, was born at Lunéville in 1737, and was named after the unfortunate King of Poland, his godfather. He was educated for the Church, hence he was at first known as L’Abbé de Boufflers. But he gave up the Church for the Army, and became a Knight of Malta and captain of hussars. In 1791 he fled with Madame de Sabran and her son to Berlin, where he soon afterwards married her. In 1800 he returned to France and published a book entitled “Libre Arbitre,” and in 1804 was elected member of the French Academy, as successor to Marshal Noailles. The Chevalier died in 1815. He has been described as “abbé libertin; militaire philosophe; diplomate chansonnier; émigré patriote; républicain courtisan.” His stepson, Count Elzéar Louis Marie de Sabran, at a very early age gave proof of uncommon talents. He was warmly attached to Madame de Staël, and consequently incurred the anger of Napoleon. In 1820 he composed a dithyrambic poem on the assassination of the Duke de Berri, which was much thought of at the time. His death took place in 1846, in the seventieth year of his age.
[90]. The Emperor Napoleon died at St. Helena on the 5th of May, 1821. The intelligence was conveyed from Calais to Paris by telegraph. “There was a disposition,” says Lord Holland, “in the people of Paris to disbelieve in the death of Napoleon, there was more in the middling classes to attribute it to poison, and there was some in the Court to affect the magnanimity of stifling all resentment towards the departed hero. Mourning was worn by many, especially on the 15th August, the festival of St. Napoleon. Publications on his character, life, and death, were numerous, and generally more full of commendation than of censure. Portraits, engravings, and prints in allusion to his exile and death were bought up with an avidity which alarmed the police, and led to the temporary suppression of the exhibition of such articles in the shops.”—Foreign Reminiscences, p. 205.
[91]. The coronation of George IV. took place on the 19th July, and the Queen died on the 7th of August following. A riot took place on the 15th, when her body was removed from Brandenburg House to be taken to Harwich for embarkation, the populace being determined that the funeral procession should pass through the City of London, against the wishes of the Government. Queen Caroline was buried at Brunswick on the 24th, between her father and her brother.
[92]. Larive, a celebrated French tragedian, born at La Rochelle in 1749. He was a pupil of Mademoiselle Clairon, and was considered inferior only to Lekain and Talma. He retired from the stage at a comparatively early age, and settled down on his beautiful little property at Monlignon, in the valley of Montmorency.
[93]. The change of Ministry took place on the 14th. M. Villèle continued in power till January, 1828, when he was created a Peer of France, and retired into private life.