CHAPTER V.
FRANCE REVISITED—CHANTILLY—PARISIAN SOCIETY—THE COURT OF THE BOURBONS—THE PRINCE DE CONDÉ—MARSHAL MARMONT—THE FRENCH STAGE—INVITATIONS FROM THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
JOURNAL CONTINUED.
Montreuil, May, 1816.—The appearance of France is exactly what it was when I first travelled, but the inhabitants wear a different aspect. The women are not much altered; if anything, rather graver; the men more stern and sententious than before the Revolution. The people we met looked pale and wretched, and, except the postilions, we saw scarcely a single young man. The woman of the inn at Montreuil seemed a good Royalist, and talked with much feeling of the bon Roi, who had kissed her child when she saw him at Calais. Some of our Horse Artillery and of the 7th Light Dragoons (Lord Anglesea’s) are still quartered in this neighbourhood. The woman did not speak ill of our troops, but owned that our young officers were twice nearly setting fire to her house.
12th.—Some of our party walked into the church at Clermont, and found the curate and vicar instructing the children. The shops, however, were mostly open, though it was Sunday; and the last stage to Montreuil we were driven by a priest, brother of one of the postilions, the other one being absent.
We had a pleasant drive from Clermont to Chantilly; the people dancing in the fields. We passed through the ruined and desolate park of the Prince of Condé; but, melancholy as its appearance was, it was pleasant to think he is again the master, and every one looking forward to his passing some time here this spring. When we came to the inn, which is called “Bourbon Condé,” the mistress of the house, a very intelligent and loyal person, told us she was now sure of the Prince coming, for three hampers of Champagne had arrived. She gave a dreadful account of the sufferings of the people from the conscription under Bonaparte, and other acts of oppression. We did not, however, find that the English were much liked, though a Mr. Jolliffe, who had been there with Lord Combermere, had given an order for purchasing four hundred cub foxes, which are to be sent over fifty at a time. We saw some of these creatures ready for transportation. The French pay forty sous a head for their destruction.
Paris, May 16.—I called on Lady Elizabeth Stuart, who had sent me a card. Her husband, Sir Charles Stuart, ambassador from our Court, is son of the late General Sir Charles Stuart, son of Lord Bute, the Prime Minister at the beginning of our present King’s reign. The house inhabited by our ambassador was the palace of Pauline, Princess Borghese, sister of Bonaparte, and is a magnificent and elegantly fitted-up dwelling; perhaps rather too showy. I called, also, on the Duke de Sérent and his daughter, Madame de Narbonne, whose husband, ambassador at Naples, has lately been made a Duke, as a compliment for his negotiating the marriage between the Duke de Berri and Princess Caroline of Naples. The Duke de Sérent’s hotel is beautiful, both with respect to situation and neatness: it has a terrace overlooking a garden.
I engaged a very pretty lodging in Rue Grenoble, Faubourg St. Germain, where I have a hall, dining-room, drawing-room, and three bedrooms, all remarkably well furnished in silk and muslin, besides servants’ rooms, closets, stable, and coach-house, for four hundred francs a month.
Sunday, May 19.—I had a note from the Duchess de Sérent, to say that Madame, Duchess d’Angoulême, would see me at three. I first called on Madame de Sérent, whom I found on a ground-floor of the Tuileries, her room filled with plants and flowers. At three I crossed the court, and entered an apartment of the palace to the right. In the first hall were guards, and in the ante-room pages, who announced me. Madame came out of an inner room into the salon, where she made me sit down beside her, and kept me for more than half an hour. She spoke of Princess Charlotte’s marriage, of the forthcoming one of the Duke de Berri, and of her regard for the late mother of the Duchess, whom she had known at Vienna. She expressed much gratitude towards the Regent, but seemed rather surprised that he had not dismissed Sir Robert Wilson from the service. Sir Charles Stuart had sent my name in for presentation to the King and Madame for the following Monday; but the Duchess de Sérent advised me to put it off as a useless ceremony if I could see them in private.
22nd.—Went to Calaghan’s, the banker, where, for 65l. sterling, I received 1788 francs, the exchange being considerably in our favour. I dined with Prince Castelcicala, to meet Princess Broglie and (her daughter) Baroness Nicolay; and afterwards went with them to the Théâtre des Variétés, on the Boulevards, where we saw four “petites pièces,” performed by good actors with great spirit, and altogether very laughable. There were some political allusions, which were clapped with great loyalty, as was also the air of “Henri Quatre,” which was played twice. All the ladies were in morning dresses, with great bonnets. It is a pretty little theatre, and the manner of lighting it is much better for the eyes than ours, and more advantageous for the performers.