At Massa the duchess had assembled several prominent men to aid her with their advice and co-operation. But, as was to have been expected, these men soon quarrelled among themselves. The brother of the Duchess de Berri was now King of Naples. But he did not dare to afford his sister an asylum, as the French Government threatened, in that case, immediately to send a fleet and an army from Toulon and bombard the city of Naples.
Proclamations and ordinances were prepared, to be widely distributed. A provisional government, to be established in Paris, was organized, on paper, to consist of the Marquis de Pastoret, the Duke de Bellino, the Viscount Chateaubriand, and the Count de Kergarlaz.
Vigilance and severity of the Government.
In the mean time the officers of the Government were watching with the utmost vigilance every movement in the south of France, and punishing with terrible severity, by shooting, bayoneting, and hanging, and often without trial, those who were suspected of being implicated in the anticipated Bourbon uprising. The duchess was much deceived by the flattering reports she was receiving from her friends. Though they correctly described the intense dissatisfaction of the country with the government of Louis Philippe, they greatly exaggerated the numbers and the zeal of those whom they supposed to be ready to rally around the banner of the Bourbons.
A midnight adventure.
The 24th of April, 1832, was fixed for the departure. The utmost secrecy was necessary, as the spies of Louis Philippe were all around. Arrangements had been made for a small steamer, the Carlo Alberto, in the darkness of the night to glide into the harbor, take on board the duchess and her suite, and convey them to Marseilles. It was given out that the duchess was about to visit Florence. At nightfall of the 24th a travelling carriage, with four post-horses, was drawn up before the ducal palace. The duchess, with one gentleman and three ladies, entered, and in the darkness the carriage was rapidly driven a short distance from the gate of Massa, when, upon some pretext, it stopped for a moment beneath the shadow of a high wall. While some directions were given, to engage the attention of the postilion, the duchess, with Mademoiselle Lebeschu and M. de Brissac, glided out of the door unperceived, when the door was shut and the horses again set out upon the gallop for Florence.
The embarkation.
The duchess and her friends stealthily moved along under the shadow of the wall, until they reached a secluded spot upon the sea-shore where the steamer was expected. The major of a body of troops in that vicinity joined them, with a lantern, as a signal to guide the boat from the expected steamer to the shore. Here they remained, in breathless silence and in much anxiety, for an hour. Just as the clocks in the distant churches were tolling the hour of midnight, a feeble light was seen far away over the water. It was the Carlo Alberto, the steamer for which they were waiting. Rapidly it approached; a boat was sent ashore. The Princess Marie Caroline, worn out with cares and anxieties, or—which is the more probable—possessed of that gay, untroubled spirit which no cares could agitate, was wrapped in her cloak and soundly asleep on the sand. Her companions did not awake her till the boat was about to touch the beach. It was three o'clock in the morning. The duchess and her suite, composing a party of seven—Mademoiselle Lebeschu being her only lady attendant—were soon transferred from the shore to the deck of the Carlo Alberto.
All were conscious that the enterprise upon which they had embarked was perilous in the extreme. Its success would greatly depend upon what is called chance. The duchess appeared calm and cheerful, as if determined not to doubt of a triumphant result, and manifestly resolved to wipe from the Bourbon name the charge of pusillanimity which it has so often incurred.
The night storm.