Louis Philippe / Makers of History Series

by John S. C. Abbott

The duchess liberated.

On the 8th of June, Marie Caroline, who could no longer claim the title of Regent of France, but who had sunk to the lowly condition of the wife of an Italian count, was liberated from prison. She had fallen into utter disgrace, and was no longer to be feared. With her child and her nurse, abandoned by those friends who had gathered around the regent, she sailed for Palermo. Her brother, the king, received her kindly, and she was joined by Count Lucheri Palli. Few troubled themselves to inquire whether she were ever married to the count or not. We hear of her no more.

These events broke up the Legitimists into three parties. The one assumed that, under the circumstances, the abdication of Charles X. was not to be regarded as binding; that he was still king, and to him alone they owed their allegiance. The second took the position that, in consequence of the suspicions cast upon the birth of the Duke of Bordeaux, the abdication in favor of the duke was null, and that the dauphin, the Duke de Angoulême, was the legitimate heir to the crown. The third party still adhered to the Duke of Bordeaux, recognizing him as king, under the title of Henry V. Thus terminated in utter failure the Legitimist endeavor to overthrow the throne of Louis Philippe.

Death of the Duke of Reichstadt.

While these scenes were transpiring, the Duke of Reichstadt, the only son of Napoleon I., and, by the votes of the French people, the legitimate heir to the throne of the Empire, died in Vienna, on the 22d of July, 1832. Commenting upon this event, Louis Blanc writes:

"In a calm, lovely day, there was seen advancing through a perfectly silent crowd, along the streets of that capital of Austria which once looked down abashed and terror-struck beneath the proud eagles of Napoleon, a hearse, preceded by a coach and a few horsemen. Some attendants walked on either side, bearing torches. When they arrived at the church, the court commissioner, in pursuance of a remarkable custom of the country, proceeded to enumerate the names and titles of the deceased. Then, knocking at the door, he solicited for the corpse admission to the temple. The princes and princesses of the house of Austria were there awaiting the body, and attended it to the vault, into which the fortune of the Empire then descended forever. The death of the son of Napoleon occasioned no surprise among the nations. It was known that he was of a very sickly constitution, and besides poison had been spoken of. Those who think every thing possible to the fear or ambition of princes had said, He bears too great a name to live."

Louis Napoleon.

The attempts subsequently made by Louis Napoleon for the restoration of the Empire, which failed at Strasbourg and Bologne, but which finally gave the Empire to France through twenty years of unparalleled prosperity, we have not space here to record. They will be found minutely detailed in Abbott's History of Napoleon III.

Statement of Louis Blanc.

In reference to these unsuccessful attempts, Louis Blanc writes: "Of the two sons of the ex-king of Holland, Napoleon's brother, the elder, we have seen, had perished in the Italian troubles, by a death as mysterious as premature. The younger had retired to Switzerland, where he applied himself unceasingly to the preparation of projects that flattered his pride and responded to the most earnest aspirations of his soul.