LOUIS HENRI JOSEPH DE BOURBON, LAST PRINCE DE CONDÉ.
Musée Condé.
Danloux
In 1830 Marie Amélie, Queen of Louis Philippe of France, visited Chantilly with her son, Prince Henri d’Orléans, and was received by the last of the Condés. A fortnight later the news was brought there that this princely line had come to an end. It has been alleged that the unfortunate liaison which the Duke had contracted with a heartless and low-born woman—one Sophie Dawes, the daughter of a fisherman in the Isle of Wight, and known as the Baronne de Feuchères—contributed greatly to embitter the last days of his life. After pocketing all she could, Madame de Feuchères on the death of the Duke left for England rather suddenly, and from that time was heard of no more.
Louise, Princesse de Condé, died several years before her brother at the Temple as Prioress of the Benedictine Nuns. She had borne with much fortitude great trials; for during the Revolution she had to flee from place to place for safety, until she found at last a shelter within the walls of a convent—thus fulfilling the prophetic words of her friend, Gervaisais, “C’est un front à porter une couronne ... ou un voile de religieuse.”
CHAPTER X
THE DUC D’AUMALE LORD OF CHANTILLY
AFTER the death of the last Condé, Chantilly was once more left desolate and abandoned, since Prince Henri d’Orléans, the heir, was still a child.
In 1820 his eldest brother, the Duc d’Orléans, inaugurated at Chantilly the races which now rank as the French Derby, and which have continued every year up to the present day. In connection with these races the Duc d’Orléans, with the help of General Peel—a brother of Sir Robert Peel—successfully undertook to breed English racehorses in France; and Chantilly thus became a racing centre to which the élite of French society thronged every year to attend a “Meeting” which speedily became one of the most famous in the annals of Sport. Residential accommodation was then very restricted, for only the Petit Château and the Château d’Enghien were available, the Grand Château not having yet been rebuilt. The theatre where Molière, Racine, and Corneille produced their plays had also vanished; a substitute was therefore improvised for these occasions by the Comédie Française on the site of the present Library.
But Orléans Princes in those days had not so much leisure for mere recreation as had their predecessors. In that same year the Duc d’Orléans started for Algiers, taking with him the Duc d’Aumale, then only eighteen. In spite of his youth on the premature death of his elder brother he was entrusted with the command at Medea, where he distinguished himself greatly, and became so beloved that the tiny little Arab house which was his temporary residence there is still preserved by a grateful nation. Engaging in a variety of operations in Algeria, he brought this campaign to a brilliant ending in 1844 by a victory over Abdul Kader; by which he succeeded in capturing the concealed camp “La Smalah” where this chieftain and his staff had been residing. This victory was principally due to the young Duke’s great energy and powers of endurance. In the Musée Condé there is a room called “La Smalah,” where we may still see numerous paintings and sketches by Bellange and Horace Vernet illustrating this victorious African campaign.