"Dinner was at six o'clock in the magnificent gallery where the
souvenirs of the great Conde were displayed in all their pomp, and the
eyes fell on fine pictures of the battles of Rocroy, Senef, Fribourg,
and Nordlingen, inspiring some regret for the life led by the heir of
so much glory. After dinner society comedy was played on a very pretty
stage, where the luxury of costumes was very great and the
mise-en-scene carefully attended to; and this did not make the actors
any better, although the little plays were tolerable. But Madame de
Feucheres wishing to play Alzire and to take the principal part, which
she doled out with sad monotony, without change of intonation from the
first line to the last, and with a strongly pronounced English accent,
it was utterly ridiculous, and Voltaire would have flown into a fine
passion had he seen one of his chefs-d'oeuvres mangled in that way. Who
could have told that this poor Prince, who, if he had neither the
virtues nor the dignity proper to his rank, was nevertheless a very
good fellow, would perish in 1830, in such a tragic manner?"
Charles X. had a long standing affection for the Duke of Bourbon. On
September 21st, 1824, he conferred on him at the same time as on the
Duke of Orleans, the title of Royal Highness. The last of the Condes
was, besides, Grand Master of France. This court function was honorary
rather than real, and the Prince appeared at the Tuileries only on rare
occasions. Charles X. loved him as a friend of his childhood, a
companion of youth and exile, but he had a lively regret to see him
entangled in such relations with the Baroness of Feucheres. The advice
he gave him many times to induce him to break this liaison was without
result. Finally the King said: "Let us leave him alone; we only give
him pain." He never went to Chantilly, in order not to sanction by his
royal presence the kind of existence led there by his old relation; and
the Prince knowing the sentiments of his sovereign, gave him but few
invitations, which were always evaded under one pretext or another.
People wondered at the time who would be the heirs of the immense
fortune of the Condes, whose race was on the point of extinction. The
Prince's mother was Charlotte-Elisabeth de Rohan-Soubise, and the
Rohans thought themselves the natural heirs. But such a combination
would not have met the views of Madame de Feucheres, who, not content
with having got from the Prince very considerable donations, counted on
figuring largely in his will.
Nevertheless she was not without lively anxiety in that regard. The
Rohans had refused all compromise with her. If they were disinherited,
what would they say? Would they not attack the will on the ground of
undue influence? Such was the eventuality against which the prudent
Baroness intended to guard herself. In consequence she conceived the
bold project of sheltering her own wealth under the patronage of some
member of the royal family, in having him receive the fortune of the
old Prince under a will which at the same time should consecrate the
part to be received by her, and put it beyond all contest. She would
have wished the old Prince to choose his heir in the elder branch of
the House of Bourbon. But the Duchess of Berry, who was
disinterestedness itself, declined any arrangement of that nature. To
the insinuations made to her in favor of her son, she responded:--
"Henri will be King. The King of France needs nothing."
She did more. It is said that to the persons who bore these advances to
her, she suggested the idea of having the heritage of the Condes pass
to the family of the Duke of Orleans. But the thing was not easy. It is
true that the children of the Duke were, by their mother, Bathilde
d'Orleans, nephews of the wife of the Duke of Bourbon. But this Prince
had led a bad life with his wife, from whom he had separated
immediately after the birth of the Duke d'Enghien, and the souvenirs of
the Revolution separated him widely from a family whose political ideas
were not his. Yet the Duke and Duchess of Orleans were not discouraged.
They entered on negotiations a long time in advance with the Baroness
of Feucheres, who was in reality the arbiter of the situation. M.
Nettement relates that the first time that Marie-Amelie pronounced the
name of the Baroness in the presence of the Duchess of Angouleme, the
daughter of Louis XVI. said to her: "What! you have seen that woman!"
The Duchess of Orleans responded: "What would you have? I am a mother.
I have a numerous family; I must think before all of the interests of
my children."
What is certain is that the Prince was induced to be the godfather of
the Duke d'Aumale, born the 6th of January, 1822, and that was a sort
of prelude to the will of 1830.
X