"I say it to you, my dear friend, I avow it without false modesty, I
never have had any merit or any honor in life, save from action in
common with my angelic friend. He alone is happy; he is so beyond
doubt; from heaven he sees our tears, our desolation, our homage; he
will be our protector on high as he was our friend, our support, upon
the earth."
The death of the virtuous Duke caused Charles X. great grief. He said:
"There are in me two persons, the king and the man, and I know not
which is the most affected."
M. de Chateaubriand desired--and the desire was quite natural--to
replace the Duke of Montmorency in the office of governor of the Duke
of Bordeaux, but the wish was not gratified. In his Life of Henry of
France, M. de PEne makes the following reflections on this point:--
"Chateaubriand lacked neither the knowledge nor the virtue to be the
Fenelon of a new Duke of Burgundy. The eclat of his literary renown,
the political sense of which he had given proof in the Spanish war, the
popularity that surrounded him, were certainly arguments in his favor.
But looking at things coolly, it was clear that an irregular genius was
not suited for the part of Mentor, when he still had all the wayward
impulses of Telemaque."
The choice of Charles X. fell on one of his oldest and most faithful
friends, the Lieutenant-General Duke Charles de Riviere. He was a
soldier of great valor, of gentle disposition, full of modesty and
kindness, believing devoutly and practising the Christian religion, a
descendant of those old knights who joined in one love, God, France,
and the King.
Born the 17th of December, 1763, M. de Riviere had been the companion
and servitor of the princes in exile and misfortune, and they had
confided to him the most difficult and dangerous missions. He was
secretly in France in 1794, and was arrested and condemned to death as
implicated in the Cadoudal case. At his trial, he was shown, at a
distance, the portrait of the Count d'Artois, and asked if he
recognized it. He asked to see it nearer, and then having it in his
hands, he said, looking at the president: "Do you suppose that even
from afar I did not recognize it? But I wished to see it nearer once
more before I die." And the martyr of royalty religiously kissed the
image of his dear prince.
Josephine intervened, and secured the commutation of the sentence, as
well as that of the Duke Armand de Polignac. Napoleon, who admired men
of force, caused to be offered to M. de Riviere his complete pardon,
and a regiment or a diplomatic post, at choice. The inflexible royalist
preferred to be sent to the fort of Joux, where Toussaint Louverture
had died, and remained a prisoner up to the time of the marriage of the
Empress Marie Louise.
Under the Restoration, M. de Riviere, who was Marquis and was made Duke
only in 1825, became lieutenant-general, Peer of France, ambassador at
Constantinople, captain of the body-guards of Monsieur. At the time of
his accession, Charles X. did for his faithful servitor what had never
before been done; he created for him a fifth company of the King's
body-guards. "My dear Riviere," he said, "I have done my best for you,
but we shall both lose by it; you used to guard me all the time, now
you can guard me but three months in the year." The 30th of May, 1825,
the morrow of the coronation and the day of the reception of the
Knights of the Holy Spirit, Charles X. conferred the title of duke on
his devoted friend. "By the way, Riviere, I have made you a duke." It
recalled the words of Henry IV. to Sully in like circumstances.
When he chose the Duke de Riviere as governor of the Duke of Bordeaux,
the King said to Madame de Gontaut: "In naming Riviere, I have
followed, I confess, the inclinations of my heart; I am under
obligations to him; he has incessantly exposed himself for our cause;
he has borne captivity, poverty; I love him, and I am used to him."
The new governor, who was very modest, was frightened at the task
confided to him.
"You congratulate me," he wrote to a friend; "console me, rather, pity
me. An employment so grave must be a heavy burden. I am easy about the
instruction my royal pupil will receive; the wise prelate named by the
King as his preceptor will be a powerful auxiliary for me. But my share
is still too great. It requires something more than fidelity for such a
place,--firmness without roughness, unlimited patience, address,
intelligence. I am frightened at the mission I have to fill. I begged
the King to release me. He insisted. I asked him to make it a command;
he replied: 'I will not command you, but you will give me great
pleasure.' I did not conceal from the King that I should have preferred
to remain captain of his guards; he answered: 'Well, you made that
place for yourself; make this for me.' How could one resist such
language from the lips of such a prince? There was but one choice to
make,--to do all that he wished."
Charles X. named as sub-governors two distinguished military men, the
Colonel Marquis de Barbamcois and the Lieutenant-Colonel Count de
Maupas. He named as preceptor Mgr. Tharin, Bishop of Strasbourg, and as
sub-preceptor the Abbe Martin de Noirlieu and M. de Barande. The Bishop
of Strasbourg was a pious and learned priest, of great benevolence and
extreme affability. But his appointment exasperated the Opposition,
because he had formerly taken up the defence of the Order of the
Jesuits against the attacks of M. de Montlosier. All the liberal sheets
cried aloud. Le Journal des Debates, furious that its candidate to the
succession of the Duke de Montmorency, M. de Chateaubriand, had not
been named, wrote, regarding the appointment of Mgr. Tharin:--
"Such imprudence amazes, such blindness is pitiable. It awakens
profound grief to see this chariot rush toward the abyss with no power
to restrain it."
The Duke de Riviere gave himself up entirely to the task confided to
him. He never quitted the young prince. He slept in his room and
watched over him night and day. In the month of February, 1828, he fell
ill. The princes and princesses visited him frequently. The sovereign
himself, putting aside for this faithful friend the etiquette which
forbade him to visit any one out of his own family, went constantly to
see him and remained long with him. The Duke had no greater
consolation, after that of his religion, than the visit of his King. He
said to his family as the hour of the expected visit approached, "Do
not let me sleep," and if he felt himself getting drowsy, "For pity's
sake," he said, "awaken me if the King comes; it is the best remedy for
my pains." Charles X. could hardly restrain his tears; on leaving the
room he gave way to his grief. The little Duke of Bordeaux, also, was
much saddened.
One day, when he was told that the sick man had passed a bad night, he
said to his sister: "Let's play plays that don't amuse us to-day."
Another day, when it was reported that his governor was a little
better: "In that case," he cried, "general illumination," and he went
in broad day, and lighted all the candles in the salon. The Duke de
Riviere died the 21st of April, 1828; by order of the King, his son
lived from that time with the Duke of Bordeaux, and received lessons
from the preceptors of the young Prince.
The Liberals wished the successor of the Duke to be one of their
choice. They maintained that the son of France belonged to the nation,
and that it had too much interest in his education to permit the
parents alone to dispose of it, as in ordinary families. The ministry
wished to be consulted. Charles X. replied that he took counsel with
his ministers in all that concerned the public administration, but that
he should maintain his liberty as father of a family in the choice of
masters for his grandson.
The King named the Lieutenant-General Baron de Damas (born in 1785,
died in 1858). He was a brave soldier and a good Christian. M. de
Lamartine said that he had "integrity, obstinate industry, virtue
incorruptible by the air of couits, patriotic purpose, cool
impartiality, but no presence and no brilliancy," and that "his piety
was as loyal and disinterested as his heart." He had been Minister of
War, and of Foreign Affairs, and distinguished himself under the Duke
of Angouleme, during the Spanish Expedition. But under the Revolution
and the Empire, he had served in the Russian army, and this did not
render him popular. The Abbe Vedrenne, in his VIE DE Charles X.,
wrote:--
"To watch over the person of the son of France, not quitting him night
or day; to make sure that the rules of his education are followed in
the employment of his time, in the routine of his lessons; to let no
one save persons worthy of confidence come near him; to ward off all
dangers, and notify the King of the least indisposition,--such is the
duty of the governor. It requires more prudence than learning, more
probity than genius. M. de Damas was a royalist too tried, too fervent
a Christian, for his nomination not to provoke many murmurs. His place,
moreover, had been desired by so many people, that there was no lack of
those who were displeased and jealous. There was a general outcry over
his incapacity and ignorance. One would have thought that he was to
perform the task of a Bossuet and a Fenelon, while in reality he filled
the place of a Montausier or a Beauvilliers. Had he not their virtues,
and especially their devotion?"
The Duchess of Gontaut thus relates the first interview of the young
Prince with his new governor: "Monseigneur was a little intimidated,
when the Baron, coming up near to him, made a profound bow, and said:
'Monseigneur, I commend myself to you.' To which Monseigneur, not
knowing what to say, said nothing, and as no one spake a word, the King
dismissed us. When the Duke of Bordeaux learned that M. de Damas had
six or seven boys nearly his age and only one girl, and that the girl
would not be any trouble, his gaiety returned." The little Prince got
used to his new governor, who had the most solid qualities, and who
performed his task with the same devotion and zeal as his predecessor.