Never was a princely journey more triumphal than that of the Duchess of
Berry in the provinces of the west in 1828. Madame, who left Paris June
16, returned there October 1, and there was not a day in these three
months that she was not the object of enthusiastic ovations. In a book
of nearly six hundred pages, Viscount Walsh has described, with the
fidelity of a Dangeau, this journey in which the mother of the Duke of
Bordeaux was treated like a queen of a fairy tale.
The 16th of June, the Princess slept at Rambouillet, where two years
later such cruel trials were to come to her. The 18th, she visited
Chambord, where she was received by Count Adrien de Calonne, the author
of the project of the subscription, thanks to which this historic
chateau became the property of the Duke of Bordeaux.
In the face of the wind, which was blowing with force, Madame ascended
to the highest point of the chateau, the platform of the lantern called
Fleur-de-Lis at the end of the famous double balustered staircase. From
there her glance wandered over the vast extent of the park, with a
circumference of eight leagues, and enclosing, besides six or seven
thousand acres of woodland, twenty-three farms, whose buildings,
cultivated fields, and scattered flocks, animated the view in all
directions. On descending, she said: "I should like to mark my name
here; I shall love to see it again when I come to visit the Duke of
Bordeaux." And with a stiletto she cut these words: "18th June--Marie
Caroline." Some young girls presented her with lambs white as snow,
decorated with green and white ribbons, and with a tame roe, on whose
collar was engraved: "Homage of the people of Chambord." The same day
she paid visits at their chateaux to Marshal Victor, Duke of Bellune,
and to the Duke d'Avaray. In the evening she returned to Blois. Madame
left there the 19th of June, after examining the Salle des Etats, the
room in which the Duke of Guise was assassinated, and the tower where
Catharine de' Medici used to consult the astrologers. The 20th, she
attended at Saumur a brilliant tournament given in her honor by the
Cavalry School. The 21st, she entered Angers amid shouts and cheers.
The 22d, she visited the chateau of Count Walsh de Serrant. Her
carriage passed under vaults of verdure adorned with flowers and
banners.
The Princess arrived the same day at Saint Florent, which, in 1793, had
given the signal for the war of the Vendee, and where the Vendean army
had effected the famous passage of the Loire, comparable to that of the
Berezina. There the aged witnesses of the struggles described by
Napoleon as "a war of giants," had assembled near the tomb of Bonchamp
to await the Duchess of Berry. All the neighboring heights were
bristling with white flags. From afar they were seen fluttering on the
church-towers, on the chateaux, over cottages, on isolated trees. They
were to be seen even above the graves in the cemeteries. A son had
said: "My father died for the white flag; let us plant it on his grave;
the dead should rejoice, for Madame comes to honor their fidelity." The
example was followed, and the tombs bore the rallying sign of those who
rested there. When on the borders of the Loire, the Princess paused a
moment, struck with the majesty of the scene. The cannon mingled their
noble voices with the acclamations of fifteen thousand Vendedans. The
stream was covered with a swarm of boats, dressed with flags. A
magnificent sun lighted up this fete.
It was ten o'clock when Madame arrived at Milleraye, opposite Saint
Florent. It was there that General de Bonchamp, one of the heroes of
the Vendee, had given up his soul to God. The cottage where the
soldiers had laid him to die was shown. His widow awaited the Duchess
of Berry. What contrast between the festivity of Saint Florent and the
consternation of the days of grief and misfortune, when, in October,
1793, its people fled to the right bank of the Loire, leaving their
houses a prey to the flames! The cries of distress and despair which
sounded along the banks of the stream in that fatal year, were now
replaced by shouts of joy. Madame embarked amid cheers. Her boat was
escorted by a great number of others, six of which contained Vendeans
bearing flags torn by bullets in the battles of Fontenay and of Torfou,
of Laval, and of Dol. Grouped on the hill-slopes of Saint Florent, more
than fifteen thousand spectators followed with their gaze the flotilla,
in the midst of which they saw the Duchess of Berry, standing, visibly
agitated. She landed upon the plateau of Saint Florent, and ascended on
foot the hill that led to it. When she reached the summit, she found
herself in the midst of a camp of five thousand Vendean soldiers who
had taken part in the war of 1793 or in the arming of 1815. There it
was that Cathelineau, as in the time of the crusades, cried: "It is
God's will. Let us march!"--"Oh, what a people!" said the Princess.
"What fine and honest faces! What an accent in their cries of 'Long
live the King!' Yes, plainly they love us." She proceeded to the church
of Saint Florent, where, kneeling beneath a canopy, she heard Mass. She
regarded with attention the tomb of Bonchamp, and said, as she beheld
his statue: "He looks as if he were still commanding."
On leaving the church, she went to see the place where Bonchamp is
buried, and, under a tent, partook of a repast offered her by the
Countess d'Autichamp. She had recounted to her in detail the celebrated
passage of the Loire, the disastrous period when all the city of Saint
Florent was burned by order of the Convention, and the only house left
standing was the one occupied by the republican General LEchelle as his
headquarters.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Madame embarked anew on the
steamboat awaiting her at the point of Varades, and proceeded in this
way to Nantes. The inhabitants from the two banks of the stream greeted
her upon her passage. The red aprons and white caps of the women
contrasted, in the landscape, with the sombre, costume of the men. That
she might be better recognized by the crowd, the Princess, clad in a
simple robe of brown silk, with a long chain of gold at the neck,
separated herself from her suite, mounted to the highest point on the
boat, and greeted with voice and gesture all these faithful people. The
men waved banners and standards. The women raised their little children
in their arms and said: "Look at her well; it's the mother of the Duke
of Bordeaux."
The people seemed to walk upon the water to get a nearer view of
Madame. Not a rock pushing out into the stream that was not occupied.
Where the Loire was too wide for the features of the Princess to be
seen from the shore, the dwellers on the banks had, so to speak,
brought them together, by forming in the middle of the stream streets
of boats, with their flags and their triumphal arches. At a league from
Saint Florent a rock juts into the water of the Loire. Here was an aged
Vendean, all alone, his white hair fluttering in the wind. Erect upon
the rock, he was holding a white flag, and at his feet was a dog. It
was, according to the Moniteur, a symbol of faithful Vendee.
The same day, June 22, at seven in the evening, the Princess reached
Nantes. She passed on foot from the Port Maillard to the Prefecture,
and had difficulty in getting through the innumerable multitude. The
next day she was at Savenay, where, on leaving the church, she paused
to contemplate the monument raised to the memory of the victims of the
battle of the 23d of September, 1793. The 24th, she went to Saint Anne
d'Auray, a pilgrimage venerated throughout all Brittany, and visited
the Champ des Martyrs, the little plain where thirty-three years
before, the EMIGRES taken at Quiberon had been shot, despite their
capitulation. When Madame appeared on the consecrated field, the crowd
cheered her, then became still, and amid solemn silence, sang the de
Profundis.
The 25th, the Princess was at Lorient, and there laid the corner-stone
of the monument erected to Bisson, the lieutenant of the navy who, in
the Greek expedition, October, 1827, being charged with the command of
a brig taken from the Turks by Admiral de Rigny's fleet, blew up the
vessel, with the crew, rather than surrender. After visiting Rennes,
she returned to Nantes, the 28th of June. A triumphal arch had been
constructed on the Place des Changes, with this inscription: "Lilies
for our Bourbons. Laurels for Henry. Roses for Louise." The flower and
fruit girls had written on their arch of verdure: "Our flowers, our
fruits, our hearts, are Madame's." The 29th, the Duchess attended a
magnificent ball given by the city. The next day she visited the
Trappist Convent at Melleray. It was difficult to persuade her to go
away. "Where shall I find more happiness than here?" she said.
"Elsewhere there are pleasures and distractions, but none here. Since I
make them happy, I would remain; and I am very well pleased."
The 30th, at evening, Madame arrived at Tremiciniere, at the house of
the Countess de Charette, the sister-in-law of the famous Vendean
chief. July 1, she entered Bocage. From there no more wide roads, no
more cities of easy approach; bad ways, long distances without relays,
obstacles of all sorts. Clad in a green riding-habit, with a gray felt
hat and a gauze veil, Madame galloped between Madame de la
Rochejaquelein and Madame de Charette. At her arrival at Saint Hilaire,
the Marquis de Foresta, Prefect of La Vendec, said to her: "Madame does
not like phrases; La Vendee does not make them; it has but one
sentiment and one cry to express it: Long live the King! Long live
Madame! Forever live the Bourbons!"
The peasants never wearied of admiring her intrepidity. When her horse,
excited by the cries and the beating of the drums, pranced and reared,
they were heard to say: "Oh! the brave little woman; she is not
frightened." A villager exclaimed: "I have never regretted my old
father so much as today; one day like this would have repaid him for
all the hardships he suffered."
Madame passed the night at the Chateau of Lagrange, the property of the
Marquis de Goulaine. On entering her chamber she found by her bed a
night-lamp, with this motto: "Rest tranquilly; La Vendee is watching."
On the 3d of July, she visited the Champ des Mattes, where in 1815 the
Marquis Louis de La Rochejaquelein was killed at the head of the
Vendeans in insurrection against Napoleon. The same day she was at
Bourbon-Vendee. The 5th of July, at the crossing of the Quatre Chemins,
in sight of the roads from Nantes, from Bourbon, from Saumur, and from
La Rochelle, she laid the first stone of a monument to perpetuate the
memory of the Vendean victories. She returned afterward to the Chateau
de Mesnard, the property of her first equerry, the one who traced so
well the itinerary of her journey. All the inhabitants of the bourg of
Mesnard had taken part in the great Vendean war, and, their cure at
their head, marched as far as Granville. The mother of the first
equerry, then a widow, and whose two sons were in the army of Conde,
had followed her former peasants, with her daughter, and died at
Lagrande at the time of the disastrous retreat. Madame de la
Rochejaquelein, in her Memoirs, speaks of the sad state in which she
saw her. In memory of so much devotion, Madame wished to open a bal
champetre with a veteran of the bourg of Mesnard.
That night the Princess slept at the Chateau of Landebaudiere,
belonging to Count Auguste de La Rochejaquelein. Everywhere the
villagers came to the gates of the chateaux to enlist in their joys as
formerly they had enlisted in their combats,--Lescure, La
Rochejaquelein, d'Elbee, Charette. The 6th, Madame visited the field of
the battle of Torfou. A former officer of the army of La Vendee, noting
that she wore a green riding-habit, said to her: "We were always
attached to our uniform, but we cherish it more than ever to-day, when
we see that we wear the colors of Madame."--"Gentlemen," replied the
Princess, "I have adopted your uniform." She breakfasted in the open
air, amid the Vendeans under arms.
Madame continued her journey on horseback. Nothing could stop her,
neither oppressive heat nor rain-storms. When she was spoken to of her
fatigues, "It is only fair," she responded, "that I should give myself
a little trouble to make the acquaintance of those who have shed their
blood for us." Most of the time she took her repast in the open air.
The peasants strolled around the table and fired salutes with their old
muskets; for in Vendee there is no fete without powder. Then to the
sound of the biniou and of the veze they moved in joyous dances in
which the daughter of kings did not disdain to take part. On entering
every village she was greeted by the cures of the parish and the
neighboring parishes. Nearly all were old soldiers whose hands had
borne the sword before carrying the cross.
Near the boundaries of the department of La Loire-Inferieure Madame
alighted. "Here is a farm," she said; "let us knock and ask for some
milk." The doors were not closed. On entering the room of the
farm-wife,--who was absent,--the Princess found only a very little
infant asleep and swaddled in a cradle. Then she seated herself on a
stool, and after the fashion of the country, set herself to rocking,
with her foot, the babe of the poor peasant-woman. The 6th of July, at
nine in the evening, she reached Beaupreau. The city, built in the form
of an amphitheatre, was illuminated; an immense bonfire had been
lighted. The next day Madame laid the corner-stone of a monument in
honor of d'Elbee, and saluted at Pinen-Mauges, the statue of
Cathelineau. The 8th of July, she was at the Chateau of Maulevrier,
whose owner, M. de Colbert, had erected a monument to the memory of
Stofflet, the heroic huntsman. The same day, at Saint Aubin, she laid
the first stone of another monument raised to the four heroes of La
Vendee,--Dornissan, Lescure, Henry and Louis de La Rochejaquelein.
The 10th of July, the Princess was at Lucon, the 11th at La Rochelle,
the 12th at Rochefort, the 13th at Blaye, the 14th at Bordeaux. The
"faithful city," as the capital of the Gironde was then named,
distinguished itself by its enthusiasm. A little girl of eight years,
Mademoiselle du Hamel, surrounded by her young companions, daughters of
members of the municipal government read a welcome to the mother of the
Duke of Bordeaux as follows:--
"Madame, while our fathers have the honor to offer you their hearts and
their arms, permit us, children, to offer to you the flowers and the
prayers of innocence. In choosing me as their interpreter, my young
companions have doubtless wished to recall to you an angel who is dear
to you; but if alone of them all I have the fortune to count the same
number of years as Mademoiselle, we all rival each other in cherishing
you, we all repeat with an enthusiasm rendered purer and more simple by
our age, Long live the King! Long live Madame!"
In the evening the "Mother of the Little Duke," as the Bordelais called
the Princess, went to the chief theatre, where she was received with
frenzied applause. The statue of the Duke of Bordeaux, supported by
soldiers under a canopy of flags, and crowned with laurels, was brought
to the front of the stage, while a cortege formed by a detachment of
troops of the line, and by all the company of the theatre, filed by,
military music resounded. Then a cantata was sung.
On the morrow, at a grand ball offered to her by the city, Madame was
seated upon a platform that was surmounted by a fine portrait of her
son. Eight hundred women, crowned with white plumes, flowers, and
diamonds, cheered her. The 18th, she slept at Pau, the native place of
Henry IV. The mountaineers, descending from their heights, banner in
hand, with their Basque costumes, came to meet her. The next day she
visited the castle where was born the Bearnais, whose cradle, formed of
a great tortoise-shell, she saw: it was shaded by draperies and white
plumes. The following day she visited the environs. To descend into the
valley of Ossun, she donned the felt hat and the red sash worn by the
peasants of Bearn. As she was looking at the spring of Nays, a
mountaineer offered her some water in a rustic dish, and said naively:
"Are you pleased with the BEarnais, Madame?"--"Am I not pleased!"
replied the Princess, eagerly. "See, I wear the hat and sash of the
country!"
The 24th, she was at the Ile des Faisans, famous in the souvenirs of
Louis XIV.; the 25th, at Bayonne, where she assisted at a military
fete. In all her excursions, Madame carried her pencils with her, and
almost every day sketched some picturesque site. Eight Bearnais, with
an amaranth belt and hats of white and green, served her as a guard of
honor. She passed all the month of August and a part of the month of
September in the Pyrenees. The mountaineers never wearied of admiring
the hardihood, the gaiety, the spirit, shown by her in making the most
difficult ascensions. The 9th of September, she quitted Bagneres-de
Luchon to return to Paris, passing through Toulouse, Montauban, Cahors,
Limoges, and Orleans. It was one long series of ovations. The 1st of
October, Madame returned to the Tuileries. She had been accompanied all
through her journey by the Marechale Duchess of Reggio, lady of honor;
by the Marchioness of Podenas, lady companion; and by Count de Mesnard,
first equerry.
The Duchess of Berry returned enchanted. Could she suspect the
reception that awaited her, four years later, in the places where she
had just been the object of veritable worship? When she was received at
Nantes as a triumphant sovereign, could she believe that the time was
approaching when, in that same city, she would have hardly a stone on
which to lay her head and where she would seek a futile refuge in the
chimney-piece--mysterious hiding-place--of the house of the Demoiselles
Duguigny? At Blaye could she imagine that the citadel, hung with white
flags, whose cannon were fired in her honor, would so soon become her
prison? Poor Princess! She had taken seriously the protestations of
devotion and fidelity addressed to her everywhere. They asked her to
promise that if ever the rights of her son were denied, she would
defend them on the soil of La Vendee, and she had said to herself: "I
swear it." The journey of 1828 held the germ of the expedition of 1832.