The Cause of my Delay—My Trustfulness—Louis-Philippe, Duke
of Orleans—Louis-Philippe-Joseph, his Son—Chief Vices of
the Last—Bad Son—Bad Husband—Bad Father Bad Friend—Bad
Citizen—Consequent Results.
I ask my readers to forgive me for having so long entertained them with
so many tiresome details. I had no thought at first of doing so, but the
recent attempts at the most impudent frauds[17] have more and more fully
convinced me that I cannot make too well known the various events which
have brought about the deferring of my just claims.
And if my silence since I succeeded in getting back my deeds from the
hateful Cooper causes some surprise, it must be told that they were
hardly once more in my possession before I handed them over to a lawyer
of reputation, who, after keeping them a couple of months, wrote to me
that, before definitely undertaking my case, he wished, through the
medium of M. de Broval or M. Dupin,[18] to get leave to make researches
in the archives of the house of Orleans.
“The result of this step,” he said, “would be decisive, and, when it had
been taken, we could decide as to the following up or the relinquishing
of the trial.”
It will be believed that I could not consent to be thus put at the mercy
of my adversary. I asked for the return of my papers; but once more I
could not get them without the payment of 100 francs for the time my
_comic_ lawyer had thought good to make me lose.
I then decided to have recourse to one of those _colossal celebrities_
whose sublime eminence seems to place them so high above the fatal bait
of bribes;[19] and these were at first his fine promises—
“Madame la Baronne, I have not yet been able to examine the
papers you were kind enough to send me. I propose to devote the
whole day to them to-morrow, and I will at once give you my
opinion on this _important_ business.
“Pray accept, madame, the humble respects of your obedient
servant,
“B. F.”
Who could believe that more than fifty days after I received this letter,
my packet had not even been opened, and that the _important_ business
rested in oblivion?
At last I put it into the hands of a man whose excellent references
proved him worthy of my confidence; he will not abuse it, and most
certainly neither he nor those he will employ in my service will behave
like those who, acting for me in the Cooper business, so cruelly ground
me down.
Yes, I hope Providence has not quite forsaken me, and that the day of
victory will come; the many valuable discoveries the base machinations of
my enemies have been unable to prevent me making, vouch for it, and give
me confidence amidst my many tribulations. Kindly lend me your ears still.
In 1773, at the time of the infamous substitution, these were the members
of the house of Orleans.
The Prince of that name was Louis-Philippe, who married first
Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, and, secondly, Madame de Montesson;
but this last union was always kept secret.
Of the first marriage was born Louis-Philippe-Joseph, then commonly
called Duc de Chartres, who, in his turn, became Duke of Orleans, a title
he gave up later to assume the ludicrous nickname of Egalité, under which
he made himself so ignominiously notorious. He had married Mademoiselle
Louise Marie Adélaïde, daughter of the Duc de Bourbon Penthièvre, who
died in 1821, under the name of the Dowager Duchess of Orleans.
Louis-Philippe-Joseph is precisely the person who, according to a host of
admitted facts, _seems_ to us to have been the guilty perpetrator of the
criminal exchange; I say _seems_, for submitting beforehand to the final
decision of my judges, I will do nothing to prejudice it.
I will not say, with the historians of his life,[20] that the Duc de
Chartres, when scarcely out of his boyhood, showed the most depraved
tastes, and took no pleasure but in wickedness.
I will not say that from his youth upwards his degrading vices made him
the object of universal contempt, and ended by earning for him the vilest
names.
I will not repeat that in his inextinguishable passion for riches he was
not afraid to show the greatest impatience at the prolongation of his
father’s life; that, not satisfied with degrading himself, he was willing
publicly to dishonour her who had borne him in her bosom, and shamelessly
forswore his glorious descent from the most august blood.
I will not repeat that his wife had the constant affliction of finding
her efforts to lead him into the ways of a wise moderation quite useless,
and that she had to endure hardships of all sorts from a husband both
hard and unfaithful.
I will not repeat that he pitilessly sent the sad fruits of his
profligacy to the asylum for the poor, and that his legitimate children,
given over very early into the hands of strangers, were never the objects
of his care, seldom of his endearments.
[Illustration: THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS