List Of Contents | Contents of The Duchess Of Berry-Charles X
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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

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