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.





XXIV

THE MARY STUART BALL


No society in Europe was more agreeable and brilliant than that of
the Duchess of Berry. The fetes given by the Princess in the
salons of the Pavilion de Marsan at the Tuileries were marked by
exceptional elegance and good taste; the Petit Chateau, as her
vivacious social staff was called at that time, had an
extraordinary brightness and animation. At the carnival of 1829
Madame organized a costume ball, which, for its brilliancy, was
the talk of the court and the city. All the costumes were those of
one period,--that at which the dowager queen of Scotland, Marie of
Lorraine, widow of James V., came to France to visit her daughter,
Mary Stuart, wife of the King, Francis II. It was decided that
Mary Stuart should be represented by the Duchess of Berry, and the
King, Francis II., by the oldest of the sons of the Duke of
Orleans, the Duke of Chartres, who was then eighteen and one-half
years old, and who was, the next year, to take the title of Duke
of Orleans, on the accession of his father to the throne. The
apartments of the Children of France in the Pavilion de Marsan
were chosen for the ball, and the date was fixed at Monday, March
2, 1829.

The King, the Dauphin and Dauphiness, the Duke and Duchess of
Orleans, appeared at the fete, but not in costume. Charles X. came
after the hour of giving out the general orders. The Dauphin, the
Dauphiness, and the Duke of Orleans arrived at 8 P.M. The entry of
the four queens, Mary Stuart, Marie of Lorraine, Catharine de'
Medici, Jeanne d'Albret, was announced by the band of the
bodyguards which preceded them. The cortege was magnificent, the
costumes of the princes and their ladies resplendent. To increase
its richness, the Dauphiness had lent not only her own jewels, but
a part of those of the crown. The invited guests not taking part
in the cortege occupied places already assigned them. They wore a
uniform costume of silver gauze and white satin. This coolness of
tone produced a charming effect when at the arrival of the cortege
all rose. In the ball-room a platform had been prepared with a
throne for Mary Stuart. The Duchess of Berry, as the famous queen,
wore with great grace a dazzling toilet--crown of diamonds, high
collar, blue velvet robe with wide sleeves, front of white satin
bordered with ermine. The Duke of Chartres, a handsome boy and
brilliant cavalier, as King Francis II., wore a cap with white
plumes, and a dark blue velvet doublet with ornaments of gold. His
brother, the Duke of Nemours, fourteen years old, was in the
character of a page to the King, with a white satin doublet, and
recalled in his features the youth of Henry IV. The Duchess of
Berry, playing to perfection her role of queen, advanced to the
throne. The Duke of Chartres gave her his hand to ascend the
steps. Then she made a sign to be seated; but the young Prince
remained standing. Placing himself behind the throne, and removing
his cap with white plumes, he bowed low and said: "Madame, I know
my place." The Duchess of Gontaut spoke to the Duchess of Orleans,
and asked her if she had remarked the tact of her son the Prince.
"I remarked it," replied the Princess, "and I approve of it."

The ball commenced. There was present a great Scotch lord, the
Marquis of Huntley, who belonged to a very illustrious Jacobite
house. In his youth he had been what was then called a beau
danseur, and had had the honor of opening a fancy dress ball at
the Chateau of Versailles with the Queen Marie Antoinette. Charles
X. remembered it and wished that the Marquis, then nearly eighty,
should open the ball with little Mademoiselle, who was but nine.
Still a beau danseur, the old Englishman had not forgotten the
pirouettes of Versailles; all the court admired, and the young
princes were greatly amused.

The ball was a marvellous success. It was a revival of the
beautiful fetes of the Renaissance. The sixteenth century, so
elegant, so picturesque, lived anew. A painter, who was then but
twenty-nine, and who had already a great vogue, M. Eugene Lamy,
perpetuated its memory in a series of twenty-six watercolors,
which have been lithographed, and form a curious album. (A copy of
this album is in the National Library, in the Cabinet of
Engravings.) It contains, besides, four water-colors, representing
one, the ascent of the stairway of the Pavilion de Marsan by the
guests; another, Mary Stuart seated on the throne; a third, one of
the dances of the ball; a fourth, the entrance of the Dowager
Queen of Scotland twenty-two reproductions of the principal
personages at the fete. At the left are the arms of the historic
personages represented, and at the right those of the
representative. Then above the portrait of the Duchess of Berry
there are at the left the arms of Scotland and France, and at the
right those of France and the Two Sicilies, and above the portrait
of the Duke of Chartres at the left the arms of France, at the
right the ducal blazon of Orleans.

Here are the names of the twenty-two persons who figure in the
album of M. Eugene Lamy, with the personages represented:--

1. The Duchess of Berry (Mary Stuart).

2. The Duke of Chartres (Francis II.).

3. The Duke de Nemours (a king's page).

4. Lady Stuart de Rothsay (Marie de Lorraine). Daughter of Lord
Hardwicke, she was the wife of Lord Stuart de Rothsay, ambassador
of England at Paris.

5. The Marquis of Douglas, since Duke of Hamilton (the Duke de
Chatellerault), a finished type of the great Scotch lord; he
married in 1843 the Princess Mary of Baden, and under the reign of
Napoleon III. added to his titles of Hamilton and of Brandon in
Scotland and England, the title of Duke de Chatellerault, in
France, which had formerly belonged to the Hamilton family.

6. The Marchioness of Podenas, NEE Nadaillac (Catharine de'
Medici). Lady companion of the Duchess of Berry, she was one of
the brightest women of the court.

7. The Count de Pastoret, married to a de Neufermeil (Duke of
Ferrara).

8. The Marquis de Vogue (the Vidame de Chartres). Married to a
Mademoiselle de Machault d'Arnouville; his son was the diplomat
who was ambassador under the presidency of Thiers and of Marshal
Macmahon.

9. Count Ludovic de Rosanbo (Duke de Guise). He was one of the
handsomest men of his time. He had married the daughter of the
Count de Mesnard, lady companion to the Duchess of Berry.

10. The Countess de La Rochejaquelein, daughter of the Duke de
Duras (a lady of honor to the Queen). She was honorary lady
companion to the Duchess of Berry.

11. Miss Louise Stuart (a page to the Queen-Mother of Scotland).

12. Miss Pole Carew (Mary Seaton, maid of honor to the same
queen).

13. The Count de Mailly (Rene de Mailly, officer of the guard to
Mary Stuart). The Count was the son of the Marshal de Mailly,
defender of the Tuileries on August 10, who paid for his devotion
on the scaffold of the Revolution. Aide-de-camp of the Duke of
Bordeaux, and lieutenant-colonel; he was a brilliant officer who
had received glorious wounds in the Russian campaign. He was
married to a Mademoiselle de Lonlay de Villepail.

14. The Countess d'Orglandes, NEE Montblin, one of the prettiest
women of the court (Louise de Clermont-Tonnerre, Countess of
Crussol).

15. The Duchess de Caylus, NEE La Grange, a great beauty,
remarried afterwards to the Count de Rochemure (Diane de
Poitiers).

16. Mademoiselle de Bearn, a charming young girl, married
afterwards to the Duke of Vallombrosa, and dying so young and so
regretted (a maid of honor to Mary Stuart).

17. Count de Mesnard, peer of France, field marshal, first equerry
of the Duchess of Berry, aide-de-camp of the Duke of Bordeaux
(Admiral de Coligny).

18. Marquis de Louvois, peer of France, married to Mademoiselle de
Monaco (Count Gondi de Ritz).

19. The Duke of Richelieu, nephew of the President of the Council
of Ministers of Louis XVIII. (Jacques d'Albon, Marshal of Saint
Andre).

20. The Baron de Charette (Francois de Lorraine). He had married a
daughter of the Duke of Berry and of Miss Brown. His son was the
general of the Papal Zouaves.

21. Countess de Pastoret, NEE Neufermeil (the Duchess of
Montpensier).

22. The Countess Auguste de Juigne, NEE Durfort de

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