Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

La Vendée had beheld the revolution of 1830 with astonishment, and the greater number of its inhabitants were hostile to it; the western provinces had kept up a standing army ever since 1793, and La Vendée, so long the field of battle, was always a camp. At the moment when the monarchy fell, the Vendéans expected the exiles to take refuge with them, and were ready to offer them an asylum. Marie Caroline knew that she should have the towns against her, but reckoned on the good-will of the country. Her designs were, to order a general assumption of arms in this part of France; to make all the small detachments, dispersed in various directions, rise in one day; then to present herself with an armed force before the government troops, which she hoped would promptly declare in her favour; afterwards to march suddenly to the capital, flattering herself that the regiments sent out against her would side with her, so confidently did she reckon on the affection of the soldiery. She was convinced that all this would be possible, if she acted skilfully and quickly; she calculated on a thousand unforeseen circumstances which would attend a first success, and, if once fortune seemed to lean towards her in the smallest degree, she felt sure that help would come from all quarters. With 1000 men she should have a regiment, with a regiment, an army, with an army, France. In the beginning she had but one province, but that province was firm and decided, energetic and devoted, while, in her adversaries' camp, political indifference had loosened all adherence. Doubtless, in all this, she took the journey of Napoleon from Elba to the Tuileries as a precedent; but she was not aware of the feeling in the army which he alone could excite, and which to this day holds the image of the emperor sacred in its recollection. Unfortunately for the princess, the military chief on whom she most relied had not yet arrived, and no one could tell where he was; but she persevered, for she knew that he would come when he heard of her arrival; and it was the nature of her sanguine temper, as soon as she met with an obstacle, immediately to set to work to find a new route to her purpose.

The 24th of May was fixed upon for the commencement of operations, and a proclamation to that effect was issued in her name. Great were her sufferings; and her march, in order to assemble her troops, was more like that of a fugitive than of a princess, in a country which she expected would rally round her and lead her son to a throne. She was received with enthusiasm, and the most heroic acts of devotion were performed; but they were the enthusiasm and acts of individuals and peasantry, and there does not seem to have been one preponderating circumstance in her favour. M. Berryer, a well-known royalist, one

[ocr errors]

،،

66

،،

of the acknowledged chiefs of her party, was then in La Vendée, about to plead a cause at the assizes held at Vannes; he profited by this in order to see the duchess, and to persuade her, from the conviction of himself and several of the most distinguished of her party in the capital, and elsewhere, to quit France. He was secretly led in the night to the farm-house where she was concealed, and there exerted all the eloquence for which he is so pre-eminent; but it was of no avail, her reply was, "I am come here because I wish my son to owe every thing to his own country, and nothing to foreign interference. Look, M. Berryer, if he must purchase the throne of France by the "cession of a province, a town, a fortress, a house, or a cottage, "like that in which I am, I give you my word, as a regent and a mother, that he never shall be a king." From this we may easily gather the nature of M. Berryer's expostulations, but he was obliged to leave her without having made the slightest impression; she however promised to reflect till the next day, when she wrote to him that her cause was not without resource, that retreat would be disgraceful, and that she would run the risk of taking up arms. But the time lost in effecting this interview produced incalculable mischief. Supposing that M. Berryer might prevail, a counter-order was given to her partisans, and the moment of action postponed. It had the usual effect, it diminished the ardour of those who were ready, prevented others from completing their preparations, and gave time to the opposite party to become the offensive, instead of the defensive. All attempts were henceforth abortive, and the arrest of the Duke de Fitz-James, the Viscount de Chateaubriand, and the Count Hyde de Neuville, convinced the princess that nothing was to be done at that time in La Vendée, and she fled for refuge to the house of the ladies Duguigny at Nantes. Concealed in this asylum, and lodged in a room which communicated with a secret closet, she kept up a correspondence with all the royalists in and out of the kingdom, for she wrote in cipher with remarkable facility. Her health suffered much in consequence of this life of seclusion and disappointment, but she was supported by the idea that she had at least published to the world that her son had not given up his claims to the throne.

The ministry of which M. Thiers formed a part at length determined on arresting the princess, and entered into correspondence with the villain Deutz, who promised to betray her, in consideration of a sum of money. Warned against him, she long hesitated to receive him, but at last she consented to an interview, which was so well managed, that he could not be certain that she lived in the house where he met her: being a little off

her guard, she saw him a second time, when, the dining-room door being left open, he counted the number of covers prepared for dinner. This convinced him that the princess was an inmate of the house, and in the evening the government troops assembled round it. M. Guibourg had just time to say to the duchess, "Save yourself!" when she rushed up stairs, followed by him, M. Mesnard, and Mademoiselle Stylite de Kersabiec; they hid themselves in the secret closet, and the house was searched, the owners of it behaving with the utmost composure. The masons sounded the walls and floors, and occasionally with such force, that the prisoners expected to be killed by the falling plaster. The greater part of the night was passed in fruitless searches, and the prefect of Nantes gave the signal for retreat, leaving however a sufficient number of men to occupy all the apartments. The hiding-place was only three feet and a half long, and eighteen inches wide at one end, and from eight to ten at the other; the men with difficulty stood upright in it, and the cold and damp penetrated through the slates. The guards, in order to warm themselves, lighted a fire in the adjoining chimney, close to where the duchess stood, which at first appeared to be a comfort, but the heat soon became intolerable, and, as the workmen again began their search, they seemed to be threatened with destruction: nothing however disturbed the cheerfulness of the duchess, who could not help laughing at the conversation of the gendarmes. Once the fire was nearly out, and the closet became cooler; M. Mesnard too had pushed some of the slates off the roof, and the air, and the absence of the masons from that part of the house, gave them fresh courage. At length one of the gendarmes found some numbers of the Quotidienne newspapers, and burned them to renew the fire; this caused so strong a heat, that the closet became insupportable, and the tile near where the duchess stood, so hot, that her clothes caught fire twice, and she burned herself severely in extinguishing the flames, and death seemed to be the certain consequence of longer concealThe movements of the prisoners attracted the attention of the gendarme who was awake, but for a few moments he thought they were occasioned by rats, and he disturbed his comrade in order to hunt them with sabres. At last he asked who was there; on which Mlle. Kersabiec said, "We surrender, we are "going to open the closet-put out the fire." In an instant the fire was scattered and trampled under foot, and the captives walked out. For sixteen hours these four persons had been thus shut up, without food, without sufficient air to breathe in, and either benumbed with cold or half-roasted alive. The duchess asked for the commandant of the troops, General Dermoncourt,

ment.

He came, and to him she gave herself up, requesting him not to leave her, for she justly feared insult from the civil authorities. She was taken to the Castle, and as she passed by the opening into the closet, she said, "Ah, General, if you had not made war "upon me in the fashion of Saint Lawrence, which, by the way, "is unworthy of military generosity, you would not now have me "under your arm." The first phase of the revolution was finished. "Madame la Duchesse de Berri avait été arrêtée, la "citadelle d'Anvers fut prise. L'Europe s'étant retirée du "champ de bataille, la campagne de Belgique ne fut point la guerre pour l'Europe, mais ce fut quelque chose de pis encore. "Le roi de Hollande reçut la moins dangereuse blessure: il fut "frappé du tranchant, les autres couronnes, du plat de l'épée.”

Marie Caroline was led a prisoner to the Chateau de Blaye, and the history before us comes to a conclusion. We cannot do better than follow the example, from our hearts pitying the unfortunate princess, whose career we have followed up to this moment, and respecting the high and courageous qualities with which she was endowed: to express more than this would lead to a declaration of political opinions, which we are not called upon to set forth.

ART. II.-Aufenthalt und Reisen in Mexico, in den Jahren 1825 bis 1834. (Residence and Travels in Mexico.) By Joseph Burkart. 2 vols. 8vo. Stuttgart, 1836.

WHATEVER may be the ultimate gain or loss resulting to the Spanish-American colonies by the revolution which has separated them from the mother-country, it is certain that, the restrictions on the intercourse with foreign nations being removed, it has become more than ever desirable to obtain an accurate knowledge of their internal situation, their resources, and the prospects which they afford to the spirit of commercial enterprise, always eager to embark in new channels. The classical work of Alexander von Humboldt on Mexico is not sufficient to exhibit the actual state of the country; and there are, besides, many portions of that extensive region which he did not visit. Hence various works which have been published since the revolution of Mexico (to which country we now confine ourselves) have been generally well received, though in many instances extremely superficial and defective. The various English and German mining companies, established there with the consent of the government, have very great interests at stake, and any authentic information on the

geology and mineralogy of the country is of the highest importance. On this account, in particular, M. Burkart's work will be found to be of peculiar value, as it furnishes a far more complete view of the geology of the country than any of its predecessors. From a preface written by Dr. Nöggerath, Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Bonn, we learn some particulars respecting the writer which prove his qualification for the task he undertook. Before M. Burkart went to America, he had published several able papers on geology in some scientific periodicals in Germany. Having acquired solid theoretical and practical knowledge in the universities, and by travels in his own country, he was appointed, in 1824, Secretary to the Royal Prussian Mining Office at Düren, and was soon afterwards invited by the English Tlalpujahua Mining Company to undertake the direction of their works in Mexico. He accepted this invitation, and directed those works for three years. He then made several scientific journeys in the Mexican states, particularly to Mexico, Real del Monte, Atotonilco el Chico, Zimapan, Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, &c. In 1828 he entered, as director of the mining operations at Veta Grande, into the service of the English Bolanos Mining Company, and had the good fortune to obtain for it in six years nearly six millions of Prussian dollars (about 900,000l. sterling). Having obtained leave of absence, he returned in July, 1834, to Germany, where he resolved to remain. Amidst numerous other occupations and many interruptions, he composed this work in 1835.

The special avocations of the author, and his long residence in Tlalpujahua and Zacatecas, sufficiently account for his being able to devote so much attention to this part of his work. It contains a great treasure of observations on mineralogy, geology and mining, and numerous data relative to metallic strata and the volcanoes of Mexico, besides a variety of information concerning the geography, history, antiquities, &c. of the country. We proceed to make some extracts chiefly from these last portions, as being more susceptible of being detached, and more generally interesting than the mere scientific details.

M. Burkart embarked at Portsmouth, on the 11th of March, 1825, on board the Sophia of Bristol, freighted by the Tlalpujahua Mining Company, and on the 9th of May arrived off the coast of Tampico.

"After the glorious and delightful prospect of the West India Islands, that of the Mexican coast was monotonous, unpromising, and desolate. The first land we saw was a little to the south of the river Tampico. The coast is very low and flat; we looked in vain for high mountains in the horizon; a sandy beach and some hilly land were all that the eye could discover. On the following day we were off the

« НазадПродовжити »