"
To sum up, the Duchess of Berry was to the court of Charles X.
what the Duchess of Burgundy was to that of Louis XIV. Her lovely
youth brightened everything. Let us do her this justice: despite a
character in appearance frivolous, she carried to a kind of
fanaticism the love of France and passion for French glory. There
was one thing that the gracious widow took very seriously,--the
rights of her son. She would have risked a thousand deaths to
defend that child, who represented in her heart the cause of the
fatherland. Where he was concerned there was in the attitude of
this frail young woman something firm and decided. To a sagacious
observer, the amazon was already manifest under the lady of
society. She was like those officers who shine equally at the ball
and on the field of battle. Recognizing in her more than one
imperfection, she cannot be denied either courage, or
intelligence, or heart. By her qualities as by her defects she was
of the race of Henry IV. But she was more frank and more grateful
than the Bearnais. Doubtless she did not have the genius, the
prodigious ability, the fine and profound political sense, of that
great man; but her nature was better, her generosity greater, her
character more sympathetic.
VIII
THE ORLEANS FAMILY
At the accession of Charles X., Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans,
chief of the younger branch of the Bourbons, born at Paris,
October 6th, 1773, was not yet fifty-seven years old.
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