had a long standing affection for the Duke of Bourbon.
On September 21st, 1824, he conferred on him at the same time as
on the Duke of Orleans, the title of Royal Highness. The last of
the Condes was, besides, Grand Master of France. This court
function was honorary rather than real, and the Prince appeared at
the Tuileries only on rare occasions. Charles X. loved him as a
friend of his childhood, a companion of youth and exile, but he
had a lively regret to see him entangled in such relations with
the Baroness of Feucheres. The advice he gave him many times to
induce him to break this liaison was without result. Finally the
King said: "Let us leave him alone; we only give him pain." He
never went to Chantilly, in order not to sanction by his royal
presence the kind of existence led there by his old relation; and
the Prince knowing the sentiments of his sovereign, gave him but
few invitations, which were always evaded under one pretext or
another.
People wondered at the time who would be the heirs of the immense
fortune of the Condes, whose race was on the point of extinction.
The Prince's mother was Charlotte-Elisabeth de Rohan-Soubise, and
the Rohans thought themselves the natural heirs. But such a
combination would not have met the views of Madame de Feucheres,
who, not content with having got from the Prince very considerable
donations, counted on figuring largely in his will.
Pages:
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103