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.
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