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France and Austria prevailed against the people: the two princes were deprived of their command, and banished from the soil of Italy. The elder of the brothers died shortly afterwards of fever, at Faenza, March 27, 1831; and so Louis Napoleon became the only surviving child of his parents.

The prince was now in a critical position. In the territory of his enemies, and hemmed in by Austrian soldiers, who never relaxed their vigilance and their efforts to capture him, he was only rescued by the address of his mother, who helped him to escape in the livery of a servant. Hortense and her son landed at Cannes; and though in danger of arrest-for the proscription of the Bonaparte family still held good-they made their way to Paris; the prince resolved to throw himself at the feet of Louis Philippe, requesting only that he might be allowed to serve France in the capacity of a private soldier; while his mother desired only leave to live and die upon French soil. It was hoped, and not without good reason, that if the king would not listen to the request of the young prince, at all events he would not turn a deaf ear to his mother, the ex-queen, to whom he was, or ought to have been personally bound by the strongest ties of gratitude.* But Louis Philippe was not remarkable for generosity or gratitude. Besides, when a ruling power sees danger to its stability, state necessity is held to supersede all personal considerations; and the only reply vouchsafed to the appeal of the mother and son was an order to leave the French territory forthwith.

Returning to the land of his adoption, Switzerland, the prince was formally admitted to the rights of citizenship by the canton of Thurgau, within which Arenenberg is situated. This was in the year 1832; and towards the close of the year, the death of his cousin, the Duc de Reichstadt (only son of the emperor by Marie Louise), drew the prince into closer relationship to the rights and traditions inherited from the Empire, as the nearest representative of his uncle, the great Napoleon. He consequently became an object of proportionally greater fear, and therefore of greater dislike, to the Bourbonist and Orleanist parties.

While still very young, Louis Napoleon had composed a work on Artillery, which obtained warm encomiums from high authorities on the subject; but it was only in 1832-3 that his name became at all widely known as an author. In the former year he published his Rêveries Politiques, to which he appended the outline of a constitution in many respects greatly resembling that which he was afterwards mainly instrumental in bestowing on France, and in the course of which, after declaring that 'the end of the Republic was to establish the reign of equality and liberty;' that 'the nature of the

* It was mainly at her request that the emperor had allowed the mother and aunt of Louis Philippe to reside in France, at a time when all the Bourbon branches were conspiring against the Empire; and it was in a great measure her intercession which procured for them annuities sufficient to maintain them in comfort, and in a position to some extent suited to their rank.

Empire was to consolidate a throne based on the principles of the Revolution, to heal the wounds of France, and to regenerate the people;' while 'its passions were love of country, love of glory, love of honour;' he goes on to avow his strong conviction that the secret of the regeneration of France is to be found in a 're-combination of the two popular causes of the day-that of the Empire and that of the Republic.' He adds-and it must be remembered that when he wrote, the king of Rome still lived 'the son of the first Napoleon is the sole representative of the highest amount of glory; just as the Republic is the embodiment of the greatest amount of natural liberty.' This constant reference to the restoration of the Empire as the great national object of aspiration to all patriotic Frenchmen, is remarkable; and so far is personal ambition, in the vulgar sense of the term, from being the ruling passion of Louis Napoleon, that in this work he perpetually dwells on his cousin's claims as the 'sole representative' of the Empire-a title to which he never presumed to assert any claim, on his own part, until death had removed the brother and the cousin who stood between himself and the imperial line of succession. Asserting plainly that his own 'principles' are 'republican,' he 'gives the preference' to 'the monarchical form of government,' because he considers such a form the best adapted to France, as 'giving more and greater guarantees of strength and liberty than any other.'

The prince followed up this work by another, which appeared in 1833, entitled Considérations Politiques et Militaires sur la Suisse. In this book—the result, it need hardly be said, of a close study and constant observation of the people among whom his lot was casthe analyses the social, political, and industrial position of Switzerland, pointing out those portions of the Helvetic system which, in his opinion, called for amendment or abolition, and offering those suggestions which appeared to him calculated to increase the happiness of the people of Switzerland, and to promote the stability of the Confederation. He reminded the Swiss of the extent to which they were indebted for the improvement which had taken place in their position to the good offices of the great Napoleon, whose general system of finance, and of including in his views the good of all classes of the community, instead of legislating for the benefit of the privileged classes alone, he holds up as models to be admired and followed by statesmen. Proceeding from these to other subjects, he goes on to treat of his favourite topic of military organisation, and of the measures necessary in order to create an effectual system of armed national defence which shall be readily available in emergencies. In these sections of his book the prince shewed an intimate acquaintance with all the various branches of the science of war, bestowing particular attention on the arm of artillery. And it is only fair to add that, whatever their feelings may be towards the writer, the military section of these Considérations has always been

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regarded by competent judges as a valuable addition to that class of literature.

About this time, it was suggested in more quarters than one that Louis Napoleon would be a most suitable husband for the young queen of Portugal, Donna Maria, who had lately been left a widow. There were many competitors for her hand; but few were thought more eligible partners than a prince who, whilst free of all engagements which could create any political complications, was closely related to an imperial House and heir to its honours. The queen herself, it was confidently stated at the time, was not averse to the proposal; but Louis Napoleon took pains to make known not merely the fact that he declined the proffered honour, but the reason why he had resolved to refuse to share a foreign throne. He wrote: 'The noble conduct of my father, who abdicated a throne, in 1810, because he could not unite the interests of France with those of Holland, has not left my memory. My father, by his example, proved to me how far the claims of one's native land are to be preferred even to a throne in a foreign country. I feel in fact that, trained as I have been from infancy to cherish the thought of my own country above every other consideration, I should not be able to hold anything in higher esteem than the interests of France. Persuaded as I am that the great name which I bear, and which must ever recall the memory of fifteen years of glory, will not always be proscribed by my countrymen, I wait with patience in a free and hospitable land the arrival of the day when the French nation will call back to its bosom those who, in 1815, were driven into exile by the will of 200,000 strangers. This hope of being able to serve France even yet as a citizen and a soldier, is that which gives strength to my soul, and, in my opinion, is worth all the thrones in the world.'

When six years had passed after the revolution of 1830, it is not too much to say that the government of Louis Philippe had made itself most distasteful to the French people, and that the feelings of hope which had helped to seat the Duc d'Orleans on the throne of France had been thoroughly disappointed. In proportion to the wide spread of this feeling of disgust was the insecurity of the throne to which Louis Philippe had—not succeeded by right, but-been 'elected;' and the weakness of the reigning king was obviously the strength of all who wished to see a restoration of either the Republic or the Empire. Especially did it tend to increase the strength of the party who, more or less in secret, attached themselves to the cause of the House of Bonaparte. Prince Louis

Napoleon, though exiled from France, still resided near the borders of his native land,' whose fair fields he could almost see before him from the Swiss heights near Arenenberg. The curt and ungracious refusal of his own and his mother's request by 'the Citizen King' had sunk deep in his heart; and he considered himself quite at liberty

not merely to watch the course of events in France-with respect to which he took care to be well advised-but also to profit by any revulsion of the national feeling. The noblest minds in France saw their hopes and expectations not only disappointed, but warred against. The suffrage was a mockery, the number of electors throughout the entire kingdom being only about a quarter of a million. By the creation of petty offices beyond all number, and by a profligate waste of money, the court might be said to have carried these votes in its pocket, and the 'national will' was a nullity, for there was no means of testing it or ascertaining it. The prince knew all this, and was resolved to turn his knowledge to account; although it is generally admitted that his proceedings were rash and inconsiderate-perilous they certainly were. On the 30th of October 1836, after a day or two spent in concerting measures with a few friends, the prince, accompanied by about a dozen officers, appeared at Strasbourg, presented himself at the quarters of the 10th Regiment of artillery, the same in which the great Napoleon had served as captain some fifty years before. He displayed before the soldiers the imperial eagle, the 'symbol of military glory,' and in a few brief words called them to follow his standard. They accepted the omen, and obeyed his call; and if it had not been for an untoward accident, the arrival of a certain general officer, who called out to them that they were being deceived, and that he who called on them in the name of the great Napoleon was not that Napoleon's nephew, nor a Bonaparte, but an impostor, there is little doubt that in a few hours he would have had possession of the town, and that the example of the 10th Regiment would have been widely followed throughout France. As it turned out, the effort of the prince was paralysed a struggle ensued between the prince's friends and the soldiers under command of General Voirol, and in a few minutes the 'eagle' was captured and the prince made a prisoner.

Taken to Paris, he was accused of treason, and, in spite of his mother's earnest entreaties, was denied the privilege of a trial, and pronounced guilty. His life was spared, but he was ordered to be deported' to America, as, in the opinion of Louis Philippe, his presence in Europe was a constant source of alarm to the court of the Tuileries. In vain did he protest against the sentence. He entreated, he demanded to remain in France, to be allowed to stand his trial, and to take his chance of life and death, side_by side with those friends who had taken part in 'the affair.'* But all in vain. Terms indeed were offered him; but the conditions were such that he could not and would not accept them. He was seized, therefore, and forcibly 'deported' to America, where he remained for some months, spending his time in rendering himself acquainted

* They were brought to trial, and eventually acquitted.

with the practical working of the republican system of the United States. It has been said indeed that he gave to the government of Louis Philippe a promise that, if his life were spared, he would remain in perpetual exile on the other side of the Atlantic, and that when he returned, as he did return, to Europe in the following year, it was in violation of his word of honour. Such was not the case; he returned to Europe in the hope of seeing Hortense once more, and (as he says himself) of being allowed to close his mother's dying eyes. Happily he came back in time to perform this last office of filial duty. Queen Hortense died in October 1837, amid the regrets of all who had known her when, in the flower of her life, she graced the courts of the Hague and the Tuileries, and of her friends and neighbours in the land of her adoption.

After paying the last honours to his mother, the prince continued to reside in Switzerland till the following year (1838), when he found himself compromised in the eyes of the French king and his ministry by an indiscreet publication by one of his adherents,* relating to the 'Affair at Strasbourg,' which was pronounced seditious, and brought upon its author a sentence of fine and imprisonment. The French government, not content with punishing the writer, followed up their triumph by a pressing demand to the Helvetic Confederation for the expulsion of the illustrious exile who had made Switzerland his home. The Confederation refused to comply with à demand so harsh and unreasonable, and were even ready to support their refusal by taking up arms in his defence; but the prince was unwilling that he should be made a party to any step. which should entail war, especially against a far stronger power, on a people who had given him a hospitable asylum for so many years. He therefore resolved on exchanging Arenenberg for England, feeling sure that Louis Philippe would never dare to demand from the strong nation of England what he had not scrupled to demand from the weaker hands of Switzerland. Accordingly, he landed in England, and took up his abode in London, residing for more than a year in a house on the north side of King Street, St James's Square.

In London, Louis Napoleon mixed much in society, though he did not appear at court or attract the attention of royalty. He made, however, many firm and fast friends, who became so impressed with the energy of his character, and that inflexible and indomitable belief in his own high destiny, which has ever attended him throughout all his trials and troubles, that they have always since remained his faithful adherents, and no doubt would not shrink from that position even if his sun should again, become overclouded by adversity. The English people at large, as represented by the public press, came now to regard the illustrious stranger in his

* Lieutenant Laity. The book was published with the 'concurrence' of the prince.

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