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MEMOIRS (VIEUX SOUVENIRS) OF THE PRINCE DE JOINVILLE
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY LADY MARY LOYD
CHAPTER I
1818-1830
I was born at Neuilly-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris, on the 14thof August, 1818. Immediately after my birth, and as soon as theChancellor of France, M. Dambray, had declared me to be a boy, I wasmade over to the care of a wet nurse and another attendant. Three yearslater I passed out of female hands, earlier, somewhat, than isgenerally the case, for a little accident befell my nurse, in which myeldest brother's tutor, an unfrocked priest, as he was then discoveredto be, was also concerned. My earliest memory, and a very hazy one itis, mixed up with some story or other about a parrot, is of having seenmy grandmother, the Duchesse d'Orleans-Penthievre, at Ivry. After thatI recollect being at the Chateau of Meudon with my great-aunt, theDuchesse de Bourbon, a tiny little woman; and being taken to see thePrincesse Louise de Conde at the Temple, and then I remember seeingTalma act in Charles the Bold, and the great impression his giltcuirass made upon me.
But the first event that really is exceedingly clear in my recollectionis a family dinner given by Louis XVIII. at the Tuileries on TwelfthNight, 1824. Even now, sixty-six years after, I can see every detail ofthat party, as if it had been yesterday. Our arrival in the courtyardof the Tuileries, under the salute of the Swiss Guard at the PavillonMarsan and the King's Guard at the Pavillon de Flore. Our getting outof the carriage under the porch of the stone staircase to the deafeningrattle of the drums of the Cent Suisses. Then my huge astonishment whenwe had to stand aside halfway up the stairs, to let "La viande du Roi,"in other words, his Majesty's dinner, pass by, as it was being carriedup from the kitchen to the first floor, escorted by his bodyguard.
At the head of the stairs we were received by a red-coated Steward ofthe Household, who, as I was told, bore the name of de Cosse, and,crossing the Salle des Gardes, we were ushered into the drawing-room,where the whole family soon assembled: to wit, Monsieur, who afterwardsbecame Charles X., the Duc and Duchesse d'Angouleme, the Duchesse deBerri, my father and mother, my aunt Adelaide, my two elder brothers,Chartres and Nemours, my three sisters, Louise, Marie, and Clementine,and last and youngest of all, myself. There was only one person presentwho did not belong to the Royal House of France, and that was thePrince de Carignan, afterwards known as Charles Albert, a tall, thin,severe-looking person. He had just served in the ranks of the Frencharmy, with all the proverbial valour of his race, through the Spanishcampaign of 1823, and he wore on his uniform that evening the worstedepaulettes given him on the field of battle by the men of the 4thRegiment of the Guard, with whom he had fought in the assault on theTrocadero. Presently the door of the King's study opened, and LouisXVIII. appeared, in his wheeled chair, with that handsome white headand in the blue uniform with epaulettes which the pictures of him haverendered so familiar. He kissed each of us in our turn, withoutspeaking to any of us except my brother Nemours, whom he questionedabout his Latin lessons. Nemours began to stammer, and was only savedfrom disgrace by the opportune entrance of the Prince de Carignan.
At dinner the Twelfth Night customs were duly observed, and when Ibroke my cake I found the bean within it. I must confess th