The greatest military success in Louis Philippe’s reign was the capture of Constantine in Algeria.  So late as 1810 Algerine corsairs were a terror in the Mediterranean, and captured M. Arago, who was employed on a scientific expedition.[1] In 1835, France resolved to undertake a crusade against these pirates, which might free the commerce of the Mediterranean.  The enterprise was not popular in France.  It would cost money, and it seemed to present no material advantages.  It was argued that its benefits would accrue only to the dynasty of Louis Philippe, that Algeria would be a good training-school for the army, and that the main duty of the army in future might be to repress republicanism.

[Footnote 1:  About the same time they took prisoner a cousin of my father, John Warner Wormeley, of Virginia.  He was sold into slavery; but when tidings of his condition reached his friends, he was ransomed by my grandfather.]

In 1834, a young Arab chief called Abdul Kader, the son of a Marabout of great sanctity, had risen into notice.  Abdul Kader was a man who realized the picture of Saladin drawn by Sir Walter Scott in the “Talisman.”  Brave, honorable, chivalrous, and patriotic, his enemies admired him, his followers adored him.  When he made his first treaty with the French, he answered some doubts that were expressed concerning his sincerity by saying gravely:  “My word is sacred; I have visited the tomb of the Prophet.”

Constantine, the mountain fortress of Oran, was held, not by Abdul Kader, but by Ahmed Bey, the representative of the sultan’s suzerainty in the Barbary States.  The first attack upon it failed.  The weather and the elements fought against the French in this expedition.  General Changarnier distinguished himself in their retreat, and the Duc de Nemours showed endurance and bravery.

From the moment of that repulse, popular enthusiasm was aroused.  A cry rang through France that Constantine must be taken.  It was captured two years later, after a siege in which two French commanders-in-chief and many generals were killed.  Walls fell, and mines exploded; the place at last was carried by assault.  At one moment, when even French soldiers wavered, a legion of foreign dare-devils (chiefly Irishmen and Englishmen) were roused by an English hurrah from the man who became afterwards Marshal Saint-Arnaud.  With echoing cheers they followed him up the breach, the army followed after them, and the city was won.

Louis Philippe had been raised to power by four great men,—­Lafayette, Laffitte, Talleyrand, and Thiers.  Of these, Laffitte and Lafayette retained little influence in his councils, and both died early in his reign.  In 1838 died Talleyrand,—­the prince of the old diplomatists.  The king and his sister, Madame Adelaide, visited him upon his death-bed.  Talleyrand, supported by his secretary, sat up to receive the king.  He was wrapped in a warm dressing-gown, with the white curls he had