Never was a princely journey more triumphal than that of the Duchess of Berry in the provinces of the west in 1828.  Madame, who left Paris June 16, returned there October 1, and there was not a day in these three months that she was not the object of enthusiastic ovations.  In a book of nearly six hundred pages, Viscount Walsh has described, with the fidelity of a Dangeau, this journey in which the mother of the Duke of Bordeaux was treated like a queen of a fairy tale.

The 16th of June, the Princess slept at Rambouillet, where two years later such cruel trials were to come to her.  The 18th, she visited Chambord, where she was received by Count Adrien de Calonne, the author of the project of the subscription, thanks to which this historic chateau became the property of the Duke of Bordeaux.

In the face of the wind, which was blowing with force, Madame ascended to the highest point of the chateau, the platform of the lantern called Fleur-de-Lis at the end of the famous double balustered staircase.  From there her glance wandered over the vast extent of the park, with a circumference of eight leagues, and enclosing, besides six or seven thousand acres of woodland, twenty-three farms, whose buildings, cultivated fields, and scattered flocks, animated the view in all directions.  On descending, she said:  “I should like to mark my name here; I shall love to see it again when I come to visit the Duke of Bordeaux.”  And with a stiletto she cut these words:  “18th June—­Marie Caroline.”  Some young girls presented her with lambs white as snow, decorated with green and white ribbons, and with a tame roe, on whose collar was engraved:  “Homage of the people of Chambord.”  The same day she paid visits at their chateaux to Marshal Victor, Duke of Bellune, and to the Duke d’Avaray.  In the evening she returned to Blois.  Madame left there the 19th of June, after examining the Salle des Etats, the room in which the Duke of Guise was assassinated, and the tower where Catharine de’ Medici used to consult the astrologers.  The 20th, she attended at Saumur a brilliant tournament given in her honor by the Cavalry School.  The 2lst, she entered Angers amid shouts and cheers.  The 22d, she visited the chateau of Count Walsh de Serrant.  Her carriage passed under vaults of verdure adorned with flowers and banners.

The Princess arrived the same day at Saint Florent, which, in 1793, had given the signal for the war of the Vendee, and where the Vendean army had effected the famous passage of the Loire, comparable to that of the Berezina.  There the aged witnesses of the struggles described by Napoleon as “a war of giants,” had assembled near the tomb of Bonchamp to await the Duchess of Berry.  All the neighboring heights were bristling with white flags.  From afar they were seen fluttering on the church-towers, on the chateaux, over cottages, on isolated trees.  They were to be seen even above the graves in the cemeteries.  A son had said:  “My father