For every fete there was a corresponding good work.  The Princess said:  “I wish that while I am enjoying myself the poor may also have their share.”  The 18th of August, she visited the bazaar opened for the benefit of the indigent.  Mademoiselle had conceived the idea of writing her name on little objects of painted wood, which were bid for at their weight in gold.  The 24th, Madame gave a concert, at which the Sontag sisters were heard and some stanzas of the Viscount of Castel-bajac were recited.  The 25th, the city offered a ball to Mademoiselle, at which the grace of the little Princess, her tact, and her precocious amiability, excited surprise.  The 9th of September, the inauguration of the monument commemorative of the victory of Henry IV. took place in the presence of Madame and her daughter.  It was a column indicating the point where the army of Mayenne debouched to surround the King’s troops, when, the fog rising, the artillery of the castle could be brought into play, and threw into disorder the ranks of the Leaguers.  The inauguration interested the Duchess much.  The troops of the line and the National Guard had established bivouacs where the princesses read with joy such inscriptions as these:  “The young Henry will find again the arquebusiers of Henry IV.—­ The flag of the 12th will always rally to the white plume!—­Two Henrys—­one love, one devotion.”

A table of forty covers had been arranged under a pavilion draped with flags.  After the repast Madame and Mademoiselle danced several quadrilles on the grass.  The fete was charming.  An expression of joy was depicted on every face.

At the time of her various sojourns at Dieppe, the Duchess of Berry went to visit the Orleans family at the Chateau d’Eu, She manifested toward her aunt, Marie-Amelie, the liveliest affection, and had no courtier more amiable and assiduous than the young Duke of Chartres, whom, it is said, she wished to have as husband for Mademoiselle.  The 9th of September, she had been at the baptismal font, with the Duke of Angouleme, the Duke of Montpensier, the latest son of the Duke of Orleans.  She was very fond of her god-son, and nothing was more agreeable to her than a reunion at the Chateau d’Eu, where Mademoiselle was always happy, playing with her young cousins.

The Duchess of Berry and her daughter returned to Saint Cloud the 16th of September, 1829.  On leaving, Mademoiselle said to the Dieppois:  “My friends, I will come back next year, and I will bring you my brother.”  Neither she nor her mother was to return.

XXVIII

THE PRINCE DE POLIGNAC

At the very moment that the Duchess of Berry, happy and smiling, was tranquilly taking the sea-baths at Dieppe, an event occurred at Paris that was the signal for catastrophes.  The 9th of August, 1829, the Moniteur published the decree constituting the cabinet, in which were included the Prince de Polignac as Minister of Foreign Affairs; Count de La Bourdonnaye as Minister of the Interior; and as Minister of War, the General Count de Bourmont.  The next day the Debats said:—­