Is it not amusing, this picture of a marriage under the old regime?  The little groom was so disturbed when he went to the chapel and during the ceremony, that, though his memory was excellent, he never could recall what passed at that time.  “I only remember,” he says, “the sound of the drums that were beating during our passage, and cheered me a little; it was the one moment of the day that was to my taste.  How long that day seemed!  You may imagine it was not from the motives common in like cases, but because I drew all glances upon me, and all vied in laughing at and joking me, pointing their fingers at me.”

The day ended with a grand repast that lasted two or three hours.  A crowd of strangers strolled around the table all the while.  Although the precaution had been taken to put an enormous cushion on the chair of the husband, his chin hardly came above the table.  Seated by the side of his young wife, he did not dare look at her.  For days beforehand he had been wondering if he should always be afraid of her.

“After this solemn banquet,” he adds, “came the soiree, which did not seem any more amusing; after the soiree the return to my parents’ home was no more diverting; nevertheless, it was made in the company of my dear spouse, who henceforth was to dwell at my father’s house.  They bundled me into a wretched cabriolet with my preceptor, and sent me to finish my education at Versailles, and to learn to ride at the riding-school of the pages.”

We must note that the marriage thus begun was afterwards a very happy union, and that there was never a pair more virtuous and more attached to each other than the Duke and Duchess of Doudeauville.

In 1789, the Duke was major of the Second Regiment of Chasseurs.  He emigrated, though the Emigration was not at all to his liking.  “This measure,” he said, “appeared to me in every way unreasonable, and yet, to my great chagrin, I was forced to submit to it.  The person of the King was menaced, right-thinking people compromised, the tranquillity and prosperity of France lost; they were arming abroad, it was said, to provide a remedy for these evils.  The nobles hastened hither.  Distaffs were sent to all who refused to rally on the banks of the Rhine.  How, at twenty-five, could one resist this tide of opinion?” When he perceived, in the foreign powers, the design of profiting by the discords in France instead of putting an end to them, he laid aside his arms, and never resumed them during the eight years of the Emigration.  “This resolve,” he said, “was consistent with my principles.  Always a good Frenchman, I desired only the good of my country, the happiness of my fellow-countrymen; my whole life, I hope, has been a proof of this view.  All my actions have tended to this end.”