Chapter 14

THE PRINCES.

1847.

At the Tuileries the Prince de Joinville passes his time
doing all sorts of wild things. One day he turned on all
the taps and flooded the apartments. Another day he cut
all the bell ropes. A sign that he is bored and does not
know what to do with himself.

And what bores these poor princes most is to receive and
talk to people ceremoniously. This is almost a daily
obligation. They call it--for princes have their
slang--"performing the function." The Duke de Montpensier
is the only one who performs it gracefully. One day the Duchess
d'Orleans asked him the reason. He replied: 'It amuses me."

He is twenty years old, he is beginning.

When the marriage of M. de Montpensier with the
Infanta was published, the King of the Belgians was sulky
with the Tuileries. He is an Orleans, but he is a Coburg.
It was as though his left hand had smitten his right cheek.

The wedding over, while the young couple were making
their way from Madrid to Paris, King Leopold arrived at
Saint Cloud, where King Louis Philippe was staying. The
King of the Belgians wore an air of coldness and severity.
Louis Philippe, after dinner, took him aside into a recess
of the Queen's drawing-room, and they conversed for fully
an hour. Leopold's face preserved its thoughtful and
*English* expression. However at the conclusion of the
conversation, Louis Philippe said to him:

"See Guizot."

"He is precisely the man I do not want to see."

"See him," urged the King. "We will resume this
conversation when you have done so."

The next day M. Guizot waited upon King Leopold. He
had with him an enormous portfolio filled with papers.
The King received him. His manner was cold in the
extreme. Both were reserved. It is probable that M. Guizot
communicated to the King of the Belgians all the
documents relative to the marriage and all the diplomatic
papers. No one knows what passed between them. What
is certain is that when M. Guizot left the King's room
Leopold's air was gracious, though sad, and that he was heard
to say to the Minister as he took leave of him: "I came
here greatly dissatisfied with you. I shall go away
satisfied. You have, in fact, in this affair acquired a new title
to my esteem and to our gratitude. I intended to scold
you; I thank you."

These were the King's own words.

The Prince de Joinville's deafness increases. Sometimes
it saddens him, sometimes he makes light of it. One
day he said to me: "Speak louder, I am as deaf as a post."
On another occasion he bent towards me and said with a
laugh:

"~J'abaisse le pavillion