Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-01-15

hasty violence, to Imprisonment, But Louis
Philippe, long schooled in the wisdom of troub-
led times, was nowhere to be found. He had
sought security in concealment. The royal
guard, however, soon abandoned the search and
consulted their own safety in precipitate flight.
1t was ten o'clock at night, when Louis vehtur-
ed nom his retreat to meet the deputaion from
Paris. He received them at the gate of his park.
BY the pale and Pickering torch-light, he read
the commission inviting him to the metropolis
to take the office Of lieutenant General of France,
which meant, in reality, to ascend the now va
cant throne of the Bourbons.
1t is reported, and undoubtedly with truth,
that Louis Philippe was exceedingly reluctant to
leave the peaceful scenes Of domestic enjoyment,
and again launch forth upon the turbulent ocean
of political life, where he had already encoun-
tered SO many storms and periIs. BY such a
change he h%azqrded everything, and could gain
nothing. IIe.is reported to have said that during
all his days he had been the victim of the tenn
pests of state, in persecution, in poverty, in ex-
lie, and that he thought that he ought to be per-
mitted to pass the evening ofhis days in the re-
tiremcnt and peace of his tranquil home. His
wife also wept in unfeigned anguish, in view Of
the dangers and the sorrows of regal state. She
was familiar with the melancholy history of kings
and courts, of popularity turned into hatred, of
applause succeeded by execrations; molarchs and
queens hurled from the throne, pelted by the
people, driven into exile, or bleeding headless I'M
der the executioner's axe. She had heard the
story of Maria Antolnette, driven from the very
chambers of the palace at Versailles, into which
her husband was now invited TO enter fleeing,
in her night dress, even from the %sanctity other
bed, before the lnfurlated rabble who swarm
forth from the dens of infamy in Paris. She
had moi forgotten that from these regal mansions,
into which the French nation would now intro
duce her, the idOlized daughter of Austria, the
once adorned Queen of France, had been drag
gcd by the most |insoIent and brutal violence and
plunged into deep and dismal dungeon, till
her fairy form was withered and her eye blinded,
and Der once almost angelic c0untcnance became
ghastly and hideous through the intensity of her
woes. Amelia could not forget that the streets
of Paris once resounded with the acclamations
of Maria, as she entered them a youthful bride,
charioted in spIendor and that but a few years
elapsed before she was dragged through those
same streets, ON the executioner's hurdle, bin
ded, deformed, revolving in aspect through her
miseries, exposed to the jeers and to the execra-
tons of the mob, till the slide of the gullIotine
Terminated her woes,
She knew that the queenIy diadem could be
only one Of thorns; that as one reyolntion placed
them upon the throne, another might remove
them to blaol upon the scafTold. THUS, when
the people took Louis Philippe by violence, and
would make him their King, Amelia in her re-
tired chambers wept bitterly over the wreck Of
her domestic peace, But there seemed to be a
moral nccess y that Louis Philippe should as
cend the tbrone. The rulers of the people saw,
that probably he alone could stay the ~cfusioa Of
blood, concaiating in his regal lineage and his
democratic principles both monarchists and re-
publicans. He was, therefore, told chat he must
either ascend the throne or leave France. The
only choice before him was the crown or exile.
At twelve O'Clock the next day, Louis Philip
pc, cIambering over the barbados of the streets
of Paris, on foot, entered the Hotel de Vile,
The excited millions Of Paris and its e%nyious
~thronged all its avenues. They, however, re-
ceived him insilence. Louis Philippe was not
very remotely "a Bourbon The blood Of that
family, SO hateful to the people, was in his veins.
They feared that after all their conflict and blood
shed they might by betrayed, and merely have
one Bourbon for King instead of another. The
scale of popular enthusiasm was in that state Of
perfect equilibrium, in which it was uncertain
whether the next moment the air would resound
with applause, or eXecrations.
At this critical moment, when a breath was
apparently to decide the destinies of France, the
venerable form of the peoples idol, La Fayette,
appeared upon the balcony of the Hotel de Vile,
waving in one hand the tri-colored flag of the
old republic, and with the other presenting Louis
Philippe as the candidate for the new mon.
archy, The endorsement OLA Fayette was at
once accepted, InstantaneousIy every mind
responded to the appeal. One loud, long, hear.
ty, heayen-rending shout rose from the multitude
and Louis Philippe was the elected monarch o.
France.