Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-12-20
THE LAST PRINCE OF CONDE.
A True ROMANCE.

his Interesting young family OF children, he had
just transferred his household penates from the
more spleLd did saloons and cabinets of the
Tuleries. little more than a month before he
had been private no6lemsn, living with com
fort, but scarcely with luxury, alternately at
the Palais Royal and at his country retreat
now he was the bourgeois sovereign the King
OF the middle classes, and the founder of a nsw
The King had just breakfasted, on the NORM
ing of August 2 1850, when it was annou need
TO him that a mounted messenger had arrived
in haste from Chautilly with intelligence of
serious importance. The man was forthwith
admitted TO the presence of Louis Philippe. with
whom were one or two Ministers, his secretary
and the young Dukes Of Cnartres and Nemours,
"Sire," said the mes senger, ellis Highness
the Prince of Condo is dead.'
me hing rose in surprise. and asked:
He was found this morning, sire, hanging
by his handkerchief, quite dead"
"What! Did he commit suicide?"
:" II must have been SO, your Majesty. There
"This was at Chantilly?"
At Chantilly."
." And who were in the house,
small party of the Princes friends, sire,
and Madame de Feucheres. That is ALL"
Louis Philippe turned to NJ. Guillaume, his
secretary. and requested him to proce ed, With
Nessrs- de Rumigny, Pasquier, De Simonville.
and Cauchy to the Chateau of Chantilly. Next
were the Princes de Rohan; but the King either
did not think, or did not see fit, to send them a
notification of the sad event.
The strange news soon spread through Paris
extended to the boulevards to the CHAMPS Fiv,
seeS, to the aristocratic Faubourg st. Germain
and even to the remote, irregular streets and
squalid closes OF Montmartre and st. Antoine
Salons and cabarets, cafes, and the coulisses of
the theater, were in a hubbub of amazement
and conjecture over the mysterious Occurrences:
for the old man whose sudden and singular
he ria,a
throughout that and many subsequent DAYS was
the last of an illustriOus line, Wireless and child
less, dwelling almost solitary in the ancient and
spacious chateau, where the splendor of the
Condos had riyaled in more than one genera
ton, that OF Bourbon royalty itself. Had the
poor old Prince, heart broken at the downfall
OF the Heaven Amounted King sought consola-
ton in death Had his mind given away, and
thus led to an irresponsible suicide? or was
this the work OF an assassin, perhaps of soma
familiar OF his household, of some pretended
ing him of existence /?
The many copjectures which swayed hither
and thitheI the groups of excited gossip did
not stop short with these duestionings King
Louis Philippe had not won his crown by the
unanimous voice of Paris, and there were thou-
sands in the capital who, within a month of his
accession. were bitterly disaffected ag ainst hi m
The partisans OF Charles y. and those of a re-
public were qually exasperated; and any hintei
faint upon the Kings character apart was sure
70 be caught up and eagerly repeated and I,
md ITS way in exaggerated rumor to eyeryduar-
ter OF the city. There were knowing m IN on the
bouleyards in those August days, with sly looks
ana wagging heads, who gave new turn to the
suggestions of the causes of Henri de Bourbon's
sudden death.
There is something" they said, 0beneath
what appears: There l. darker mystery than
you guess. There Is a hidden romance behind
this death-scene. They tell you that the Prince
OF Condo loved Charles Y. and hates Louis Phil
ippe; that chsgrin at the fall Of Charles has
caused his death. Yet, look you, this IN an, who
so hates the King that he dies because he is
King, bequeaths his immense properties-his
noble Chateau of Chantilly, with its ample
infant son. The Duke d'Aumale, almost a babe
in arms, Il the heir of the Prince of Condo. Did
the old Prince love this infant? No. Did he
love the infants father? No. He hated him
Here, mes dmis, is a deep, deep plot. Madame
de Feucheres, depend upon IL, Is in the conf
dence Of Louis Philippe; and Madame de Feu-
the boudoir of Madame de Feucheres to the
chamber of the Prince Of Condo there is a pri-
yAte spiral staircase"
Thus 1t was covertly charged that Louis Phil
1ppe knew more Of the cause of Condos death
than the world IN general imagined; and sus-
picion was sought to be thrown upon the King
OF being implicated in some way in the event,
since the Kings son, and the woman who had
enjoyed Condos confidence during his last
years, alone prohted by il. 1t was not unknown
that Madame de Feucneres had been more than
once received privately at the Tuleries since
Louis Phllippe's accession; and it was not less
generally believed that, with many virtues the
King was inordnately parsimonious and grasp
ing. MS enemies, az least, concluded that
Conde's fortune had not been left, without the
assistance of some occult intrigue, to the son of
a man whom he detested fIOm the bottom of his
soul.
The illustrious descent of the dead Prince. the
romantic memories and picturesque beauty of
the place where the tragedy occurred, and the
singular connection OF the newly-enthroned
family with Condo and with his mysterious
death, give to the history OF the event much
more interest than usually attends the stories
OF the deaths of Princes.
Louis Joseph Henri de Bourbon was the
hneal descendant and heir Of that Louis of
Condo who, in the seventeenth century won,
by his feats of arms and statesmanship, the title
OF "the great" He was born in Paris in 1856
and was 80 years of age when the revolu lion sry
States G enersl of France assembled at Yer
sailles. HIS father, the then Prince of Condo,
was jealous adherent of the royal house with
which he was connected by the ties OF blood. by
patriCisn interest, and by loyal affection. When
the storm burst In 1870, both sire and son fled
fIom their luxurious home at Chantilly to share
In the yicissitudes OF the royalist emi9res. The
son Is described as having been at this time, q
warm -blooded, handsome young man, with the
sallow Bourbon tint and the dark Bourbon
brow and eve, and the hereditary naughty gait
and aquiline nose Of the Condos. The prince,
the father was now too old and feeble to take
an active part In the hot struggle which ensued
between the allied German armies on the one
side and the forces Of the newborn republic on
the other side; but Louis, inspired BY family
Pride and patrician zeal, became one of the
many aristscratic emigrants who took service
under the banners of the Hapsburg and the Ho-
benzollern to fight against their own country
men, He recognized in the trl-color the sym bol
OF national disgrace rather than national sover-
e'gnty, and there seems little doubt, from his
subsequent career, that his motive was as much
an earnest belief In the right of monarchy and
The abomination Of democracy, rs the self inter-
est which resented the persecution of his own
family and the deprivation of its estates. He
accepted q czptaincy in an emigrant regiment
ard took courageous and active part in the
famous campaign on the eastern frontier, IN
which Dumouriez was the able but unsuccessful
leader Of the republican forces. Copde remained
win the allies for three years, when, wounded
~ the assault Of Berschiem, he was compelled to
retire from the service. He liv ed for some time
In seclusion on the Continent, obsery ant thou Rh
inactive; and in 1s0o repaired to England. In the
meantime his eldest son-for he had married
and lost his wife before the Revoiutiou-had
grown TO manhood, the Old Prince was dead, and
- only awaited q favorable moment to enter
70 the possession OF his splendid family estates
IN france. But q terrible ca'amity, blighting
ms lie, and plunging him into Q melancholy
whicn seldom afterward disappeared, visited
In before ne again saw the familiar shores of
his native land. His son, the noble and nromis
ing young Duke d Enghien, having bean ale 2 al
At Paris by Napoleon, was ordered by that cruei
tyrant to be shot without trial as Bourhon
traitor. The youth was taken at deaf OF nj Chr
TO the dark ditch Of that gloomiest Of "a
yincennee, and there was sacrificed q life OF