The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-10
Dying I'm Exile-A Story OF Fiv'
French Crowned Heads.

Dying I'm Exile-A Story OF Five
French Crowned Heads.
The oman of December having gone out
with the snow of january, it will set people
thinking about those chest laid plans of mice
and men" which "gang aft a-gley." Royalty
in France. since De Launy surrendered the
Bastile to the mob. has been very unfortunate.
Indeed, since that day French kings and en-
perors have done well to provide places of
refuge for themselves on foreign shores, where
they might die in peace in case of accident to
the machine of government
The fate of Louis XVI furnished them with
a proper incentive TO this course for kings as
well as commoners can sacrifice good deal to
bespared personal acquaintance with the guillo-
tine Louis XVI. indeed once tried to escape
from France in disguise. He made one
nights journey from Paris in q coach, but
was recognized and arrested at Varennes. He
wanted to die in exile; but they brought him
back q prisoner, to die year and half later
on the scaffold. The people gazed at the
captive King in silence. which must have been
very difficult for Frenchmen. But there was
reason. Plaoards were posted everywhere with
the laconic observation-disclosures applauds
the King shall be whipped whoever insults
the King shall be hanged" The celebrating
wave Of the revolution soon flung one man
on the rock of power who had the ability TO
stay there until the storm subsidized, and who
then ruled the new France after the deluge
with the cold iron of his will and the glitter
ing steel of his military genius. The citizen
Consul became the citizen Emperor, and
Napoleon Bonaparte, adored by tho French
and hated and feared by all else, was the
arbiter of Europe. Then came the decadence
france could not fight all Europe forever.
Knocked out of time in 1914, Napoleon was
sent in exile to Elba. Again he rose to try
conclusions. Waterloo was where the last
terrific round was fought, and the sound of
the great gladiator's fall awoke an echo which
reverberated as far as the rock of St Helena
There it died out, and Napoleon l. died an
exile along with it. This is No. 1. Here we
may look back to the line direct. The son of
Louis XVI, like his father, would not be per-
mitted to die in exile, so the poor Dauphin,
the phantom Louis XVII, disappears from
prison or dies there in 1795-blotted out any
how. The son of the Corsican, the young,
sickly King of Rome, is taken to Vienna
after Waterloo, is made phantom Duke, and
pines and dies in exile in the gloom of
Sch6nbrunn. This is No. 2. Louis XVIII,
who came into France when Napoleon went to
Elba, in 1914, ran into exile again for
one hundred days, when Napoleon returned
in 1915, and the hayward fates, on account
OF this thorough scare, perhaps, allowed him
to die in France in 1924. He was the only
French monarch of the century who got the
chance, and he availed himself of it. Charles
K, who succeeded his brother, was sent kiting
after ''the glorious days of July in 1880. He
went to Hollywood, in Scotland then to the
Castle of Hradchin, in Prague, and then to
Goritz, far away in nlyria, where he died, in
peace and piety, in 1886. This is No. g.
All this while ''pear-headed'' Louis Philippe
the citizen King, was working his way along
to 1848 in the odd manner which has made him
in his zenith and his eclipse always seem a
comical figure. The year 1848 was shaking
up time all over Europe, and when the barri-
cades were shaken up in Paris he found that
his crown was shaken off his head. Glad that
his head did not follow the crown, he fed, and
another of the 'anointed" was added to the
list Of Gallo sovereigns whose light was
snuffed out in exile. This is No. T. He
died quietly at Claremont, in England, in
1850, about twenty miles from Chiselhurst,
where Napoleon I'LL died, in pain and exile, yes
terday morning. This is No. 5. The two men
who wore their hngly or imperial crowns for
about eighteen years each had many expe-
riences in common, early hardships, later
luck and final disaster.
We can, therefore, count up five monarch
ical wrecks from France alone in this
nineteenth century-three Napoleons, one
Bourbon and one Orleanist. Who shall
be the nextP Government by the people
is denounced by monarchist and imperialist
alike as unsafe; government by the anointed
seems, however it may be for the people,
rather unsafe for the kings. Carlyle celebrates
the First Napoleons 'whiff of grapeshot;"
Hugo tells us of the Third Napoleon's coup
d. eat We're Waterloo and Sedan, st. Helena
and Chiselhurst, merely results of these two
events, it may be fair to ask?
We can only point to the succession of
events and leave the question to Providence
We can be sure, however, that the sardonic
spirit Of history is just now counting on one
hand the names Of the five French crowned
heads that ended their uneasiness in exile
''Then happy low lie down"