A FORGOTTEN ROMANCE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 61

A FORGOTTEN ROMANCE

Mr Basil King, in. ‘'Harper’s Magazine” for April, revives the memory of the romance of Citizen Jecques Marie Rouzet, a royalist professor of law, who, in .1792, in the days of the French Revolution. was elected as a 'deputy to .the convention by Toulouse. It was his fate, eighteen months after his election, to be sent by R-obespierre to the prison of Les Cannes as a suspect. On the fall of Robespierre he was allowed to retire to a sort of suburban refuge in Paris, in which persons of means were permitted to conceal themselves, so long as the proprietor of the establishment (Dr Balhomme) found them good payers. Its inmates enjoyed immunity from arrest. The building, a villa erected by the Marquis de Chabanais, still stands in what is now the busy street, Charbonne.

A few days prior to the entry of Rouzet there arrived Citizeness Louise Mane Adelaide Penthievre. This lady was no other than the Duchess of Orleans, widow of Philippe Egalite. As the daughter of the Duke of Penthievre and the granddaughter of the Count of Toulouse, the Duchess of Orleans was the great granddaughter of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan. To her had descended almost the whole of the immense fortune bestowed by the Grand Mon&vque on his illegitimate family so that mt the time of her marriage she was the most considerable heiress in Europe. It is largely through her, indeed, that the house of Orleans is in possession of its important means at the present day, A loveless marriage had. in' her case, been followed by an unhappy wedded iife. Her husband had been a renegade to hig order, and had voted for the,, death of the- King, his kinsman. Now the King had gene. the. Queen had gone, and Philippe Egalite himself had followed them to the scaffold. Of her two sons, the elder, afterwards King Lmm Philippe, was a refugee in Austria, while the younger was in prison at Marseilles. Without family, without friends, with only a pittance out of her vast means allowed to reach her. and all the life she had known reversed from its very base, it is not to be wondered at that the lonely lady should have been .glad of any shelter and touched by any sign of friendship. Though at this time forty years of age, she was still in the prime of the sweet, serene beau tv that looks on us from the walls of Versailles. From the very beginning of their acquaintance

Rouzet offered her his entire devotion. In the secluded life at Charonne there were pone of the artificial distinctions

demanded by' court etiquette. Social intercourse was easy even between a, deputy to the convention and a Bourbon princess. The ‘common danger had put everyone on a common footing, to a greater extent than the Revolution had done it in the world of liberty, equality, and fraternity outside. Some of the prisoners bore the noblest names in France; others, like Rouzet, were of the bourgeoisie: while there were others., like Mademoiselle Lange and Mademoiselle Mezeray, of the Theatre, Francais, whose claim to distinction was in the realms of art. It was a, notable little company, and, like the ladies and gentlemen in- the Decameron, it did its best to entertain itself, even though deadly peril was at the gates. There were cards, books, and music; there were a well-furnished salon for evening reunions, and the garden for pleasant walks and talks. Into his devotion Ivouzet put a delicacy and tact which the Duchess returned with grace and gratitude. The friendship between them ripened rapidly, and gave zest to the conversation of the lookerson. It was soon whispered that the Duchess and the deputy were in love. So they were, as the sequel proves. They were at the beginning of an idyll as pure and tender as any to be found in the pages of romance. The attachment between Rouzet and the Princess may have caused a smile, it never, then or later, raised a word of scandal. He in his chivalry and she in her gentleness remained through life above suspicion. It was with regret that they saw at last the doors thrown open, and the deputy allowed to go forth free. Never was prisoner less glad of liberty; .for, while he took his seat in the Convention

she remained nnder accusation. All that Eouzet could do was to work', in her in- • terest among his colleagues till his efforts were crowned with an equivocal success. By order of the Directory the “Widow Orleans” was released from prison only to be deported beyond the boundaries of France. At two o'clock on an autumn morning '■! the exiled lady, escorted by a body of soldiers, was conducted out of Paris on the long and tedious journey towards Spain. Eouzet was not permitted to accompany her. and the two friends parted in despair. But the journey was fated to be an eventful one. The Duchess, like a true of the old regime, knowing nothing of practical affairs, could not imagine herself travelling without the suite to which she had been accustomed. She took with her ladies in waiting, a physician, valets, and maids. Several of the huge coaches of the former court were required to accommodate Jh'er train, and the convoy was eighteen days in crossing France. The frontier was reached at last, and it was necessary for the travellers to present their passports. In order, to verify them, each person was obliged to descend and be identified. It was found that one of the party was without papers. Ho gave his name as Jecques Marie Eouzet. Then the truth came out. The good man had-remained a week in Pans, until he could bear his loneliness no longer. Travelling post-haste, night and day, he had started after his dear friend, aM. had overtaken her hot long before the frontier was reached. The circumstances were the French officials, who cruelly refused- to let the deputy proceed. It was in vain that he implored and the Duohess wept. Eouzet Was carried off to the fortress of Bellegarde on the steep, rock just, above them. The

Duchess refused to cross the frontier without him, but her protestations were of no avail. By-and-bye she dragged herself on foot up to the castle, and saw the governor himself. Finding him not to be moved by either tears or entreaties, she fainted at his feet. Taking advantage of her loss of consciousness her attendants then carried he*r over into Spain. But Roiizet, though nearly heartbroken, was not yet at the end of his resources. He wrote to the Convention itself, took his five hundred colleagues into his confidence, and begged their sympathy. It is clear that his case must have touched their hearts for in the end liis papers were accorded him and he was able to go on. He joined the Duchess at the Villa Sarria, near Barcelona, and from that time till the day of his death they were never parted again. In the little court he took the office of Intendant. That is, ho claimed, the right to watch over hist adored friend in every way. to administer her small revenues, and protect her helplessness against those who would otherwise liave preyed upon her. At her request her kinsman, Charles IV.. of Spain, conferred upon him the title of Count de Folmon, and, to please her, Rouzet bore the name. From Spain they fled together to the Balearic Isles, before the Napoleonic invasion; and from there they returned together to France at the Restoration in 1815.

Once more in possession of her former means, the Duchess established herself in the Chateau. clTvry. not far from Dreux. At Dreux there had been an ancient church, which the Revolution had destroyed. There, in 1.817, she began the construction of a small chapel, over the spot where her parents’ bodies had lain. In the centre of this chapel she erected two tombs of white marble, exactly alike and near together, for herself and the friend who had served her so faithfully. In 1820 the crypt of the chapel war finished, and Rouzet died. A few months later the Duchess followed him, and was buried by his side.

It is not t o be supposed that this final arrangement was satisfactory to the- restored royal family and their friends. When Louis Philippe was on the throne, the two white marble tombs at Dreux were a cause of something like offence to those who had a right to an opinion. The King himself found the Wav out of a. delicate, situation. Over the little chapel his mother had built he raised the large Gothic Renaissance church of the present day—a mingling of all styles, but not without something .dignified and picturesque. The pavement of the new edifice was high above that of the old. Tb the new level he raised the tomb of the Duches-i; that of Rouzet was left down below!