Chantilly in History and Art

ms found were taken away; and finally the whole property was confiscated. Next a band of six hundred soldiers arrived, devastated the place, and removed what they pleased. Fortunately, the a

de Merlemont, Knight of St. Louis, with his wife and son. On the road thither they were deliberately exposed to the insults of the mob, but they escaped the execution which they anticipated. Arriving at two o

e notes descriptive of her misfortunes, her arrival at Chantilly is most dramatically related: "We were first locked up in the chapel, which was still elaborately gilded, and where in the days of the Condés I had often heard Mass. It was now filled with sacks of flour, on one of which I took my seat, whilst the Commissioner mounted upon the altar. He was accompanied by one Marchand, whom I recognised as the son of my aunt's chambermaid. This vulgar man concentrated all the insolence of the Committee of Public Safety. He derived much pleasure from saying rude and insulting things re

y the Chateau d'Enghien[16] was converted into barracks, whilst Chantilly with its woods and parks found purchasers amongst the Black Band, who were then buying up the castles and palaces of the hated aristocrats with the sole purpose of demolishing them and profiting by just what could be got out

Queen Hortense, who also figures upon the list of the owners of this famous estate. A military school was present

his camp at Coblenz. The former subsequently found a refuge for his family and his regiment with the Tsar Paul; but eventually, when he saw that he could no longer serve France and his

was in need. His daughter, Louise de Condé, after many vicissitudes, at last found quiet and rest in a Benedictine convent, where she took the veil. In 1807 she received a terrible shock when the news reached her of the tragic death of her beloved nephew, the Duc d'Enghien, and she felt it

it is affirmed that it was only because Bonaparte could not get hold of the legitimate Princes-Artois and Berry-whose claims to the throne of France he grudged and feared, that he took his revenge upon the Duc d'Enghien. He had tried in vain to entrap these Princes, and failing committed this act of personal revenge on the eve of proclaiming himself Emperor, in order to frighten the Royalists, who, as he declared, were continually conspir

he great waterfall, which had been separated from the original grounds by a wall. One of the alterations made at this time was the filling in of the moat, which hitherto had divided the smaller from the larger Chateau; and later the present Entrance-Hall was built on that site, whilst two new rooms decorated in the style of the period were added where the covered bridges had formerly stood. These new buildings gave access to the rooms formerly occupied by the Grand Condé, which, by a strange piece of luck, the Revolutionists had not demolished. The old Prince held these apartments in high honour; and they were the first to be redecorated and exquisitely panelled. During the four remaining years of his life he was continually occupied in restoring his ancestral palace

lodged in a corner of the great stables-and in spite of his great age the Prince himself appeared on horseback almost daily; often alone, but sometimes accompanied by his son, and hunted until quite late in the afternoon. Though past his eightieth year, he still had vigour enough, even on his return from a day's hunting, to shoot the wild duck which abounded in the moats. He died at Chantilly in his eighty-

efore his death became a broken man. His wife, the Duchesse de Bourbon, Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde of Orléans to whom he became reconciled after a long separation, died suddenly whilst attending a patronal festival at Saint-Geneviève. She fa

éans, then but seven years old, would listen with the greatest attention, and long after remembered the colloquies held with his princely sponsor and benefactor-the last of the line of Condé. He thus refers to him: "When recalling my childhood, I picture to myself M. le Duc de Bourbon, dressed in his habitual grey coat, white silk stockings, and light shoes, walking about in the grounds of Chantill

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had come to an end. It has been alleged that the unfortunate liaison which the Duke had contracted with a heartless and low-born woman-one Sophie Dawes, the daughter of a fisherman in the Isle of Wight, and known as the Baro

itude great trials; for during the Revolution she had to flee from place to place for safety, until she found at last a shelter within the walls