Memoirs (Vieux Souvenirs) of the Prince de Joinville eBook

Thenceforward, my duty lay clear before me.  My country first of all!  That watchword still exists, thank God, to guide those who yet can love their country whatever may befall them.  When once my first fit of indignation was over, then, I did not think of returning from Africa, sword in hand, to set up the throne again.  I contented myself with sending a very commonplace despatch to Arago, and then I utilised the last days I was to spend on French soil in studying the defensive works ordered by my brother in view of that war, imminent perhaps, during which, soldiers before all as we were, we expected, in the illusive hopes of our youth, to be allowed to keep our place as fighting men.

The moment came at last when our presence at Algiers became incompatible with the existence of a revolutionary government in Paris, and we had to rejoin our family in their foreign exile.  We decided, Aumale and I, to embark for England on board the despatch-boat Solon, Commander Jaures.  It was with heavy hearts, though proud ones, that we went down the Rue de la Marine, under the salutes of the forts, and accompanied to the last by the whole body of officers, both naval and military, so many of them our old friends and faithful comrades.

Thirty years of my life had been spent in France.  In spite of the gnawing worm of revolution, my family left her intact, prosperous, respected, with magnificent armies, both land and sea, and a no less magnificent colony.  I was not to see my country again for two-and-twenty years, and then in all the horror of invasion and dismemberment and the terror of the Commune.

THE END