Chapter 10 THE DUC D'AUMALE LORD OF CHANTILLY

AFTER the death of the last Condé, Chantilly was once more left desolate and abandoned, since Prince Henri d'Orléans, the heir, was still a child.

In 1820 his eldest brother, the Duc d'Orléans, inaugurated at Chantilly the races which now rank as the French Derby, and which have continued every year up to the present day. In connection with these races the Duc d'Orléans, with the help of General Peel-a brother of Sir Robert Peel-successfully undertook to breed English racehorses in France; and Chantilly thus became a racing centre to which the élite of French society thronged every year to attend a "Meeting" which speedily became one of the most famous in the annals of Sport. Residential accommodation was then very restricted, for only the Petit Chateau and the Chateau d'Enghien were available, the Grand Chateau not having yet been rebuilt. The theatre where Molière, Racine, and Corneille produced their plays had also vanished; a substitute was therefore improvised for these occasions by the Comédie Fran?aise on the site of the present Library.

But Orléans Princes in those days had not so much leisure for mere recreation as had their predecessors. In that same year the Duc d'Orléans started for Algiers, taking with him the Duc d'Aumale, then only eighteen. In spite of his youth on the premature death of his elder brother he was entrusted with the command at Medea, where he distinguished himself greatly, and became so beloved that the tiny little Arab house which was his temporary residence there is still preserved by a grateful nation. Engaging in a variety of operations in Algeria, he brought this campaign to a brilliant ending in 1844 by a victory over Abdul Kader; by which he succeeded in capturing the concealed camp "La Smalah" where this chieftain and his staff had been residing. This victory was principally due to the young Duke's great energy and powers of endurance. In the Musée Condé there is a room called "La Smalah," where we may still see numerous paintings and sketches by Bellange and Horace Vernet illustrating this victorious African campaign.

On the Duke's return from Algiers a marriage was arranged between him and Caroline Auguste de Bourbon, daughter of the Prince of Salerno and the Archduchess Marie Clementine, sister to Napoleon I's second wife, Marie Louise of Austria. The nuptials were celebrated at Naples, and a few days later the young pair left for France, where they were impatiently expected by Queen Amélie, who was overjoyed to welcome one of her own relatives as her son's bride.

It had been agreed that Chantilly should be the home of the newly married pair; and in 1843 the architect Duban received instructions to execute the necessary alterations; whilst to Eugène Lami-the same artist who painted the portrait of the young Duchess which now hangs over one of the doors of the Salle Caroline-was entrusted the decoration of the various apartments. The ground-floor apartments of the Petit Chateau-the same suite which the Grand Condé had selected for his son Henri Jules and his children-were the rooms chosen for the personal occupation of the Duke and Duchess.

In 1845 Louis Philippe paid a visit to his son at Chantilly, and made himself very popular on that occasion by telling his coachman to drive slowly across the Pelouse, because he had heard some ladies complain that if he drove so fast no one could see him.

The title of Condé was conferred upon the Duc d'Aumale's eldest son, born at Saint-Cloud, in the hope that he would revive so illustrious a name. He was brought to Chantilly at the age of six months and remained there until the Duchess joined her husband at Algiers, where he had been nominated Governor. It was then proposed that extensive alterations at Chantilly should be carried out during the absence of the Duke and Duchess, and it was their intention to return thither in the following summer. Fate, however, decreed otherwise. In February 1848 Louis Philippe was compelled to abdicate in favour of his grandson, the Comte de Paris, then a mere child; and to avoid further difficulties the ex-King left immediately for England, and took up his residence at Claremont under the style of Comte de Neuilly. This unfortunate event obliged the Duc d'Aumale to resign his commission in the French army, to which he had rendered such signal service. He thenceforward resided with his family in England, chiefly at Twickenham, whither the larger part of the artistic furniture and works of art from Chantilly were transported. This was done at the special request of the Duchess, whose desire it was to reconstitute as far as possible her lost home in the land of their adoption. An Imperial Decree next commanded that all the properties of the Royal Family of France should be sold within a year. The sale of Chantilly-of course a fictitious one-was thereupon carried out by the English bankers Coutts & Co., who sent Colonel McCall, a representative of their own, to reside upon the estate. He dwelt in the Chateau d'Enghien, and administered the whole of the property on behalf of the Duke; whilst the Petit Chateau was let to Lord Cowley, who made it his summer residence. Later it was successively occupied by the Comte D?chatel and the Duc de la Trémoille.

Twenty-three years later, after the disaster at Sedan and the fall of the second Empire, the Duc d'Aumale was once more permitted to return to Chantilly. Many changes had occurred during this long interval. The Duchess, overcome with grief at the death of her eldest son, the Prince de Condé, had died in exile. That young Prince was the last to bear this illustrious name. He is said to have been highly gifted, and to have possessed great qualities. He had been educated chiefly in England, and had distinguished himself in his studies at Oxford, where he showed a remarkable talent for languages. It was, however, his noble and affectionate character that specially endeared him to his parents.

Like his father he was filled with a passionate devotion for his native country. When the Crown of Greece was offered to the Duke, subject to a condition that the Heir-Apparent must change his religion and his nationality, although he had decided not to accept the honour, he thought it his duty to communicate the proposal to his son. Whereupon the lad wrote from Switzerland, where he was undergoing his military training, the following reply: "Having had the high fortune to be born a Frenchman and a Roman Catholic, I will ever remain French and Roman Catholic."

Not long after this incident the young Prince started for a voyage round the world, but before its completion died of typhoid fever at Sydney in Australia.

The Duc d'Aumale on his return to Chantilly was accompanied only by his younger son, the Duc de Guise, and it was not possible even then for him to obtain possession of it. The Chateau and the Pavillon d'Enghien were still occupied by Prussian officers, whilst in the town of Chantilly there was a garrison of German soldiers who were holding the Mayor and the Vicar as hostages.

It was under such sad circumstances that the heir of the Condés saw once more the heritage from which he had parted so many years before. On attempting to enter the Park unobserved by a side gate his distinguished appearance awoke recognition in one of his old keepers who, bowing low and with tears in his eyes addressed him by name. Whereupon the Duke found it impossible to control his emotion.

As soon, however, as the German troops had departed, His Royal Highness entered upon his property and, in spite of all the sorrows which had fallen upon him since he had left his beloved home, he yet felt happy at being once more on French soil, and able to educate his only surviving son in his native land. The young Duc de Guise was sent to a college in Paris, but spent his holidays at Chantilly; and father and son, as in the time of the last two Condés, were often seen riding and hunting together in the park and woods. From time to time also the Archduchess Marie Clementine, mother of the late Duchess, visited at the Chateau.

In 1872 all the surviving members of the French Royal Family assembled at Chantilly to celebrate the wedding of Princesse Marguerite, daughter of the Duc de Nemours with Prince Ladislas Czartoysky; and on this occasion the great battle-pieces representing the military glories of the great Condé were replaced in the Gallery.

In the early spring of that year, King Edward and Queen Alexandra-then Prince and Princess of Wales-paid a visit to the Duc d'Aumale; with whom they had contracted a warm friendship during his residence in England.

But just when calm and happiness seemed to have at last returned to Chantilly, another heavy blow fell upon it. The young Duc de Guise was struck down by typhoid fever and died after a few days' illness. With his sudden death all plans for the improvement of the Chateau and estate came to an abrupt standstill, for the heart-broken father had now to realise that, as he himself mournfully put it, "la dernière flamme de son foyer était éteinte."

A new scheme now took shape in the heart of the Lord of Chantilly: a scheme at first kept to himself, and which had revolved in his mind long before he made it public. He intended to take France by surprise. This scheme was a no less magnificent one than to bestow Chantilly with all its appurtenances and contents upon the French nation. Once more the long interrupted design of the architect Duban, made before the exile of the Duke and Duchess, was recommenced: this time by M. Daumet, who undertook also the difficult task of rebuilding the Grand Chateau. After years of labour there arose once more upon the vaults of this famous fortress the present building, destined to become the Musée Condé, a veritable palace of Literature and Art. Its architecture, in order to harmonise with that of Montmorency's Petit Chateau, is directly copied from sixteenth-century designs. But to erect the stately marble staircase with its splendid gilt iron railings, an undertaking which offered the greatest difficulties, it was necessary to pierce the solid rock. The Chapel, adorned by an elegant spire and full of valuable relics of the Montmorency and the Condé families, was also restored at this time. It contains an altar of Senlis marble, the joint work of Jean Bullant and Jean Goujon; and exquisite wood carvings, dated 1548, were brought from écouen, an old seat of the Montmorency family. In the stained-glass windows (dated 1544) are represented the sons and daughters of Anne de Montmorency, whose effigy and that of his wife, Madeleine of Savoy, are painted on the wall by a modern painter from a cartoon by Lechevallier Chevignard.[17] The fine bronze monument to Henri II de Bourbon by Jacques Sarrazin has also found a permanent abode in this chapel. It was saved by Alexander Lenoir and presented to the Prince de Condé in 1815.

During the execution of these works Chantilly was frequently the scene of very interesting family gatherings. Queen Christina of Denmark, on the occasion of the marriage of her youngest son Waldemar to Princesse Marie, eldest daughter of the Duc de Chartres, made a lengthy stay at Chantilly; and not long afterwards Princess Marie Amélie, daughter of the Comte de Paris, was betrothed here to the Duke of Braganza, afterwards King of Portugal. But in that same year Republican France suddenly pronounced a further sentence of banishment upon all claimants to the French Throne-Royalist and Imperialist; in which order the Duc d'Aumale was included. In his quality of a General in the French Army, he protested against this, but without avail; and once more Chantilly was deserted. But this time it was not for long; for on returning with a heavy heart to his English home at Woodnorton and feeling his end drawing near the Duke resolved to make known immediately the act of munificence upon which he had so long decided. He therefore made public his intention of leaving Chantilly with all its forests, parks and lakes, and all its art-treasures to the care of the Members of the Institut de France, in trust for the French Nation. This was his dignified answer to the French Republic; and it made a deep and lasting impression in France. Nor was this act of generosity without immediate consequences, for shortly after a Decree signed by President Carnot was sent to the Duke with the assurance that France would welcome him back.

Plate XIX.

HENRI D'ORLéANS, DUC D'AUMALE.

Musée Condé.

Léon Bonnat.

facing page 124

On March 9, 1889 he returned to Paris, and his first act was to present his thanks to the President, who seemed much touched by the words which he uttered upon this occasion. A hearty welcome greeted him from the people of Chantilly; and on his arrival at the station he was accompanied by a vast crowd to the door of the Chateau. A medal was cast in commemoration of this return, upon the obverse of which was a figure contemplating France from afar and the word "Spes"; upon the reverse a figure at the gates of the Chateau holding an olive-branch and the inscription "à S.A.R. Monseigneur le Duc d'Aumale; en souvenir du 11 mars 1889, les habitants de Chantilly reconnaissants."

Subsequently an equestrian statue of the Duke was cast and placed near the entrance of the Chateau by the people of Chantilly, who regarded him and his ancestors as their benefactors. And it was here amongst his art treasures that he spent the last years of his eventful life.

SECOND PART

THE MUSEE CONDE