He had married a princess of a race as beloved by the people; the only
daughter of the Duc de Penthievre. Lovely, amiable, and virtuous, she
brought to her husband as dowry, with the vast fortune of the Duc de
Penthievre, that amount of consideration and public esteem which
belonged to her house. The first political act of the Duc d'Orleans was
a bold resistance to the wishes of the court, at the period of the
exile of the parliaments. Exiled himself in his chateau of
_Villars-Cotterets_, the esteem and interest of the people followed him.
The applauses of France sweetened the disgrace of the court. He believed
that he comprehended the part of a great citizen in a free country; he
desired to do so. He forgot too easily, in the atmosphere of adulation
which surrounded him, that a man is not a great citizen only to please
the people, but to defend--serve--and frequently to resist them.

Returned to Paris, he was desirous of joining the _prestige_ of glory of
arms to the civic crowns, with which his name was already decorated. He
solicited of the court the dignity of _grand-admiral_ of France, the
survivorship of which belonged to him, after the Duc de Penthievre, his
father-in-law. He was refused. He embarked as a volunteer on board the
fleet, commanded by the Comte d'Orvilliers, and was at the battle of
Ouessant on the 17th of July, 1778. The results of this fight, when
victory remained without conquest, in consequence of a false
manoeuvre, were imputed to the weakness of Duc d'Orleans, who wished
to check the pursuit of the enemy. This dishonouring report, invented
and disseminated by court hatred, soured the resentments of the young
prince, but could not hide the brilliancy of his courage, which he
displayed in caprices unworthy of his rank. At St. Cloud he sprang into
the first balloon that carried aerial navigators into space. Calumny
followed him even there, and a report was spread that he had burst the
balloon with a thrust of his sword, in order to compel his companions to
descend. Then arose between the court and himself a continual struggle
of boldness on the one hand and slander on the other. The king treated
him, however, with the indulgence which virtue testifies for youth's
follies. The Comte d'Artois took him as the constant companion of his
pleasures. The queen, who liked the Comte d'Artois, feared for him the
contagion of the disorders and amours of the Duc d'Orleans. She hated
equally in this young princ