eading citizens, with much
attention, as the victims of democratic fury, the government of
Madrid, remembering only the democracy of Egalite, and fearing that
the princes, retaining their father's principles, might unfurl the
dreaded tri-color in Havana, sent an order dated May 21, 1799,
ordering the captain-general of the island not to permit any longer
the presence of the dukes of Orleans and of Montpensier, and of their
brother, Count Beaujolais, but to send them immediately to New
Orleans, without any regard to their mode of subsistence.

Under these circumstances the exiles, withdrawing from Cuba,
succeeded in reaching the Bahama Islands, which belonged to England,
and thence sailed for Halifax. The Duke of Kent, son of George III.,
and father of Queen Victoria, was then in Halifax, and received them
with guarded and formal courtesy. Not certain what might be the
feelings of the British Cabinet in reference to them, he did not feel
authorized to grant them a passage to England on board a British
vessel of war. They, therefore, embarked in a small vessel for New
York, and there took passage in a regular packet-ship for England.

In the first week in February, 1800, the ship reached Falmouth.
Immediately the princes forwarded a request to George III. that they
might be permitted to land in England and proceed to London. The
request was promptly granted, and on the sixth of the month they
reached the capital. To convince the court and the nobility of
England that they were entirely weaned from all those democratic
tendencies which had brought such awful ruin upon their house, they
selected Twickenham as their place of residence. It was a beautiful
and salubrious site in the midst of the family seats of the English
aristocracy, and in the vicinity of Windsor Castle, the ancient and
world-renowned palace of the British kings. Here every movement would
be open to the eyes of the British aristocracy, and the mode of life
of the princes, their associates, and their manner of spending their
leisure hours, would all be known. The spotless and amiable
character of these young men rapidly secured for them the confidence
and esteem of all their acquaintances.

The unhappy son of Louis XVI., whom the Legitimists regarded as their
sovereign under the title of Louis XVII., had perished of brutal
treatment in his dungeon, on the 6th of June, 1796.[G] The
Legitimists now recognized the elder brother of Louis XVI., the Count
de P