e to the British Government, in
reference to this movement, in behalf of Prince Leopold, through the
agency of the Duke of Orleans:

"Several of the nobles who attend his royal highness are
French, and there is no government here which can give
protection to any Frenchman from the populace."

[Footnote I: "I have another great puzzle come to me. The Queen of
Sicily has sent her son, Prince Leopold, to Gibraltar to propose
himself to be regent of Spain. It appears to me to be extreme want of
knowledge of the state of Spain. The Duke of Orleans came down with
him, and on the 13th of August I discussed the subject fully with his
highness, much to his satisfaction, and he went off to England with a
light heart."--_Collingwood's Correspondence._]

England did not favor the idea of placing a Sicilian prince on the
throne of Spain by the aid of a French duke. Thus the enterprise was
finally abandoned. In the then disturbed state of Europe, nearly all
the countries being more or less ravaged by the sweep of hostile
armies, and there being no regular postal communication, and no free
passage from one country to another, it was often impossible for the
Duke of Orleans to learn, for long periods of time, what was the fate
of his mother and his sister, or even where they were. Upon the
decree by the Directory of the expulsion of all the Bourbons from
France, the Duchess of Orleans had retired to Figueras, in Spain.

In June, 1808, one of the tempests of war reached that town, and in a
terrific bombardment of a few hours it was laid in ashes. The Duchess
of Orleans fled from her home at midnight, only a few hours before it
was blown into the air by a shower of bombs. Escaping from these
scenes of ruin and woe, the widowed, almost childless, and friendless
duchess, but still maintaining wonderful fortitude of character,
found refuge, after many painful adventures, in Port Mahon, on the
island of Minorca.

The Duke of Orleans, thwarted in his plans, regarded with jealousy by
the British Cabinet, and assailed with bitterest contumely in both
aristocratic and democratic journals, applied to the English
Secretary of State for permission to pass to Port Mahon to join his
mother. But the British authorities would not consent to his landing
anywhere on the Spanish territories. They, however, at length yielded
to his importunities so far as to allow him to embark in an English
frigate for the island of Malta, the captain of