to the
steamer, and to take refuge with the Bourbons of Spain. Heroically
she replied, "I am in France now, and in France will I remain." We
have not space here to enter into the detail of her wonderful
adventures, which she seemed to enjoy as if she were merely engaged
in a school-girl frolic. Probably she felt assured that if she were
taken prisoner, her royal blood, her relationship with the queen, as
her niece, and the sympathy of most of the courts of Europe in what
they deemed the righteousness of her cause, would save her from any
very severe treatment.

"Disguised as a peasant-boy, and accompanied by no one but
Marshal Bourmont, also in disguise, she set out on foot to
walk across France, through fields and by-paths, a distance
of four hundred miles, to the department of La Vendee, where
the Bourbon party was in its greatest strength. The first
night they lost their way in the woods. Utterly overcome by
exhaustion, the duchess sank down at the foot of a tree and
fell asleep, while her faithful attendant stood sentinel at
her side.

"There is nothing in the pages of romance more wild than the
adventures of this frivolous yet heroic woman. She slept in
sheds, encountered a thousand hair-breadth escapes, and, with
great sagacity, eluded the numerous bands who were scouring
the country in quest of her. At one time, in an emergency,
she threw herself upon the protection of a Republican, boldly
entering his house, and saying, 'I am the Duchess of Berri:
will you give me shelter?' He did not betray her. After such
a journey of fifty days, she reached, on the 17th of May, the
chateau of Plassac, near Saintes, in La Vendee, where a
general rising of her friends was appointed for the 24th.
Nearly all the Vendean chiefs were then awaiting the summons.
On the 21st of May, the duchess--still in the costume of a
young peasant, presenting the aspect of a remarkably graceful
and beautiful boy, and taking the name of 'Little
Peter'--repaired on horseback to an appointed rendezvous at
Meslier."[AK]

[Footnote AK: Abbott's Life of Napoleon III., p. 87.]

Here her disappointment was bitter. The Government troops were on the
alert, fully prepared for any conflict. Her own friends were
despairing. There was no enthusiasm manifested to enter upon an
enterprise where defeat and death seemed inevitable. Passionately she
entrea