LOUIS PHILIPPE, King of the French, Duc d'Orl6ans and Chartres, and Count de Neuilly, was the eldest son of Louis Philippe Joseph, Due d'Orl6ans, the Philippe Egalit6 of the Convention [ORLEANS, HousE or], and Louise Marie de Bourbon, daughter of the Due de Pen thievre.
Louis Philippe himself was born at Paris, October 6th, 1773. His youth was marked by many acts of benevolence, and the judicious training of Madame de Geniis was well calculated to draw out the good qualities of those who were brought up under her charge. In his infancy he bore the title of Duo de Valois and afterwards of Chartres. In 1791 the young Duc de Chartres, having been nominated to the colonelcy of the 14th regiment of dragoons, assumed the com mand of that corps. It is said that almost his first act of authority was the rescue from the fury of the mob of two priests, who had refused to take the oath at that time exacted by the government from all ecclesiastics. On this occasion ho showed great tact and presence of mind, and he subsequently received the honour of a civic crown from the municipality of Vendome for rescuing M. do Siret, an engineer of that place, from drowning. By these means he became popular among the French people. In August 1791 the young duke quitted VendOme in command of his regiment for Valenciennes. Whilst he was stationed there, war was proclaimed against Austria, and • in the April following he entered on his first campaign. He fought his first battle at Valmy on the 20th of September, and on the 6th of November was again engaged under Dumourier at Jenappes. At this period the Revolution was rapidly advancing to a crisis at Paris. A decree of banishment had been passed (October 1792) against the Bourbon race; and though his father, the Due d'Orleatui, had renounced his titles and had been enrolled as a citizen nuder the name of Philip Egalit6, his son in vain attempted to dissuade him from returning to Paris. where, having been made the dupe of the revolu tionary party, end having voted for the death of Louie XVI., he was dragged to the scaffold in his turn, January 21, 1793. For seven mouths after this data the young duke remained at his post with the army ; but in the following October the Committee of Public Safety summoned before them both the Due de Chartres, and his faithful friend Dumourier. Aware of the sanguinary character of the tribunal before which they would have to plead, they lied to the Belgian fron tiers, and made their escape into the Netherlands, then in possession of Austria. The Austrian authorities gladly received the fugitives, and even offered to bestow on the duke a commission in their army ; but he refused to take up arms against his country, and retired into private life. In April he set out disguised as an English traveller, on a tour through Germany, and journeyed through Liege, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and Coblenz, towards Switzerland. The resources at hie command were small, and he was beset by dangers wherever he went. His mister Adelaide, known in history as Mademoiselle d'Orleaes, at the same time fled the country together with Madame do Geniis, and met her brother at Zurich. The authorities of that canton, in fear of the French government, declining to harbour them, the exiles took up their abode in Zug; but being discovered, the duke placed his sister and Madame de Geniis in the convent of St. Claire, near Baumgarten,
adopted the disguise of a traveller, and started on a fresh journey of danger and adventure.
His funds were nearly exhausted, when ho received from M. de Montesquieu the offer of a post as professor in the college of Reichenau, close by the conflux of the Upper and the Lower Rhine. lie at once offered himself for examination, and was accepted, under the assumed name of M. Chabaud, in October 1793. Here he remained eight months, during which he was engaged in lecturing on mathematics and geo graphy. At this time he accepted the friendly offer of M. de Montesquieu of an asylum at Baumgarten, where he remained in concealment till the close of 1794. His retreat being again discovered, he next went to 'Hamburg, iu the hope of being able to procure a passage to America : but being disappointed, he crossed over via Copenhagen to Norway. Sweden, and Finland, which he traversed almost entirely on foot, as far as the North Cape. Meantime the course of circumstances at Paris had changed, and the Directory became anxious to compromise matters with the Orleans family, by procuring their voluntary removal to America. For the sake of his two brothers, the Due de Montpensier and the Comte de Beaujolais, who had been thrown into prison as dangerous subjects ; and at the same time in order to procure the reatoration of his mother's estates which had been confiscated, Louis Philippe (whom we shall henceforth term the Due d'Orleans) accepted a passage to the United States, and having left the Elbe in September 1796, reached Philadelphia, where he was joined by his two brothers. The next year the three brothers spent in travelling through the western provinces of America. In the course of this excursion, the duke gained great repute for his medical skill, by lancing a vein in his arm in an attack of fever. He afterwards per formed the same operation for an Indian chief; in reward for which lie was ollowed to pass the night upon the large rug at the feet of the wild sovereign and his relatives. Having made the acquaintance of Washington at Mount Vernon, they returned to Philadelphia, whence they proceeded to New Orleans, and thence to Havannah. Here the Spanish authorities declining to treat them with respect, or oven with civility, they went on to the Bahamas, where the Duke of Kent was in command. His Royal Highness entertained them with true British cordiality, though he did not feel at liberty to grant them a passage to England in a man-of-war. Accordingly they took ship to New York, and crossing to England in a sailing packet, they landed at Falmouth in February 1800. The royal exiles were welcomed in London by the King, the Prince of Wales, Lord Grenville, the Marquis of Hastings, and the leaders of the politics and fashion of the day. An Orleans mania prevailed through London, and an invasion of France to effect the restoration of the Bourbons was even talked of. After a short time the brothers settled at Twickenham, in a house formerly occupied by General Pollock, and since known as Orleans Lodge.