She was a dear old lady, was Madame la Marquise.
Within a few days Laperouse received from the Minister a most paternal,
good natured letter, which assured him that his romantic affair should
not interfere with his prospects, and concluded:
"Enjoy the pleasure of
having made someone happy, and the marks of honour and distinction that
you have received from your fellow citizens."
Such is the love story of Laperouse. Alas! the marriage did not bring
many years of happiness to poor Eleonore, much as she deserved them.
Two years afterwards, her hero sailed away on that expedition
from which he never returned. She dwelt at Albi, hoping until hope gave
way to despair, and at last she died, of sheer grief they said, nine
years after the waters of the Pacific had closed over him who had wooed
her and wedded her for herself alone.
Chapter IV.
THE VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION.
King Louis XVI of France was as unfortunate a monarch as was ever born
to a throne. Had it been his happier lot to be the son of a farmer, a
shopkeeper, or a merchant, he would have passed for an excellent man of
business and a good, solid, sober, intelligent citizen. But he
inherited with his crown a system of government too antiquated for the
times, too repressive for the popular temper to endure, and was not
statesman enough to remodel it to suit the requirements of his people.
It was not his fault that he was not a great man; and a great man - a
man of large grasp, wide vision, keen sympathies, and penetrating
imagination - was needed in France if the social forces at work, the
result of new ideas fermenting in the minds of men and impelling them,
were to be directed towards wise and wholesome reform. Failing such
direction, those forces burst through the restraints of law, custom,
authority, loyalty and respect, and produced the most startling
upheaval in modern history, the Great French Revolution. Louis lost
both his crown and his head, the whole system of government was
overturned, and the way was left open for the masterful mind and strong
arm needed to restore discipline and order to the nation: Napoleon
Bonaparte.
Louis was very fond of literature. During the sad last months of
his imprisonment, before the guillotine took his life, he read over 230
volumes. He especially liked books of travel and geography, and one of
his favourite works was the VOYAGES of Cook. He had the volumes near
him in the last phase of his existence. There is a pleasant drawing
representing the King in his prison, with the little Dauphin seated on
his knee, pointing out the countries and oceans on a large geographical
globe; and he took a pride in having had prepared "for the education of
Monsieur le Dauphin," a History of the Exploration of the South Seas.
It was published in Paris, in three small volumes, in 1791.
The study of Cook made a deep impression on the King's mind.
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