Part 10 (2/2)

1815. The Hundred Days. Flight of the Bourbons, restoration of Napoleon.

1815,} Deposition of Napoleon; return of Louis July.} XVIII.

Each of these changes, as it occurred, was hailed with rapturous applause, and with that form of grat.i.tude which consists in a lively sense of favours to come.

Now, as this dictionary contains the names of nearly all the eminent Frenchmen of the period, it follows that there are many in it whose book-plates are of interest, concerning whom a few extracts may be given, taken from the second and enlarged edition, published in Paris in 1815. No month is named, but evidently it appeared soon after the final downfall of Napoleon, as it mentions the marriage of the Turncoat Fouche, Minister of Police, in July, 1815, and that the king (Louis XVIII.) signed the marriage contract.

The two plates here introduced (they belonged to Turncoats) show the stiff and formal heraldry of the Empire, and the characteristic toque.

The De Portalis family were rich bankers at Neufchatel in the time of the first Napoleon. This particular member of the family married a _Dame d'honneur_ of the Empress Josephine, and was created a count of the Empire, and an officer of the Legion d'Honneur, as is shown by the t.i.tle and star on his book-plate.

He was a.s.sociated with the Casimir-Periers in founding the Bank of France, and died enormously wealthy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF COUNT J. M. PORTALIS.]

His name occurs in the _Dictionnaire des Girouettes_, but without any special circ.u.mstances; he simply accepted favours and t.i.tles from whatever hand they came, royal or imperial, with equal condescension.

Now the plate of Ch. Amb. Caffarelli, given on page 121, is a little puzzling; it is evidently of the First Empire period, and bears the toque of a Baron; whilst the second quarter on the s.h.i.+eld shows the arms a.s.signed in Napoleonic heraldry to a Prefet, namely: ”De gueules a la muraille crenelee d'argent, surmontee d'une branche de chene du meme.” _Armorial General de l'Empire Francais_, 1812.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF M. DUBUISSON, 1805.]

In the _Dictionnaire des Girouettes_ mention is made of a Caffarelli (no Christian name) who was created a Count of the Empire, and Grand Eagle of the Legion d'Honneur by Napoleon. The king afterwards created him Chevalier of the Order of St Louis, and Commandant at Rennes; whilst in 1815 he again reverted to the service of the Emperor. There was also a Baron Caffarelli who bore similar arms, but he was Bishop of Saint Brieux, whilst on this plate no ecclesiastical emblems are shown. He, too, was a member of the Legion d'Honneur.

To which of these two this plate belonged I cannot decide, nor is the matter of the first importance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF LUCIEN BONAPARTE, PRINCE OF CANINO. BROTHER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.]

One plate may be named which forms an exception to the monotonous regularity of the heraldic style under the First Empire; it is that of Antoine-Pierre-Augustin de Piis, a dramatist. His monogram hangs on a palm tree, each branch of which bears the name of some well-known singer,--Panard, Favart, Colle, etc., whilst beneath are the t.i.tles of the vaudevilles he had himself written. Another artistic little plate of this period is that of M. Dubuisson, dated 1805, on page 130.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EX-LIBRIS IMAGINAIRE DE NAPOLeON I.]

Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, younger brother of Napoleon, resided some time in England, but died at Viterbo in 1840. His son, Charles, Prince of Canino, distinguished as a naturalist, died in 1857, and it is not easy to decide to which of the two this quiet, unpretentious little Canino plate belonged.

The books of the first Napoleon were sumptuously bound, but he used no book-plate. Monsieur L. Joly, in his _Ex-Libris Imaginaires_, furnishes one such as might well have been used by the great soldier and law-maker. An imperial eagle casts a thunder-bolt, which illuminates the peaks of the Alps; below are seen the emblems of war, the owl, symbolic of wisdom, the Cross of the Legion d'Honneur, and the books of the Code Napoleon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF JOACHIM MURAT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RESTORATION, AND LOUIS PHILIPPE.

On the abdication of Napoleon, Louis XVIII. was placed on the throne of his ancestors, and reigned over France by the Grace of G.o.d and the Holy Alliance.

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