Even the president of the court seemed to be convinced of this, and
his closing words in addressing the jury were these: "Gentlemen, who
is the accused who stands before you to-day? What is his name, his
lineage, his family? What are his antecedents, his whole history? Is
he an instrument of the enemies of France, or is he, much more, an
unfortunate who has miraculously escaped the horrors of a bloody
revolution, and, laid under bans by his birth, has now no name and
no refuge for his head?"
The jury, however, were not called upon to answer this question;
they had simply to reply to the question whether the accused was
guilty of a conspiracy against the state. This they answered with a
"Guilty," and condemned the accused to an imprisonment of twelve
years.
The Duke de Normandie, or King Louis Charles, as we may choose to
call him, was taken to St. Pelagic; but during the next year,
through the assistance of powerful friends, which his trial had
gained over to him, he was released from prison, and again spent
some quiet years in Switzerland.
Then came the year 1848, the year of revolutions, whose storm-waves
drove Louis Philippe to England, never to ascend again the throne of
France.
Again Louis Charles issued from his solitude, and this time not
alone. A swarm of rich and powerful legitimists thronged around him,
a journal--L'Iflexible--was secured to the interests of the Duke do
Normandie, and La Vendee, with a thousand loyal voices, summoned
King Louis XVII.
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