to herself. There, as he was on the point of
hastening to his faithful ones, God laid his hand upon him and held
him back; a stroke of paralysis crippled his limbs. After recovering
from this attack, the strength of his mind was taken away, and the
decided, fiery, indefatigable pretender became a gentle, pious monk,
who fasted and prayed, and wandered to Rome to have an interview
with Pope Pius IX., and received absolution from him for all his
sins.
The pope met the Duke de Normandie at Gaeta on the 20th of February,
1849, and had a long and secret conversation with him; and, when
Louis Charles withdrew, it was as a quiet, pious, smiling man, who
never denied his high extraction, but who had no longer a wish to be
restored to the inheritance of his fathers. More and more he
withdrew from the world, and lived only in the circle of a few
noble-born legitimists, who never addressed him excepting as "sire."
He accepted the title as one that was his due, and never refused it
even when approached by many adherents of the new Napoleonic
dynasty. At that time he wrote to his friends:
"You ask me what I wish, what the end of my struggle is, which has
now lasted more than a half century? I will tell you. You do not
suppose, I trust, that I am still determined to ascend the throne of
France: to do this would be a great misfortune for me, but it would
certainly be a greater one for France, and it would rightly be said
of both of us that we merit our misfortune; still less do I hope to
attain to wealth and high station by being recognized.
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