The other ministers considered that this was too risky. The prince would still have time to kill himself before the musketeers got inside the house. There was also the awesome possibility that the prince might persuade a band of fanatical Jacobites to fight to the death. Charles had also boasted (falsely) that his house was a veritable arsenal, chock-full of guns and gunpowder, and that anyone trying to storm it would be blown sky-high.69 The prospect of a bloody siege and final storming of the house by musketeers, possibly involving heavy loss of life, conjured a vision of chaos too frightening to contemplate. Besides, it is abundantly clear from the evidence that the ministers feared that the Paris mob might make such an attack on the prince’s house the occasion for a general street uprising.70 Bloody revolution indirectly caused by the prince was the last thing Louis XV wanted.
The consensus formed for a street arrest. When Tencin saw the way the wind was blowing, he became more hard-line even than Puysieux and Maurepas, doubtless to impress the king with his commitment. It was apparently Tencin who first suggested that the prince be bound after the arrest.71
It was now just a question of time before the inevitable happened. This was the point, in these early days of December 1748, when the prince should have conceded defeat. He could have won the admiration of Europe for his defiant stand coupled with outstanding gifts as a diplomatic brinksman. The title of hero-statesman would have been his. But the prince redoubled his efforts even as he was losing sight of his aim. He told Bulkeley on 7 December that he would leave Paris only to depart for the other world.72 Bulkeley, like all other Jacobites, detached himself from the prince once the contents of James’s letter were known. Jacobite careers and positions depended on unquestioning obedience to the (rare) direct and explicit orders from James.73
What was going through the prince’s mind in these last crucial days of freedom in Paris? Clearly the strain was intense. As early as September the papal nuncio reported that Charles was depressed, had lost weight and had an unhealthy colour.74 Yet he bore himself outwardly as if he had not a care in the world. From August to December he continued to show himself in public and to frequent the opera.75 On 30 November he attended the Comédie Française. Everyone in the audience stood up, as was the custom for princes of the blood.76 So much for Puysieux and his ‘monsieur’!
The contrast between the prince as seen in public and as seen by Nuncio Durini hints at the struggle going on within him. By now Charles had developed an obsession about French perfidy. His rational programme, as he later explained it to Bulkeley, was to force things to the bitter end, so that Louis XV would have to throw off the mask and sign an expulsion order in his own hand.77 Then Louis would be exposed to the world as the perfidious charlatan he was.
Yet it is clear that the prince’s struggle with France, fought against impossible odds, was also an externalised projection of an inner psychic drama. He had been beaten (betrayed, in his terms) at Derby, betrayed by his father and brother over the cardinalate. If he could just achieve this victory over France, the positive elements in his personality would once more gain the upper hand. The tragic irony was that the prince had chosen a scenario which could not but play to his negative, self-destructive impulses. We may say that France deserved better of Charles Edward. It is also plausible to argue the reverse. Yet there was in Charles Edward a perverse, almost suicidal, refusal to deal properly with the French court. Why could he not take the time and trouble to charm the French ministers – he was well capable of it? Instead, his self-destructiveness led him to express his disdain and contempt for them openly. He was outraged that such men controlled his destiny. He was not prepared to play by the rules of diplomatic protocol. He would not grovel before people for whom he had no respect. The unrealistic, self-destructive side of him seemed to conjure up a malignant demon or imp of the perverse that forever whispered in his ear: why should I truckle to these people?
On 10 December the prince’s nemesis came at last. The French plan was governed by two considerations. The prince had constantly warned that he would carry out what Charles XII of Sweden had merely threatened: in other words, there would be a bloody siege followed by suicide. That ruled out house arrest. In the case of open arrest, the question was where to carry out the operation. It was the prince’s insouciant frequenting of the opera that provided the clue.
The task of effecting the arrest was given to the duc de Biron, colonel of the French grenadier guards. With his most senior major M. Vaudreuil, Biron planned the coup with meticulous detail.78 At Vaudreuil’s house an operational committee was set up, consisting of the guards’ battalion commanders and their sergeants. The ambush was to be laid in and around the Palais Royal. Altogether 1,200 men were deployed, in alleyways, courtyards, houses, and even kitchens in the vicinity. It was known that carriages conveying the nobility to the Opera set down in the cul-de-sac hard by the Opera building. This was where the élite grenadier sergeants, hand-picked for their intrepidity, would be waiting.
The duc de Biron himself planned to wait nearby in a carriage, in disguise. All the way from the Palais Royal to the Chateau de Vincennes troops of musketeers were standing by, ready to spring to horse. Just in case Charles Edward managed to elude his captors and take refuge in a nearby house with his retainers, with the intention of standing off a siege, locksmiths, ladders and a supply of axes were at hand. There were even three surgeons waiting to tend the wounded. The most famous doctor in Paris, M. Vernage, was told to hold himself in readiness at his house between 6 and 7 p.m. and to come without question if he was summoned.79 Most controversially of all, Biron ordered up ten lengths of red silk cord, with which he intended to bind the prince hand and foot.
On the morning of the 10th, rumours of what was afoot reached the prince. The marquise de Mézières gave him an explicit warning that the ministers intended to arrest him.80 For his own reasons, or possibly because he still thought Louis would not dare to arrest him, Charles disregarded the warnings. Even as he drove to the Opera, the warnings continued. As he passed the Tuileries and came out on to rue St Honoré, someone called out: ‘Go home, prince, they’re going to arrest you!’81
It was between 5 and 6 p.m., already dark, when the prince arrived in the Opera cul-de-sac. With him were Harrington, Goring and Sheridan.82 As soon as he entered this miniature box-canyon, all gates and thoroughfares of the Palais Royal were closed. No one could get in or out.83 The prince must have suspected something was afoot when he saw the press of people in the cul-de-sac. But, dauntless as ever, he stepped out of the carriage. A throng of sergeants flocked around him, dressed in hodden grey, like servants anxious to catch a glimpse of a great man. Then a uniformed sergeant approached as if to clear a way through the crowd. This was the signal for his disguised comrades to act.84
One of the sergeants, who had assumed the nom de guerre of Sergeant Fortune took the breath out of the prince with a blow in his back from the knee.85 Two other sergeants seized his arms and two more his legs. It all happened so fast that the prince at first thought he was about to be murdered. Shrieking loudly, he was frog-marched away to the bottom of the cul-de-sac, through a door, and into a house belonging to a M. Marsulan, chief surgeon to the duc d’Orléans.86
At the other side of the door was Vaudreuil with other guards officers. The prince was still jabbering away excitedly in French.87 Vaudreuil addressed him calmly. ‘Monsieur, I arrest you in the name of the king.’
They took the prince deeper into the house. Vaudreuil asked him to hand over his weapons. The prince refused but said he would not resist if they disarmed him. The officers relieved him of two loaded pistols, a sword and a double-bladed knife. Vaudreuil looked questioningly at the pistols. ‘Don’t be surprised at them,’ said the prince. ‘I’ve had them on me every day since I returned from Scotland.’88
Vaudreuil next asked the prince to give his word that he would not attempt to take his own life or anyone else’s. Charles consented. But he continued to berate Vaudreuil. ‘You carry on a v
ile trade,’ he reproached him. ‘I would not have been treated any worse by the Hanoverians.’89 Vaudreuil lamely replied that he was merely carrying out the king’s orders.
As soon as he had recovered from his initial shock, the prince began to taunt his captors with cowardice: they would not have dared treat him like this if he had had his Highlanders at his side. Then he switched the thrust of his attack, trying to confuse Vaudreuil with points of etiquette. He asserted that a mere major of the guards could not arrest a prince of the blood; it had to be done by a senior officer of the musketeers.90
While the prince raved on, Vaudreuil sought out the duc de Biron, still sitting in disguise in his carriage. Vaudreuil evidently felt ashamed at the work he was carrying out, for he asked Biron if he could dispense with the silken cords. The prince, he pointed out, had been disarmed and had put up no resistance. But Biron was adamant. If anything went wrong he, not Vaudreuil, would be blamed. He insisted that the prince had to be tied hand and foot for his own safety, to stop him attempting suicide.91
Vaudreuil returned to the prince and reluctantly explained his commission. As they bound him, the prince protested vociferously at this unwonted and unwarranted treatment. Again he asked Vaudreuil to accept his word that he carried no more weapons and would offer no resistance. Vaudreuil lamented his own shame. ‘The shame is not yours, but your master’s,’ the prince assured him.92 But relations between captor and captive turned sour when Vaudreuil, having trussed his arms and legs, added a final cord. The prince asked sardonically if they intended putting him in cross-garters.93 ‘I think you’ve done enough,’ he added. ‘Not yet,’ said Vaudreuil. This answer gained him a coldly hostile stare.94
Next they took the prince outside to a waiting two-horse carriage. Vaudreuil sat beside Charles in the carriage with two of his captains. There was a mounted officer on either side of the coach. Six mounted grenadiers with fixed bayonets followed behind. A number of other soldiers milled around the carriage on foot.95 As soon as Biron saw that the arrest had been successfully completed, he departed to report to Maurepas.
During the first stage of the journey, the prince continued to complain bitterly about his treatment and about the falsity of France, which had offered him a permanent refuge. ‘As for me, I would share my last piece of bread with my friend,’ he went on bitterly. When no one attempted to interrupt the flow of his recriminations, the prince began to warm to his theme. ‘I am not so vicious as is believed,’ he declared. No, the true viciousness had been shown by France. Was this the civilised and cultivated country he had heard so much about? ‘I would not have got this treatment in Morocco,’ he complained. ‘I had a better opinion of the French nation.’96
In the Faubourg St Antoine they stopped to pick up an escort of musketeers and switch to a six-horse carriage.97 The halt seemed to alarm the prince. ‘Where are we going, Hanover?’ he called out, half in sardonic jest, half in earnest. Vaudreuil explained soothingly that they were simply changing carriages to make the journey to Vincennes swifter.98 But the prince continued to be suspicious. Half-believing himself the victim of an elaborate English assassination plot, he called out: ‘I thought myself among Frenchmen, but I see English guineas have made you Hanoverians.’99
For the rest of the journey Charles Edward did not speak. It was between 7 and 8 p.m., just two hours after the arrest, that they arrived at the Chateau of Vincennes.100 The drawbridge was lowered to admit the carriage, then hurriedly raised. Inside Vincennes the governor marquis de Châtelet came to greet him. Châtelet had just received orders to confine the prince in a dungeon and to cede his authority to the duc de Biron and his men.101
The prince was determined to squeeze the last drop of pathos from his predicament. ‘Come to me, my friend!’ he cried. ‘You see I can’t come to you.’102 Châtelet was horrified to see the prince bound and ordered him untied. With trembling hands the deeply embarrassed governor took part in the untying. Together the prince and Châtelet then mounted the first fifty steps to his cell.103
The cell was furnished with a straw-backed chair and a truckle bed. ‘Ce n’est pas magnifique,’ the prince remarked caustically. ‘What are these?’ he went on, pointing to a row of symbols on the wall. Châtelet explained that it was the handiwork of a priest who had made a long stay in that room.104
Vaudreuil intervened to point out that the prince had not been strip-searched. Châtelet asked the prince if he had anything else about his person. Charles gave his word that he had not. Vaudreuil motioned Châtelet aside. They huddled together a long time in whispered conversation. Then they returned and searched the prince so thoroughly that Vaudreuil even groped around his genitals. The prince riposted with an indignant look but said nothing. The search produced nothing but a wallet.105
The prince then remonstrated about the size of his cell. He was a man used to taking exercise, yet he would have to face four ways just to walk up and down. Was it the French intention, he wondered aloud, that he should fall ill from foul air, claustrophobia and lack of exercise?
Châtelet indicated that there was a large cell next door which he would assign to the prince if he gave his word of honour not to escape. Coldly nodding in Vaudreuil’s direction, the prince said that he had given his word once and it had not been accepted.106 He did not intend to court humiliation twice. Nevertheless, Châtelet took it upon himself to move Charles Edward into the larger cell.
Vaudreuil departed. Once he was left behind with Châtelet, the prince relaxed a little and the atmosphere became lighter. Châtelet had tears in his eyes. ‘I am in despair. This is the unhappiest day of my life,’ he lamented. Displays of overt emotion always had an effect on the prince. ‘You are known as my friend,’ he reassured him. ‘Be certain I’ll never confuse the friend with the agent of government.’107
Vaudreuil had left instructions from the duc de Biron that there were always to be two officers with him in the cell and half a dozen sergeants in the adjoining room.108 After refusing supper, the prince took to twitting his captors. ‘I hope you didn’t tie up my English supporters like this,’ he said. ‘If you treated Sir James Harrington as you treated me, he must have suffered, being so fat.’109 The officers did not reply. They were under orders not to discuss his case. After a bit of pacing to and fro, the prince threw himself fully clothed on the bed. He found it difficult to get off to sleep. When he did, he slept fitfully, with much tossing and turning.
He awoke at 6 a.m. It was still dark. ‘It seems the nights here are on the long side,’ he remarked, essaying a jest.110 He then talked freely with his guards on general subjects and waited for his next meeting with Châtelet.
Throughout Wednesday the 11th the prince reviewed his position. Louis XV had tried to make the issue one of whether he or the prince was sovereign in France. The prince had tauntingly replied that he was willing to accept French laws but not those dictated by the Elector of Hanover.111 But surely now the prince’s defiance had run its course. The news that came in during the day convinced Charles that some compromise was inevitable. His home had been thoroughly searched by lieutenant of police Berryer, and his followers Goring and Harrington sent to the Bastille.112 He had a moral responsibility for their welfare also.
After an attempt at levity with Châtelet, when he asked how the singer Jeliotte had done at the opera, in the performance he had missed,113 the prince got down to serious business. He asked Châtelet to make discreet enquiries as to how he could extricate himself and his followers from their plight.
Châtelet sent a note to Puysieux. Puysieux consulted with Louis XV. As a hardliner, Puysieux wanted the king to stick to his original resolution of delivering the prince to Civitavecchia under armed guard. But Louis felt he had made his point and did not want to push relations with the Stuarts to breaking point. Once Charles Edward had agreed in writing to leave French territory, he was free to go wherever he wished, either beyond the Alps or to Lorraine or Avignon. The only proviso was that he would have to be accompanied to the Fre
nch border by a body of French musketeers who would then report his definite departure to the king.114
This was good enough for the prince. On 12 December he wrote to Louis to say that he was ready to leave his domains immediately and was only sorry that he could not explain his position in person.115 But even now there was a Parthian shot of defiance. The prince wrote to Louis XV as from monarch to monarch in an easy, almost patronising style.116
Instructions were then issued to the marquis de Perussi, maréchal de camp of the 1st company of musketeers, to escort the prince to Pont de Beauvoisin on the borders of France and Savoy.117 The prince was meanwhile asked to swear out a statement in the presence of Châtelet and four other officers. This made clear that the prince would be taken to Pont de Beauvoisin, accompanied only by persons mentioned on the escort warrant. Moreover, the prince would be pledged not to stay at Lyons or any other large city en route, not to re-enter Paris on his way from Vincennes, nor to seek sanctuary in Avignon at the end of the journey.118 The prince gave his word of honour publicly.
Not everyone was happy with these lenient terms. Puysieux thought that Louis was too soft: the prince should be taken all the way to Civitavecchia, not just Pont de Beauvoisin.119 Maurepas agreed, pointing out that if the prince went to Lorraine or Avignon, in defiance of his parole, French problems would begin anew.120 Perussi too stressed that there was nothing he could do about it if the prince decided to proceed to Avignon.121
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