Some of the oldest residents had a faint recollection of having seen
him long ago, before '89 indeed, when he came to visit his aunt, Mlle.
Armande.

His duties, then, had seldom permitted him to leave the court.

If he had given no sign of life during the empire, it was because he had
not been compelled to submit to the humiliations and suffering which so
many of the emigrants were obliged to endure in their exile.

On the contrary, he had received, in exchange for the wealth of which he
had been deprived by the revolution, a princely fortune.

Taking refuge in London after the defeat of the army of Conde, he had
been so fortunate as to please the only daughter of Lord Holland, one of
the richest peers in England, and he had married her.

She possessed a fortune of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds
sterling, more than six million francs.

Still the marriage was not a happy one. The chosen companion of the
dissipated and licentious Count d'Artois was not likely to prove a very
good husband.

The young duchess was contemplating a separation when she died,
in giving birth to a boy, who was baptized under the names of
Anne-Marie-Martial.

The loss of his wife did not render the Duc de Sairmeuse inconsolable.