Page:Life of Louis Philippe, late king of the French.pdf/16

16 September, and they undertook an excursion to the eastern part of the United States. On their arrival in New York, they heard that their mother had been obliged to fly to Spain, and they now resolved to join her; but, owing to the war between England and Spain, this was not easily aeeomplished. They however set out for New Orleans, expecting to find a conveyance for Havana, where they thought they would be able to reach the mother-country. They reached New Orleans on the 17th February, 1798, and there embarked on board an American vessel for Havana. On the passage, they were boarded by an English frigate under French colours, and the three princes were apprehensive that they might be recognised and conducted to France; but when it was discovered on the one side that it was an English vessel, and on the other that the three passengers were princes of the House of Orleans, the captain made preparations to receive them on board his ship, where he treated them with great kindness, and afterwards conducted them to Havana.

During their residenec in Cuba, the princes were not treated with the respect to which they were entitled. The Spanish authorities ordered them to return to New Orleans; but they declined to do so, and proceeded to the Bahama Islands-thence to New York, where they found an English packet, which conveyed them to Falmouth. The princes reached Falmouth in February, 1800, and having obtained permission from government to land, they proceeded to London, and took up their residenee in Twickenham, on the banks of the Thames. Here they were treated with the greatest kindness by all classes of society; but neither the attentions of the English people, nor the splendours of fashionable life, eould efface the remembrance of his mother from the heart of the Duke of Orleans; and government having given him and