Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/336

324 guished himself at Austerlitz and was created Prince of Ponte Corvo.

When he entered Hanover with the victorious French troops under Napoleon he met his host of Cuddalore days at the levée. He recognised Colonel Wagenheim and greeted him warmly, repeating his expressions of gratitude for the kindness shown to the unknown French sergeant.

At this time Sweden was full of trouble, which involved the loss of Finland (1809). A year later Europe was electrified by a request from the heirless Charles XIII., backed by the Diet, that Marshal Bernadotte might be made heir to the throne. The honour was accepted, and he was given the title of Prince Charles John of Sweden. He was not idle in his exalted position. Through the force of his arms Norway was conquered and came under the Swedish crown. There it remained until recently, when by a bloodless revolution the monarchy of Norway was restored. Bernadotte arranged the constitution of the government of the two kingdoms under one ruler (1814-5), and when Charles XIII. died the French Marshal was crowned king as Charles XIV. He married Désirée Clery, & lady of the same family from which General Cornelius Francis Clery was descended. Henry Clery, the great uncle of the General, migrated to France, where he entered into the wine trade at Marseilles. One of his daughters married Joseph Buonaparte and became Queen of Spain. The other was Désirée, and she was the grandmother of the present King of Sweden. It is said that Désirée refused the great Napoleon when he was a young and unknown officer in the French army.

The house in which I stayed was the old garden or factory house of the Company. Originally it was without an upper storey. The walls were seven feet thick and the roof domed so as to render it bomb-proof. Lord Valentia mentioned it in his 'Travels.' He went through South