Monsieur le Duc d'Herouville, offspring of
the matrimonial autumn of the last governor of Normandy, was born
during the emigration in 1799, at Vienna. The old marechal, father of
the present duke, returned with the king in 1814, and died in 1819,
before he was able to marry his son. He could only leave him the vast
chateau of Herouville, the park, a few dependencies, and a farm which
he had bought back with some difficulty; all of which returned a
rental of about fifteen thousand francs a year. Louis XVIII. gave the
post of grand equerry to the son, who, under Charles X., received the
usual pension of twelve thousand francs which was granted to the
pauper peers of France. But what were these twenty-seven thousand
francs a year and the salary of grand equerry to such a family? In
Paris, of course, the young duke used the king's coaches, and had a
mansion provided for him in the rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, near the
royal stables; his salary paid for his winters in the city, and his
twenty-seven thousand francs for the summers in Normandy. If this
noble personage was still a bachelor he was less to blame than his
aunt, who was not versed in La Fontaine's fables.
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