The Princess herself used to relate this story of
the Due d 'Orleans affair. I have heard it also from
Jules Janin. It appears that he really went to see
M. Guizot in 1837, when there was talk of marrying
the eldest son of Louis Philippe, and called the min-
ister's attention to the fact that Princess Mathilde
was very handsome, that her family connections
were irreproachable, and that the name of Bona-
parte was worth that of many others. The King,
whom Guizot saw in the matter, listened to all these
arguments and then said quietly: *^But she has no
dowry!" In vain M. Gui^iot assured him that the
Chambers would willingly vote her an allowance,
but he would hear no more on the subject. Later,

63



MEMOIRS OF THE EMPRESS EUGENIE

in 1870, when Jules Janin, who had just been elected
to the Academy, spoke of the matter again with
M. Guizot, who had now become his colleague, both
agreed, I am told, that their plan for uniting ' ' the
two families of pretenders,'' as Guizot said, would
have been admirable if it could have been carried
through.
Princess Mathilde, therefore^ jnarried none of
the princes of France, but contented herself, as has
just been said, with an enormously rich Russian,
with whom she lived for some time in Italy. When
King Jerome's branch of the Bonaparte family was
allowed to return to France, on the advent of the
Orleans Monarchy, the Princess came occasionally
to Paris, but she always declined to show herself
at the Tuileries, though she knew the young Princes
of Orleans and always felt kindly towards them.
