Stanislas, Marquis de Boufflers, was born at Lunéville in 1737, and was named after the unfortunate King of Poland, his godfather. He was educated for the Church, hence he was at first known as L’Abbé de Boufflers. But he gave up the Church for the Army, and became a Knight of Malta and captain of hussars. In 1791 he fled with Madame de Sabran and her son to Berlin, where he soon afterwards married her. In 1800 he returned to France and published a book entitled “Libre Arbitre,” and in 1804 was elected member of the French Academy, as successor to Marshal Noailles. The Chevalier died in 1815. He has been described as “abbé libertin; militaire philosophe; diplomate chansonnier; émigré patriote; républicain courtisan.” His stepson, Count Elzéar Louis Marie de Sabran, at a very early age gave proof of uncommon talents. He was warmly attached to Madame de Staël, and consequently incurred the anger of Napoleon. In 1820 he composed a dithyrambic poem on the assassination of the Duke de Berri, which was much thought of at the time. His death took place in 1846, in the seventieth year of his age.
The Emperor Napoleon died at St. Helena on the 5th of May, 1821. The intelligence was conveyed from Calais to Paris by telegraph. “There was a disposition,” says Lord Holland, “in the people of Paris to disbelieve in the death of Napoleon, there was more in the middling classes to attribute it to poison, and there was some in the Court to affect the magnanimity of stifling all resentment towards the departed hero. Mourning was worn by many, especially on the 15th August, the festival of St. Napoleon. Publications on his character, life, and death, were numerous, and generally more full of commendation than of censure. Portraits, engravings, and prints in allusion to his exile and death were bought up with an avidity which alarmed the police, and led to the temporary suppression of the exhibition of such articles in the shops.”—_Foreign Reminiscences_, p. 205.
The coronation of George IV. took place on the 19th July, and the Queen died on the 7th of August following. A riot took place on the 15th, when her body was removed from Brandenburg House to be taken to Harwich for embarkation, the populace being determined that the funeral procession should pass through the City of London, against the wishes of the Government. Queen Caroline was buried at Brunswick on the 24th, between her father and her brother.