When Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII., made an appeal to the old and noble families among his countrymen, calling upon them to serve under the white banner, the Duc de Richelieu joined the army assembled to fight for the ancient crown of France; and after the unfortunate termination of the campaign of 1792, when the Prince of Condé requested an asylum in Russia for the French exiles, he was despatched by the Empress Catherine to arrange with the Prince the plan of a colony, to be established on the shores of the sea of Azof: it was to consist entirely of men of birth, and this idea was of some service when the noble foundation of Odessa took place; but in a military crisis like this, how was it possible to conceive and follow out a project involving a regular system of administration?
At the siege of Valenciennes by the coalesced armies, the Duc de Richelieu commanded a company of men of noble birth. There was something glorious and honourable in this emigration, which followed the fortunes of the royal banner as their ancestors had done that of Henry IV; and we must not judge their proceedings according to our little party prejudices. After the victorious republic had reconquered her frontiers he returned to Russia, and became colonel of a cuirassier regiment; but the Emperor Paul was then on the throne, and with his usual harshness and brutality of disposition he punished the Duke for his personal attachment to the Czarewitch Alexander, by depriving him of his regiment; he even went so far as to forbid him to appear at St. Petersburg: for with a degree of imperial egotism the Czar expected devotion should be exhibited to himself alone. Such being the cause of his exile, it is hardly necessary to say, that on the accession of Alexander he was restored to his former rank, with every mark of the sovereign's favour; and the esteem and confidence entertained for him by Alexander, at this early period, was of the greatest service to France during the events that took place in the year 1815. Even then the Duke was fully sensible of the importance of an alliance between France and Russia, two countries whose interests are constantly meeting without its being possible they should clash; but at this time people could not even dream of the restoration of the royal dynasty--no event could appear less likely to occur.