At the first show of brilliancy attached to their name, it had been darkened.

Guilty by their very merit, their name urged them on to glory; and as soon as they proved themselves deserving, it was forbidden to them.

These princes were destined to transmit with their family honours that impatience of a change of government which allows them to be men.
Louis-Philippe Joseph, Duc d'Orleans, was born at the precise epoch, when his rank, fortune, and character were to throw him into a current of new ideas, which his family passions called on him to favour, and into which, once drawn, it would be impossible for him to pause except at the throne or the scaffold.

He was twenty when the first symptoms of the Revolution manifested themselves.
He was handsome, like all his race.

Slender figure, firm step, smiling countenance, piercing glance, limbs made supple by all bodily exercises, with a heart disposed to love, and a splendid horseman, that great accomplishment of princes; a condescension void of familiarity, a ready eloquence, unquestionable courage, liberal to the arts, even to extravagance; those faults which are only due to the luxuries of the age, all marked him out as a popular favourite.