So agitated was he that in waving his arms about to lend emphasis to his words, the king accidentally knocked off his own hat, which rolled across the floor and ended at the feet of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1773–1850). Over the years Louis-Philippe had acquired a reputation as a liberal, following in the footsteps of his father, whose sympathy with the Revolution in 1789 had earned him the sobriquet of ‘Philippe-Égalité’. The symbolism was not lost on those present.
