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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of
+France, Volume 4, by Madame Campan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Volume 4
+ Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting
+ to the Queen
+
+
+Author: Madame Campan
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2004 [EBook #3887]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE,
+
+QUEEN OF FRANCE
+
+Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan,
+
+First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
+
+
+
+Volume 4
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+About the close of the last century several of the Northern sovereigns
+took a fancy for travelling. Christian III., King of Denmark, visited the
+Court of France in 1763, during the reign of Louis XV. We have seen the
+King of Sweden and Joseph II. at Versailles. The Grand Duke of Russia
+(afterwards Paul I.), son of Catherine II., and the Princess of
+Wurtemberg, his wife, likewise resolved to visit France. They travelled
+under the titles of the Comte and Comtesse du Nord. They were presented
+on the 20th of May, 1782. The Queen received them with grace and dignity.
+On the day of their arrival at Versailles they dined in private with the
+King and Queen.
+
+The plain, unassuming appearance of Paul I. pleased Louis XVI. He spoke
+to him with more confidence and cheerfulness than he had spoken to Joseph
+II. The Comtesse du Nord was not at first so successful with the Queen.
+This lady was of a fine height, very fat for her age, with all the German
+stiffness, well informed, and perhaps displaying her acquirements with
+rather too much confidence. When the Comte and Comtesse du Nord were
+presented the Queen was exceedingly nervous. She withdrew into her closet
+before she went into the room where she was to dine with the illustrious
+travellers, and asked for a glass of water, confessing "she had just
+experienced how much more difficult it was to play the part of a queen in
+the presence of other sovereigns, or of princes born to become so, than
+before courtiers." She soon recovered from her confusion, and reappeared
+with ease and confidence. The dinner was tolerably cheerful, and the
+conversation very animated.
+
+Brilliant entertainments were given at Court in honour of the King of
+Sweden and the Comte du Nord. They were received in private by the King
+and Queen, but they were treated with much more ceremony than the Emperor,
+and their Majesties always appeared to me to be very, cautious before
+these personages. However, the King one day asked the Russian Grand Duke
+if it were true that he could not rely on the fidelity of any one of those
+who accompanied him. The Prince answered him without hesitation, and
+before a considerable number of persons, that he should be very sorry to
+have with him even a poodle that was much attached to him, because his
+mother would take care to have it thrown into the Seine, with a stone
+round its neck, before he should leave Paris. This reply, which I myself
+heard, horrified me, whether it depicted the disposition of Catherine, or
+only expressed the Prince's prejudice against her.
+
+The Queen gave the Grand Duke a supper at Trianon, and had the gardens
+illuminated as they had been for the Emperor. The Cardinal de Rohan very
+indiscreetly ventured to introduce himself there without the Queen's
+knowledge. Having been treated with the utmost coolness ever since his
+return from Vienna, he had not dared to ask her himself for permission to
+see the illumination; but he persuaded the porter of Trianon to admit him
+as soon as the Queen should have set off for Versailles, and his Eminence
+engaged to remain in the porter's lodge until all the carriages should
+have left the chateau. He did not keep his word, and while the porter was
+busy in the discharge of his duty, the Cardinal, who wore his red
+stockings and had merely thrown on a greatcoat, went down into the garden,
+and, with an air of mystery, drew up in two different places to see the
+royal family and suite pass by.
+
+Her Majesty was highly offended at this piece of boldness, and next day
+ordered the porter to be discharged. There was a general feeling of
+disgust at the Cardinal's conduct, and of commiseration towards the porter
+for the loss of his place. Affected at the misfortune of the father of a
+family, I obtained his forgiveness; and since that time I have often
+regretted the feeling which induced me to interfere. The notoriety of the
+discharge of the porter of Trianon, and the odium that circumstance would
+have fixed upon the Cardinal, would have made the Queen's dislike to him
+still more publicly known, and would probably have prevented the
+scandalous and notorious intrigue of the necklace.
+
+The Queen, who was much prejudiced against the King of Sweden, received
+him very coldly.
+
+[Gustavus III., King of Sweden, travelled in France under the title of
+Comte d'Haga. Upon his accession to the throne, he managed the revolution
+which prostrated the authority of the Senate with equal skill, coolness,
+and courage. He was assassinated in 1792, at a masked ball, by
+Auckarstrum.--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+All that was said of the private character of that sovereign, his
+connection with the Comte de Vergennes, from the time of the Revolution of
+Sweden, in 1772, the character of his favourite Armfeldt, and the
+prejudices of the monarch himself against the Swedes who were well
+received at the Court of Versailles, formed the grounds of this dislike.
+He came one day uninvited and unexpected, and requested to dine with the
+Queen. The Queen received him in the little closet, and desired me to
+send for her clerk of the kitchen, that she might be informed whether
+there was a proper dinner to set before Comte d'Haga, and add to it if
+necessary. The King of Sweden assured her that there would be enough for
+him; and I could not help smiling when I thought of the length of the menu
+of the dinner of the King and Queen, not half of which would have made its
+appearance had they dined in private. The Queen looked significantly at
+me, and I withdrew. In the evening she asked me why I had seemed so
+astonished when she ordered me to add to her dinner, saying that I ought
+instantly to have seen that she was giving the King of Sweden a lesson for
+his presumption. I owned to her that the scene had appeared to me so much
+in the bourgeois style, that I involuntarily thought of the cutlets on the
+gridiron, and the omelette, which in families in humble circumstances
+serve to piece out short commons. She was highly diverted with my answer,
+and repeated it to the King, who also laughed heartily at it.
+
+The peace with England satisfied all classes of society interested in the
+national honour. The departure of the English commissary from Dunkirk,
+who had been fixed at that place ever since the shameful peace of 1763 as
+inspector of our navy, occasioned an ecstasy of joy.
+
+[By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) it was stipulated that the fortifications
+and port of Dunkirk should be destroyed. By the Treaty of Paris (1763) a
+commissary was to reside at Dunkirk to see that no attempt was made to
+break this treaty. This stipulation was revoked by the Peace of
+Versailles, in 1783.--see DYER'S "Modern Europe," 1st edition, vol. i.,
+pp. 205-438 and 539.]
+
+The Government communicated to the Englishman the order for his departure
+before the treaty was made public. But for that precaution the populace
+would have probably committed some excess or other, in order to make the
+agent of English power feel the effects of the resentment which had
+constantly increased during his stay at that port. Those engaged in trade
+were the only persons dissatisfied with the treaty of 1783. That article
+which provided for, the free admission of English goods annihilated at one
+blow the trade of Rouen and the other manufacturing towns throughout the
+kingdom. The English swarmed into Paris. A considerable number of them
+were presented at Court. The Queen paid them marked attention; doubtless
+she wished them to distinguish between the esteem she felt for their noble
+nation and the political views of the Government in the support it had
+afforded to the Americans. Discontent was, however, manifested at Court
+in consequence of the favour bestowed by the Queen on the English
+noblemen; these attentions were called infatuations. This was illiberal;
+and the Queen justly complained of such absurd jealousy.
+
+The journey to Fontainebleau and the winter at Paris and at Court were
+extremely brilliant. The spring brought back those amusements which the
+Queen began to prefer to the splendour of fetes. The most perfect harmony
+subsisted between the King and Queen; I never saw but one cloud between
+them. It was soon dispelled, and the cause of it is perfectly unknown to
+me.
+
+My father-in-law, whose penetration and experience I respected greatly,
+recommended me, when he saw me placed in the service of a young queen, to
+shun all kinds of confidence. "It procures," said he, "but a very
+fleeting, and at the same time dangerous sort of favour; serve with zeal
+to the best of your judgment, but never do more than obey. Instead of
+setting your wits to work to discover why an order or a commission which
+may appear of consequence is given to you, use them to prevent the
+possibility of your knowing anything of the matter." I had occasion to
+act on this wise advice. One morning at Trianon I went into the Queen's
+chamber; there were letters lying upon the bed, and she was weeping
+bitterly. Her tears and sobs were occasionally interrupted by
+exclamations of "Ah! that I were dead!--wretches! monsters! What have I
+done to them?" I offered her orange-flower water and ether. "Leave me,"
+said she, "if you love me; it would be better to kill me at once." At
+this moment she threw her arm over my shoulder and began weeping afresh. I
+saw that some weighty trouble oppressed her heart, and that she wanted a
+confidant. I suggested sending for the Duchesse de Polignac; this she
+strongly opposed. I renewed my arguments, and her opposition grew weaker.
+I disengaged myself from her arms, and ran to the antechamber, where I
+knew that an outrider always waited, ready to mount and start at a
+moment's warning for Versailles. I ordered him to go full speed, and tell
+the Duchesse de Polignac that the Queen was very uneasy, and desired to
+see her instantly. The Duchess always had a carriage ready. In less than
+ten minutes she was at the Queen's door. I was the only person there,
+having been forbidden to send for the other women. Madame de Polignac
+came in; the Queen held out her arms to her, the Duchess rushed towards
+her. I heard her sobs renewed and withdrew.
+
+A quarter of an hour afterwards the Queen, who had become calmer, rang to
+be dressed. I sent her woman in; she put on her gown and retired to her
+boudoir with the Duchess. Very soon afterwards the Comte d'Artois arrived
+from Compiegne, where he had been with the King. He eagerly inquired
+where the Queen was; remained half an hour with her and the Duchess; and
+on coming out told me the Queen asked for me. I found her seated on the
+couch by the side of her friend; her features had resumed their usual
+cheerful and gracious appearance. She held out her hand to me, and said
+to the Duchess, "I know I have made her so uncomfortable this morning that
+I must set her poor heart at ease." She then added, "You must have seen,
+on some fine summer's day, a black cloud suddenly appear and threaten to
+pour down upon the country and lay it waste. The lightest wind drives it
+away, and the blue sky and serene weather are restored. This is just the
+image of what has happened to me this morning." She afterwards told me
+that the King would return from Compiegne after hunting there, and sup
+with her; that I must send for her purveyor, to select with him from his
+bills of fare all such dishes as the King liked best; that she would have
+no others served up in the evening at her table; and that this was a mark
+of attention that she wished the King to notice. The Duchesse de Polignac
+also took me by the hand, and told me how happy she was that she had been
+with the Queen at a moment when she stood in need of a friend. I never
+knew what could have created in the Queen so lively and so transient an
+alarm; but I guessed from the particular care she took respecting the King
+that attempts had been made to irritate him against her; that the malice
+of her enemies had been promptly discovered and counteracted by the King's
+penetration and attachment; and that the Comte d'Artois had hastened to
+bring her intelligence of it.
+
+It was, I think, in the summer of 1787, during one of the Trianon
+excursions, that the Queen of Naples--[Caroline, sister of Marie
+Antoinette.]--sent the Chevalier de Bressac to her Majesty on a secret
+mission relative to a projected marriage between the Hereditary Prince,
+her son, and Madame, the King's daughter; in the absence of the lady of
+honour he addressed himself to me. Although he said a great deal to me
+about the close confidence with which the Queen of Naples honoured him,
+and about his letter of credit, I thought he had the air of an
+adventurer.--[He afterwards spent several years shut up in the Chateau de
+l'Oeuf.]--He had, indeed, private letters for the Queen, and his mission
+was not feigned; he talked to me very rashly even before his admission,
+and entreated me to do all that lay in my power to dispose the Queen's
+mind in favour of his sovereign's wishes; I declined, assuring him that it
+did not become me to meddle with State affairs. He endeavoured, but in
+vain, to prove to me that the union contemplated by the Queen of Naples
+ought not to be looked upon in that light.
+
+I procured M. de Bressac the audience he desired, but without suffering
+myself even to seem acquainted with the object of his mission. The Queen
+told me what it was; she thought him a person ill-chosen for the occasion;
+and yet she thought that the Queen, her sister, had done wisely in not
+sending a man worthy to be avowed,--it being impossible that what she
+solicited should take place. I had an opportunity on this occasion, as
+indeed on many others, of judging to what extent the Queen valued and
+loved France and the dignity of our Court. She then told me that Madame,
+in marrying her cousin, the Duc d'Angouleme, would not lose her rank as
+daughter of the Queen; and that her situation would be far preferable to
+that of queen of any other country; and that there was nothing in Europe
+to be compared to the Court of France; and that it would be necessary, in
+order to avoid exposing a French Princess to feelings of deep regret, in
+case she should be married to a foreign prince, to take her from the
+palace of Versailles at seven years of age, and send her immediately to
+the Court in which she was to dwell; and that at twelve would be too late;
+for recollections and comparisons would ruin the happiness of all the rest
+of her life. The Queen looked upon the destiny of her sisters as far
+beneath her own; and frequently mentioned the mortifications inflicted by
+the Court of Spain upon her sister, the Queen of Naples, and the necessity
+she was under of imploring the mediation of the King of France.
+
+She showed me several letters that she had received from the Queen of
+Naples relative to her differences with the Court of Madrid respecting the
+Minister Acton. She thought him useful to her people, inasmuch as he was
+a man of considerable information and great activity. In these letters
+she minutely acquainted her Majesty with the nature of the affronts she
+had received, and represented Mr. Acton to her as a man whom malevolence
+itself could not suppose capable of interesting her otherwise than by his
+services. She had had to suffer the impertinences of a Spaniard named Las
+Casas, who had been sent to her by the King, her father-in-law, to
+persuade her to dismiss Mr. Acton from the business of the State, and from
+her intimacy. She complained bitterly to the Queen, her sister, of the
+insulting proceedings of this charge d'affaires, whom she told, in order
+to convince him of the nature of the feelings which attached her to Mr.
+Acton, that she would have portraits and busts of him executed by the most
+eminent artists of Italy, and that she would then send them to the King of
+Spain, to prove that nothing but the desire to retain a man of superior
+capacity had induced her to bestow on him the favour he enjoyed. This Las
+Casas dared to answer her that it would be useless trouble; that the
+ugliness of a man did not always render him displeasing; and that the King
+of Spain had too much experience not to know that there was no accounting
+for the caprices of a woman.
+
+This audacious reply filled the Queen of Naples with indignation, and her
+emotion caused her to miscarry on the same day. In consequence of the
+mediation of Louis XVI. the Queen of Naples obtained complete
+satisfaction, and Mr. Acton continued Prime Minister.
+
+Among the characteristics which denoted the goodness of the Queen, her
+respect for personal liberty should have a place. I have seen her put up
+with the most troublesome importunities from people whose minds were
+deranged rather than have them arrested. Her patient kindness was put to
+a very disagreeable trial by an ex-councillor of the Bordeaux Parliament,
+named Castelnaux; this man declared himself the lover of the Queen, and
+was generally known by that appellation. For ten successive years did he
+follow the Court in all its excursions. Pale and wan, as people who are
+out of their senses usually are, his sinister appearance occasioned the
+most uncomfortable sensations. During the two hours that the Queen's
+public card parties lasted, he would remain opposite her Majesty. He
+placed himself in the same manner before her at chapel, and never failed
+to be at the King's dinner or the dinner in public. At the theatre he
+invariably seated himself as near the Queen's box as possible. He always
+set off for Fontainebleau or St. Cloud the day before the Court, and when
+her Majesty arrived at her various residences, the first person she met on
+getting out of her carriage was this melancholy madman, who never spoke to
+any one. When the Queen stayed at Petit Trianon the passion of this
+unhappy man became still more annoying. He would hastily swallow a morsel
+at some eating-house, and spend all the rest of the day, even when it
+rained, in going round and round the garden, always walking at the edge of
+the moat. The Queen frequently met him when she was either alone or with
+her children; and yet she would not suffer any violence to be used to
+relieve her from this intolerable annoyance. Having one day given M. de
+Seze permission to enter Trianon, she sent to desire he would come to me,
+and directed me to inform that celebrated advocate of M. de Castelnaux's
+derangement, and then to send for him that M. de Seze might have some
+conversation with him. He talked to him nearly an hour, and made
+considerable impression upon his mind; and at last M. de Castelnaux
+requested me to inform the Queen positively that, since his presence was
+disagreeable to her, he would retire to his province. The Queen was very
+much rejoiced, and desired me to express her full satisfaction to M. de
+Seze. Half an hour after M. de Seze was gone the unhappy madman was
+announced. He came to tell me that he withdrew his promise, that he had
+not sufficient command of himself to give up seeing the Queen as often as
+possible. This new determination: was a disagreeable message to take to
+her Majesty but how was I affected at hearing her say, "Well, let him
+annoy me! but do not let him be deprived of the blessing of freedom."
+
+[On the arrest of the King and Queen at Varennes, this unfortunate
+Castelnaux attempted to starve himself to death. The people in whose
+house he lived, becoming uneasy at his absence, had the door of his room
+forced open, when he was found stretched senseless on the floor. I do not
+know what became of him after the 10th of August.--MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+The direct influence of the Queen on affairs during the earlier years of
+the reign was shown only in her exertions to obtain from the King a
+revision of the decrees in two celebrated causes. It was contrary to her
+principles to interfere in matters of justice, and never did she avail
+herself of her influence to bias the tribunals. The Duchesse de Praslin,
+through a criminal caprice, carried her enmity to her husband so far as to
+disinherit her children in favour of the family of M. de Guemenee. The
+Duchesse de Choiseul, who, was warmly interested in this affair, one day
+entreated the Queen, in my presence, at least to condescend to ask the
+first president when the cause would be called on; the Queen replied that
+she could not even do that, for it would manifest an interest which it was
+her duty not to show.
+
+If the King had not inspired the Queen with a lively feeling of love, it
+is quite certain that she yielded him respect and affection for the
+goodness of his disposition and the equity of which he gave so many proofs
+throughout his reign. One evening she returned very late; she came out of
+the King's closet, and said to M. de Misery and myself, drying her eyes,
+which were filled with tears, "You see me weeping, but do not be uneasy at
+it: these are the sweetest tears that a wife can shed; they are caused by
+the impression which the justice and goodness of the King have made upon
+me; he has just complied with my request for a revision of the proceedings
+against Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Monthieu, victims of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon's hatred to the Duc de Choiseul. He has been equally just to
+the Duc de Guines in his affair with Tort. It is a happy thing for a queen
+to be able to admire and esteem him who has admitted her to a
+participation of his throne; and as to you, I congratulate you upon your
+having to live under the sceptre of so virtuous a sovereign."
+
+The Queen laid before the King all the memorials of the Duc de Guines,
+who, during his embassy to England, was involved in difficulties by a
+secretary, who speculated in the public funds in London on his own
+account, but in such a manner as to throw a suspicion of it on the
+ambassador. Messieurs de Vergennes and Turgot, bearing but little
+good-will to the Duc de Guines, who was the friend of the Duc de Choiseul,
+were not disposed to render the ambassador any service. The Queen
+succeeded in fixing the King's particular attention on this affair, and
+the innocence of the Duc de Guines triumphed through the equity of Louis
+XVI.
+
+An incessant underhand war was carried on between the friends and
+partisans of M. de Choiseul, who were called the Austrians, and those who
+sided with Messieurs d'Aiguillon, de Maurepas, and de Vergennes, who, for
+the same reason, kept up the intrigues carried on at Court and in Paris
+against the Queen. Marie Antoinette, on her part, supported those who had
+suffered in this political quarrel, and it was this feeling which led her
+to ask for a revision of the proceedings against Messieurs de Bellegarde
+and de Monthieu. The first, a colonel and inspector of artillery, and the
+second, proprietor of a foundry at St. Etienne, were, under the Ministry
+of the Duc d'Aiguillon, condemned to imprisonment for twenty years and a
+day for having withdrawn from the arsenals of France, by order of the Duc
+de Choiseul, a vast number of muskets, as being of no value except as old
+iron, while in point of fact the greater part of those muskets were
+immediately embarked and sold to the Americans. It appears that the Duc
+de Choiseul imparted to the Queen, as grounds of defence for the accused,
+the political views which led him to authorise that reduction and sale in
+the manner in which it had been executed. It rendered the case of
+Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Monthieu more unfavourable that the
+artillery officer who made the reduction in the capacity of inspector was,
+through a clandestine marriage, brother-in-law of the owner of the
+foundry, the purchaser of the rejected arms. The innocence of the two
+prisoners was, nevertheless, made apparent; and they came to Versailles
+with their wives and children to throw themselves at the feet of their
+benefactress. This affecting scene took place in the grand gallery, at
+the entrance to the Queen's apartment. She wished to restrain the women
+from kneeling, saying that they had only had justice done them; and that
+she ought to be congratulated upon the most substantial happiness
+attendant upon her station, that of laying just appeals before the King.
+
+On every occasion, when the Queen had to speak in public, she used the
+most appropriate and elegant language, notwithstanding the difficulty a
+foreigner might be expected to experience. She answered all addresses
+herself, a custom which she learned at the Court of Maria Theresa. The
+Princesses of the House of Bourbon had long ceased to take the trouble of
+speaking in such cases. Madame Addlaide blamed the Queen for not doing as
+they did, assuring her that it was quite sufficient to mutter a few words
+that might sound like an answer, while the addressers, occupied with what
+they had themselves been saying, would always take it for granted that a
+proper answer had been returned. The Queen saw that idleness alone
+dictated such a proceeding, and that as the practice even of muttering a
+few words showed the necessity of answering in some way, it must be more
+proper to reply simply but clearly, and in the best style possible.
+Sometimes indeed, when apprised of the subject of the address, she would
+write down her answer in the morning, not to learn it by heart, but in
+order to settle the ideas or sentiments she wished to introduce.
+
+The influence of the Comtesse de Polignac increased daily; and her friends
+availed themselves of it to effect changes in the Ministry. The dismissal
+of M. de Montbarrey, a man without talents or character, was generally
+approved of. It was rightly attributed to the Queen. He had been placed
+in administration by M. de Maurepas, and maintained by his aged wife;
+both, of course, became more inveterate than ever against the Queen and
+the Polignac circle.
+
+The appointment of M. de Segur to the place of Minister of War, and of M.
+de Castries to that of Minister of Marine, were wholly the work of that
+circle. The Queen dreaded making ministers; her favourite often wept when
+the men of her circle compelled her to interfere. Men blame women for
+meddling in business, and yet in courts it is continually the men
+themselves who make use of the influence of the women in matters with
+which the latter ought to have nothing to do.
+
+When M. de Segur was presented to the Queen on his new appointment, she
+said to me, "You have just seen a minister of my making. I am very glad,
+so far as regards the King's service, that he is appointed, for I think
+the selection a very good one; but I almost regret the part I have taken
+in it. I take a responsibility upon myself. I was fortunate in being
+free from any; and in order to relieve myself from this as much as
+possible I have just promised M. de Segur, and that upon my word of
+honour, not to back any petition, nor to hinder any of his operations by
+solicitations on behalf of my proteges."
+
+During the first administration of M. Necker, whose ambition had not then
+drawn him into schemes repugnant to his better judgment, and whose views
+appeared to the Queen to be very judicious, she indulged in hopes of the
+restoration of the finances. Knowing that M. de Maurepas wished to drive
+M. Necker to resign, she urged him to have patience until the death of an
+old man whom the King kept about him from a fondness for his first choice,
+and out of respect for his advanced age. She even went so far as to tell
+him that M. de Maurepas was always ill, and that his end could not be very
+distant. M. Necker would not wait for that event. The Queen's prediction
+was fulfilled. M. de Maurepas ended his days immediately after a journey
+to Fontainebleau in 1781.
+
+M. Necker had retired. He had been exasperated by a piece of treachery in
+the old minister, for which he could not forgive him. I knew something of
+this intrigue at the time; it has since been fully explained to me by
+Madame la Marechale de Beauvau. M. Necker saw that his credit at Court
+was declining, and fearing lest that circumstance should injure his
+financial operations, he requested the King to grant him some favour which
+might show the public that he had not lost the confidence of his
+sovereign. He concluded his letter by pointing out five requests--such an
+office, or such a mark of distinction, or such a badge of honour, and so
+on, and handed it to M. de Maurepas. The or's were changed into and's;
+and the King was displeased at M. Necker's ambition, and the assurance
+with which he displayed it. Madame la Marechale de Beauvau assured me
+that the Marechal de Castries saw the minute of M. Necker's letter, and
+that he likewise saw the altered copy.
+
+The interest which the Queen took in M. Necker died away during his
+retirement, and at last changed into strong prejudice against him. He
+wrote too much about the measures he would have pursued, and the benefits
+that would have resulted to the State from them. The ministers who
+succeeded him thought their operations embarrassed by the care that M.
+Necker and his partisans incessantly took to occupy the public with his
+plans; his friends were too ardent. The Queen discerned a party spirit in
+these combinations, and sided wholly with his enemies.
+
+After those inefficient comptrollers-general, Messieurs Joly de Fleury and
+d'Ormesson, it became necessary to resort to a man of more acknowledged
+talent, and the Queen's friends, at that time combining with the Comte
+d'Artois and with M. de Vergennes, got M. de Calonne appointed. The Queen
+was highly displeased, and her close intimacy with the Duchesse de
+Polignac began to suffer for this.
+
+Her Majesty, continuing to converse with me upon the difficulties she had
+met with in private life, told me that ambitious men without merit
+sometimes found means to gain their ends by dint of importunity, and that
+she had to blame herself for having procured M. d'Adhemar's appointment to
+the London embassy, merely because he teased her into it at the Duchess's
+house. She added, however, that it was at a time of perfect peace with
+the English; that the Ministry knew the inefficiency of M. d'Adhemar as
+well as she did, and that he could do neither harm nor good.
+
+Often in conversations of unreserved frankness the Queen owned that she
+had purchased rather dearly a piece of experience which would make her
+carefully watch over the conduct of her daughters-in-law, and that she
+would be particularly scrupulous about the qualifications of the ladies
+who might attend them; that no consideration of rank or favour should bias
+her in so important a choice. She attributed several of her youthful
+mistakes to a lady of great levity, whom she found in her palace on her
+arrival in France. She also determined to forbid the Princesses coming
+under her control the practice of singing with professors, and said,
+candidly, and with as much severity as her slanderers could have done, "I
+ought to have heard Garat sing, and never to have sung duets with him."
+
+The indiscreet zeal of Monsieur Augeard contributed to the public belief
+that the Queen disposed of all the offices of finance. He had, without
+any authority for doing so, required the committee of fermiers-general to
+inform him of all vacancies, assuring them that they would be meeting the
+wishes of the Queen. The members complied, but not without murmuring.
+When the Queen became aware of what her secretary had done, she highly
+disapproved of it, caused her resentment to be made known to the
+fermiers-general, and abstained from asking for appointments,--making only
+one request of the kind, as a marriage portion for one of her attendants,
+a young woman of good family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+The Queen did not sufficiently conceal the dissatisfaction she felt at
+having been unable to prevent the appointment of M. de Calonne; she even
+one day went so far as to say at the Duchess's, in the midst of the
+partisans and protectors of that minister, that the finances of France
+passed alternately from the hands of an honest man without talent into
+those of a skilful knave. M. de Calonne was thus far from acting in
+concert with the Queen all the time that he continued in office; and,
+while dull verses were circulated about Paris describing the Queen and her
+favourite dipping at pleasure into the coffers of the comptroller-general,
+the Queen was avoiding all communication with him.
+
+During the long and severe winter of 1783-84 the King gave three millions
+of livres for the relief of the indigent. M. de Calonne, who felt the
+necessity of making advances to the Queen, caught at this opportunity of
+showing her respect and devotion. He offered to place in her hands one
+million of the three, to be distributed in her name and under her
+direction. His proposal was rejected; the Queen answered that the charity
+ought to be wholly distributed in the King's name, and that she would this
+year debar herself of even the slightest enjoyments, in order to
+contribute all her savings to the relief of the unfortunate.
+
+The moment M. de Calonne left the closet the Queen sent for me:
+"Congratulate me, my dear," said she; "I have just escaped a snare, or at
+least a matter which eventually might have caused me much regret." She
+related the conversation which had taken place word for word to me,
+adding, "That man will complete the ruin of the national finances. It is
+said that I placed him in his situation. The people are made to believe
+that I am extravagant; yet I have refused to suffer a sum of money from
+the royal treasury, although destined for the most laudable purpose, even
+to pass through my hands."
+
+The Queen, making monthly retrenchments from the expenditure of her privy
+purse, and not having spent the gifts customary at the period of her
+confinement, was in possession of from five to six hundred thousand
+francs, her own savings. She made use of from two to three hundred
+thousand francs of this, which her first women sent to M. Lenoir, to the
+cures of Paris and Versailles, and to the Soeurs Hospitalieres, and so
+distributed them among families in need.
+
+Desirous to implant in the breast of her daughter not only a desire to
+succour the unfortunate, but those qualities necessary for the due
+discharge of that duty, the Queen incessantly talked to her, though she
+was yet very young, about the sufferings of the poor during a season so
+inclement. The Princess already had a sum of from eight to ten thousand
+francs for charitable purposes, and the Queen made her distribute part of
+it herself.
+
+Wishing to give her children yet another lesson of beneficence, she
+desired me on New Year's eve to get from Paris, as in other years, all the
+fashionable playthings, and have them spread out in her closet. Then
+taking her children by the hand, she showed them all the dolls and
+mechanical toys which were ranged there, and told them that she had
+intended to give them some handsome New Year's gifts, but that the cold
+made the poor so wretched that all her money was spent in blankets and
+clothes to protect them from the rigour of the season, and in supplying
+them with bread; so that this year they would only have the pleasure of
+looking at the new playthings. When she returned with her children into
+her sitting-room, she said there was still an unavoidable expense to be
+incurred; that assuredly many mothers would at that season think as she
+did,--that the toyman must lose by it; and therefore she gave him fifty
+Louis to repay him for the cost of his journey, and console him for having
+sold nothing.
+
+The purchase of St. Cloud, a matter very simple in itself, had, on account
+of the prevailing spirit, unfavourable consequences to the Queen.
+
+The palace of Versailles, pulled to pieces in the interior by a variety of
+new arrangements, and mutilated in point of uniformity by the removal of
+the ambassadors' staircase, and of the peristyle of columns placed at the
+end of the marble court, was equally in want of substantial and ornamental
+repair. The King therefore desired M. Micque to lay before him several
+plans for the repairs of the palace. He consulted me on certain
+arrangements analogous to some of those adopted in the Queen's
+establishment, and in my presence asked M. Micque how much money would be
+wanted for the execution of the whole work, and how many years he would be
+in completing it. I forget how many millions were mentioned: M. Micque
+replied that six years would be sufficient time if the Treasury made the
+necessary periodical advances without any delay. "And how many years
+shall you require," said the King, "if the advances are not punctually
+made?"--"Ten, Sire," replied the architect. "We must then reckon upon ten
+years," said his Majesty, "and put off this great undertaking until the
+year 1790; it will occupy the rest of the century."
+
+The King afterwards talked of the depreciation of property which took
+place at Versailles whilst the Regent removed the Court of Louis XV. to
+the Tuileries, and said that he must consider how to prevent that
+inconvenience; it was the desire to do this that promoted the purchase of
+St. Cloud. The Queen first thought of it one day when she was riding out
+with the Duchesse de Polignac and the Comtesse Diane; she mentioned it to
+the King, who was much pleased with the thought,--the purchase confirming
+him in the intention, which he had entertained for ten years, of quitting
+Versailles.
+
+The King determined that the ministers, public officers, pages, and a
+considerable part of his stabling should remain at Versailles. Messieurs
+de Breteuil and de Calonne were instructed to treat with the Duc d'Orleans
+for the purchase of St. Cloud; at first they hoped to be able to conclude
+the business by a mere exchange. The value of the Chateau de Choisy, de
+la Muette, and a forest was equivalent to the sum demanded by the House of
+Orleans; and in the exchange which the Queen expected she only saw a
+saving to be made instead of an increase of expense. By this arrangement
+the government of Choisy, in the hands of the Duc de Coigny, and that of
+La Muette, in the hands of the Marechal de Soubise, would be suppressed.
+At the same time the two concierges, and all the servants employed in
+these two royal houses, would be reduced; but while the treaty was going
+forward Messieurs de Breteuil and de Calonne gave up the point of
+exchange, and some millions in cash were substituted for Choisy and La
+Muette.
+
+The Queen advised the King to give her St. Cloud, as a means of avoiding
+the establishment of a governor; her plan being to have merely a concierge
+there, by which means the governor's expenses would be saved. The King
+agreed, and St. Cloud was purchased for the Queen. She provided the same
+liveries for the porters at the gates and servants at the chateau as for
+those at Trianon. The concierge at the latter place had put up some
+regulations for the household, headed, "By order of the Queen." The same
+thing was done at St. Cloud. The Queen's livery at the door of a palace
+where it was expected none but that of the King would be seen, and the
+words "By order of the Queen" at the head of the printed papers pasted
+near the iron gates, caused a great sensation, and produced a very
+unfortunate effect, not only among the common people, but also. among
+persons of a superior class. They saw in it an attack upon the customs of
+monarchy, and customs are nearly equal to laws. The Queen heard of this,
+but she thought that her dignity would be compromised if she made any
+change in the form of these regulations, though they might have been
+altogether superseded without inconvenience. "My name is not out of
+place," said she, "in gardens belonging to myself; I may give orders there
+without infringing on the rights of the State." This was her only answer
+to the representations which a few faithful servants ventured to make on
+the subject. The discontent of the Parisians on this occasion probably
+induced M. d'Espremenil, upon the first troubles about the Parliament, to
+say that it was impolitic and immoral to see palaces belonging to a Queen
+of France.
+
+[The Queen never forgot this affront of M. d'Espremenil's; she said that
+as it was offered at a time when social order had not yet been disturbed,
+she had felt the severest mortification at it. Shortly before the
+downfall of the throne M. Espremenil, having openly espoused the King's
+side, was insulted in the gardens of the Tuileries by the Jacobins, and so
+ill-treated that he was carried home very ill. Somebody recommended the
+Queen, on account of the royalist principles he then professed, to send
+and inquire for him. She replied that she was truly grieved at what had
+happened to M. d'Espremenil, but that mere policy should never induce her
+to show any particular solicitude about the man who had been the first to
+make so insulting an attack upon her character.--MADAME CAMPAN]
+
+The Queen was very much dissatisfied with the manner in which M. de
+Calonne had managed this matter. The Abbe de Vermond, the most active and
+persevering of that minister's enemies, saw with delight that the
+expedients of those from whom alone new resources might be expected were
+gradually becoming exhausted, because the period when the Archbishop of
+Toulouse would be placed over the finances was thereby hastened.
+
+The royal navy had resumed an imposing attitude during the war for the
+independence of America; glorious peace with England had compensated for
+the former attacks of our enemies upon the fame of France; and the throne
+was surrounded by numerous heirs. The sole ground of uneasiness was in
+the finances, but that uneasiness related only to the manner in which they
+were administered. In a word, France felt confident in its own strength
+and resources, when two events, which seem scarcely worthy of a place in
+history, but which have, nevertheless, an important one in that of the
+French Revolution, introduced a spirit of ridicule and contempt, not only
+against the highest ranks, but even against the most august personages. I
+allude to a comedy and a great swindling transaction.
+
+Beaumarchais had long possessed a reputation in certain circles in Paris
+for his wit and musical talents, and at the theatres for dramas more or
+less indifferent, when his "Barbier de Seville" procured him a higher
+position among dramatic writers. His "Memoirs" against M. Goesman had
+amused Paris by the ridicule they threw upon a Parliament which was
+disliked; and his admission to an intimacy with M. de Maurepas procured
+him a degree of influence over important affairs. He then became
+ambitious of influencing public opinion by a kind of drama, in which
+established manners and customs should be held up to popular derision and
+the ridicule of the new philosophers. After several years of prosperity
+the minds of the French had become more generally critical; and when
+Beaumarchais had finished his monstrous but diverting "Mariage de Figaro,"
+all people of any consequence were eager for the gratification of hearing
+it read, the censors having decided that it should not be performed.
+These readings of "Figaro" grew so numerous that people were daily heard
+to say, "I have been (or I am going to be) at the reading of
+Beaumarchais's play." The desire to see it performed became universal; an
+expression that he had the art to use compelled, as it were, the
+approbation of the nobility, or of persons in power, who aimed at ranking
+among the magnanimous; he made his "Figaro" say that "none but little
+minds dreaded little books." The Baron de Breteuil, and all the men of
+Madame de Polignac's circle, entered the lists as the warmest protectors
+of the comedy. Solicitations to the King became so pressing that his
+Majesty determined to judge for himself of a work which so much engrossed
+public attention, and desired me to ask M. Le Noir, lieutenant of police,
+for the manuscript of the "Mariage de Figaro." One morning I received a
+note from the Queen ordering me to be with her at three o'clock, and not
+to come without having dined, for she should detain me some time. When I
+got to the Queen's inner closet I found her alone with the King; a chair
+and a small table were ready placed opposite to them, and upon the table
+lay an enormous manuscript in several books. The King said to me, "There
+is Beaumarchais's comedy; you must read it to us. You will find several
+parts troublesome on account of the erasures and references. I have
+already run it over, but I wish the Queen to be acquainted with the work.
+You will not mention this reading to any one."
+
+I began. The King frequently interrupted me by praise or censure, which
+was always just. He frequently exclaimed, "That's in bad taste; this man
+continually brings the Italian concetti on the stage." At that soliloquy
+of Figaro in which he attacks various points of government, and especially
+at the tirade against State prisons, the King rose up and said,
+indignantly:
+
+"That's detestable; that shall never be played; the Bastille must be
+destroyed before the license to act this play can be any other than an act
+of the most dangerous inconsistency. This man scoffs at everything that
+should be respected in a government."
+
+"It will not be played, then?" said the Queen.
+
+"No, certainly," replied Louis XVI.; "you may rely upon that."
+
+Still it was constantly reported that "Figaro" was about to be performed;
+there were even wagers laid upon the subject; I never should have laid any
+myself, fancying that I was better informed as to the probability than
+anybody else; if I had, however, I should have been completely deceived.
+The protectors of Beaumarchais, feeling certain that they would succeed in
+their scheme of making his work public in spite of the King's prohibition,
+distributed the parts in the "Mariage de Figaro" among the actors of the
+Theatre Francais. Beaumarchais had made them enter into the spirit of his
+characters, and they determined to enjoy at least one performance of this
+so-called chef d'oeuvre. The first gentlemen of the chamber agreed that
+M. de la Ferte should lend the theatre of the Hotel des Menus Plaisirs, at
+Paris, which was used for rehearsals of the opera; tickets were
+distributed to a vast number of leaders of society, and the day for the
+performance was fixed. The King heard of all this only on the very
+morning, and signed a 'lettre de cachet,'--[A 'lettre de cachet' was any
+written order proceeding from the King. The term was not confined merely
+to orders for arrest.]--which prohibited the performance. When the
+messenger who brought the order arrived, he found a part of the theatre
+already filled with spectators, and the streets leading to the Hotel des
+Menus Plaisirs filled with carriages; the piece was not performed. This
+prohibition of the King's was looked upon as an attack on public liberty.
+
+The disappointment produced such discontent that the words oppression and
+tyranny were uttered with no less passion and bitterness at that time than
+during the days which immediately preceded the downfall of the throne.
+Beaumarchais was so far put off his guard by rage as to exclaim, "Well,
+gentlemen, he won't suffer it to be played here; but I swear it shall be
+played,--perhaps in the very choir of Notre-Dame!" There was something
+prophetic in these words. It was generally insinuated shortly afterwards
+that Beaumarchais had determined to suppress all those parts of his work
+which could be obnoxious to the Government; and on pretence of judging of
+the sacrifices made by the author, M. de Vaudreuil obtained permission to
+have this far-famed "Mariage de Figaro" performed at his country house.
+M. Campan was asked there; he had frequently heard the work read, and did
+not now find the alterations that had been announced; this he observed to
+several persons belonging to the Court, who maintained that the author had
+made all the sacrifices required. M. Campan was so astonished at these
+persistent assertions of an obvious falsehood that he replied by a
+quotation from Beaumarchais himself, and assuming the tone of Basilio in
+the "Barbier de Seville," he said, "Faith, gentlemen, I don't know who is
+deceived here; everybody is in the secret." They then came to the point,
+and begged him to tell the Queen positively that all which had been
+pronounced reprehensible in M. de Beaumarchais's play had been cut out.
+My father-in-law contented himself with replying that his situation at
+Court would not allow of his giving an opinion unless the Queen should
+first speak of the piece to him. The Queen said nothing to him about the
+matter. Shortly, afterwards permission to perform this play was at length
+obtained. The Queen thought the people of Paris would be finely tricked
+when they saw merely an ill-conceived piece, devoid of interest, as it
+must appear when deprived of its Satire.
+
+["The King," says Grimm, "made sure that the public would judge
+unfavourably of the work." He said to the Marquis de Montesquiou, who was
+going to see the first representation, 'Well, what do you augur of its
+success?'--'Sire, I hope the piece will fail.'--'And so do I,' replied the
+King.
+
+"There is something still more ridiculous than my piece," said
+Beaumarchais himself; "that is, its success." Mademoiselle Arnould
+foresaw it the first day, and exclaimed, "It is a production that will
+fail fifty nights successively." There was as crowded an audience on the
+seventy-second night as on the first. The following is extracted from
+Grimm's 'Correspondence.'
+
+"Answer of M. de Beaumarchais to -----, who requested the use of his
+private box for some ladies desirous of seeing 'Figaro' without being
+themselves seen.
+
+"I have no respect for women who indulge themselves in seeing any play
+which they think indecorous, provided they can do so in secret. I lend
+myself to no such acts. I have given my piece to the public, to amuse,
+and not to instruct, not to give any compounding prudes the pleasure of
+going to admire it in a private box, and balancing their account with
+conscience by censuring it in company. To indulge in the pleasure of vice
+and assume the credit of virtue is the hypocrisy of the age. My piece is
+not of a doubtful nature; it must be patronised in good earnest, or
+avoided altogether; therefore, with all respect to you, I shall keep my
+box." This letter was circulated all over Paris for a week.]
+
+Under the persuasion that there was not a passage left capable of
+malicious or dangerous application, Monsieur attended the first
+performance in a public box. The mad enthusiasm of the public in favour
+of the piece and Monsieur's just displeasure are well known. The author
+was sent to prison soon afterwards, though his work was extolled to the
+skies, and though the Court durst not suspend its performance.
+
+The Queen testified her displeasure against all who had assisted the
+author of the "Mariage de Figaro" to deceive the King into giving his
+consent that it should be represented. Her reproaches were more
+particularly directed against M. de Vaudreuil for having had it performed
+at his house. The violent and domineering disposition of her favourite's
+friend at last became disagreeable to her.
+
+One evening, on the Queen's return from the Duchess's, she desired her
+'valet de chambre' to bring her billiard cue into her closet, and ordered
+me to open the box that contained it. I took out the cue, broken in two.
+It was of ivory, and formed of one single elephant's tooth; the butt was
+of gold and very tastefully wrought. "There," said she, "that is the way
+M. de Vaudreuil has treated a thing I valued highly. I had laid it upon
+the couch while I was talking to the Duchess in the salon; he had the
+assurance to make use of it, and in a fit of passion about a blocked ball,
+he struck the cue so violently against the table that he broke it in two.
+The noise brought me back into the billiard-room; I did not say a word to
+him, but my looks showed him how angry I was. He is the more provoked at
+the accident, as he aspires to the post of Governor to the Dauphin. I
+never thought of him for the place. It is quite enough to have consulted
+my heart only in the choice of a governess; and I will not suffer that of
+a Governor to the Dauphin to be at all affected by the influence of my
+friends. I should be responsible for it to the nation. The poor man does
+not know that my determination is taken; for I have never expressed it to
+the Duchess. Therefore, judge of the sort of an evening he must have
+passed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Shortly after the public mind had been thrown into agitation by the
+performance of the "Mariage de Figaro," an obscure plot, contrived by
+swindlers, and matured in a corrupted society, attacked the Queen's
+character in a vital point and assailed the majesty of the throne.
+
+I am about to speak of the notorious affair of the necklace purchased, as
+it was said, for the Queen by Cardinal de Rohan. I will narrate all that
+has come to my knowledge relating to this business; the most minute
+particulars will prove how little reason the Queen had to apprehend the
+blow by which she was threatened, and which must be attributed to a
+fatality that human prudence could not have foreseen, but from which, to
+say the truth, she might have extricated herself with more skill.
+
+I have already said that in 1774 the Queen purchased jewels of Boehmer to
+the value of three hundred and sixty thousand franca, that she paid for
+them herself out of her own private funds, and that it required several
+years to enable her to complete the payment. The King afterwards
+presented her with a set of rubies and diamonds of a fine water, and
+subsequently with a pair of bracelets worth two hundred thousand francs.
+The Queen, after having her diamonds reset in new patterns, told Boehmer
+that she found her jewel case rich enough, and was not desirous of making
+any addition to it.
+
+[Except on those days when the assemblies at Court were particularly
+attended, such as the 1st of January and the 2d of February, devoted to
+the procession of the Order of the Holy Ghost, and on the festivals of
+Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, the Queen no longer wore any dresses
+but muslin or white Florentine taffety. Her head-dress was merely a hat;
+the plainest were preferred; and her diamonds never quitted their caskets
+but for the dresses of ceremony, confined to the days I have mentioned.
+Before the Queen was five and twenty she began to apprehend that she might
+be induced to make too frequent use of flowers and of ornaments, which at
+that time were exclusively reserved for youth. Madame Bertin having
+brought a wreath for the head and neck, composed of roses, the Queen
+feared that the brightness of the flowers might be disadvantageous to her
+complexion. She was unquestionably too severe upon herself, her beauty
+having as yet experienced no alteration; it is easy to conceive the
+concert of praise and compliment that replied to the doubt she had
+expressed. The Queen, approaching me, said, "I charge you, from this day,
+to give me notice when flowers shall cease to become me."--"I shall do no
+such thing," I replied, immediately; "I have not read 'Gil Bias' without
+profiting in some degree from it, and I find your Majesty's order too much
+like that given him by the Archbishop of Granada, to warn him of the
+moment when he should begin to fall off in the composition of his
+homilies."--"Go," said the Queen; "You are less sincere than Gil Blas; and
+I world have been more amenable than the Archbishop."--MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+Still, this jeweller busied himself for some years in forming a collection
+of the finest diamonds circulating in the trade, in order to compose a
+necklace of several rows, which he hoped to induce her Majesty to
+purchase; he brought it to M. Campan, requesting him to mention it to the
+Queen, that she might ask to see it, and thus be induced to wish to
+possess it. This M. Campan refused to do, telling him that he should be
+stepping out of the line of his duty were he to propose to the Queen an
+expense of sixteen hundred thousand francs, and that he believed neither
+the lady of honour nor the tirewoman would take upon herself to execute
+such a commission. Boehmer persuaded the King's first gentleman for the
+year to show this superb necklace to his Majesty, who admired it so much
+that he himself wished to see the Queen adorned with it, and sent the case
+to her; but she assured him she should much regret incurring so great an
+expense for such an article, that she had already very beautiful diamonds,
+that jewels of that description were now worn at Court not more than four
+or five times a year, that the necklace must be returned, and that the
+money would be much better employed in building a man-of-war.
+
+[Messieurs Boehmer and Bassange, jewellers to the Crown, were proprietors
+of a superb diamond necklace, which had, as it was said, been intended for
+the Comtesse du Barry. Being under the necessity of selling it, they
+offered it, during the last war, to the king and Queen; but their
+Majesties made the following prudent answer: "We stand more in need of
+ships than of jewels."--"Secret Correspondence of the Court of Louis
+XVI."]
+
+Boehmer, in sad tribulation at finding his expectations delusive,
+endeavoured for some time, it is said, to dispose of his necklace among
+the various Courts of Europe.
+
+A year after his fruitless attempts, Boehmer again caused his diamond
+necklace to be offered to the King, proposing that it should be paid for
+partly by instalments, and partly in life annuities; this proposal was
+represented as highly advantageous, and the King, in my presence,
+mentioned the matter once more to the Queen. I remember the Queen told
+him that, if the bargain really was not bad, he might make it, and keep
+the necklace until the marriage of one of his children; but that, for her
+part, she would never wear it, being unwilling that the world should have
+to reproach her with having coveted so expensive an article. The King
+replied that their children were too young to justify such an expense,
+which would be greatly increased by the number of years the diamonds would
+remain useless, and that he would finally decline the offer. Boehmer
+complained to everybody of his misfortune, and all reasonable people
+blamed him for having collected diamonds to so considerable an amount
+without any positive order for them. This man had purchased the office of
+jeweller to the Crown, which gave him some rights of entry at Court.
+After several months spent in ineffectual attempts to carry his point, and
+in idle complaints, he obtained an audience of the Queen, who had with her
+the young Princess, her daughter; her Majesty did not know for what
+purpose Boehmer sought this audience, and had not the slightest idea that
+it was to speak to her again about an article twice refused by herself and
+the King.
+
+Boehmer threw himself upon his knees, clasped his hands, burst into tears,
+and exclaimed, "Madame, I am ruined and disgraced if you do not purchase
+my necklace. I cannot outlive so many misfortunes. When I go hence I
+shall throw myself into the river."
+
+"Rise, Boehmer," said the Queen, in a tone sufficiently severe to recall
+him to himself; "I do not like these rhapsodies; honest men have no
+occasion to fall on their knees to make their requests. If you were to
+destroy yourself I should regret you as a madman in whom I had taken an
+interest, but I should not be in any way responsible for that misfortune.
+Not only have I never ordered the article which causes your present
+despair, but whenever you have talked to me about fine collections of
+jewels I have told you that I should not add four diamonds to those which
+I already possessed. I told you myself that I declined taking the
+necklace; the King wished to give it to me, but I refused him also; never
+mention it to me again. Divide it and try to sell it piecemeal, and do
+not drown yourself. I am very angry with you for acting this scene of
+despair in my presence and before this child. Let me never see you behave
+thus again. Go." Baehmer withdrew, overwhelmed with confusion, and
+nothing further was then heard of him.
+
+When Madame Sophie was born the Queen told me M. de Saint-James, a rich
+financier, had apprised her that Boehmer was still intent upon the sale of
+his necklace, and that she ought, for her own satisfaction, to endeavour
+to learn what the man had done with it; she desired me the first time I
+should meet him to speak to him about it, as if from the interest I took
+in his welfare. I spoke to him about his necklace, and he told me he had
+been very fortunate, having sold it at Constantinople for the favourite
+sultana. I communicated this answer to the Queen, who was delighted with
+it, but could not comprehend how the Sultan came to purchase his diamonds
+in Paris.
+
+The Queen long avoided seeing Boehmer, being fearful of his rash
+character; and her valet de chambre, who had the care of her jewels, made
+the necessary repairs to her ornaments unassisted. On the baptism of the
+Duc d'Angouleme, in 1785, the King gave him a diamond epaulet and buckles,
+and directed Baehmer to deliver them to the Queen. Boehmer presented them
+on her return from mass, and at the same time gave into her hands a letter
+in the form of a petition. In this paper he told the Queen that he was
+happy to see her "in possession of the finest diamonds known in Europe,"
+and entreated her not to forget him. The Queen read Boehmer's address to
+her aloud, and saw nothing in it but a proof of mental aberration; she
+lighted the paper at a wax taper standing near her, as she had some
+letters to seal, saying, "It is not worth keeping." She afterwards much
+regretted the loss of this enigmatical memorial. After having burnt the
+paper, her Majesty said to me, "That man is born to be my torment; he has
+always some mad scheme in his head; remember, the first time you see him,
+to tell him that I do not like diamonds now, and that I will buy no more
+so long as I live; that if I had any money to spare I would rather add to
+my property at St. Cloud by the purchase of the land surrounding it; now,
+mind you enter into all these particulars and impress them well upon him."
+I asked her whether she wished me to send for him; she replied in the
+negative, adding that it would be sufficient to avail myself of the first
+opportunity afforded by meeting him; and that the slightest advance
+towards such a man would be misplaced.
+
+On the 1st of August I left Versailles for my country house at Crespy; on
+the 3d came Boehmer, extremely uneasy at not having received any answer
+from the Queen, to ask me whether I had any commission from her to him; I
+replied that she had entrusted me with none; that she had no commands for
+him, and I faithfully repeated all she had desired me to say to him.
+
+"But," said Boehmer, "the answer to the letter I presented to her,--to
+whom must I apply for that?"
+
+"To nobody," answered I; "her Majesty burnt your memorial without even
+comprehending its meaning."
+
+"Ah! madame," exclaimed he, "that is impossible; the Queen knows that she
+has money to pay me!"
+
+"Money, M. Boehmer? Your last accounts against the Queen were discharged
+long ago."
+
+"Madame, you are not in the secret. A man who is ruined for want of
+payment of fifteen hundred thousand francs cannot be said to be
+satisfied."
+
+"Have you lost your senses?" said I. "For what can the Queen owe you so
+extravagant a sum?"
+
+"For my necklace, madame," replied Boehmer, coolly.
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, "that necklace again, which you have teased the Queen
+about so many years! Did you not tell me you had sold it at
+Constantinople?"
+
+"The Queen desired me to give that answer to all who should speak to me on
+the subject," said the wretched dupe. He then told me that the Queen
+wished to have the necklace, and had had it purchased for her by
+Monseigneur, the Cardinal de Rohan.
+
+"You are deceived," I exclaimed; "the Queen has not once spoken to the
+Cardinal since his return from Vienna; there is not a man at her Court
+less favourably looked upon."
+
+"You are deceived yourself, madame," said Boehmer; "she sees him so much
+in private that it was to his Eminence she gave thirty thousand francs,
+which were paid me as an instalment; she took them, in his presence, out
+of the little secretaire of Sevres porcelain next the fireplace in her
+boudoir."
+
+"And the Cardinal told you all this?"
+
+"Yes, madame, himself."
+
+"What a detestable plot!" cried I.
+
+"Indeed, to say the truth, madame, I begin to be much alarmed, for his
+Eminence assured me that the Queen would wear the necklace on Whit-Sunday,
+but I did not see it upon her, and it was that which induced me to write
+to her Majesty."
+
+He then asked me what he ought to do. I advised him to go on to
+Versailles, instead of returning to Paris, whence he had just arrived; to
+obtain an immediate audience from the Baron de Breteuil, who, as head of
+the King's household, was the minister of the department to which Boehmer
+belonged, and to be circumspect; and I added that he appeared to me
+extremely culpable,--not as a diamond merchant, but because being a sworn
+officer it was unpardonable of him to have acted without the direct orders
+of the King, the Queen, or the Minister. He answered, that he had not
+acted without direct orders; that he had in his possession all the notes
+signed by the Queen, and that he had even been obliged to show them to
+several bankers in order to induce them to extend the time for his
+payments. I urged his departure for Versailles, and he assured me he
+would go there immediately. Instead of following my advice, he went to
+the Cardinal, and it was of this visit of Boehmer's that his Eminence made
+a memorandum, found in a drawer overlooked by the Abbe Georgel when he
+burnt, by order of the Cardinal, all the papers which the latter had at
+Paris. The memorandum was thus worded: "On this day, 3d August, Boehmer
+went to Madame Campan's country house, and she told him that the Queen had
+never had his necklace, and that he had been deceived."
+
+When Boehmer was gone, I wanted to follow him, and go to the Queen; my
+father-in-law prevented me, and ordered me to leave the minister to
+elucidate such an important affair, observing that it was an infernal
+plot; that I had given Boehmer the best advice, and had nothing more to do
+with the business. Boehmer never said one word to me about the woman De
+Lamotte, and her name was mentioned for the first time by the Cardinal in
+his answers to the interrogatories put to him before the King. After
+seeing the Cardinal, Boehmer went to Trianon, and sent a message to the
+Queen, purporting that I had advised him to come and speak to her. His
+very words were repeated to her Majesty, who said, "He is mad; I have
+nothing to say to him, and will not see him." Two or three days
+afterwards the Queen sent for me to Petit Trianon, to rehearse with me the
+part of Rosina, which she was to perform in the "Barbier de Seville." I
+was alone with her, sitting upon her couch; no mention was made of
+anything but the part. After we had spent an hour in the rehearsal, her
+Majesty asked me why I had sent Boehmer to her; saying he had been in my
+name to speak to her, and that she would not see him. It was in this
+manner I learnt that he had not followed my advice in the slightest
+degree. The change of my countenance, when I heard the man's name, was
+very perceptible; the Queen perceived it, and questioned me. I entreated
+her to see him, and assured her it was of the utmost importance for her
+peace of mind; that there was a plot going on, of which she was not aware;
+and that it was a serious one, since engagements signed by herself were
+shown about to people who had lent Boehmer money. Her surprise and
+vexation were great. She desired me to remain at Trianon, and sent off a
+courier to Paris, ordering Boehmer to come to her upon some pretext which
+has escaped my recollection. He came next morning; in fact it was the day
+on which the play was performed, and that was the last amusement the Queen
+allowed herself at that retreat.
+
+The Queen made him enter her closet, and asked him by what fatality it was
+that she was still doomed to hear of his foolish pretence of selling her
+an article which she had steadily refused for several years. He replied
+that he was compelled, being unable to pacify his creditors any longer.
+"What are your creditors to me?" said her Majesty. Boehmer then
+regularly related to her all that he had been made to believe had passed
+between the Queen and himself through the intervention of the Cardinal.
+She was equally incensed and surprised at each thing she heard. In vain
+did she speak; the jeweller, equally importunate and dangerous, repeated
+incessantly, "Madame, there is no longer time for feigning; condescend to
+confess that you have my necklace, and let some assistance be given to me,
+or my bankruptcy will soon bring the whole to light."
+
+It is easy to imagine how the Queen must have suffered. On Boehmer's
+going away, I found her in an alarming condition; the idea that any one
+could have believed that such a man as the Cardinal possessed her full
+confidence; that she should have employed him to deal with a tradesman
+without the King's knowledge, for a thing which she had refused to accept
+from the King himself, drove her to desperation. She sent first for the
+Abbe de Vermond, and then for the Baron de Breteuil. Their hatred and
+contempt for the Cardinal made them too easily forget that the lowest
+faults do not prevent the higher orders of the empire from being defended
+by those to whom they have the honour to belong; that a Rohan, a Prince of
+the Church, however culpable he might be, would be sure to have a
+considerable party which would naturally be joined by all the discontented
+persons of the Court, and all the frondeurs of Paris. They too easily
+believed that he would be stripped of all the advantages of his rank and
+order, and given up to the disgrace due to his irregular conduct; they
+deceived themselves.
+
+I saw the Queen after the departure of the Baron and the Abbe; her
+agitation made me shudder. "Fraud must be unmasked," said she; "when the
+Roman purple and the title of Prince cover a mere money-seeker, a cheat
+who dares to compromise the wife of his sovereign, France and all Europe
+should know it." It is evident that from that moment the fatal plan was
+decided on. The Queen perceived my alarm; I did not conceal it from her.
+I knew too well that she had many enemies not to be apprehensive on seeing
+her attract the attention of the whole world to an intrigue that they
+would try to complicate still more. I entreated her to seek the most
+prudent and moderate advice. She silenced me by desiring me to make
+myself easy, and to rest satisfied that no imprudence would be committed.
+
+On the following Sunday, the 15th of August, being the Assumption, at
+twelve o'clock, at the very moment when the Cardinal, dressed in his
+pontifical garments, was about to proceed to the chapel, he was sent for
+into the King's closet, where the Queen then was.
+
+The King said to him, "You have purchased diamonds of Boehmer?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"What have you done with them?"
+
+"I thought they had been delivered to the Queen."
+
+"Who commissioned you?"
+
+"A lady, called the Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois, who handed me a letter
+from the Queen; and I thought I was gratifying her Majesty by taking this
+business on myself."
+
+The Queen here interrupted him and said, "How, monsieur, could you believe
+that I should select you, to whom I have not spoken for eight years, to
+negotiate anything for me, and especially through the mediation of a woman
+whom I do not even know?"
+
+"I see plainly," said the Cardinal, "that I have been duped. I will pay
+for the necklace; my desire to please your Majesty blinded me; I suspected
+no trick in the affair, and I am sorry for it."
+
+He then took out of his pocket-book a letter from the Queen to Madame de
+Lamotte, giving him this commission. The King took it, and, holding it
+towards the Cardinal, said:
+
+"This is neither written nor signed by the Queen. How could a Prince of
+the House of Rohan, and a Grand Almoner of France, ever think that the
+Queen would sign Marie Antoinette de France? Everybody knows that queens
+sign only by their baptismal names. But, monsieur," pursued the King,
+handing him a copy of his letter to Baehmer, "have you ever written such a
+letter as this?"
+
+Having glanced over it, the Cardinal said, "I do not remember having
+written it."
+
+"But what if the original, signed by yourself, were shown to you?"
+
+"If the letter be signed by myself it is genuine."
+
+He was extremely confused, and repeated several times, "I have been
+deceived, Sire; I will pay for the necklace. I ask pardon of your
+Majesties."
+
+"Then explain to me," resumed the King, "the whole of this enigma. I do
+not wish to find you guilty; I had rather you would justify yourself.
+Account for all the manoeuvres with Baehmer, these assurances and these
+letters."
+
+The Cardinal then, turning pale, and leaning against the table, said,
+"Sire, I am too much confused to answer your Majesty in a way--"
+
+"Compose yourself, Cardinal, and go into my cabinet; you will there find
+paper, pens, and ink,--write what you have to say to me."
+
+The Cardinal went into the King's cabinet, and returned a quarter of an
+hour afterwards with a document as confused as his verbal answers had
+been. The King then said, "Withdraw, monsieur." The Cardinal left the
+King's chamber, with the Baron de Breteuil, who gave him in custody to a
+lieutenant of the Body Guard, with orders to take him to his apartment. M.
+d'Agoult, aide-major of the Body Guard, afterwards took him into custody,
+and conducted him to his hotel, and thence to the Bastille. But while the
+Cardinal had with him only the young lieutenant of the Body Guard, who was
+much embarrassed at having such an order to execute, his Eminence met his
+heyduc at the door of the Salon of Hercules; he spoke to him in German and
+then asked the lieutenant if he could lend him a pencil; the officer gave
+him that which he carried about him, and the Cardinal wrote to the Abbe
+Georgel, his grand vicar and friend, instantly to burn all Madame de
+Lamotte's correspondence, and all his other letters.
+
+[The Abbe Georgel thus relates the circumstance: The Cardinal, at that
+trying moment, gave an astonishing proof of his presence of mind;
+notwithstanding the escort which surrounded him, favoured by the attendant
+crowd, he stopped, and stooping down with his face towards the wall, as if
+to fasten his buckle, snatched out his pencil and hastily wrote a few
+words upon a scrap of paper placed under his hand in his square red cap.
+He rose again and proceeded. on entering his house, his people formed a
+lane; he slipped this paper, unperceived, into the hand of a confidential
+valet de chambre, who waited for him at the door of his apartment." This
+story is scarcely credible; it is not at the moment of a prisoner's
+arrest, when an inquisitive crowd surrounds and watches him, that he can
+stop and write secret messages. However, the valet de chambre posts off
+to Paris. He arrives at the palace of the Cardinal between twelve and one
+o'clock; and his horse falls dead in the stable. "I was in my apartment,"
+said the Abbe Georgel, "the valet de chambre entered wildly, with a deadly
+paleness on his countenance, and exclaimed, 'All is lost; the Prince is
+arrested.' He instantly fell, fainting, and dropped the note of which he
+was the bearer." The portfolio containing the papers which might
+compromise the Cardinal was immediately placed beyond the reach of all
+search. Madame de Lamotte also was foolishly allowed sufficient time
+after she heard of the arrest of the Cardinal to burn all the letters she
+had received from him. Assisted by Beugnot, she completed this at three
+the same morning that she was: arrested at four.--See "Memoirs of Comte de
+Beugnot," vol i., p. 74.]
+
+This commission was executed before M. de Crosne, lieutenant of police,
+had received an order from the Baron de Breteuil to put seals upon the
+Cardinal's papers. The destruction of all his Eminence's correspondence,
+and particularly that with Madame de Lamotte, threw an impenetrable cloud
+over the whole affair.
+
+From that moment all proofs of this intrigue disappeared. Madame de
+Lamotte was apprehended at Bar-sur-Aube; her husband had already gone to
+England. From the beginning of this fatal affair all the proceedings of
+the Court appear to have been prompted by imprudence and want of
+foresight; the obscurity resulting left free scope for the fables of which
+the voluminous memorials written on one side and the other consisted. The
+Queen so little imagined what could have given rise to the intrigue, of
+which she was about to become the victim, that, at the moment when the
+King was interrogating the Cardinal, a terrific idea entered her mind.
+With that rapidity of thought caused by personal interest and extreme
+agitation, she fancied that, if a design to ruin her in the eyes of the
+King and the French people were the concealed motive of this intrigue, the
+Cardinal would, perhaps, affirm that she had the necklace; that he had
+been honoured with her confidence for this purchase, made without the
+King's knowledge; and point out some secret place in her apartment, where
+he might have got some villain to hide it. Want of money and the meanest
+swindling were the sole motives for this criminal affair. The necklace
+had already been taken to pieces and sold, partly in London, partly in
+Holland, and the rest in Paris.
+
+The moment the Cardinal's arrest was known a universal clamour arose.
+Every memorial that appeared during the trial increased the outcry. On
+this occasion the clergy took that course which a little wisdom and the
+least knowledge of the spirit of such a body ought to have foreseen. The
+Rohans and the House of Conde, as well as the clergy, made their
+complaints heard everywhere. The King consented to having a legal
+judgment, and early in September he addressed letters-patent to the
+Parliament, in which he said that he was "filled with the most just
+indignation on seeing the means which, by the confession of his Eminence
+the Cardinal, had been employed in order to inculpate his most dear spouse
+and companion."
+
+Fatal moment! in which the Queen found herself, in consequence of this
+highly impolitic step, on trial with a subject, who ought to have been
+dealt with by the power of the King alone. The Princes and Princesses of
+the House of Conde, and of the Houses of Rohan, Soubise, and Guemenee, put
+on mourning, and were seen ranged in the way of the members of the Grand
+Chamber to salute them as they proceeded to the palace, on the days of the
+Cardinal's trial; and Princes of the blood openly canvassed against the
+Queen of France.
+
+The Pope wished to claim, on behalf of the Cardinal de Rohan, the right
+belonging to his ecclesiastical rank, and demanded that he should be
+judged at Rome. The Cardinal de Bernis, ambassador from France to his
+Holiness, formerly Minister for Foreign Affairs, blending the wisdom of an
+old diplomatist with the principles of a Prince of the Church, wished that
+this scandalous affair should be hushed up. The King's aunts, who were on
+very intimate terms with the ambassador, adopted his opinion, and the
+conduct of the King and Queen was equally and loudly censured in the
+apartments of Versailles and in the hotels and coffee-houses of Paris.
+
+Madame, the King's sister-in-law, had been the sole protectress of De
+Lamotte, and had confined her patronage to granting her a pension of
+twelve to fifteen hundred francs. Her brother was in the navy, but the
+Marquis de Chabert, to whom he had been recommended, could never train a
+good officer. The Queen in vain endeavoured to call to mind the features
+of this person, of whom she had often heard as an intriguing woman, who
+came frequently on Sundays to the gallery of Versailles. At the time when
+all France was engrossed by the persecution against the Cardinal, the
+portrait of the Comtesse de Lamotte Valois was publicly sold. Her
+Majesty desired me one day, when I was going to Paris, to buy her the
+engraving, which was said to be a tolerable likeness, that she might
+ascertain whether she could recognise in it any person whom she might have
+seen in the gallery.
+
+[The public, with the exception of the lowest class, were admitted into
+the gallery and larger apartments of Versailles, as they were into the
+park.--MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+The woman De Lamotte's father was a peasant at Auteuil, though he called
+himself Valois. Madame de Boulainvilliers once saw from her terrace two
+pretty little peasant girls, each labouring under a heavy bundle of
+sticks. The priest of the village, who was walking with her, told her
+that the children possessed some curious papers, and that he had no doubt
+they were descendants of a Valois, an illegitimate son of one of the
+princes of that name.
+
+The family of Valois had long ceased to appear in the world. Hereditary
+vices had gradually plunged them into the deepest misery. I have heard
+that the last Valois then known occupied the estate called Gros Bois; that
+as he seldom came to Court, Louis XIII. asked him what he was about that
+he remained so constantly in the country; and that this M. de Valois
+merely answered, "Sire, I only do there what I ought." It was shortly
+afterwards discovered that he was coining.
+
+Neither the Queen herself nor any one near her ever had the slightest
+connection with the woman De Lamotte; and during her prosecution she could
+point out but one of the Queen's servants, named Desclos, a valet of the
+Queen's bedchamber, to whom she pre tended she had delivered Boehmer's
+necklace. This Desclos was a very honest man; upon being confronted with
+the woman De Lamotte, it was proved that she had never seen him but once,
+which was at the house of the wife of a surgeon-accoucheur at Versailles,
+the only person she visited at Court; and that she had not given him the
+necklace. Madame de Lamotte married a private in Monsieur's body-guard;
+she lodged at Versailles at the Belle Image, a very inferior furnished
+house; and it is inconceivable how so obscure a person could succeed in
+making herself believed to be a friend of the Queen, who, though so
+extremely affable, seldom granted audiences, and only to titled persons.
+
+The trial of the Cardinal is too generally known to require me to repeat
+its details here. The point most embarrassing to him was the interview he
+had in February, 1785, with M. de Saint-James, to whom he confided the
+particulars of the Queen's pretended commission, and showed the contract
+approved and signed Marie Antoinette de France. The memorandum found in a
+drawer of the Cardinal's bureau, in which he had himself written what
+Baehmer told him after having seen me at my country house, was likewise an
+unfortunate document for his Eminence.
+
+I offered to the King to go and declare that Baehmer had told me that the
+Cardinal assured him he had received from the Queen's own hand the thirty
+thousand francs given on account upon the bargain being concluded, and
+that his Eminence had seen her Majesty take that sum in bills from the
+porcelain secretaire in her boudoir. The King declined my offer, and said
+to me, "Were you alone when Boehmer told you this?" I answered that I was
+alone with him in my garden. "Well," resumed he, "the man would deny the
+fact; he is now sure of being paid his sixteen hundred thousand francs,
+which the Cardinal's family will find it necessary to make good to him; we
+can no longer rely upon his sincerity; it would look as if you were sent
+by the Queen, and that would not be proper."
+
+[The guilty woman no sooner knew that all was about to be discovered than
+she sent for the jewellers, and told them the Cardinal had perceived that
+the agreement, which he believed to have been signed by the Queen, was a
+false and forged document. "However," added she, "the Cardinal possesses
+a considerable fortune, and he can very well pay you." These words reveal
+the whole secret. The Countess had taken the necklace to herself, and
+flattered herself that M. de Rohan, seeing himself deceived and cruelly
+imposed upon, would determine to pay and make the beat terms he could,
+rather than suffer a matter of this nature to become public.-"Secret
+Correspondence of the Court of Louis XVI."]
+
+The procureur general's information was severe on the Cardinal. The
+Houses of Conde and Rohan and the majority of the nobility saw in this
+affair only an attack on the Prince's rank, the clergy only a blow aimed
+at the privileges of a cardinal. The clergy demanded that the unfortunate
+business of the Prince Cardinal de Rohan should be submitted to
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the Archbishop of Narbonne, then
+President of the Convocation, made representations upon the subject to the
+King; the bishops wrote to his Majesty to remind him that a private
+ecclesiastic implicated in the affair then pending would have a right to
+claim his constitutional judges, and that this right was refused to a
+cardinal, his superior in the hierarchical order. In short, the clergy
+and the greater part of the nobility were at that time outrageous against
+authority, and chiefly against the Queen.
+
+The procureur-general's conclusions, and those of a part of the heads of
+the magistracy, were as severe towards the Cardinal as the information had
+been; yet he was fully acquitted by a majority of three voices; the woman
+De Lamotte was condemned to be whipped, branded, and imprisoned; and her
+husband, for contumacy, was condemned to the galleys for life.
+
+[The following extract is from the "Memoirs" of the Abbe Georgel: "The
+sittings were long and multiplied; it was necessary to read the whole
+proceedings; more than fifty judges sat; a master of requests; a friend of
+the Prince, wrote down all that was said there, and sent it to his
+advisers, who found means to inform the Cardinal of it, and to add the
+plan of conduct he ought to pursue." D'Epremesnil, and other young
+counsellors, showed upon that occasion but too much audacity in braving
+the Court, too much eagerness in seizing an opportunity of attacking it.
+They were the first to shake that authority which their functions made it
+a duty in them to respect.--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+M. Pierre de Laurencel, the procureur general's substitute, sent the Queen
+a list of the names of the members of the Grand Chamber, with the means
+made use of by the friends of the Cardinal to gain their votes during the
+trial. I had this list to keep among the papers which the Queen deposited
+in the house of M. Campan, my father-in-law, and which, at his death, she
+ordered me to preserve. I burnt this statement, but I remember ladies
+performed a part not very creditable to their principles; it was by them,
+in consideration of large sums which they received, that some of the
+oldest and most respected members were won over. I did not see a single
+name amongst the whole Parliament that was gained directly.
+
+The belief confirmed by time is, that the Cardinal was completely duped by
+the woman De Lamotte and Cagliostro. The King may have been in error in
+thinking him an accomplice in this miserable and criminal scheme, but I
+have faithfully repeated his Majesty's judgment about it.
+
+However, the generally received opinion that the Baron de Breteuil's
+hatred for the Cardinal was the cause of the scandal and the unfortunate
+result of this affair contributed to the disgrace of the former still more
+than his refusal to give his granddaughter in marriage to the son of the
+Duc de Polignac. The Abbe de Vermond threw the whole blame of the
+imprudence and impolicy of the affair of the Cardinal de Rohan upon the
+minister, and ceased to be the friend and supporter of the Baron de
+Breteuil with the Queen.
+
+In the early part of the year 1786, the Cardinal, as has been said, was
+fully acquitted, and came out of the Bastille, while Madame de Lamotte was
+condemned to be whipped, branded, and imprisoned. The Court, persisting
+in the erroneous views which had hitherto guided its measures, conceived
+that the Cardinal and the woman De Lamotte were equally culpable and
+unequally punished, and sought to restore the balance of justice by
+exiling the Cardinal to La Chaise-Dieu, and suffering Madame de Lamotte to
+escape a few days after she entered l'Hopital. This new error confirmed
+the Parisians in the idea that the wretch De Lamotte, who had never been
+able to make her way so far as to the room appropriated to the Queen's
+women, had really interested the Queen herself.
+
+[Further particulars will be found in the "Memoirs of the Comte de
+Beugnot" (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1871), as he knew Madame de Lamotte
+from the days of her early childhood (when the three children, the Baron
+de Valois, who died captain of a frigate, and the two Mademoiselles de
+Saint-Remi, the last descendants of the Baron de Saint-Remi, a natural son
+of Henri II., were almost starving) to the time of her temporary
+prosperity. In fact, he was with her when she burnt the correspondence of
+the Cardinal, in the interval the Court foolishly allowed between his
+arrest and her capture, and De Beugnot believed he had met at her house,
+at the moment of their return from their successful trick, the whole party
+engaged in deluding the Cardinal. It is worth noting that he was then
+struck by the face of Mademoiselle d'Oliva, who had just personated the
+Queen in presenting a rose to the Cardinal. It may also be cited as a
+pleasing quality of Madame de Lamotte that she, "in her ordinary
+conversation, used the words stupid and honest as synonymous."--See
+"Beugnot," vol. i., p. 60.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+The Abbe de Vermond could not repress his exultation when he succeeded in
+getting the Archbishop of Sens appointed head of the council of finance. I
+have more than once heard him say that seventeen years of patience were
+not too long a term for success in a Court; that he spent all that time in
+gaining the end he had in view; but that at length the Archbishop was
+where he ought to be for the good of the State. The Abbe, from this time,
+in the Queen's private circle no longer concealed his credit and
+influence; nothing could equal the confidence with which he displayed the
+extent of his pretensions. He requested the Queen to order that the
+apartments appropriated to him should be enlarged, telling her that, being
+obliged to give audiences to bishops, cardinals, and ministers, he
+required a residence suitable to his present circumstances. The Queen
+continued to treat him as she did before the Archbishop's arrival at
+Court; but the household showed him increased consideration: the word
+"Monsieur" preceded that of Abbe; and from that moment not only the livery
+servants, but also the people of the antechambers rose when Monsieur
+l'Abbe was passing, though there never was, to my knowledge, any order
+given to that effect.
+
+The Queen was obliged, on account of the King's disposition and the very
+limited confidence he placed in the Archbishop of Sens, to take a part in
+public affairs. While M. de Maurepas lived she kept out of that danger,
+as may be seen by the censure which the Baron de Besenval passes on her in
+his memoirs for not availing herself of the conciliation he had promoted
+between the Queen and that minister, who counteracted the ascendency which
+the Queen and her intimate friends might otherwise have gained over the
+King's mind.
+
+The Queen has often assured me that she never interfered respecting the
+interests of Austria but once; and that was only to claim the execution of
+the treaty of alliance at the time when Joseph II. was at war with Prussia
+and Turkey; that, she then demanded that an army of twenty-four thousand
+men should be sent to him instead of fifteen millions, an alternative
+which had been left to option in the treaty, in case the Emperor should
+have a just war to maintain; that she could not obtain her object, and M.
+de Vergennes, in an interview which she had with him upon the subject, put
+an end to her importunities by observing that he was answering the mother
+of the Dauphin and not the sister of the Emperor. The fifteen millions
+were sent. There was no want of money at Vienna, and the value of a
+French army was fully appreciated.
+
+"But how," said the Queen, "could they be so wicked as to send off those
+fifteen millions from the general post-office, diligently publishing, even
+to the street porters, that they were loading carriages with money that I
+was sending to my brother!--whereas it is certain that the money would
+equally have been sent if I had belonged to another house; and, besides,
+it was sent contrary to my inclination."
+
+[This was not the first time the Queen had become unpopular in consequence
+of financial support afforded by France to her brother. The Emperor Joseph
+II, made, in November, 1783, and in May, 1784, startling claims on the
+republic of the United Provinces; he demanded the opening of the Scheldt,
+the cession of Maeatricht with its dependencies, of the country beyond the
+Meuse, the county of Vroenhoven, and a sum of seventy millions of florins.
+The first gun was fired by the Emperor on the Scheldt 6th November, 1784.
+Peace was concluded 8th November, 1785, through the mediation of France.
+The singular part was the indemnification granted to the Emperor: this was
+a sum of ten millions of Dutch florins; the articles 15, 16, and 17 of the
+treaty stipulated the quotas of it. Holland paid five millions and a
+half, and France, under the direction of M. de Vergennes, four millions
+and a half of florins, that is to say, nine millions and forty-five
+thousand francs, according to M. Soulavie. M. de augur, in his "Policy of
+Cabinets" (vol. iii.), says relative to this affair:
+
+"M. de Vergennes has been much blamed for having terminated, by a
+sacrifice of seven millions, the contest that existed between the United
+Provinces and the Emperor. In that age of philosophy men were still very
+uncivilised; in that age of commerce they made very erroneous
+calculations; and those who accused the Queen of sending the gold of
+France to her brother would have been better pleased if, to support a
+republic devoid of energy, the blood of two hundred thousand men, and
+three or four hundred millions of francs, had been sacrificed, and at the
+same time the risk run of losing the advantage of peace dictated to
+England." MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+When the Comte de Moustier set out on his mission to the United States,
+after having had his public audience of leave he came and asked me to
+procure him a private one. I could not succeed even with the strongest
+solicitations; the Queen desired me to wish him a good voyage, but added
+that none but ministers could have anything to say to him in private,
+since he was going to a country where the names of King and Queen must be
+detested.
+
+Marie Antoinette had then no direct influence over State affairs until
+after the deaths of M. de Maurepas and M. de Vergennes, and the retirement
+of M. de Calonne. She frequently regretted her new situation, and looked
+upon it as a misfortune which she could not avoid. One day, while I was
+assisting her to tie up a number of memorials and reports, which some of
+the ministers had handed to her to be given to the King, "Ah!" said she,
+sighing, "there is an end of all happiness for me, since they have made an
+intriguer of me." I exclaimed at the word.
+
+"Yes," resumed, the Queen, "that is the right term; every woman who
+meddles with affairs above her understanding or out of her line of duty is
+an intriguer and nothing else; you will remember, however, that it is not
+my own fault, and that it is with regret I give myself such a title;
+Queens of France are happy only so long as they meddle with nothing, and
+merely preserve influence sufficient to advance their friends and reward a
+few zealous servants. Do you know what happened to me lately? One day
+since I began to attend private committees at the King's, while crossing
+the oiel-de-boeuf, I heard one of the musicians of the chapel say so loud
+that I lost not a single word, 'A Queen who does her duty will remain in
+her apartment to knit.' I said within myself, 'Poor wretch, thou art
+right; but thou knowest not my situation; I yield to necessity and my evil
+destiny.'"
+
+This situation was the more painful to the Queen inasmuch as Louis XVI.
+had long accustomed himself to say nothing to her respecting State
+affairs; and when, towards the close of his reign, she was obliged to
+interfere in the most important matters, the same habit in the King
+frequently kept from her particulars which it was necessary she should
+have known. Obtaining, therefore, only insufficient information, and
+guided by persons more ambitious than skilful, the Queen could not be
+useful in important affairs; yet, at the same time, her ostensible
+interference drew upon her, from all parties and all classes of society,
+an unpopularity the rapid progress of which alarmed all those who were
+sincerely attached to her.
+
+Carried away by the eloquence of the Archbishop of Sens, and encouraged in
+the confidence she placed in that minister by the incessant eulogies of
+the Abbe de Vermond on his abilities, the Queen unfortunately followed up
+her first mistake of bringing him into office in 1787 by supporting him at
+the time of his disgrace, which was obtained by the despair of a whole
+nation. She thought it was due to her dignity to give him some marked
+proof of her regard at the moment of his departure; misled by her
+feelings, she sent him her portrait enriched with jewelry, and a brevet
+for the situation of lady of the palace for Madame de Canisy, his niece,
+observing that it was necessary to indemnify a minister sacrificed to the
+intrigues of the Court and a factious spirit of the nation; that otherwise
+none would be found willing to devote themselves to the interests of the
+sovereign.
+
+On the day of the Archbishop's departure the public joy was universal,
+both at Court and at Paris there were bonfires; the attorneys' clerks
+burnt the Archbishop in effigy, and on the evening of his disgrace more
+than a hundred couriers were sent out from Versailles to spread the happy
+tidings among the country seats. I have seen the Queen shed bitter tears
+at the recollection of the errors she committed at this period, when
+subsequently, a short time before her death, the Archbishop had the
+audacity to say, in a speech which was printed, that the sole object of
+one part of his operations, during his administration, was the salutary
+crisis which the Revolution had produced.
+
+The benevolence and generosity shown by the King and Queen during the
+severe winter of 1788, when the Seine was frozen over and the cold was
+more intense than it had been for eighty years, procured them some
+fleeting popularity. The gratitude of the Parisians for the succour their
+Majesties poured forth was lively if not lasting. The snow was so
+abundant that since that period there has never been seen such a
+prodigious quantity in France. In different parts of Paris pyramids and
+obelisks of snow were erected with inscriptions expressive of the
+gratitude of the people. The pyramid in the Rue d'Angiviller was
+supported on a base six feet high by twelve broad; it rose to the height
+of fifteen feet, and was terminated by a globe. Four blocks of stone,
+placed at the angles, corresponded with the obelisk, and gave it an
+elegant appearance. Several inscriptions, in honour of the King and
+Queen, were affixed to it. I went to see this singular monument, and
+recollect the following inscription
+
+"TO MARIE ANTOINETTE."
+ "Lovely and good, to tender pity true,
+ Queen of a virtuous King, this trophy view;
+ Cold ice and snow sustain its fragile form,
+ But ev'ry grateful heart to thee is warm.
+ Oh, may this tribute in your hearts excite,
+ Illustrious pair, more pure and real delight,
+ Whilst thus your virtues are sincerely prais'd,
+ Than pompous domes by servile flatt'ry rais'd."
+The theatres generally rang with praises of the beneficence of the
+sovereigns: "La Partie de Chasse de Henri IV." was represented for the
+benefit of the poor. The receipts were very considerable.
+
+When the fruitless measure of the Assembly of the Notables, and the
+rebellious spirit in the parliaments,
+
+[The Assembly of the Notables, as may be seen in "Weber's Memoirs," vol.
+i., overthrew the plans and caused the downfall of M. de Calonne. A
+prince of the blood presided over each of the meetings of that assembly.
+Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII., presided over the first meeting.
+
+"Monsieur," says a contemporary, "gained great reputation at the Assembly
+of the Notables in 1787. He did not miss attending his meeting a single
+day, and he displayed truly patriotic virtues. His care in discussing the
+weighty matters of administration, in throwing light upon them, and in
+defending the interests and the cause of the people, was such as even to
+inspire the King with some degree of jealousy. Monsieur openly said that
+a respectful resistance to the orders of the monarch was not blamable, and
+that authority might be met by argument, and forced to receive information
+without any offence whatever."--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+had created the necessity for States General, it was long discussed in
+council whether they should be assembled at Versailles or at forty or
+sixty leagues from the capital; the Queen was for the latter course, and
+insisted to the King that they ought to be far away from the immense
+population of Paris. She feared that the people would influence the
+deliberations of the deputies; several memorials were presented to the
+King upon that question; but M. Necker prevailed, and Versailles was the
+place fixed upon.
+
+The day on which the King announced that he gave his consent to the
+convocation of the States General, the Queen left the public dinner, and
+placed herself in the recess of the first window of her bedchamber, with
+her face towards the garden. Her chief butler followed her, to present
+her coffee, which she usually took standing, as she was about to leave the
+table. She beckoned to me to come close to her. The King was engaged in
+conversation with some one in his room. When the attendant had served her
+he retired; and she addressed me, with the cup still in her hand: "Great
+Heavens! what fatal news goes forth this day! The King assents to the
+convocation of the States General." Then she added, raising her eyes to
+heaven, "I dread it; this important event is a first fatal signal of
+discord in France." She cast her eyes down, they were filled with tears.
+She could not take the remainder of her coffee, but handed me the cup, and
+went to join the King. In the evening, when she was alone with me, she
+spoke only of this momentous decision. "It is the Parliament," said she,
+"that has compelled the King to have recourse to a measure long considered
+fatal to the repose of the kingdom. These gentlemen wish to restrain the
+power of the King; but they give a great shock to the authority of which
+they make so bad a use, and they will bring on their own destruction."
+
+The double representation granted to the Tiers Etat was now the chief
+topic of conversation. The Queen favoured this plan, to which the King
+had agreed; she thought the hope of obtaining ecclesiastical favours would
+secure the clergy of the second order, and that M. Necker was sure to have
+the same degree of influence over the lawyers, and other people of that
+class comprised in the Tiers Dat. The Comte d'Artois, holding the
+contrary opinion, presented a memorial in the names of himself and several
+princes of the blood to the King against the double representation. The
+Queen was displeased with him for this; her confidential advisers infused
+into her apprehensions that the Prince was made the tool of a party; but
+his conduct was approved of by Madame de Polignac's circle, which the
+Queen thenceforward only frequented to avoid the appearance of a change in
+her habits. She almost always returned unhappy; she was treated with the
+profound respect due to a queen, but the devotion of friendship had
+vanished, to make way for the coldness of etiquette, which wounded her
+deeply. The alienation between her and the Comte Artois was also very
+painful to her, for she had loved him almost as tenderly as if he had been
+her own brother.
+
+The opening of the States General took place on the 4th of May, 1789. The
+Queen on that occasion appeared for the last time in her life in regal
+magnificence. During the procession some low women, seeing the Queen
+pass, cried out "Vive le Duc d' Orleans!" in so threatening a manner that
+she nearly fainted. She was obliged to be supported, and those about her
+were afraid it would be necessary to stop the procession. The Queen,
+however, recovered herself, and much regretted that she had not been able
+to command more presence of mind.
+
+The rapidly increasing distrust of the King and Queen shown by the
+populace was greatly attributable to incessant corruption by English gold,
+and the projects, either of revenge or of ambition, of the Duc d'Orleans.
+Let it not be thought that this accusation is founded on what has been so
+often repeated by the heads of the French Government since the Revolution.
+Twice between the 14th of July and the 6th of October, 1789, the day on
+which the Court was dragged to Paris, the Queen prevented me from making
+little excursions thither of business or pleasure, saying to me, "Do not
+go on such a day to Paris; the English have been scattering gold, we shall
+have some disturbance." The repeated visits of the Duc d'Orleans to
+England had excited the Anglomania to such a pitch that Paris was no
+longer distinguishable from London. The French, formerly imitated by the
+whole of Europe, became on a sudden a nation of imitators, without
+considering the evils that arts and manufactures must suffer in
+consequence of the change. Since the treaty of commerce made with England
+at the peace of 1783, not merely equipages, but everything, even to
+ribands and common earthenware, were of English make. If this
+predominance of English fashions had been confined to filling our
+drawing-rooms with young men in English frock-coats, instead of the French
+dress, good taste and commerce might alone have suffered; but the
+principles of English government had taken possession of these young
+heads. Constitution, Upper House, Lower House, national guarantee,
+balance of power, Magna Charta, Law of Habeas Corpus,--all these words
+were incessantly repeated, and seldom understood; but they were of
+fundamental importance to a party which was then forming.
+
+The first sitting of the States took place on the following day. The King
+delivered his speech with firmness and dignity; the Queen told me that he
+had taken great pains about it, and had repeated it frequently. His
+Majesty gave public marks of attachment and respect for the Queen, who was
+applauded; but it was easy to see that this applause was in fact rendered
+to the King alone.
+
+It was evident, during the first sittings, that Mirabeau would be very
+dangerous to the Government. It affirmed that at this period he
+communicated to the King, and still more fully to the Queen, part of his
+schemes for abandoning them. He brandished the weapons afforded him by
+his eloquence and audacity, in order to make terms with the party he meant
+to attack. This man played the game of revolution to make his own
+fortune. The Queen told me that he asked for an embassy, and, if my
+memory does not deceive me, it was that of Constantinople. He was refused
+with well-deserved contempt, though policy would doubtless have concealed
+it, could the future have been foreseen.
+
+The enthusiasm prevailing at the opening of this assembly, and the debates
+between the Tiers Etat, the nobility, and even the clergy, daily increased
+the alarm of their Majesties, and all who were attached to the cause of
+monarchy. The Queen went to bed late, or rather she began to be unable to
+rest. One evening, about the end of May, she was sitting in her room,
+relating several remarkable occurrences of the day; four wax candles were
+placed upon her toilet-table; the first went out of itself; I relighted
+it; shortly afterwards the second, and then the third went out also; upon
+which the Queen, squeezing my hand in terror, said to me: "Misfortune
+makes us superstitious; if the fourth taper should go out like the rest,
+nothing can prevent my looking upon it as a sinister omen." The fourth
+taper went out. It was remarked to the Queen that the four tapers had
+probably been run in the same mould, and that a defect in the wick had
+naturally occurred at the same point in each, since the candles had all
+gone out in the order in which they had been lighted.
+
+The deputies of the Tiers Etat arrived at Versailles full of the strongest
+prejudices against the Court. They believed that the King indulged in the
+pleasures of the table to a shameful excess; and that the Queen was
+draining the treasury of the State in order to satisfy the most unbridled
+luxury. They almost all determined to see Petit Trianon. The extreme
+plainness of the retreat in question not answering the ideas they had
+formed, some of them insisted upon seeing the very smallest closets,
+saying that the richly furnished apartments were concealed from them. They
+particularised one which, according to them, was ornamented with diamonds,
+and with wreathed columns studded with sapphires and rubies. The Queen
+could not get these foolish ideas out of her mind, and spoke to the King
+on the subject. From the description given of this room by the deputies
+to the keepers of Trianon, the King concluded that they were looking for
+the scene enriched with paste ornaments, made in the reign of Louis XV.
+for the theatre of Fontainebleau.
+
+The King supposed that his Body Guards, on their return to the country,
+after their quarterly duty at Court, related what they had seen, and that
+their exaggerated accounts, being repeated, became at last totally
+perverted. This idea of the King, after the search for the diamond
+chamber, suggested to the Queen that the report of the King's propensity
+for drinking also sprang from the guards who accompanied his carriage when
+he hunted at Rambouillet. The King, who disliked sleeping out of his
+usual bed, was accustomed to leave that hunting-seat after supper; he
+generally slept soundly in his carriage, and awoke only on his arrival at
+the courtyard of his palace; he used to get down from his carriage in the
+midst of his Body Guards, staggering, as a man half awake will do, which
+was mistaken for intoxication.
+
+The majority of the deputies who came imbued with prejudices produced by
+error or malevolence, went to lodge with the most humble private
+individuals of Versailles, whose inconsiderate conversation contributed
+not a little to nourish such mistakes. Everything, in short, tended to
+render the deputies subservient to the schemes of the leaders of the
+rebellion.
+
+Shortly after the opening of the States General the first Dauphin died.
+That young Prince suffered from the rickets, which in a few months curved
+his spine, and rendered his legs so weak that he could not walk without
+being supported like a feeble old man.
+
+[Louis, Dauphin of France, who died at Versailles on the 4th of June,
+1789, gave promise of intellectual precocity. The following particulars,
+which convey some idea of his disposition, and of the assiduous attention
+bestowed upon him by the Duchesse de Polignac, will be found in a work of
+that time: "At two years old the Dauphin was very pretty; he articulated
+well, and answered questions put to him intelligently. While he was at
+the Chateau de La Muette everybody was at liberty to see him. The Dauphin
+was dressed plainly, like a sailor; there was nothing to distinguish him
+from other children in external appearance but the cross of Saint Louis,
+the blue ribbon, and the Order of the Fleece, decorations that are the
+distinctive signs of his rank. The Duchesse Jules de Polignac, his
+governess, scarcely ever left him for a single instant: she gave up all
+the Court excursions and amusements in order to devote her whole attention
+to him. The Prince always manifested a great regard for M. de Bourset,
+his valet de chambre. During the illness of which he died, he one day
+asked for a pair of scissors; that gentleman reminded him that they were
+forbidden. The child insisted mildly, and they were obliged to yield to
+him. Having got the scissors, he cut off a lock of his hair, which he
+wrapped in a sheet of paper: 'There, monsieur,' said he to his valet de
+chambre,' there is the only present I can make you, having nothing at my
+command; but when I am dead you will present this pledge to my papa and
+mamma; and while they remember me, I hope they will not forget
+you.'"--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+How many maternal tears did his condition draw from the Queen, already
+overwhelmed with apprehensions respecting the state of the kingdom! Her
+grief was enhanced by petty intrigues, which, when frequently renewed,
+became intolerable. An open quarrel between the families and friends of
+the Duc Harcourt, the Dauphin's governor, and those of the Duchesse de
+Polignac, his governess, added greatly to the Queen's affliction. The
+young Prince showed a strong dislike to the Duchesse de Polignac, who
+attributed it either to the Duc or the Duchesse d'Harcourt, and came to
+make her complaints respecting it to the Queen. The Dauphin twice sent
+her out of his room, saying to her, with that maturity of manner which
+long illness always gives to children: "Go out, Duchess; you are so fond
+of using perfumes, and they always make me ill;" and yet she never used
+any. The Queen perceived, also, that his prejudices against her friend
+extended to herself; her son would no longer speak in her presence. She
+knew that he had become fond of sweetmeats, and offered him some
+marshmallow and jujube lozenges. The under-governors and the first valet
+de chambre requested her not to give the Dauphin anything, as he was to
+receive no food of any kind without the consent of the faculty. I forbear
+to describe the wound this prohibition inflicted upon the Queen; she felt
+it the more deeply because she was aware it was unjustly believed she gave
+a decided preference to the Duc de Normandie, whose ruddy health and
+amiability did, in truth, form a striking contrast to the languid look and
+melancholy disposition of his elder brother. She even suspected that a
+plot had for some time existed to deprive her of the affection of a child
+whom she loved as a good and tender mother ought. Previous to the
+audience granted by the King on the 10th August, 1788, to the envoy of the
+Sultan Tippoo Saib, she had begged the Duc d'Harcourt to divert the
+Dauphin, whose deformity was already apparent, from his, intention to be
+present at that ceremony, being unwilling to expose him to the gaze of the
+crowd of inquisitive Parisians who would be in the gallery.
+Notwithstanding this injunction, the Dauphin was suffered to write to his
+mother, requesting her permission to be present at the audience. The
+Queen was obliged to refuse him, and warmly reproached the governor, who
+merely answered that he could not oppose the wishes of a sick child. A
+year before the death of the Dauphin the Queen lost the Princesse Sophie;
+this was, as the Queen said, the first of a series of misfortunes.
+
+NOTE: As Madame Campan has stated in the foregoing pages that the money
+to foment sedition was furnished from English sources, the decree of the
+Convention of August, 1793, maybe quoted as illustrative of the entente
+cordiale alleged to exist between the insurrectionary Government and its
+friends across the Channel! The endeavours made by the English Government
+to save the unfortunate King are well known. The motives prompting the
+conduct of the Duc d'Orleans are equally well known.
+
+Art. i. The National Convention denounces the British Government to
+Europe and the English nation.
+
+Art. ii. Every Frenchman that shall place his money in the English funds
+shall be declared a traitor to his country.
+
+Art. iii. Every Frenchman who has money in the English funds or those of
+any other Power with whom France is at war shall be obliged to declare the
+same.
+
+Art. iv. All foreigners, subjects of the Powers now at war with France,
+particularly the English, shall be arrested, and seals put upon their
+papers.
+
+Art. v. The barriers of Paris shall be instantly shut.
+
+Art. vi. All good citizens shall be required in the name of the country
+to search for the foreigners concerned in any plot denounced.
+
+Art. vii. Three millions shall be at the disposal of the Minister at War
+to facilitate the march of the garrison of Mentz to La Vendee.
+
+Art. viii. The Minister at War shall send to the army on the coast of
+Rochelle all the combustible materials necessary to set fire to the
+forests and underwood of La Vendee.
+
+Art. ix. The women, the children, and old men shall be conducted to the
+interior parts of the country.
+
+Art. x. The property of the rebels shall be confiscated for the benefit
+of the Republic.
+
+Art. xi. A camp shall be formed without delay between Paris and the
+Northern army.
+
+Art. xii. All the family of the Capets shall be banished from the French
+territory, those excepted who are under the sword of the law, and the
+offspring of Louis Capet, who shall both remain in the Temple.
+
+Art. xiii. Marie Antoinette shall be delivered over to the Revolutionary
+Tribunal, and shall be immediately conducted to the prison of the
+Conciergerie. Louise Elisabeth shall remain in the Temple till after the
+judgment of Marie Antoinette.
+
+Art. xiv. All the tombs of the Kings which are at St. Denis and in the
+departments shall be destroyed on August the 10th.
+
+Art. xv. The present decree shall be despatched by extraordinary
+couriers to all the departments.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Customs are nearly equal to laws
+Displaying her acquirements with rather too much confidence
+I do not like these rhapsodies
+Indulge in the pleasure of vice and assume the credit of virtue
+No accounting for the caprices of a woman
+None but little minds dreaded little books
+Shun all kinds of confidence
+The author (Beaumarchais) was sent to prison soon afterwards
+Those muskets were immediately embarked and sold to the Americans
+Young Prince suffered from the rickets
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, Queen
+Of France, Volume 4, by Madame Campan
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE ***
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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, v4
+#4 in our series by Madam Campan
+#50 in our series Historic Court Memoirs
+
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+Title: The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, v4
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+Author: Madame Campan
+
+Official Release Date: March, 2003 [Etext #3887]
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+
+MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE
+
+Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan,
+First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
+
+
+
+BOOK 4.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+About the close of the last century several of the Northern sovereigns
+took a fancy for travelling. Christian III., King of Denmark, visited
+the Court of France in 1763, during the reign of Louis XV. We have seen
+the King of Sweden and Joseph II. at Versailles. The Grand Duke of
+Russia (afterwards Paul I.), son of Catherine II., and the Princess of
+Wurtemberg, his wife, likewise resolved to visit France. They travelled
+under the titles of the Comte and Comtesse du Nord. They were presented
+on the 20th of May, 1782. The Queen received them with grace and
+dignity. On the day of their arrival at Versailles they dined in private
+with the King and Queen.
+
+The plain, unassuming appearance of Paul I. pleased Louis XVI. He spoke
+to him with more confidence and cheerfulness than he had spoken to Joseph
+II. The Comtesse du Nord was not at first so successful with the Queen.
+This lady was of a fine height, very fat for her age, with all the German
+stiffness, well informed, and perhaps displaying her acquirements with
+rather too much confidence. When the Comte and Comtesse du Nord were
+presented the Queen was exceedingly nervous. She withdrew into her
+closet before she went into the room where she was to dine with the
+illustrious travellers, and asked for a glass of water, confessing "she
+had just experienced how much more difficult it was to play the part of a
+queen in the presence of other sovereigns, or of princes born to become
+so, than before courtiers." She soon recovered from her confusion, and
+reappeared with ease and confidence. The dinner was tolerably cheerful,
+and the conversation very animated.
+
+Brilliant entertainments were given at Court in honour of the King of
+Sweden and the Comte du Nord. They were received in private by the King
+and Queen, but they were treated with much more ceremony than the
+Emperor, and their Majesties always appeared to me to be very, cautious
+before these personages. However, the King one day asked the Russian
+Grand Duke if it were true that he could not rely on the fidelity of any
+one of those who accompanied him. The Prince answered him without
+hesitation, and before a considerable number of persons, that he should
+be very sorry to have with him even a poodle that was much attached to
+him, because his mother would take care to have it thrown into the Seine,
+with a stone round its neck, before he should leave Paris. This reply,
+which I myself heard, horrified me, whether it depicted the disposition
+of Catherine, or only expressed the Prince's prejudice against her.
+
+The Queen gave the Grand Duke a supper at Trianon, and had the gardens
+illuminated as they had been for the Emperor. The Cardinal de Rohan very
+indiscreetly ventured to introduce himself there without the Queen's
+knowledge. Having been treated with the utmost coolness ever since his
+return from Vienna, he had not dared to ask her himself for permission to
+see the illumination; but he persuaded the porter of Trianon to admit him
+as soon as the Queen should have set off for Versailles, and his Eminence
+engaged to remain in the porter's lodge until all the carriages should
+have left the chateau. He did not keep his word, and while the porter
+was busy in the discharge of his duty, the Cardinal, who wore his red
+stockings and had merely thrown on a greatcoat, went down into the
+garden, and, with an air of mystery, drew up in two different places to
+see the royal family and suite pass by.
+
+Her Majesty was highly offended at this piece of boldness, and next day
+ordered the porter to be discharged. There was a general feeling of
+disgust at the Cardinal's conduct, and of commiseration towards the
+porter for the loss of his place. Affected at the misfortune of the
+father of a family, I obtained his forgiveness; and since that time I
+have often regretted the feeling which induced me to interfere. The
+notoriety of the discharge of the porter of Trianon, and the odium that
+circumstance would have fixed upon the Cardinal, would have made the
+Queen's dislike to him still more publicly known, and would probably have
+prevented the scandalous and notorious intrigue of the necklace.
+
+The Queen, who was much prejudiced against the King of Sweden, received
+him very coldly.
+
+ [Gustavus III., King of Sweden, travelled in France under the title
+ of Comte d'Haga. Upon his accession to the throne, he managed the
+ revolution which prostrated the authority of the Senate with equal
+ skill, coolness, and courage. He was assassinated in 1792, at a
+ masked ball, by Auckarstrum.--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+All that was said of the private character of that sovereign, his
+connection with the Comte de Vergennes, from the time of the Revolution
+of Sweden, in 1772, the character of his favourite Armfeldt, and the
+prejudices of the monarch himself against the Swedes who were well
+received at the Court of Versailles, formed the grounds of this dislike.
+He came one day uninvited and unexpected, and requested to dine with the
+Queen. The Queen received him in the little closet, and desired me to
+send for her clerk of the kitchen, that she might be informed whether
+there was a proper dinner to set before Comte d'Haga, and add to it if
+necessary. The King of Sweden assured her that there would be enough for
+him; and I could not help smiling when I thought of the length of the
+menu of the dinner of the King and Queen, not half of which would have
+made its appearance had they dined in private. The Queen looked
+significantly at me, and I withdrew. In the evening she asked me why I
+had seemed so astonished when she ordered me to add to her dinner, saying
+that I ought instantly to have seen that she was giving the King of
+Sweden a lesson for his presumption. I owned to her that the scene had
+appeared to me so much in the bourgeois style, that I involuntarily
+thought of the cutlets on the gridiron, and the omelette, which in
+families in humble circumstances serve to piece out short commons. She
+was highly diverted with my answer, and repeated it to the King, who also
+laughed heartily at it.
+
+The peace with England satisfied all classes of society interested in the
+national honour. The departure of the English commissary from Dunkirk,
+who had been fixed at that place ever since the shameful peace of 1763 as
+inspector of our navy, occasioned an ecstasy of joy.
+
+ [By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) it was stipulated that the
+ fortifications and port of Dunkirk should be destroyed. By the
+ Treaty of Paris (1763) a commissary was to reside at Dunkirk to see
+ that no attempt was made to break this treaty. This stipulation was
+ revoked by the Peace of Versailles, in 1783.--see DYER'S "Modern
+ Europe," 1st edition, vol. i., pp. 205-438 and 539.]
+
+The Government communicated to the Englishman the order for his departure
+before the treaty was made public. But for that precaution the populace
+would have probably committed some excess or other, in order to make the
+agent of English power feel the effects of the resentment which had
+constantly increased during his stay at that port. Those engaged in
+trade were the only persons dissatisfied with the treaty of 1783. That
+article which provided for, the free admission of English goods
+annihilated at one blow the trade of Rouen and the other manufacturing
+towns throughout the kingdom. The English swarmed into Paris. A
+considerable number of them were presented at Court. The Queen paid them
+marked attention; doubtless she wished them to distinguish between the
+esteem she felt for their noble nation and the political views of the
+Government in the support it had afforded to the Americans. Discontent
+was, however, manifested at Court in consequence of the favour bestowed
+by the Queen on the English noblemen; these attentions were called
+infatuations. This was illiberal; and the Queen justly complained of
+such absurd jealousy.
+
+The journey to Fontainebleau and the winter at Paris and at Court were
+extremely brilliant. The spring brought back those amusements which the
+Queen began to prefer to the splendour of fetes. The most perfect
+harmony subsisted between the King and Queen; I never saw but one cloud
+between them. It was soon dispelled, and the cause of it is perfectly
+unknown to me.
+
+My father-in-law, whose penetration and experience I respected greatly,
+recommended me, when he saw me placed in the service of a young queen, to
+shun all kinds of confidence. "It procures," said he, "but a very
+fleeting, and at the same time dangerous sort of favour; serve with zeal
+to the best of your judgment, but never do more than obey. Instead of
+setting your wits to work to discover why an order or a commission which
+may appear of consequence is given to you, use them to prevent the
+possibility of your knowing anything of the matter." I had occasion to
+act on this wise advice. One morning at Trianon I went into the Queen's
+chamber; there were letters lying upon the bed, and she was weeping
+bitterly. Her tears and sobs were occasionally interrupted by
+exclamations of "Ah! that I were dead!--wretches! monsters! What have I
+done to them?" I offered her orange-flower water and ether. "Leave me,"
+said she, "if you love me; it would be better to kill me at once." At
+this moment she threw her arm over my shoulder and began weeping afresh.
+I saw that some weighty trouble oppressed her heart, and that she wanted
+a confidant. I suggested sending for the Duchesse de Polignac; this she
+strongly opposed. I renewed my arguments, and her opposition grew
+weaker. I disengaged myself from her arms, and ran to the antechamber,
+where I knew that an outrider always waited, ready to mount and start at
+a moment's warning for Versailles. I ordered him to go full speed, and
+tell the Duchesse de Polignac that the Queen was very uneasy, and desired
+to see her instantly. The Duchess always had a carriage ready. In less
+than ten minutes she was at the Queen's door. I was the only person
+there, having been forbidden to send for the other women. Madame de
+Polignac came in; the Queen held out her arms to her, the Duchess rushed
+towards her. I heard her sobs renewed and withdrew.
+
+A quarter of an hour afterwards the Queen, who had become calmer, rang to
+be dressed. I sent her woman in; she put on her gown and retired to her
+boudoir with the Duchess. Very soon afterwards the Comte d'Artois
+arrived from Compiegne, where he had been with the King. He eagerly
+inquired where the Queen was; remained half an hour with her and the
+Duchess; and on coming out told me the Queen asked for me. I found her
+seated on the couch by the side of her friend; her features had resumed
+their usual cheerful and gracious appearance. She held out her hand to
+me, and said to the Duchess, "I know I have made her so uncomfortable
+this morning that I must set her poor heart at ease." She then added,
+"You must have seen, on some fine summer's day, a black cloud suddenly
+appear and threaten to pour down upon the country and lay it waste. The
+lightest wind drives it away, and the blue sky and serene weather are
+restored. This is just the image of what has happened to me this
+morning." She afterwards told me that the King would return from
+Compiegne after hunting there, and sup with her; that I must send for her
+purveyor, to select with him from his bills of fare all such dishes as
+the King liked best; that she would have no others served up in the
+evening at her table; and that this was a mark of attention that she
+wished the King to notice. The Duchesse de Polignac also took me by the
+hand, and told me how happy she was that she had been with the Queen at a
+moment when she stood in need of a friend. I never knew what could have
+created in the Queen so lively and so transient an alarm; but I guessed
+from the particular care she took respecting the King that attempts had
+been made to irritate him against her; that the malice of her enemies had
+been promptly discovered and counteracted by the King's penetration and
+attachment; and that the Comte d'Artois had hastened to bring her
+intelligence of it.
+
+It was, I think, in the summer of 1787, during one of the Trianon
+excursions, that the Queen of Naples--[Caroline, sister of Marie
+Antoinette.]--sent the Chevalier de Bressac to her Majesty on a secret
+mission relative to a projected marriage between the Hereditary Prince,
+her son, and Madame, the King's daughter; in the absence of the lady of
+honour he addressed himself to me. Although he said a great deal to me
+about the close confidence with which the Queen of Naples honoured him,
+and about his letter of credit, I thought he had the air of an
+adventurer.--[He afterwards spent several years shut up in the Chateau de
+l'Oeuf.]--He had, indeed, private letters for the Queen, and his
+mission was not feigned; he talked to me very rashly even before his
+admission, and entreated me to do all that lay in my power to dispose the
+Queen's mind in favour of his sovereign's wishes; I declined, assuring
+him that it did not become me to meddle with State affairs.
+He endeavoured, but in vain, to prove to me that the union contemplated
+by the Queen of Naples ought not to be looked upon in that light.
+
+I procured M. de Bressac the audience he desired, but without suffering
+myself even to seem acquainted with the object of his mission. The Queen
+told me what it was; she thought him a person ill-chosen for the
+occasion; and yet she thought that the Queen, her sister, had done wisely
+in not sending a man worthy to be avowed,--it being impossible that what
+she solicited should take place. I had an opportunity on this occasion,
+as indeed on many others, of judging to what extent the Queen valued and
+loved France and the dignity of our Court. She then told me that Madame,
+in marrying her cousin, the Duc d'Angouleme, would not lose her rank as
+daughter of the Queen; and that her situation would be far preferable to
+that of queen of any other country; and that there was nothing in Europe
+to be compared to the Court of France; and that it would be necessary,
+in order to avoid exposing a French Princess to feelings of deep regret,
+in case she should be married to a foreign prince, to take her from the
+palace of Versailles at seven years of age, and send her immediately to
+the Court in which she was to dwell; and that at twelve would be too
+late; for recollections and comparisons would ruin the happiness of all
+the rest of her life. The Queen looked upon the destiny of her sisters
+as far beneath her own; and frequently mentioned the mortifications
+inflicted by the Court of Spain upon her sister, the Queen of Naples, and
+the necessity she was under of imploring the mediation of the King of
+France.
+
+She showed me several letters that she had received from the Queen of
+Naples relative to her differences with the Court of Madrid respecting
+the Minister Acton. She thought him useful to her people, inasmuch as he
+was a man of considerable information and great activity. In these
+letters she minutely acquainted her Majesty with the nature of the
+affronts she had received, and represented Mr. Acton to her as a man whom
+malevolence itself could not suppose capable of interesting her otherwise
+than by his services. She had had to suffer the impertinences of a
+Spaniard named Las Casas, who had been sent to her by the King, her
+father-in-law, to persuade her to dismiss Mr. Acton from the business of
+the State, and from her intimacy. She complained bitterly to the Queen,
+her sister, of the insulting proceedings of this charge d'affaires, whom
+she told, in order to convince him of the nature of the feelings which
+attached her to Mr. Acton, that she would have portraits and busts of him
+executed by the most eminent artists of Italy, and that she would then
+send them to the King of Spain, to prove that nothing but the desire to
+retain a man of superior capacity had induced her to bestow on him the
+favour he enjoyed. This Las Casas dared to answer her that it would be
+useless trouble; that the ugliness of a man did not always render him
+displeasing; and that the King of Spain had too much experience not to
+know that there was no accounting for the caprices of a woman.
+
+This audacious reply filled the Queen of Naples with indignation, and her
+emotion caused her to miscarry on the same day. In consequence of the
+mediation of Louis XVI. the Queen of Naples obtained complete
+satisfaction, and Mr. Acton continued Prime Minister.
+
+Among the characteristics which denoted the goodness of the Queen, her
+respect for personal liberty should have a place. I have seen her put up
+with the most troublesome importunities from people whose minds were
+deranged rather than have them arrested. Her patient kindness was put to
+a very disagreeable trial by an ex-councillor of the Bordeaux Parliament,
+named Castelnaux; this man declared himself the lover of the Queen, and
+was generally known by that appellation. For ten successive years did he
+follow the Court in all its excursions. Pale and wan, as people who are
+out of their senses usually are, his sinister appearance occasioned the
+most uncomfortable sensations. During the two hours that the Queen's
+public card parties lasted, he would remain opposite her Majesty. He
+placed himself in the same manner before her at chapel, and never failed
+to be at the King's dinner or the dinner in public. At the theatre he
+invariably seated himself as near the Queen's box as possible. He always
+set off for Fontainebleau or St. Cloud the day before the Court, and when
+her Majesty arrived at her various residences, the first person she met
+on getting out of her carriage was this melancholy madman, who never
+spoke to any one. When the Queen stayed at Petit Trianon the passion of
+this unhappy man became still more annoying. He would hastily swallow a
+morsel at some eating-house, and spend all the rest of the day, even when
+it rained, in going round and round the garden, always walking at the
+edge of the moat. The Queen frequently met him when she was either alone
+or with her children; and yet she would not suffer any violence to be
+used to relieve her from this intolerable annoyance. Having one day
+given M. de Seze permission to enter Trianon, she sent to desire he would
+come to me, and directed me to inform that celebrated advocate of M. de
+Castelnaux's derangement, and then to send for him that M. de Seze might
+have some conversation with him. He talked to him nearly an hour, and
+made considerable impression upon his mind; and at last M. de Castelnaux
+requested me to inform the Queen positively that, since his presence was
+disagreeable to her, he would retire to his province. The Queen was very
+much rejoiced, and desired me to express her full satisfaction to M. de
+Seze. Half an hour after M. de Seze was gone the unhappy madman was
+announced. He came to tell me that he withdrew his promise, that he had
+not sufficient command of himself to give up seeing the Queen as often as
+possible. This new determination: was a disagreeable message to take to
+her Majesty but how was I affected at hearing her say, "Well, let him
+annoy me! but do not let him be deprived of the blessing of freedom."
+
+ [On the arrest of the King and Queen at Varennes, this unfortunate
+ Castelnaux attempted to starve himself to death. The people in
+ whose house he lived, becoming uneasy at his absence, had the door
+ of his room forced open, when he was found stretched senseless on
+ the floor. I do not know what became of him after the 10th of
+ August.--MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+The direct influence of the Queen on affairs during the earlier years
+of the reign was shown only in her exertions to obtain from the King a
+revision of the decrees in two celebrated causes. It was contrary to her
+principles to interfere in matters of justice, and never did she avail
+herself of her influence to bias the tribunals. The Duchesse de Praslin,
+through a criminal caprice, carried her enmity to her husband so far as
+to disinherit her children in favour of the family of M. de Guemenee.
+The Duchesse de Choiseul, who, was warmly interested in this affair, one
+day entreated the Queen, in my presence, at least to condescend to ask
+the first president when the cause would be called on; the Queen replied
+that she could not even do that, for it would manifest an interest which
+it was her duty not to show.
+
+If the King had not inspired the Queen with a lively feeling of love,
+it is quite certain that she yielded him respect and affection for the
+goodness of his disposition and the equity of which he gave so many
+proofs throughout his reign. One evening she returned very late; she
+came out of the King's closet, and said to M. de Misery and myself,
+drying her eyes, which were filled with tears, "You see me weeping, but
+do not be uneasy at it: these are the sweetest tears that a wife can
+shed; they are caused by the impression which the justice and goodness of
+the King have made upon me; he has just complied with my request for a
+revision of the proceedings against Messieurs de Bellegarde and de
+Monthieu, victims of the Duc d'Aiguillon's hatred to the Duc de Choiseul.
+He has been equally just to the Duc de Guines in his affair with Tort.
+It is a happy thing for a queen to be able to admire and esteem him who
+has admitted her to a participation of his throne; and as to you,
+I congratulate you upon your having to live under the sceptre of so
+virtuous a sovereign."
+
+The Queen laid before the King all the memorials of the Duc de Guines,
+who, during his embassy to England, was involved in difficulties by a
+secretary, who speculated in the public funds in London on his own
+account, but in such a manner as to throw a suspicion of it on the
+ambassador. Messieurs de Vergennes and Turgot, bearing but little good-
+will to the Duc de Guines, who was the friend of the Duc de Choiseul,
+were not disposed to render the ambassador any service. The Queen
+succeeded in fixing the King's particular attention on this affair, and
+the innocence of the Duc de Guines triumphed through the equity of Louis
+XVI.
+
+An incessant underhand war was carried on between the friends and
+partisans of M. de Choiseul, who were called the Austrians, and those who
+sided with Messieurs d'Aiguillon, de Maurepas, and de Vergennes, who, for
+the same reason, kept up the intrigues carried on at Court and in Paris
+against the Queen. Marie Antoinette, on her part, supported those who
+had suffered in this political quarrel, and it was this feeling which led
+her to ask for a revision of the proceedings against Messieurs de
+Bellegarde and de Monthieu. The first, a colonel and inspector of
+artillery, and the second, proprietor of a foundry at St. Etienne, were,
+under the Ministry of the Duc d'Aiguillon, condemned to imprisonment for
+twenty years and a day for having withdrawn from the arsenals of France,
+by order of the Duc de Choiseul, a vast number of muskets, as being of
+no value except as old iron, while in point of fact the greater part of
+those muskets were immediately embarked and sold to the Americans. It
+appears that the Duc de Choiseul imparted to the Queen, as grounds of
+defence for the accused, the political views which led him to authorise
+that reduction and sale in the manner in which it had been executed. It
+rendered the case of Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Monthieu more
+unfavourable that the artillery officer who made the reduction in the
+capacity of inspector was, through a clandestine marriage, brother-in-law
+of the owner of the foundry, the purchaser of the rejected arms. The
+innocence of the two prisoners was, nevertheless, made apparent; and they
+came to Versailles with their wives and children to throw themselves at
+the feet of their benefactress. This affecting scene took place in the
+grand gallery, at the entrance to the Queen's apartment. She wished to
+restrain the women from kneeling, saying that they had only had justice
+done them; and that she ought to be congratulated upon the most
+substantial happiness attendant upon her station, that of laying just
+appeals before the King.
+
+On every occasion, when the Queen had to speak in public, she used the
+most appropriate and elegant language, notwithstanding the difficulty a
+foreigner might be expected to experience. She answered all addresses
+herself, a custom which she learned at the Court of Maria Theresa. The
+Princesses of the House of Bourbon had long ceased to take the trouble of
+speaking in such cases. Madame Addlaide blamed the Queen for not doing
+as they did, assuring her that it was quite sufficient to mutter a few
+words that might sound like an answer, while the addressers, occupied
+with what they had themselves been saying, would always take it for
+granted that a proper answer had been returned. The Queen saw that
+idleness alone dictated such a proceeding, and that as the practice even
+of muttering a few words showed the necessity of answering in some way,
+it must be more proper to reply simply but clearly, and in the best style
+possible. Sometimes indeed, when apprised of the subject of the address,
+she would write down her answer in the morning, not to learn it by heart,
+but in order to settle the ideas or sentiments she wished to introduce.
+
+The influence of the Comtesse de Polignac increased daily; and her
+friends availed themselves of it to effect changes in the Ministry.
+The dismissal of M. de Montbarrey, a man without talents or character,
+was generally approved of. It was rightly attributed to the Queen. He
+had been placed in administration by M. de Maurepas, and maintained by
+his aged wife; both, of course, became more inveterate than ever against
+the Queen and the Polignac circle.
+
+The appointment of M. de Segur to the place of Minister of War, and of
+M. de Castries to that of Minister of Marine, were wholly the work of
+that circle. The Queen dreaded making ministers; her favourite often
+wept when the men of her circle compelled her to interfere. Men blame
+women for meddling in business, and yet in courts it is continually the
+men themselves who make use of the influence of the women in matters with
+which the latter ought to have nothing to do.
+
+When M. de Segur was presented to the Queen on his new appointment, she
+said to me, "You have just seen a minister of my making. I am very glad,
+so far as regards the King's service, that he is appointed, for I think
+the selection a very good one; but I almost regret the part I have taken
+in it. I take a responsibility upon myself. I was fortunate in being
+free from any; and in order to relieve myself from this as much as
+possible I have just promised M. de Segur, and that upon my word of
+honour, not to back any petition, nor to hinder any of his operations by
+solicitations on behalf of my proteges."
+
+During the first administration of M. Necker, whose ambition had not then
+drawn him into schemes repugnant to his better judgment, and whose views
+appeared to the Queen to be very judicious, she indulged in hopes of the
+restoration of the finances. Knowing that M. de Maurepas wished to drive
+M. Necker to resign, she urged him to have patience until the death of an
+old man whom the King kept about him from a fondness for his first
+choice, and out of respect for his advanced age. She even went so far as
+to tell him that M. de Maurepas was always ill, and that his end could
+not be very distant. M. Necker would not wait for that event. The
+Queen's prediction was fulfilled. M. de Maurepas ended his days
+immediately after a journey to Fontainebleau in 1781.
+
+M. Necker had retired. He had been exasperated by a piece of treachery
+in the old minister, for which he could not forgive him. I knew
+something of this intrigue at the time; it has since been fully explained
+to me by Madame la Marechale de Beauvau. M. Necker saw that his credit
+at Court was declining, and fearing lest that circumstance should injure
+his financial operations, he requested the King to grant him some favour
+which might show the public that he had not lost the confidence of his
+sovereign. He concluded his letter by pointing out five requests--such
+an office, or such a mark of distinction, or such a badge of honour, and
+so on, and handed it to M. de Maurepas. The or's were changed into
+and's; and the King was displeased at M. Necker's ambition, and the
+assurance with which he displayed it. Madame la Marechale de Beauvau
+assured me that the Marechal de Castries saw the minute of M. Necker's
+letter, and that he likewise saw the altered copy.
+
+The interest which the Queen took in M. Necker died away during his
+retirement, and at last changed into strong prejudice against him. He
+wrote too much about the measures he would have pursued, and the benefits
+that would have resulted to the State from them. The ministers who
+succeeded him thought their operations embarrassed by the care that M.
+Necker and his partisans incessantly took to occupy the public with his
+plans; his friends were too ardent. The Queen discerned a party spirit
+in these combinations, and sided wholly with his enemies.
+
+After those inefficient comptrollers-general, Messieurs Joly de Fleury
+and d'Ormesson, it became necessary to resort to a man of more
+acknowledged talent, and the Queen's friends, at that time combining with
+the Comte d'Artois and with M. de Vergennes, got M. de Calonne appointed.
+The Queen was highly displeased, and her close intimacy with the Duchesse
+de Polignac began to suffer for this.
+
+Her Majesty, continuing to converse with me upon the difficulties she
+had met with in private life, told me that ambitious men without merit
+sometimes found means to gain their ends by dint of importunity, and that
+she had to blame herself for having procured M. d'Adhemar's appointment
+to the London embassy, merely because he teased her into it at the
+Duchess's house. She added, however, that it was at a time of perfect
+peace with the English; that the Ministry knew the inefficiency of
+M. d'Adhemar as well as she did, and that he could do neither harm nor
+good.
+
+Often in conversations of unreserved frankness the Queen owned that she
+had purchased rather dearly a piece of experience which would make her
+carefully watch over the conduct of her daughters-in-law, and that she
+would be particularly scrupulous about the qualifications of the ladies
+who might attend them; that no consideration of rank or favour should
+bias her in so important a choice. She attributed several of her
+youthful mistakes to a lady of great levity, whom she found in her palace
+on her arrival in France. She also determined to forbid the Princesses
+coming under her control the practice of singing with professors, and
+said, candidly, and with as much severity as her slanderers could have
+done, "I ought to have heard Garat sing, and never to have sung duets
+with him."
+
+The indiscreet zeal of Monsieur Augeard contributed to the public belief
+that the Queen disposed of all the offices of finance. He had, without
+any authority for doing so, required the committee of fermiers-general to
+inform him of all vacancies, assuring them that they would be meeting the
+wishes of the Queen. The members complied, but not without murmuring.
+When the Queen became aware of what her secretary had done, she highly
+disapproved of it, caused her resentment to be made known to the fermiers
+-general, and abstained from asking for appointments,--making only one
+request of the kind, as a marriage portion for one of her attendants, a
+young woman of good family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Queen did not sufficiently conceal the dissatisfaction she felt at
+having been unable to prevent the appointment of M. de Calonne; she even
+one day went so far as to say at the Duchess's, in the midst of the
+partisans and protectors of that minister, that the finances of France
+passed alternately from the hands of an honest man without talent into
+those of a skilful knave. M. de Calonne was thus far from acting in
+concert with the Queen all the time that he continued in office; and,
+while dull verses were circulated about Paris describing the Queen and
+her favourite dipping at pleasure into the coffers of the comptroller-
+general, the Queen was avoiding all communication with him.
+
+During the long and severe winter of 1783-84 the King gave three millions
+of livres for the relief of the indigent. M. de Calonne, who felt the
+necessity of making advances to the Queen, caught at this opportunity of
+showing her respect and devotion. He offered to place in her hands one
+million of the three, to be distributed in her name and under her
+direction. His proposal was rejected; the Queen answered that the
+charity ought to be wholly distributed in the King's name, and that she
+would this year debar herself of even the slightest enjoyments, in order
+to contribute all her savings to the relief of the unfortunate.
+
+The moment M. de Calonne left the closet the Queen sent for me:
+"Congratulate me, my dear," said she; "I have just escaped a snare,
+or at least a matter which eventually might have caused me much regret."
+She related the conversation which had taken place word for word to me,
+adding, "That man will complete the ruin of the national finances. It is
+said that I placed him in his situation. The people are made to believe
+that I am extravagant; yet I have refused to suffer a sum of money from
+the royal treasury, although destined for the most laudable purpose, even
+to pass through my hands."
+
+The Queen, making monthly retrenchments from the expenditure of her privy
+purse, and not having spent the gifts customary at the period of her
+confinement, was in possession of from five to six hundred thousand
+francs, her own savings. She made use of from two to three hundred
+thousand francs of this, which her first women sent to M. Lenoir, to the
+cures of Paris and Versailles, and to the Soeurs Hospitalieres, and so
+distributed them among families in need.
+
+Desirous to implant in the breast of her daughter not only a desire to
+succour the unfortunate, but those qualities necessary for the due
+discharge of that duty, the Queen incessantly talked to her, though she
+was yet very young, about the sufferings of the poor during a season so
+inclement. The Princess already had a sum of from eight to ten thousand
+francs for charitable purposes, and the Queen made her distribute part of
+it herself.
+
+Wishing to give her children yet another lesson of beneficence,
+she desired me on New Year's eve to get from Paris, as in other years,
+all the fashionable playthings, and have them spread out in her closet.
+Then taking her children by the hand, she showed them all the dolls and
+mechanical toys which were ranged there, and told them that she had
+intended to give them some handsome New Year's gifts, but that the cold
+made the poor so wretched that all her money was spent in blankets and
+clothes to protect them from the rigour of the season, and in supplying
+them with bread; so that this year they would only have the pleasure of
+looking at the new playthings. When she returned with her children into
+her sitting-room, she said there was still an unavoidable expense to be
+incurred; that assuredly many mothers would at that season think as she
+did,--that the toyman must lose by it; and therefore she gave him fifty
+Louis to repay him for the cost of his journey, and console him for
+having sold nothing.
+
+The purchase of St. Cloud, a matter very simple in itself, had, on
+account of the prevailing spirit, unfavourable consequences to the Queen.
+
+The palace of Versailles, pulled to pieces in the interior by a variety
+of new arrangements, and mutilated in point of uniformity by the removal
+of the ambassadors' staircase, and of the peristyle of columns placed at
+the end of the marble court, was equally in want of substantial and
+ornamental repair. The King therefore desired M. Micque to lay before
+him several plans for the repairs of the palace. He consulted me on
+certain arrangements analogous to some of those adopted in the Queen's
+establishment, and in my presence asked M. Micque how much money would be
+wanted for the execution of the whole work, and how many years he would
+be in completing it. I forget how many millions were mentioned: M.
+Micque replied that six years would be sufficient time if the Treasury
+made the necessary periodical advances without any delay. "And how many
+years shall you require," said the King, "if the advances are not
+punctually made?"--"Ten, Sire," replied the architect. "We must then
+reckon upon ten years," said his Majesty, "and put off this great
+undertaking until the year 1790; it will occupy the rest of the century."
+
+The King afterwards talked of the depreciation of property which took
+place at Versailles whilst the Regent removed the Court of Louis XV. to
+the Tuileries, and said that he must consider how to prevent that
+inconvenience; it was the desire to do this that promoted the purchase of
+St. Cloud. The Queen first thought of it one day when she was riding out
+with the Duchesse de Polignac and the Comtesse Diane; she mentioned it to
+the King, who was much pleased with the thought,--the purchase confirming
+him in the intention, which he had entertained for ten years, of quitting
+Versailles.
+
+The King determined that the ministers, public officers, pages, and a
+considerable part of his stabling should remain at Versailles. Messieurs
+de Breteuil and de Calonne were instructed to treat with the Duc
+d'Orleans for the purchase of St. Cloud; at first they hoped to be able
+to conclude the business by a mere exchange. The value of the Chateau de
+Choisy, de la Muette, and a forest was equivalent to the sum demanded by
+the House of Orleans; and in the exchange which the Queen expected she
+only saw a saving to be made instead of an increase of expense. By this
+arrangement the government of Choisy, in the hands of the Duc de Coigny,
+and that of La Muette, in the hands of the Marechal de Soubise, would be
+suppressed. At the same time the two concierges, and all the servants
+employed in these two royal houses, would be reduced; but while the
+treaty was going forward Messieurs de Breteuil and de Calonne gave up the
+point of exchange, and some millions in cash were substituted for Choisy
+and La Muette.
+
+The Queen advised the King to give her St. Cloud, as a means of avoiding
+the establishment of a governor; her plan being to have merely a
+concierge there, by which means the governor's expenses would be saved.
+The King agreed, and St. Cloud was purchased for the Queen. She provided
+the same liveries for the porters at the gates and servants at the
+chateau as for those at Trianon. The concierge at the latter place had
+put up some regulations for the household, headed, "By order of the
+Queen." The same thing was done at St. Cloud. The Queen's livery at the
+door of a palace where it was expected none but that of the King would be
+seen, and the words "By order of the Queen" at the head of the printed
+papers pasted near the iron gates, caused a great sensation, and produced
+a very unfortunate effect, not only among the common people, but also.
+among persons of a superior class. They saw in it an attack upon the
+customs of monarchy, and customs are nearly equal to laws. The Queen
+heard of this, but she thought that her dignity would be compromised if
+she made any change in the form of these regulations, though they might
+have been altogether superseded without inconvenience. "My name is not
+out of place," said she, "in gardens belonging to myself; I may give
+orders there without infringing on the rights of the State." This was
+her only answer to the representations which a few faithful servants
+ventured to make on the subject. The discontent of the Parisians on this
+occasion probably induced M. d'Espremenil, upon the first troubles about
+the Parliament, to say that it was impolitic and immoral to see palaces
+belonging to a Queen of France.
+
+ [The Queen never forgot this affront of M. d'Espremenil's; she said
+ that as it was offered at a time when social order had not yet been
+ disturbed, she had felt the severest mortification at it. Shortly
+ before the downfall of the throne M. Espremenil, having openly
+ espoused the King's side, was insulted in the gardens of the
+ Tuileries by the Jacobins, and so ill-treated that he was carried
+ home very ill. Somebody recommended the Queen, on account of the
+ royalist principles he then professed, to send and inquire for him.
+ She replied that she was truly grieved at what had happened to M.
+ d'Espremenil, but that mere policy should never induce her to show
+ any particular solicitude about the man who had been the first to
+ make so insulting an attack upon her character.--MADAME CAMPAN]
+
+The Queen was very much dissatisfied with the manner in which M. de
+Calonne had managed this matter. The Abbe de Vermond, the most active
+and persevering of that minister's enemies, saw with delight that the
+expedients of those from whom alone new resources might be expected were
+gradually becoming exhausted, because the period when the Archbishop of
+Toulouse would be placed over the finances was thereby hastened.
+
+The royal navy had resumed an imposing attitude during the war for the
+independence of America; glorious peace with England had compensated for
+the former attacks of our enemies upon the fame of France; and the throne
+was surrounded by numerous heirs. The sole ground of uneasiness was in
+the finances, but that uneasiness related only to the manner in which
+they were administered. In a word, France felt confident in its own
+strength and resources, when two events, which seem scarcely worthy of a
+place in history, but which have, nevertheless, an important one in that
+of the French Revolution, introduced a spirit of ridicule and contempt,
+not only against the highest ranks, but even against the most august
+personages. I allude to a comedy and a great swindling transaction.
+
+Beaumarchais had long possessed a reputation in certain circles in Paris
+for his wit and musical talents, and at the theatres for dramas more or
+less indifferent, when his "Barbier de Seville" procured him a higher
+position among dramatic writers. His "Memoirs" against M. Goesman had
+amused Paris by the ridicule they threw upon a Parliament which was
+disliked; and his admission to an intimacy with M. de Maurepas procured
+him a degree of influence over important affairs. He then became
+ambitious of influencing public opinion by a kind of drama, in which
+established manners and customs should be held up to popular derision and
+the ridicule of the new philosophers. After several years of prosperity
+the minds of the French had become more generally critical; and when
+Beaumarchais had finished his monstrous but diverting "Mariage de
+Figaro," all people of any consequence were eager for the gratification
+of hearing it read, the censors having decided that it should not be
+performed. These readings of "Figaro" grew so numerous that people were
+daily heard to say, "I have been (or I am going to be) at the reading of
+Beaumarchais's play." The desire to see it performed became universal;
+an expression that he had the art to use compelled, as it were, the
+approbation of the nobility, or of persons in power, who aimed at ranking
+among the magnanimous; he made his "Figaro" say that "none but little
+minds dreaded little books." The Baron de Breteuil, and all the men of
+Madame de Polignac's circle, entered the lists as the warmest protectors
+of the comedy. Solicitations to the King became so pressing that his
+Majesty determined to judge for himself of a work which so much engrossed
+public attention, and desired me to ask M. Le Noir, lieutenant of police,
+for the manuscript of the "Mariage de Figaro." One morning I received a
+note from the Queen ordering me to be with her at three o'clock, and not
+to come without having dined, for she should detain me some time. When I
+got to the Queen's inner closet I found her alone with the King; a chair
+and a small table were ready placed opposite to them, and upon the
+table lay an enormous manuscript in several books. The King said to me,
+"There is Beaumarchais's comedy; you must read it to us. You will find
+several parts troublesome on account of the erasures and references. I
+have already run it over, but I wish the Queen to be acquainted with the
+work. You will not mention this reading to any one."
+
+I began. The King frequently interrupted me by praise or censure, which
+was always just. He frequently exclaimed, "That's in bad taste; this man
+continually brings the Italian concetti on the stage." At that soliloquy
+of Figaro in which he attacks various points of government, and
+especially at the tirade against State prisons, the King rose up and
+said, indignantly:
+
+"That's detestable; that shall never be played; the Bastille must be
+destroyed before the license to act this play can be any other than an
+act of the most dangerous inconsistency. This man scoffs at everything
+that should be respected in a government."
+
+"It will not be played, then?" said the Queen.
+
+"No, certainly," replied Louis XVI.; "you may rely upon that."
+
+Still it was constantly reported that "Figaro" was about to be performed;
+there were even wagers laid upon the subject; I never should have laid
+any myself, fancying that I was better informed as to the probability
+than anybody else; if I had, however, I should have been completely
+deceived. The protectors of Beaumarchais, feeling certain that they
+would succeed in their scheme of making his work public in spite of the
+King's prohibition, distributed the parts in the "Mariage de Figaro"
+among the actors of the Theatre Francais. Beaumarchais had made them
+enter into the spirit of his characters, and they determined to enjoy at
+least one performance of this so-called chef d'oeuvre. The first
+gentlemen of the chamber agreed that M. de la Ferte should lend the
+theatre of the Hotel des Menus Plaisirs, at Paris, which was used for
+rehearsals of the opera; tickets were distributed to a vast number of
+leaders of society, and the day for the performance was fixed. The King
+heard of all this only on the very morning, and signed a 'lettre de
+cachet,'--[A 'lettre de cachet' was any written order proceeding from the
+King. The term was not confined merely to orders for arrest.]--which
+prohibited the performance. When the messenger who brought the order
+arrived, he found a part of the theatre already filled with spectators,
+and the streets leading to the Hotel des Menus Plaisirs filled with
+carriages; the piece was not performed. This prohibition of the King's
+was looked upon as an attack on public liberty.
+
+The disappointment produced such discontent that the words oppression and
+tyranny were uttered with no less passion and bitterness at that time
+than during the days which immediately preceded the downfall of the
+throne. Beaumarchais was so far put off his guard by rage as to exclaim,
+"Well, gentlemen, he won't suffer it to be played here; but I swear it
+shall be played,--perhaps in the very choir of Notre-Dame!" There was
+something prophetic in these words. It was generally insinuated shortly
+afterwards that Beaumarchais had determined to suppress all those parts
+of his work which could be obnoxious to the Government; and on pretence
+of judging of the sacrifices made by the author, M. de Vaudreuil obtained
+permission to have this far-famed "Mariage de Figaro" performed at his
+country house. M. Campan was asked there; he had frequently heard the
+work read, and did not now find the alterations that had been announced;
+this he observed to several persons belonging to the Court, who
+maintained that the author had made all the sacrifices required. M.
+Campan was so astonished at these persistent assertions of an obvious
+falsehood that he replied by a quotation from Beaumarchais himself, and
+assuming the tone of Basilio in the "Barbier de Seville," he said,
+"Faith, gentlemen, I don't know who is deceived here; everybody is in the
+secret." They then came to the point, and begged him to tell the Queen
+positively that all which had been pronounced reprehensible in M. de
+Beaumarchais's play had been cut out. My father-in-law contented himself
+with replying that his situation at Court would not allow of his giving
+an opinion unless the Queen should first speak of the piece to him.
+The Queen said nothing to him about the matter. Shortly, afterwards
+permission to perform this play was at length obtained. The Queen
+thought the people of Paris would be finely tricked when they saw merely
+an ill-conceived piece, devoid of interest, as it must appear when
+deprived of its Satire.
+
+ ["The King," says Grimm, "made sure that the public would judge
+ unfavourably of the work." He said to the Marquis de Montesquiou,
+ who was going to see the first representation, 'Well, what do you
+ augur of its success?'--'Sire, I hope the piece will fail.'--'And so
+ do I,' replied the King.
+
+ "There is something still more ridiculous than my piece," said
+ Beaumarchais himself; "that is, its success." Mademoiselle Arnould
+ foresaw it the first day, and exclaimed, "It is a production that
+ will fail fifty nights successively." There was as crowded an
+ audience on the seventy-second night as on the first. The following
+ is extracted from Grimm's 'Correspondence.'
+
+ "Answer of M. de Beaumarchais to -----, who requested the use of his
+ private box for some ladies desirous of seeing 'Figaro' without
+ being themselves seen.
+
+ "I have no respect for women who indulge themselves in seeing any
+ play which they think indecorous, provided they can do so in secret.
+ I lend myself to no such acts. I have given my piece to the public,
+ to amuse, and not to instruct, not to give any compounding prudes
+ the pleasure of going to admire it in a private box, and balancing
+ their account with conscience by censuring it in company. To
+ indulge in the pleasure of vice and assume the credit of virtue is
+ the hypocrisy of the age. My piece is not of a doubtful nature; it
+ must be patronised in good earnest, or avoided altogether;
+ therefore, with all respect to you, I shall keep my box." This
+ letter was circulated all over Paris for a week.]
+
+Under the persuasion that there was not a passage left capable of
+malicious or dangerous application, Monsieur attended the first
+performance in a public box. The mad enthusiasm of the public in favour
+of the piece and Monsieur's just displeasure are well known. The author
+was sent to prison soon afterwards, though his work was extolled to the
+skies, and though the Court durst not suspend its performance.
+
+The Queen testified her displeasure against all who had assisted the
+author of the "Mariage de Figaro" to deceive the King into giving his
+consent that it should be represented. Her reproaches were more
+particularly directed against M. de Vaudreuil for having had it performed
+at his house. The violent and domineering disposition of her favourite's
+friend at last became disagreeable to her.
+
+One evening, on the Queen's return from the Duchess's, she desired her
+'valet de chambre' to bring her billiard cue into her closet, and ordered
+me to open the box that contained it. I took out the cue, broken in two.
+It was of ivory, and formed of one single elephant's tooth; the butt was
+of gold and very tastefully wrought. "There," said she, "that is the way
+M. de Vaudreuil has treated a thing I valued highly. I had laid it upon
+the couch while I was talking to the Duchess in the salon; he had the
+assurance to make use of it, and in a fit of passion about a blocked
+ball, he struck the cue so violently against the table that he broke it
+in two. The noise brought me back into the billiard-room; I did not say
+a word to him, but my looks showed him how angry I was. He is the more
+provoked at the accident, as he aspires to the post of Governor to the
+Dauphin. I never thought of him for the place. It is quite enough to
+have consulted my heart only in the choice of a governess; and I will not
+suffer that of a Governor to the Dauphin to be at all affected by the
+influence of my friends. I should be responsible for it to the nation.
+The poor man does not know that my determination is taken; for I have
+never expressed it to the Duchess. Therefore, judge of the sort of an
+evening he must have passed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Shortly after the public mind had been thrown into agitation by the
+performance of the "Mariage de Figaro," an obscure plot, contrived by
+swindlers, and matured in a corrupted society, attacked the Queen's
+character in a vital point and assailed the majesty of the throne.
+
+I am about to speak of the notorious affair of the necklace purchased, as
+it was said, for the Queen by Cardinal de Rohan. I will narrate all that
+has come to my knowledge relating to this business; the most minute
+particulars will prove how little reason the Queen had to apprehend the
+blow by which she was threatened, and which must be attributed to a
+fatality that human prudence could not have foreseen, but from which, to
+say the truth, she might have extricated herself with more skill.
+
+I have already said that in 1774 the Queen purchased jewels of Boehmer to
+the value of three hundred and sixty thousand franca, that she paid for
+them herself out of her own private funds, and that it required several
+years to enable her to complete the payment. The King afterwards
+presented her with a set of rubies and diamonds of a fine water, and
+subsequently with a pair of bracelets worth two hundred thousand francs.
+The Queen, after having her diamonds reset in new patterns, told Boehmer
+that she found her jewel case rich enough, and was not desirous of making
+any addition to it.
+
+ [Except on those days when the assemblies at Court were particularly
+ attended, such as the 1st of January and the 2d of February, devoted
+ to the procession of the Order of the Holy Ghost, and on the
+ festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, the Queen no longer
+ wore any dresses but muslin or white Florentine taffety. Her head-
+ dress was merely a hat; the plainest were preferred; and her
+ diamonds never quitted their caskets but for the dresses of
+ ceremony, confined to the days I have mentioned. Before the Queen
+ was five and twenty she began to apprehend that she might be induced
+ to make too frequent use of flowers and of ornaments, which at that
+ time were exclusively reserved for youth. Madame Bertin having
+ brought a wreath for the head and neck, composed of roses, the Queen
+ feared that the brightness of the flowers might be disadvantageous
+ to her complexion. She was unquestionably too severe upon herself,
+ her beauty having as yet experienced no alteration; it is easy to
+ conceive the concert of praise and compliment that replied to the
+ doubt she had expressed. The Queen, approaching me, said, "I charge
+ you, from this day, to give me notice when flowers shall cease to
+ become me."--"I shall do no such thing," I replied, immediately;
+ "I have not read 'Gil Bias' without profiting in some degree from
+ it, and I find your Majesty's order too much like that given him by
+ the Archbishop of Granada, to warn him of the moment when he should
+ begin to fall off in the composition of his homilies."--"Go," said
+ the Queen; "You are less sincere than Gil Blas; and I world have
+ been more amenable than the Archbishop."--MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+Still, this jeweller busied himself for some years in forming a
+collection of the finest diamonds circulating in the trade, in order to
+compose a necklace of several rows, which he hoped to induce her Majesty
+to purchase; he brought it to M. Campan, requesting him to mention it to
+the Queen, that she might ask to see it, and thus be induced to wish to
+possess it. This M. Campan refused to do, telling him that he should be
+stepping out of the line of his duty were he to propose to the Queen an
+expense of sixteen hundred thousand francs, and that he believed neither
+the lady of honour nor the tirewoman would take upon herself to execute
+such a commission. Boehmer persuaded the King's first gentleman for the
+year to show this superb necklace to his Majesty, who admired it so much
+that he himself wished to see the Queen adorned with it, and sent the
+case to her; but she assured him she should much regret incurring so
+great an expense for such an article, that she had already very beautiful
+diamonds, that jewels of that description were now worn at Court not more
+than four or five times a year, that the necklace must be returned, and
+that the money would be much better employed in building a man-of-war.
+
+ [Messieurs Boehmer and Bassange, jewellers to the Crown, were
+ proprietors of a superb diamond necklace, which had, as it was said,
+ been intended for the Comtesse du Barry. Being under the necessity
+ of selling it, they offered it, during the last war, to the king and
+ Queen; but their Majesties made the following prudent answer: "We
+ stand more in need of ships than of jewels."--"Secret Correspondence
+ of the Court of Louis XVI."]
+
+Boehmer, in sad tribulation at finding his expectations delusive,
+endeavoured for some time, it is said, to dispose of his necklace among
+the various Courts of Europe.
+
+A year after his fruitless attempts, Boehmer again caused his diamond
+necklace to be offered to the King, proposing that it should be paid for
+partly by instalments, and partly in life annuities; this proposal was
+represented as highly advantageous, and the King, in my presence,
+mentioned the matter once more to the Queen. I remember the Queen told
+him that, if the bargain really was not bad, he might make it, and keep
+the necklace until the marriage of one of his children; but that, for her
+part, she would never wear it, being unwilling that the world should have
+to reproach her with having coveted so expensive an article. The King
+replied that their children were too young to justify such an expense,
+which would be greatly increased by the number of years the diamonds
+would remain useless, and that he would finally decline the offer.
+Boehmer complained to everybody of his misfortune, and all reasonable
+people blamed him for having collected diamonds to so considerable an
+amount without any positive order for them. This man had purchased the
+office of jeweller to the Crown, which gave him some rights of entry at
+Court. After several months spent in ineffectual attempts to carry his
+point, and in idle complaints, he obtained an audience of the Queen, who
+had with her the young Princess, her daughter; her Majesty did not know
+for what purpose Boehmer sought this audience, and had not the slightest
+idea that it was to speak to her again about an article twice refused by
+herself and the King.
+
+Boehmer threw himself upon his knees, clasped his hands, burst into
+tears, and exclaimed, "Madame, I am ruined and disgraced if you do not
+purchase my necklace. I cannot outlive so many misfortunes. When I go
+hence I shall throw myself into the river."
+
+"Rise, Boehmer," said the Queen, in a tone sufficiently severe to recall
+him to himself; "I do not like these rhapsodies; honest men have no
+occasion to fall on their knees to make their requests. If you were to
+destroy yourself I should regret you as a madman in whom I had taken an
+interest, but I should not be in any way responsible for that misfortune.
+Not only have I never ordered the article which causes your present
+despair, but whenever you have talked to me about fine collections of
+jewels I have told you that I should not add four diamonds to those which
+I already possessed. I told you myself that I declined taking the
+necklace; the King wished to give it to me, but I refused him also; never
+mention it to me again. Divide it and try to sell it piecemeal, and do
+not drown yourself. I am very angry with you for acting this scene of
+despair in my presence and before this child. Let me never see you
+behave thus again. Go." Baehmer withdrew, overwhelmed with confusion,
+and nothing further was then heard of him.
+
+When Madame Sophie was born the Queen told me M. de Saint-James, a rich
+financier, had apprised her that Boehmer was still intent upon the sale
+of his necklace, and that she ought, for her own satisfaction, to
+endeavour to learn what the man had done with it; she desired me the
+first time I should meet him to speak to him about it, as if from the
+interest I took in his welfare. I spoke to him about his necklace, and
+he told me he had been very fortunate, having sold it at Constantinople
+for the favourite sultana. I communicated this answer to the Queen, who
+was delighted with it, but could not comprehend how the Sultan came to
+purchase his diamonds in Paris.
+
+The Queen long avoided seeing Boehmer, being fearful of his rash
+character; and her valet de chambre, who had the care of her jewels, made
+the necessary repairs to her ornaments unassisted. On the baptism of the
+Duc d'Angouleme, in 1785, the King gave him a diamond epaulet and
+buckles, and directed Baehmer to deliver them to the Queen. Boehmer
+presented them on her return from mass, and at the same time gave into
+her hands a letter in the form of a petition. In this paper he told the
+Queen that he was happy to see her "in possession of the finest diamonds
+known in Europe," and entreated her not to forget him. The Queen read
+Boehmer's address to her aloud, and saw nothing in it but a proof of
+mental aberration; she lighted the paper at a wax taper standing near
+her, as she had some letters to seal, saying, "It is not worth keeping."
+She afterwards much regretted the loss of this enigmatical memorial.
+After having burnt the paper, her Majesty said to me, "That man is born
+to be my torment; he has always some mad scheme in his head; remember,
+the first time you see him, to tell him that I do not like diamonds now,
+and that I will buy no more so long as I live; that if I had any money to
+spare I would rather add to my property at St. Cloud by the purchase of
+the land surrounding it; now, mind you enter into all these particulars
+and impress them well upon him." I asked her whether she wished me to
+send for him; she replied in the negative, adding that it would be
+sufficient to avail myself of the first opportunity afforded by meeting
+him; and that the slightest advance towards such a man would be
+misplaced.
+
+On the 1st of August I left Versailles for my country house at Crespy; on
+the 3d came Boehmer, extremely uneasy at not having received any answer
+from the Queen, to ask me whether I had any commission from her to him; I
+replied that she had entrusted me with none; that she had no commands for
+him, and I faithfully repeated all she had desired me to say to him.
+
+"But," said Boehmer, "the answer to the letter I presented to her,--to
+whom must I apply for that?"
+
+"To nobody," answered I; "her Majesty burnt your memorial without even
+comprehending its meaning."
+
+"Ah! madame," exclaimed he, "that is impossible; the Queen knows that she
+has money to pay me!"
+
+"Money, M. Boehmer? Your last accounts against the Queen were discharged
+long ago."
+
+"Madame, you are not in the secret. A man who is ruined for want of
+payment of fifteen hundred thousand francs cannot be said to be
+satisfied."
+
+"Have you lost your senses?" said I. "For what can the Queen owe you so
+extravagant a sum?"
+
+"For my necklace, madame," replied Boehmer, coolly.
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, "that necklace again, which you have teased the
+Queen about so many years! Did you not tell me you had sold it at
+Constantinople?"
+
+"The Queen desired me to give that answer to all who should speak to me
+on the subject," said the wretched dupe. He then told me that the Queen
+wished to have the necklace, and had had it purchased for her by
+Monseigneur, the Cardinal de Rohan.
+
+"You are deceived," I exclaimed; "the Queen has not once spoken to the
+Cardinal since his return from Vienna; there is not a man at her Court
+less favourably looked upon."
+
+"You are deceived yourself, madame," said Boehmer; "she sees him so much
+in private that it was to his Eminence she gave thirty thousand francs,
+which were paid me as an instalment; she took them, in his presence, out
+of the little secretaire of Sevres porcelain next the fireplace in her
+boudoir."
+
+"And the Cardinal told you all this?"
+
+"Yes, madame, himself."
+
+"What a detestable plot!" cried I.
+
+"Indeed, to say the truth, madame, I begin to be much alarmed, for his
+Eminence assured me that the Queen would wear the necklace on Whit-
+Sunday, but I did not see it upon her, and it was that which induced me
+to write to her Majesty."
+
+He then asked me what he ought to do. I advised him to go on to
+Versailles, instead of returning to Paris, whence he had just arrived;
+to obtain an immediate audience from the Baron de Breteuil, who, as head
+of the King's household, was the minister of the department to which
+Boehmer belonged, and to be circumspect; and I added that he appeared to
+me extremely culpable,--not as a diamond merchant, but because being a
+sworn officer it was unpardonable of him to have acted without the direct
+orders of the King, the Queen, or the Minister. He answered, that he had
+not acted without direct orders; that he had in his possession all the
+notes signed by the Queen, and that he had even been obliged to show them
+to several bankers in order to induce them to extend the time for his
+payments. I urged his departure for Versailles, and he assured me he
+would go there immediately. Instead of following my advice, he went to
+the Cardinal, and it was of this visit of Boehmer's that his Eminence
+made a memorandum, found in a drawer overlooked by the Abbe Georgel when
+he burnt, by order of the Cardinal, all the papers which the latter had
+at Paris. The memorandum was thus worded: "On this day, 3d August,
+Boehmer went to Madame Campan's country house, and she told him that the
+Queen had never had his necklace, and that he had been deceived."
+
+When Boehmer was gone, I wanted to follow him, and go to the Queen; my
+father-in-law prevented me, and ordered me to leave the minister to
+elucidate such an important affair, observing that it was an infernal
+plot; that I had given Boehmer the best advice, and had nothing more to
+do with the business. Boehmer never said one word to me about the woman
+De Lamotte, and her name was mentioned for the first time by the Cardinal
+in his answers to the interrogatories put to him before the King. After
+seeing the Cardinal, Boehmer went to Trianon, and sent a message to the
+Queen, purporting that I had advised him to come and speak to her. His
+very words were repeated to her Majesty, who said, "He is mad; I have
+nothing to say to him, and will not see him." Two or three days
+afterwards the Queen sent for me to Petit Trianon, to rehearse with me
+the part of Rosina, which she was to perform in the "Barbier de Seville."
+I was alone with her, sitting upon her couch; no mention was made of
+anything but the part. After we had spent an hour in the rehearsal, her
+Majesty asked me why I had sent Boehmer to her; saying he had been in my
+name to speak to her, and that she would not see him. It was in this
+manner I learnt that he had not followed my advice in the slightest
+degree. The change of my countenance, when I heard the man's name, was
+very perceptible; the Queen perceived it, and questioned me. I entreated
+her to see him, and assured her it was of the utmost importance for her
+peace of mind; that there was a plot going on, of which she was not
+aware; and that it was a serious one, since engagements signed by herself
+were shown about to people who had lent Boehmer money. Her surprise and
+vexation were great. She desired me to remain at Trianon, and sent off a
+courier to Paris, ordering Boehmer to come to her upon some pretext which
+has escaped my recollection. He came next morning; in fact it was the
+day on which the play was performed, and that was the last amusement the
+Queen allowed herself at that retreat.
+
+The Queen made him enter her closet, and asked him by what fatality it
+was that she was still doomed to hear of his foolish pretence of selling
+her an article which she had steadily refused for several years. He
+replied that he was compelled, being unable to pacify his creditors any
+longer. "What are your creditors to me?" said her Majesty. Boehmer
+then regularly related to her all that he had been made to believe had
+passed between the Queen and himself through the intervention of the
+Cardinal. She was equally incensed and surprised at each thing she
+heard. In vain did she speak; the jeweller, equally importunate and
+dangerous, repeated incessantly, "Madame, there is no longer time for
+feigning; condescend to confess that you have my necklace, and let some
+assistance be given to me, or my bankruptcy will soon bring the whole to
+light."
+
+It is easy to imagine how the Queen must have suffered. On Boehmer's
+going away, I found her in an alarming condition; the idea that any one
+could have believed that such a man as the Cardinal possessed her full
+confidence; that she should have employed him to deal with a tradesman
+without the King's knowledge, for a thing which she had refused to accept
+from the King himself, drove her to desperation. She sent first for the
+Abbe de Vermond, and then for the Baron de Breteuil. Their hatred and
+contempt for the Cardinal made them too easily forget that the lowest
+faults do not prevent the higher orders of the empire from being defended
+by those to whom they have the honour to belong; that a Rohan, a Prince
+of the Church, however culpable he might be, would be sure to have a
+considerable party which would naturally be joined by all the
+discontented persons of the Court, and all the frondeurs of Paris.
+They too easily believed that he would be stripped of all the advantages
+of his rank and order, and given up to the disgrace due to his irregular
+conduct; they deceived themselves.
+
+I saw the Queen after the departure of the Baron and the Abbe; her
+agitation made me shudder. "Fraud must be unmasked," said she; "when the
+Roman purple and the title of Prince cover a mere money-seeker, a cheat
+who dares to compromise the wife of his sovereign, France and all Europe
+should know it." It is evident that from that moment the fatal plan was
+decided on. The Queen perceived my alarm; I did not conceal it from her.
+I knew too well that she had many enemies not to be apprehensive on
+seeing her attract the attention of the whole world to an intrigue that
+they would try to complicate still more. I entreated her to seek the
+most prudent and moderate advice. She silenced me by desiring me to make
+myself easy, and to rest satisfied that no imprudence would be committed.
+
+On the following Sunday, the 15th of August, being the Assumption, at
+twelve o'clock, at the very moment when the Cardinal, dressed in his
+pontifical garments, was about to proceed to the chapel, he was sent for
+into the King's closet, where the Queen then was.
+
+The King said to him, "You have purchased diamonds of Boehmer?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"What have you done with them?"
+
+"I thought they had been delivered to the Queen."
+
+"Who commissioned you?"
+
+"A lady, called the Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois, who handed me a letter
+from the Queen; and I thought I was gratifying her Majesty by taking this
+business on myself."
+
+The Queen here interrupted him and said, "How, monsieur, could you
+believe that I should select you, to whom I have not spoken for eight
+years, to negotiate anything for me, and especially through the mediation
+of a woman whom I do not even know?"
+
+"I see plainly," said the Cardinal, "that I have been duped. I will pay
+for the necklace; my desire to please your Majesty blinded me; I
+suspected no trick in the affair, and I am sorry for it."
+
+He then took out of his pocket-book a letter from the Queen to Madame de
+Lamotte, giving him this commission. The King took it, and, holding it
+towards the Cardinal, said:
+
+"This is neither written nor signed by the Queen. How could a Prince of
+the House of Rohan, and a Grand Almoner of France, ever think that the
+Queen would sign Marie Antoinette de France? Everybody knows that queens
+sign only by their baptismal names. But, monsieur," pursued the King,
+handing him a copy of his letter to Baehmer, "have you ever written such
+a letter as this?"
+
+Having glanced over it, the Cardinal said, "I do not remember having
+written it."
+
+"But what if the original, signed by yourself, were shown to you?"
+
+"If the letter be signed by myself it is genuine."
+
+He was extremely confused, and repeated several times, "I have been
+deceived, Sire; I will pay for the necklace. I ask pardon of your
+Majesties."
+
+"Then explain to me," resumed the King, "the whole of this enigma. I do
+not wish to find you guilty; I had rather you would justify yourself.
+Account for all the manoeuvres with Baehmer, these assurances and these
+letters."
+
+The Cardinal then, turning pale, and leaning against the table, said,
+"Sire, I am too much confused to answer your Majesty in a way--"
+
+"Compose yourself, Cardinal, and go into my cabinet; you will there find
+paper, pens, and ink,--write what you have to say to me."
+
+The Cardinal went into the King's cabinet, and returned a quarter of an
+hour afterwards with a document as confused as his verbal answers had
+been. The King then said, "Withdraw, monsieur." The Cardinal left the
+King's chamber, with the Baron de Breteuil, who gave him in custody to a
+lieutenant of the Body Guard, with orders to take him to his apartment.
+M. d'Agoult, aide-major of the Body Guard, afterwards took him into
+custody, and conducted him to his hotel, and thence to the Bastille. But
+while the Cardinal had with him only the young lieutenant of the Body
+Guard, who was much embarrassed at having such an order to execute, his
+Eminence met his heyduc at the door of the Salon of Hercules; he spoke to
+him in German and then asked the lieutenant if he could lend him a
+pencil; the officer gave him that which he carried about him, and the
+Cardinal wrote to the Abbe Georgel, his grand vicar and friend, instantly
+to burn all Madame de Lamotte's correspondence, and all his other
+letters.
+
+ [The Abbe Georgel thus relates the circumstance: The Cardinal, at
+ that trying moment, gave an astonishing proof of his presence of
+ mind; notwithstanding the escort which surrounded him, favoured by
+ the attendant crowd, he stopped, and stooping down with his face
+ towards the wall, as if to fasten his buckle, snatched out his
+ pencil and hastily wrote a few words upon a scrap of paper placed
+ under his hand in his square red cap. He rose again and proceeded.
+ on entering his house, his people formed a lane; he slipped this
+ paper, unperceived, into the hand of a confidential valet de
+ chambre, who waited for him at the door of his apartment." This
+ story is scarcely credible; it is not at the moment of a prisoner's
+ arrest, when an inquisitive crowd surrounds and watches him, that he
+ can stop and write secret messages. However, the valet de chambre
+ posts off to Paris. He arrives at the palace of the Cardinal
+ between twelve and one o'clock; and his horse falls dead in the
+ stable. "I was in my apartment," said the Abbe Georgel, "the valet
+ de chambre entered wildly, with a deadly paleness on his
+ countenance, and exclaimed, 'All is lost; the Prince is arrested.'
+ He instantly fell, fainting, and dropped the note of which he was
+ the bearer." The portfolio containing the papers which might
+ compromise the Cardinal was immediately placed beyond the reach of
+ all search. Madame de Lamotte also was foolishly allowed sufficient
+ time after she heard of the arrest of the Cardinal to burn all the
+ letters she had received from him. Assisted by Beugnot, she
+ completed this at three the same morning that she was: arrested at
+ four.--See "Memoirs of Comte de Beugnot," vol i., p. 74.]
+
+This commission was executed before M. de Crosne, lieutenant of police,
+had received an order from the Baron de Breteuil to put seals upon the
+Cardinal's papers. The destruction of all his Eminence's correspondence,
+and particularly that with Madame de Lamotte, threw an impenetrable cloud
+over the whole affair.
+
+From that moment all proofs of this intrigue disappeared. Madame de
+Lamotte was apprehended at Bar-sur-Aube; her husband had already gone to
+England. From the beginning of this fatal affair all the proceedings of
+the Court appear to have been prompted by imprudence and want of
+foresight; the obscurity resulting left free scope for the fables of
+which the voluminous memorials written on one side and the other
+consisted. The Queen so little imagined what could have given rise to
+the intrigue, of which she was about to become the victim, that, at the
+moment when the King was interrogating the Cardinal, a terrific idea
+entered her mind. With that rapidity of thought caused by personal
+interest and extreme agitation, she fancied that, if a design to ruin her
+in the eyes of the King and the French people were the concealed motive
+of this intrigue, the Cardinal would, perhaps, affirm that she had the
+necklace; that he had been honoured with her confidence for this
+purchase, made without the King's knowledge; and point out some secret
+place in her apartment, where he might have got some villain to hide it.
+Want of money and the meanest swindling were the sole motives for this
+criminal affair. The necklace had already been taken to pieces and sold,
+partly in London, partly in Holland, and the rest in Paris.
+
+The moment the Cardinal's arrest was known a universal clamour arose.
+Every memorial that appeared during the trial increased the outcry.
+On this occasion the clergy took that course which a little wisdom and
+the least knowledge of the spirit of such a body ought to have foreseen.
+The Rohans and the House of Conde, as well as the clergy, made their
+complaints heard everywhere. The King consented to having a legal
+judgment, and early in September he addressed letters-patent to the
+Parliament, in which he said that he was "filled with the most just
+indignation on seeing the means which, by the confession of his Eminence
+the Cardinal, had been employed in order to inculpate his most dear
+spouse and companion."
+
+Fatal moment! in which the Queen found herself, in consequence of this
+highly impolitic step, on trial with a subject, who ought to have been
+dealt with by the power of the King alone. The Princes and Princesses of
+the House of Conde, and of the Houses of Rohan, Soubise, and Guemenee,
+put on mourning, and were seen ranged in the way of the members of the
+Grand Chamber to salute them as they proceeded to the palace, on the days
+of the Cardinal's trial; and Princes of the blood openly canvassed
+against the Queen of France.
+
+The Pope wished to claim, on behalf of the Cardinal de Rohan, the right
+belonging to his ecclesiastical rank, and demanded that he should be
+judged at Rome. The Cardinal de Bernis, ambassador from France to his
+Holiness, formerly Minister for Foreign Affairs, blending the wisdom of
+an old diplomatist with the principles of a Prince of the Church, wished
+that this scandalous affair should be hushed up. The King's aunts, who
+were on very intimate terms with the ambassador, adopted his opinion, and
+the conduct of the King and Queen was equally and loudly censured in the
+apartments of Versailles and in the hotels and coffee-houses of Paris.
+
+Madame, the King's sister-in-law, had been the sole protectress of De
+Lamotte, and had confined her patronage to granting her a pension of
+twelve to fifteen hundred francs. Her brother was in the navy, but the
+Marquis de Chabert, to whom he had been recommended, could never train a
+good officer. The Queen in vain endeavoured to call to mind the features
+of this person, of whom she had often heard as an intriguing woman, who
+came frequently on Sundays to the gallery of Versailles. At the time
+when all France was engrossed by the persecution against the Cardinal,
+the portrait of the Comtesse de Lamotte Valois was publicly sold. Her
+Majesty desired me one day, when I was going to Paris, to buy her the
+engraving, which was said to be a tolerable likeness, that she might
+ascertain whether she could recognise in it any person whom she might
+have seen in the gallery.
+
+ [The public, with the exception of the lowest class, were admitted
+ into the gallery and larger apartments of Versailles, as they were
+ into the park.--MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+The woman De Lamotte's father was a peasant at Auteuil, though he called
+himself Valois. Madame de Boulainvilliers once saw from her terrace two
+pretty little peasant girls, each labouring under a heavy bundle of
+sticks. The priest of the village, who was walking with her, told her
+that the children possessed some curious papers, and that he had no doubt
+they were descendants of a Valois, an illegitimate son of one of the
+princes of that name.
+
+The family of Valois had long ceased to appear in the world. Hereditary
+vices had gradually plunged them into the deepest misery. I have heard
+that the last Valois then known occupied the estate called Gros Bois;
+that as he seldom came to Court, Louis XIII. asked him what he was about
+that he remained so constantly in the country; and that this M. de Valois
+merely answered, "Sire, I only do there what I ought." It was shortly
+afterwards discovered that he was coining.
+
+Neither the Queen herself nor any one near her ever had the slightest
+connection with the woman De Lamotte; and during her prosecution she
+could point out but one of the Queen's servants, named Desclos, a valet
+of the Queen's bedchamber, to whom she pre tended she had delivered
+Boehmer's necklace. This Desclos was a very honest man; upon being
+confronted with the woman De Lamotte, it was proved that she had never
+seen him but once, which was at the house of the wife of a surgeon-
+accoucheur at Versailles, the only person she visited at Court; and that
+she had not given him the necklace. Madame de Lamotte married a private
+in Monsieur's body-guard; she lodged at Versailles at the Belle Image, a
+very inferior furnished house; and it is inconceivable how so obscure a
+person could succeed in making herself believed to be a friend of the
+Queen, who, though so extremely affable, seldom granted audiences, and
+only to titled persons.
+
+The trial of the Cardinal is too generally known to require me to repeat
+its details here. The point most embarrassing to him was the interview
+he had in February, 1785, with M. de Saint-James, to whom he confided the
+particulars of the Queen's pretended commission, and showed the contract
+approved and signed Marie Antoinette de France. The memorandum found in
+a drawer of the Cardinal's bureau, in which he had himself written what
+Baehmer told him after having seen me at my country house, was likewise
+an unfortunate document for his Eminence.
+
+I offered to the King to go and declare that Baehmer had told me that the
+Cardinal assured him he had received from the Queen's own hand the thirty
+thousand francs given on account upon the bargain being concluded, and
+that his Eminence had seen her Majesty take that sum in bills from the
+porcelain secretaire in her boudoir. The King declined my offer, and
+said to me, "Were you alone when Boehmer told you this?" I answered that
+I was alone with him in my garden. "Well," resumed he, "the man would
+deny the fact; he is now sure of being paid his sixteen hundred thousand
+francs, which the Cardinal's family will find it necessary to make good
+to him; we can no longer rely upon his sincerity; it would look as if you
+were sent by the Queen, and that would not be proper."
+
+ [The guilty woman no sooner knew that all was about to be discovered
+ than she sent for the jewellers, and told them the Cardinal had
+ perceived that the agreement, which he believed to have been signed
+ by the Queen, was a false and forged document. "However," added
+ she, "the Cardinal possesses a considerable fortune, and he can very
+ well pay you." These words reveal the whole secret. The Countess
+ had taken the necklace to herself, and flattered herself that M. de
+ Rohan, seeing himself deceived and cruelly imposed upon, would
+ determine to pay and make the beat terms he could, rather than
+ suffer a matter of this nature to become public.-"Secret
+ Correspondence of the Court of Louis XVI."]
+
+The procureur general's information was severe on the Cardinal. The
+Houses of Conde and Rohan and the majority of the nobility saw in this
+affair only an attack on the Prince's rank, the clergy only a blow aimed
+at the privileges of a cardinal. The clergy demanded that the
+unfortunate business of the Prince Cardinal de Rohan should be submitted
+to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the Archbishop of Narbonne, then
+President of the Convocation, made representations upon the subject to
+the King; the bishops wrote to his Majesty to remind him that a private
+ecclesiastic implicated in the affair then pending would have a right to
+claim his constitutional judges, and that this right was refused to a
+cardinal, his superior in the hierarchical order. In short, the clergy
+and the greater part of the nobility were at that time outrageous against
+authority, and chiefly against the Queen.
+
+The procureur-general's conclusions, and those of a part of the heads of
+the magistracy, were as severe towards the Cardinal as the information
+had been; yet he was fully acquitted by a majority of three voices; the
+woman De Lamotte was condemned to be whipped, branded, and imprisoned;
+and her husband, for contumacy, was condemned to the galleys for life.
+
+ [The following extract is from the "Memoirs" of the Abbe Georgel:
+ "The sittings were long and multiplied; it was necessary to read the
+ whole proceedings; more than fifty judges sat; a master of requests;
+ a friend of the Prince, wrote down all that was said there, and sent
+ it to his advisers, who found means to inform the Cardinal of it,
+ and to add the plan of conduct he ought to pursue." D'Epremesnil,
+ and other young counsellors, showed upon that occasion but too much
+ audacity in braving the Court, too much eagerness in seizing an
+ opportunity of attacking it. They were the first to shake that
+ authority which their functions made it a duty in them to respect.-
+ NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+M. Pierre de Laurencel, the procureur general's substitute, sent the
+Queen a list of the names of the members of the Grand Chamber, with the
+means made use of by the friends of the Cardinal to gain their votes
+during the trial. I had this list to keep among the papers which the
+Queen deposited in the house of M. Campan, my father-in-law, and which,
+at his death, she ordered me to preserve. I burnt this statement, but I
+remember ladies performed a part not very creditable to their principles;
+it was by them, in consideration of large sums which they received, that
+some of the oldest and most respected members were won over. I did not
+see a single name amongst the whole Parliament that was gained directly.
+
+The belief confirmed by time is, that the Cardinal was completely duped
+by the woman De Lamotte and Cagliostro. The King may have been in error
+in thinking him an accomplice in this miserable and criminal scheme, but
+I have faithfully repeated his Majesty's judgment about it.
+
+However, the generally received opinion that the Baron de Breteuil's
+hatred for the Cardinal was the cause of the scandal and the unfortunate
+result of this affair contributed to the disgrace of the former still
+more than his refusal to give his granddaughter in marriage to the son of
+the Duc de Polignac. The Abbe de Vermond threw the whole blame of the
+imprudence and impolicy of the affair of the Cardinal de Rohan upon the
+minister, and ceased to be the friend and supporter of the Baron de
+Breteuil with the Queen.
+
+In the early part of the year 1786, the Cardinal, as has been said,
+was fully acquitted, and came out of the Bastille, while Madame de
+Lamotte was condemned to be whipped, branded, and imprisoned. The Court,
+persisting in the erroneous views which had hitherto guided its measures,
+conceived that the Cardinal and the woman De Lamotte were equally
+culpable and unequally punished, and sought to restore the balance of
+justice by exiling the Cardinal to La Chaise-Dieu, and suffering Madame
+de Lamotte to escape a few days after she entered l'Hopital. This new
+error confirmed the Parisians in the idea that the wretch De Lamotte, who
+had never been able to make her way so far as to the room appropriated to
+the Queen's women, had really interested the Queen herself.
+
+ [Further particulars will be found in the "Memoirs of the Comte de
+ Beugnot" (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1871), as he knew Madame de
+ Lamotte from the days of her early childhood (when the three
+ children, the Baron de Valois, who died captain of a frigate, and
+ the two Mademoiselles de Saint-Remi, the last descendants of the
+ Baron de Saint-Remi, a natural son of Henri II., were almost
+ starving) to the time of her temporary prosperity. In fact, he was
+ with her when she burnt the correspondence of the Cardinal, in the
+ interval the Court foolishly allowed between his arrest and her
+ capture, and De Beugnot believed he had met at her house, at the
+ moment of their return from their successful trick, the whole party
+ engaged in deluding the Cardinal. It is worth noting that he was
+ then struck by the face of Mademoiselle d'Oliva, who had just
+ personated the Queen in presenting a rose to the Cardinal. It may
+ also be cited as a pleasing quality of Madame de Lamotte that she,
+ "in her ordinary conversation, used the words stupid and honest as
+ synonymous."--See "Beugnot," vol. i., p. 60.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The Abbe de Vermond could not repress his exultation when he succeeded in
+getting the Archbishop of Sens appointed head of the council of finance.
+I have more than once heard him say that seventeen years of patience were
+not too long a term for success in a Court; that he spent all that time
+in gaining the end he had in view; but that at length the Archbishop was
+where he ought to be for the good of the State. The Abbe, from this
+time, in the Queen's private circle no longer concealed his credit and
+influence; nothing could equal the confidence with which he displayed the
+extent of his pretensions. He requested the Queen to order that the
+apartments appropriated to him should be enlarged, telling her that,
+being obliged to give audiences to bishops, cardinals, and ministers, he
+required a residence suitable to his present circumstances. The Queen
+continued to treat him as she did before the Archbishop's arrival at
+Court; but the household showed him increased consideration: the word
+"Monsieur" preceded that of Abbe; and from that moment not only the
+livery servants, but also the people of the antechambers rose when
+Monsieur l'Abbe was passing, though there never was, to my knowledge,
+any order given to that effect.
+
+The Queen was obliged, on account of the King's disposition and the very
+limited confidence he placed in the Archbishop of Sens, to take a part in
+public affairs. While M. de Maurepas lived she kept out of that danger,
+as may be seen by the censure which the Baron de Besenval passes on her
+in his memoirs for not availing herself of the conciliation he had
+promoted between the Queen and that minister, who counteracted the
+ascendency which the Queen and her intimate friends might otherwise have
+gained over the King's mind.
+
+The Queen has often assured me that she never interfered respecting the
+interests of Austria but once; and that was only to claim the execution
+of the treaty of alliance at the time when Joseph II. was at war with
+Prussia and Turkey; that, she then demanded that an army of twenty-four
+thousand men should be sent to him instead of fifteen millions, an
+alternative which had been left to option in the treaty, in case the
+Emperor should have a just war to maintain; that she could not obtain her
+object, and M. de Vergennes, in an interview which she had with him upon
+the subject, put an end to her importunities by observing that he was
+answering the mother of the Dauphin and not the sister of the Emperor.
+The fifteen millions were sent. There was no want of money at Vienna,
+and the value of a French army was fully appreciated.
+
+"But how," said the Queen, "could they be so wicked as to send off those
+fifteen millions from the general post-office, diligently publishing,
+even to the street porters, that they were loading carriages with money
+that I was sending to my brother!--whereas it is certain that the money
+would equally have been sent if I had belonged to another house; and,
+besides, it was sent contrary to my inclination."
+
+ [This was not the first time the Queen had become unpopular in
+ consequence of financial support afforded by France to her brother.
+ The Emperor Joseph II, made, in November, 1783, and in May, 1784,
+ startling claims on the republic of the United Provinces; he
+ demanded the opening of the Scheldt, the cession of Maeatricht with
+ its dependencies, of the country beyond the Meuse, the county of
+ Vroenhoven, and a sum of seventy millions of florins. The first gun
+ was fired by the Emperor on the Scheldt 6th November, 1784. Peace
+ was concluded 8th November, 1785, through the mediation of France.
+ The singular part was the indemnification granted to the Emperor:
+ this was a sum of ten millions of Dutch florins; the articles 15,
+ 16, and 17 of the treaty stipulated the quotas of it. Holland paid
+ five millions and a half, and France, under the direction of M. de
+ Vergennes, four millions and a half of florins, that is to say, nine
+ millions and forty-five thousand francs, according to M. Soulavie.
+ M. de augur, in his "Policy of Cabinets" (vol. iii.), says relative
+ to this affair:
+
+ "M. de Vergennes has been much blamed for having terminated, by a
+ sacrifice of seven millions, the contest that existed between the
+ United Provinces and the Emperor. In that age of philosophy men
+ were still very uncivilised; in that age of commerce they made very
+ erroneous calculations; and those who accused the Queen of sending
+ the gold of France to her brother would have been better pleased if,
+ to support a republic devoid of energy, the blood of two hundred
+ thousand men, and three or four hundred millions of francs, had been
+ sacrificed, and at the same time the risk run of losing the
+ advantage of peace dictated to England." MADAME CAMPAN.]
+
+When the Comte de Moustier set out on his mission to the United States,
+after having had his public audience of leave he came and asked me to
+procure him a private one. I could not succeed even with the strongest
+solicitations; the Queen desired me to wish him a good voyage, but added
+that none but ministers could have anything to say to him in private,
+since he was going to a country where the names of King and Queen must be
+detested.
+
+Marie Antoinette had then no direct influence over State affairs until
+after the deaths of M. de Maurepas and M. de Vergennes, and the
+retirement of M. de Calonne. She frequently regretted her new situation,
+and looked upon it as a misfortune which she could not avoid. One day,
+while I was assisting her to tie up a number of memorials and reports,
+which some of the ministers had handed to her to be given to the King,
+"Ah!" said she, sighing, "there is an end of all happiness for me, since
+they have made an intriguer of me." I exclaimed at the word.
+
+"Yes," resumed, the Queen, "that is the right term; every woman who
+meddles with affairs above her understanding or out of her line of duty
+is an intriguer and nothing else; you will remember, however, that it is
+not my own fault, and that it is with regret I give myself such a title;
+Queens of France are happy only so long as they meddle with nothing, and
+merely preserve influence sufficient to advance their friends and reward
+a few zealous servants. Do you know what happened to me lately? One day
+since I began to attend private committees at the King's, while crossing
+the oiel-de-boeuf, I heard one of the musicians of the chapel say so loud
+that I lost not a single word, 'A Queen who does her duty will remain in
+her apartment to knit.' I said within myself, 'Poor wretch, thou art
+right; but thou knowest not my situation; I yield to necessity and my
+evil destiny.'"
+
+This situation was the more painful to the Queen inasmuch as Louis XVI.
+had long accustomed himself to say nothing to her respecting State
+affairs; and when, towards the close of his reign, she was obliged to
+interfere in the most important matters, the same habit in the King
+frequently kept from her particulars which it was necessary she should
+have known. Obtaining, therefore, only insufficient information, and
+guided by persons more ambitious than skilful, the Queen could not be
+useful in important affairs; yet, at the same time, her ostensible
+interference drew upon her, from all parties and all classes of society,
+an unpopularity the rapid progress of which alarmed all those who were
+sincerely attached to her.
+
+Carried away by the eloquence of the Archbishop of Sens, and encouraged
+in the confidence she placed in that minister by the incessant eulogies
+of the Abbe de Vermond on his abilities, the Queen unfortunately followed
+up her first mistake of bringing him into office in 1787 by supporting
+him at the time of his disgrace, which was obtained by the despair of a
+whole nation. She thought it was due to her dignity to give him some
+marked proof of her regard at the moment of his departure; misled by her
+feelings, she sent him her portrait enriched with jewelry, and a brevet
+for the situation of lady of the palace for Madame de Canisy, his niece,
+observing that it was necessary to indemnify a minister sacrificed to the
+intrigues of the Court and a factious spirit of the nation; that
+otherwise none would be found willing to devote themselves to the
+interests of the sovereign.
+
+On the day of the Archbishop's departure the public joy was universal,
+both at Court and at Paris there were bonfires; the attorneys' clerks
+burnt the Archbishop in effigy, and on the evening of his disgrace more
+than a hundred couriers were sent out from Versailles to spread the happy
+tidings among the country seats. I have seen the Queen shed bitter tears
+at the recollection of the errors she committed at this period, when
+subsequently, a short time before her death, the Archbishop had the
+audacity to say, in a speech which was printed, that the sole object of
+one part of his operations, during his administration, was the salutary
+crisis which the Revolution had produced.
+
+The benevolence and generosity shown by the King and Queen during the
+severe winter of 1788, when the Seine was frozen over and the cold was
+more intense than it had been for eighty years, procured them some
+fleeting popularity. The gratitude of the Parisians for the succour
+their Majesties poured forth was lively if not lasting. The snow was so
+abundant that since that period there has never been seen such a
+prodigious quantity in France. In different parts of Paris pyramids and
+obelisks of snow were erected with inscriptions expressive of the
+gratitude of the people. The pyramid in the Rue d'Angiviller was
+supported on a base six feet high by twelve broad; it rose to the height
+of fifteen feet, and was terminated by a globe. Four blocks of stone,
+placed at the angles, corresponded with the obelisk, and gave it an
+elegant appearance. Several inscriptions, in honour of the King and
+Queen, were affixed to it. I went to see this singular monument, and
+recollect the following inscription
+
+ "TO MARIE ANTOINETTE."
+
+ "Lovely and good, to tender pity true,
+ Queen of a virtuous King, this trophy view;
+ Cold ice and snow sustain its fragile form,
+ But ev'ry grateful heart to thee is warm.
+ Oh, may this tribute in your hearts excite,
+ Illustrious pair, more pure and real delight,
+ Whilst thus your virtues are sincerely prais'd,
+ Than pompous domes by servile flatt'ry rais'd."
+
+The theatres generally rang with praises of the beneficence of the
+sovereigns: "La Partie de Chasse de Henri IV." was represented for the
+benefit of the poor. The receipts were very considerable.
+
+When the fruitless measure of the Assembly of the Notables, and the
+rebellious spirit in the parliaments,
+
+ [The Assembly of the Notables, as may be seen in "Weber's
+ Memoirs," vol. i., overthrew the plans and caused the downfall
+ of M. de Calonne. A prince of the blood presided over each of the
+ meetings of that assembly. Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII.,
+ presided over the first meeting.
+
+ "Monsieur," says a contemporary, "gained great reputation at the
+ Assembly of the Notables in 1787. He did not miss attending his
+ meeting a single day, and he displayed truly patriotic virtues.
+ His care in discussing the weighty matters of administration, in
+ throwing light upon them, and in defending the interests and the
+ cause of the people, was such as even to inspire the King with some
+ degree of jealousy. Monsieur openly said that a respectful
+ resistance to the orders of the monarch was not blamable, and that
+ authority might be met by argument, and forced to receive
+ information without any offence whatever."--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+had created the necessity for States General, it was long discussed in
+council whether they should be assembled at Versailles or at forty or
+sixty leagues from the capital; the Queen was for the latter course, and
+insisted to the King that they ought to be far away from the immense
+population of Paris. She feared that the people would influence the
+deliberations of the deputies; several memorials were presented to the
+King upon that question; but M. Necker prevailed, and Versailles was the
+place fixed upon.
+
+The day on which the King announced that he gave his consent to the
+convocation of the States General, the Queen left the public dinner,
+and placed herself in the recess of the first window of her bedchamber,
+with her face towards the garden. Her chief butler followed her, to
+present her coffee, which she usually took standing, as she was about to
+leave the table. She beckoned to me to come close to her. The King was
+engaged in conversation with some one in his room. When the attendant
+had served her he retired; and she addressed me, with the cup still in
+her hand: "Great Heavens! what fatal news goes forth this day! The King
+assents to the convocation of the States General." Then she added,
+raising her eyes to heaven, "I dread it; this important event is a first
+fatal signal of discord in France." She cast her eyes down, they were
+filled with tears. She could not take the remainder of her coffee, but
+handed me the cup, and went to join the King. In the evening, when she
+was alone with me, she spoke only of this momentous decision. "It is the
+Parliament," said she, "that has compelled the King to have recourse to a
+measure long considered fatal to the repose of the kingdom. These
+gentlemen wish to restrain the power of the King; but they give a great
+shock to the authority of which they make so bad a use, and they will
+bring on their own destruction."
+
+The double representation granted to the Tiers Etat was now the chief
+topic of conversation. The Queen favoured this plan, to which the King
+had agreed; she thought the hope of obtaining ecclesiastical favours
+would secure the clergy of the second order, and that M. Necker was sure
+to have the same degree of influence over the lawyers, and other people
+of that class comprised in the Tiers Dat. The Comte d'Artois, holding
+the contrary opinion, presented a memorial in the names of himself and
+several princes of the blood to the King against the double
+representation. The Queen was displeased with him for this; her
+confidential advisers infused into her apprehensions that the Prince was
+made the tool of a party; but his conduct was approved of by Madame de
+Polignac's circle, which the Queen thenceforward only frequented to avoid
+the appearance of a change in her habits. She almost always returned
+unhappy; she was treated with the profound respect due to a queen, but
+the devotion of friendship had vanished, to make way for the coldness of
+etiquette, which wounded her deeply. The alienation between her and the
+Comte Artois was also very painful to her, for she had loved him almost
+as tenderly as if he had been her own brother.
+
+The opening of the States General took place on the 4th of May, 1789.
+The Queen on that occasion appeared for the last time in her life in
+regal magnificence. During the procession some low women, seeing the
+Queen pass, cried out "Vive le Duc d' Orleans!" in so threatening a
+manner that she nearly fainted. She was obliged to be supported, and
+those about her were afraid it would be necessary to stop the procession.
+The Queen, however, recovered herself, and much regretted that she had
+not been able to command more presence of mind.
+
+The rapidly increasing distrust of the King and Queen shown by the
+populace was greatly attributable to incessant corruption by English
+gold, and the projects, either of revenge or of ambition, of the Duc
+d'Orleans. Let it not be thought that this accusation is founded on what
+has been so often repeated by the heads of the French Government since
+the Revolution. Twice between the 14th of July and the 6th of October,
+1789, the day on which the Court was dragged to Paris, the Queen
+prevented me from making little excursions thither of business or
+pleasure, saying to me, "Do not go on such a day to Paris; the English
+have been scattering gold, we shall have some disturbance." The repeated
+visits of the Duc d'Orleans to England had excited the Anglomania to such
+a pitch that Paris was no longer distinguishable from London. The
+French, formerly imitated by the whole of Europe, became on a sudden a
+nation of imitators, without considering the evils that arts and
+manufactures must suffer in consequence of the change. Since the treaty
+of commerce made with England at the peace of 1783, not merely equipages,
+but everything, even to ribands and common earthenware, were of English
+make. If this predominance of English fashions had been confined to
+filling our drawing-rooms with young men in English frock-coats, instead
+of the French dress, good taste and commerce might alone have suffered;
+but the principles of English government had taken possession of these
+young heads. Constitution, Upper House, Lower House, national guarantee,
+balance of power, Magna Charta, Law of Habeas Corpus,--all these words
+were incessantly repeated, and seldom understood; but they were of
+fundamental importance to a party which was then forming.
+
+The first sitting of the States took place on the following day. The
+King delivered his speech with firmness and dignity; the Queen told me
+that he had taken great pains about it, and had repeated it frequently.
+His Majesty gave public marks of attachment and respect for the Queen,
+who was applauded; but it was easy to see that this applause was in fact
+rendered to the King alone.
+
+It was evident, during the first sittings, that Mirabeau would be very
+dangerous to the Government. It affirmed that at this period he
+communicated to the King, and still more fully to the Queen, part of his
+schemes for abandoning them. He brandished the weapons afforded him by
+his eloquence and audacity, in order to make terms with the party he
+meant to attack. This man played the game of revolution to make his own
+fortune. The Queen told me that he asked for an embassy, and, if my
+memory does not deceive me, it was that of Constantinople. He was
+refused with well-deserved contempt, though policy would doubtless have
+concealed it, could the future have been foreseen.
+
+The enthusiasm prevailing at the opening of this assembly, and the
+debates between the Tiers Etat, the nobility, and even the clergy, daily
+increased the alarm of their Majesties, and all who were attached to the
+cause of monarchy. The Queen went to bed late, or rather she began to be
+unable to rest. One evening, about the end of May, she was sitting in
+her room, relating several remarkable occurrences of the day; four wax
+candles were placed upon her toilet-table; the first went out of itself;
+I relighted it; shortly afterwards the second, and then the third went
+out also; upon which the Queen, squeezing my hand in terror, said to me:
+"Misfortune makes us superstitious; if the fourth taper should go out
+like the rest, nothing can prevent my looking upon it as a sinister
+omen." The fourth taper went out. It was remarked to the Queen that the
+four tapers had probably been run in the same mould, and that a defect in
+the wick had naturally occurred at the same point in each, since the
+candles had all gone out in the order in which they had been lighted.
+
+The deputies of the Tiers Etat arrived at Versailles full of the
+strongest prejudices against the Court. They believed that the King
+indulged in the pleasures of the table to a shameful excess; and that the
+Queen was draining the treasury of the State in order to satisfy the most
+unbridled luxury. They almost all determined to see Petit Trianon. The
+extreme plainness of the retreat in question not answering the ideas they
+had formed, some of them insisted upon seeing the very smallest closets,
+saying that the richly furnished apartments were concealed from them.
+They particularised one which, according to them, was ornamented with
+diamonds, and with wreathed columns studded with sapphires and rubies.
+The Queen could not get these foolish ideas out of her mind, and spoke to
+the King on the subject. From the description given of this room by the
+deputies to the keepers of Trianon, the King concluded that they were
+looking for the scene enriched with paste ornaments, made in the reign of
+Louis XV. for the theatre of Fontainebleau.
+
+The King supposed that his Body Guards, on their return to the country,
+after their quarterly duty at Court, related what they had seen, and that
+their exaggerated accounts, being repeated, became at last totally
+perverted. This idea of the King, after the search for the diamond
+chamber, suggested to the Queen that the report of the King's propensity
+for drinking also sprang from the guards who accompanied his carriage
+when he hunted at Rambouillet. The King, who disliked sleeping out of
+his usual bed, was accustomed to leave that hunting-seat after supper;
+he generally slept soundly in his carriage, and awoke only on his arrival
+at the courtyard of his palace; he used to get down from his carriage in
+the midst of his Body Guards, staggering, as a man half awake will do,
+which was mistaken for intoxication.
+
+The majority of the deputies who came imbued with prejudices produced by
+error or malevolence, went to lodge with the most humble private
+individuals of Versailles, whose inconsiderate conversation contributed
+not a little to nourish such mistakes. Everything, in short, tended to
+render the deputies subservient to the schemes of the leaders of the
+rebellion.
+
+Shortly after the opening of the States General the first Dauphin died.
+That young Prince suffered from the rickets, which in a few months curved
+his spine, and rendered his legs so weak that he could not walk without
+being supported like a feeble old man.
+
+ [Louis, Dauphin of France, who died at Versailles on the 4th of
+ June, 1789, gave promise of intellectual precocity. The following
+ particulars, which convey some idea of his disposition, and of the
+ assiduous attention bestowed upon him by the Duchesse de Polignac,
+ will be found in a work of that time: "At two years old the Dauphin
+ was very pretty; he articulated well, and answered questions put to
+ him intelligently. While he was at the Chateau de La Muette
+ everybody was at liberty to see him. The Dauphin was dressed
+ plainly, like a sailor; there was nothing to distinguish him from
+ other children in external appearance but the cross of Saint Louis,
+ the blue ribbon, and the Order of the Fleece, decorations that are
+ the distinctive signs of his rank. The Duchesse Jules de Polignac,
+ his governess, scarcely ever left him for a single instant: she gave
+ up all the Court excursions and amusements in order to devote her
+ whole attention to him. The Prince always manifested a great regard
+ for M. de Bourset, his valet de chambre. During the illness of
+ which he died, he one day asked for a pair of scissors; that
+ gentleman reminded him that they were forbidden. The child insisted
+ mildly, and they were obliged to yield to him. Having got the
+ scissors, he cut off a lock of his hair, which he wrapped in a sheet
+ of paper: 'There, monsieur,' said he to his valet de chambre,' there
+ is the only present I can make you, having nothing at my command;
+ but when I am dead you will present this pledge to my papa and
+ mamma; and while they remember me, I hope they will not forget
+ you.'"--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]
+
+How many maternal tears did his condition draw from the Queen, already
+overwhelmed with apprehensions respecting the state of the kingdom! Her
+grief was enhanced by petty intrigues, which, when frequently renewed,
+became intolerable. An open quarrel between the families and friends of
+the Duc Harcourt, the Dauphin's governor, and those of the Duchesse de
+Polignac, his governess, added greatly to the Queen's affliction. The
+young Prince showed a strong dislike to the Duchesse de Polignac, who
+attributed it either to the Duc or the Duchesse d'Harcourt, and came to
+make her complaints respecting it to the Queen. The Dauphin twice sent
+her out of his room, saying to her, with that maturity of manner which
+long illness always gives to children: "Go out, Duchess; you are so fond
+of using perfumes, and they always make me ill;" and yet she never used
+any. The Queen perceived, also, that his prejudices against her friend
+extended to herself; her son would no longer speak in her presence. She
+knew that he had become fond of sweetmeats, and offered him some
+marshmallow and jujube lozenges. The under-governors and the first valet
+de chambre requested her not to give the Dauphin anything, as he was to
+receive no food of any kind without the consent of the faculty.
+I forbear to describe the wound this prohibition inflicted upon the
+Queen; she felt it the more deeply because she was aware it was unjustly
+believed she gave a decided preference to the Duc de Normandie, whose
+ruddy health and amiability did, in truth, form a striking contrast to
+the languid look and melancholy disposition of his elder brother. She
+even suspected that a plot had for some time existed to deprive her of
+the affection of a child whom she loved as a good and tender mother
+ought. Previous to the audience granted by the King on the 10th August,
+1788, to the envoy of the Sultan Tippoo Saib, she had begged the Duc
+d'Harcourt to divert the Dauphin, whose deformity was already apparent,
+from his, intention to be present at that ceremony, being unwilling to
+expose him to the gaze of the crowd of inquisitive Parisians who would be
+in the gallery. Notwithstanding this injunction, the Dauphin was
+suffered to write to his mother, requesting her permission to be present
+at the audience. The Queen was obliged to refuse him, and warmly
+reproached the governor, who merely answered that he could not oppose the
+wishes of a sick child. A year before the death of the Dauphin the Queen
+lost the Princesse Sophie; this was, as the Queen said, the first of a
+series of misfortunes.
+
+
+NOTE: As Madame Campan has stated in the foregoing pages that the money
+to foment sedition was furnished from English sources, the decree of the
+Convention of August, 1793, maybe quoted as illustrative of the entente
+cordiale alleged to exist between the insurrectionary Government and its
+friends across the Channel! The endeavours made by the English
+Government to save the unfortunate King are well known. The motives
+prompting the conduct of the Duc d'Orleans are equally well known.
+
+Art. i. The National Convention denounces the British Government to
+Europe and the English nation.
+
+Art. ii. Every Frenchman that shall place his money in the English
+funds shall be declared a traitor to his country.
+
+Art. iii. Every Frenchman who has money in the English funds or those
+of any other Power with whom France is at war shall be obliged to declare
+the same.
+
+Art. iv. All foreigners, subjects of the Powers now at war with France,
+particularly the English, shall be arrested, and seals put upon their
+papers.
+
+Art. v. The barriers of Paris shall be instantly shut.
+
+Art. vi. All good citizens shall be required in the name of the country
+to search for the foreigners concerned in any plot denounced.
+
+Art. vii. Three millions shall be at the disposal of the Minister at
+War to facilitate the march of the garrison of Mentz to La Vendee.
+
+Art. viii. The Minister at War shall send to the army on the coast of
+Rochelle all the combustible materials necessary to set fire to the
+forests and underwood of La Vendee.
+
+Art. ix. The women, the children, and old men shall be conducted to the
+interior parts of the country.
+
+Art. x. The property of the rebels shall be confiscated for the benefit
+of the Republic.
+
+Art. xi. A camp shall be formed without delay between Paris and the
+Northern army.
+
+Art. xii. All the family of the Capets shall be banished from the
+French territory, those excepted who are under the sword of the law, and
+the offspring of Louis Capet, who shall both remain in the Temple.
+
+Art. xiii. Marie Antoinette shall be delivered over to the
+Revolutionary Tribunal, and shall be immediately conducted to the prison
+of the Conciergerie. Louise Elisabeth shall remain in the Temple till
+after the judgment of Marie Antoinette.
+
+Art. xiv. All the tombs of the Kings which are at St. Denis and in the
+departments shall be destroyed on August the 10th.
+
+Art. xv. The present decree shall be despatched by extraordinary
+couriers to all the departments.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Customs are nearly equal to laws
+Displaying her acquirements with rather too much confidence
+I do not like these rhapsodies
+Indulge in the pleasure of vice and assume the credit of virtue
+No accounting for the caprices of a woman
+None but little minds dreaded little books
+Shun all kinds of confidence
+The author (Beaumarchais) was sent to prison soon afterwards
+Those muskets were immediately embarked and sold to the Americans
+Young Prince suffered from the rickets
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, v4
+by Madame Campan
+
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