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diff --git a/old/cm53b10.txt b/old/cm53b10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52da532 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cm53b10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3086 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, v7 +#7 in our series by Madam Campan +#53 in our series Historic Court Memoirs + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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D.W.] + + + + + +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 7. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Queen having been robbed of her purse as she was passing from the +Tuileries to the Feuillans, requested my sister to lend her twenty-five +louis. + + [On being interrogated the Queen declared that these five and twenty + louis had been lent to her by my sister; this formed a pretence for + arresting her and me, and led to her death.--MADAME CAMPAN.] + +I spent part of the day at the Feuillans, and her Majesty told me she +would ask Potion to let me be with her in the place which the Assembly +should decree for her prison. I then returned home to prepare everything +that might be necessary for me to accompany her. + +On the same day (11th August), at nine in the evening, I returned to the +Feuillans. I found there were orders at all the gates forbidding my +being admitted. I claimed a right to enter by virtue of the first +permission which had been given to me; I was again refused. I was told +that the Queen had as many people as were requisite about her. My sister +was with her, as well as one of my companions, who came out of the +prisons of the Abbaye on the 11th. I renewed my solicitations on the +12th; my tears and entreaties moved neither the keepers of the gates, nor +even a deputy, to whom I addressed myself. + +I soon heard of the removal of Louis XVI. and his family to the Temple. +I went to Potion accompanied by M. Valadon, for whom I had procured a +place in the post-office, and who was devoted to me. He determined to go +up to Potion alone; he told him that those who requested to be confined +could not be suspected of evil designs, and that no political opinion +could afford a ground of objection to these solicitations. Seeing that +the well-meaning man did not succeed, I thought to do more in person; but +Petion persisted in his refusal, and threatened to send me to La Force. +Thinking to give me a kind of consolation, he added I might be certain +that all those who were then with Louis XVI. and his family would not +stay with them long. And in fact, two or three days afterwards the +Princesse de Lamballe, Madame de Tourzel, her daughter, the Queen's first +woman, the first woman of the Dauphin and of Madame, M. de Chamilly, and +M. de Hue were carried off during the night and transferred to La Force. +After the departure of the King and Queen for the Temple, my sister was +detained a prisoner in the apartments their Majesties had quitted for +twenty-four hours. + +From this time I was reduced to the misery of having no further +intelligence of my august and unfortunate mistress but through the medium +of the newspapers or the National Guard, who did duty at the Temple. + +The King and Queen said nothing to me at the Feuillans about the +portfolio which had been deposited with me; no doubt they expected to see +me again. The minister Roland and the deputies composing the provisional +government were very intent on a search for papers belonging to their +Majesties. They had the whole of the Tuileries ransacked. The infamous +Robespierre bethought himself of M. Campan, the Queen's private +secretary, and said that his death was feigned; that he was living +unknown in some obscure part of France, and was doubtless the depositary +of all the important papers. In a great portfolio belonging to the King +there had been found a solitary letter from the Comte d'Artois, which, by +its date, and the subjects of which it treated, indicated the existence +of a continued correspondence. (This letter appeared among the documents +used on the trial of Louis XVI.) A former preceptor of my son's had +studied with Robespierre; the latter, meeting him in the street, and +knowing the connection which had subsisted between him and the family of +M. Campan, required him to say, upon his honour, whether he was certain +of the death of the latter. The man replied that M. Campan had died at +La Briche in 1791, and that he had seen him interred in the cemetery of +Epinay. "well, then," resumed Robespierre, "bring me the certificate of +his burial at twelve to-morrow; it is a document for which I have +pressing occasion." Upon hearing the deputy's demand I instantly sent +for a certificate of M. Campan's burial, and Robespierre received it at +nine o'clock the next morning. But I considered that, in thinking of my +father-in-law, they were coming very near me, the real depositary of +these important papers. I passed days and nights in considering what I +could do for the best under such circumstances. + +I was thus situated when the order to inform against those who had been +denounced as suspected on the 10th of August led to domiciliary visits. +My servants were told that the people of the quarter in which I lived +were talking much of the search that would be made in my house, and came +to apprise me of it. I heard that fifty armed men would make themselves +masters of M. Auguies house, where I then was. I had just received this +intelligence when M. Gougenot, the King's maitre d'hotel and receiver- +general of the taxes, a man much attached to his sovereign, came into my +room wrapped in a ridingcloak, under which, with great difficulty, he +carried the King's portfolio, which I had entrusted to him. He threw it +down at my feet, and said to me, "There is your deposit; I did not +receive it from our unfortunate King's own hands; in delivering it to you +I have executed my trust." After saying this he was about to withdraw. +I stopped him, praying him to consult with me what I ought to do in such +a trying emergency. He would not listen to my entreaties, or even hear +me describe the course I intended to pursue. I told him my abode was +about to be surrounded; I imparted to him what the Queen had said to me +about the contents of the portfolio. To all this he answered, "There it +is; decide for yourself; I will have no hand in it." Upon that I +remained a few seconds thinking, and my conduct was founded upon the +following reasons. I spoke aloud, although to myself; I walked about the +room with agitated steps; M. Gougenot was thunderstruck. "Yes," said I, +"when we can no longer communicate with our King and receive his orders, +however attached we may be to him, we can only serve him according to the +best of our own judgment. The Queen said to me, 'This portfolio contains +scarcely anything but documents of a most dangerous description in the +event of a trial taking place, if it should fall into the hands of +revolutionary persons.' She mentioned, too, a single document which +would, under the same circumstances, be useful. It is my duty to +interpret her words, and consider them as orders. She meant to say, +'You will save such a paper, you will destroy the rest if they are likely +to be taken from you.' If it were not so, was there any occasion for her +to enter into any detail as to what the portfolio contained? The order +to keep it was sufficient. Probably it contains, moreover, the letters +of that part of the family which has emigrated; there is nothing which +may have been foreseen or decided upon that can be useful now; and there +can be no political thread which has not been cut by the events of the +10th of August and the imprisonment of the King. My house is about to be +surrounded; I cannot conceal anything of such bulk; I might, then, +through want of foresight, give up that which would cause the +condemnation of the King. Let us open the portfolio, save the document +alluded to, and destroy the rest." I took a knife and cut open one side +of the portfolio. I saw a great number of envelopes endorsed by the +King's own hand. M. Gougenot found there the former seals of the King, + + [No doubt it was in order to have the ancient seals ready at a + moment's notice, in case of a counter-revolution, that the Queen + desired me not to quit the Tuileries. M. Gougenot threw the seals + into the river, one from above the Pont Neuf, and the other from + near the Pont Royal.--MADAME CAMPAN.] + +such as they were before the Assembly had changed the inscription. At +this moment we heard a great noise; he agreed to tie up the portfolio, +take it again under his cloak, and go to a safe place to execute what I +had taken upon me to determine. He made me swear, by all I held most +sacred, that I would affirm, under every possible emergency, that the +course I was pursuing had not been dictated to me by anybody; and that, +whatever might be the result, I would take all the credit or all the +blame upon myself. I lifted up my hand and took the oath he required; +he went out. Half an hour afterwards a great number of armed men came to +my house; they placed sentinels at all the outlets; they broke open +secretaires and closets of which they had not the keys; they 'searched +the flower-pots and boxes; they examined the cellars; and the commandant +repeatedly said, "Look particularly for papers." In the afternoon M. +Gougenot returned. He had still the seals of France about him, and he +brought me a statement of all that he had burnt. + +The portfolio contained twenty letters from Monsieur, eighteen or +nineteen from the Comte d'Artois, seventeen from Madame Adelaide, +eighteen from Madame Victoire, a great many letters from Comte Alexandre +de Lameth, and many from M. de Malesherbes, with documents annexed to +them. There were also some from M. de Montmorin and other ex-ministers +or ambassadors. Each correspondence had its title written in the King's +own hand upon the blank paper which contained it. The most voluminous +was that from Mirabeau. It was tied up with a scheme for an escape, +which he thought necessary. M. Gougenot, who had skimmed over these +letters with more attention than the rest, told me they were of so +interesting a nature that the King had no doubt kept them as documents +exceedingly valuable for a history of his reign, and that the +correspondence with the Princes, which was entirely relative to what was +going forward abroad, in concert with the King, would have been fatal to +him if it had been seized. After he had finished he placed in my hands +the proces-verbal, signed by all the ministers, to which the King +attached so much importance, because he had given his opinion against the +declaration of war; a copy of the letter written by the King to the +Princes, his brothers, inviting them to return to France; an account of +the diamonds which the Queen had sent to Brussels (these two documents +were in my handwriting); and a receipt for four hundred thousand francs, +under the hand of a celebrated banker. This sum was part of the eight +hundred thousand francs which the Queen had gradually saved during her +reign, out of her pension of three hundred thousand francs per annum, and +out of the one hundred thousand francs given by way of present on the +birth of the Dauphin. + +This receipt, written on a very small piece of paper, was in the cover of +an almanac. I agreed with M. Gougenot, who was obliged by his office to +reside in Paris, that he should retain the proces-verbal of the Council +and the receipt for the four hundred thousand francs, and that we should +wait either for orders or for the means of transmitting these documents +to the King or Queen; and I set out for Versailles. + +The strictness of the precautions taken to guard the illustrious +prisoners was daily increased. The idea that I could not inform the King +of the course I had adopted of burning his papers, and the fear that I +should not be able to transmit to him that which he had pointed out as +necessary, tormented me to such a degree that it is wonderful my health +endured the strain. + +The dreadful trial drew near. Official advocates were granted to the +King; the heroic virtue of M. de Malesherbes induced him to brave the +most imminent dangers, either to save his master or to perish with him. +I hoped also to be able to find some means of informing his Majesty of +what I had thought it right to do. I sent a man, on whom I could rely, +to Paris, to request M. Gougenot to come to me at Versailles he came +immediately. We agreed that he should see M. de Malesherbes without +availing himself of any intermediate person for that purpose. + +M. Gougenot awaited his return from the Temple at the door of his hotel, +and made a sign that he wished to speak to him. A moment afterwards a +servant came to introduce him into the magistrates' room. He imparted to +M. de Malesherbes what I had thought it right to do with respect to the +King's papers, and placed in his hands the proces-verbal of the Council, +which his Majesty had preserved in order to serve, if occasion required +it, for a ground of his defence. However, that paper is not mentioned in +either of the speeches of his advocate; probably it was determined not to +make use of it. + +I stop at that terrible period which is marked by the assassination of a +King whose virtues are well known; but I cannot refrain from relating +what he deigned to say in my favour to M. de Malesherbes: + +"Let Madame Campan know that she did what I should myself have ordered +her to do; I thank her for it; she is one of those whom I regret I have +it not in my power to recompense for their fidelity to my person, and for +their good services." I did not hear of this until the morning after he +had suffered, and I think I should have sunk under my despair if this +honourable testimony had not given me some consolation. + + + + + + +SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER IX. + +MADAME CAMPAN'S narrative breaking off abruptly at the time of the +painful end met with by her sister, we have supplemented it by abridged +accounts of the chief incidents in the tragedy which overwhelmed the +royal house she so faithfully served, taken from contemporary records and +the best historical authorities. + + + The Royal Family in the Temple. + +The Assembly having, at the instance of the Commune of Paris, decreed +that the royal family should be immured in the Temple, they were removed +thither from the Feuillans on the 13th of August, 1792, in the charge of +Potion, Mayor of Paris, and Santerre, the commandant-general. Twelve +Commissioners of the general council were to keep constant watch at the +Temple, which had been fortified by earthworks and garrisoned by +detachments of the National Guard, no person being allowed to enter +without permission from the municipality. + +The Temple, formerly the headquarters of the Knights Templars in Paris, +consisted of two buildings,--the Palace, facing the Rue de Temple, +usually occupied by one of the Princes of the blood; and the Tower, +standing behind the Palace. + + [Clery gives a more minute description of this singular building: + "The small tower of the Temple in which the King was then confined + stood with its back against the great tower, without any interior + communication, and formed a long square, flanked by two turrets. In + one of these turrets there was a narrow staircase that led from the + first floor to a gallery on the platform; in the other were small + rooms, answering to each story of the tower. The body of the + building was four stories high. The first consisted of an + antechamber, a dining-room, and a small room in the turret, where + there was a library containing from twelve to fifteen hundred + volumes. The second story was divided nearly in the same manner. + The largest room was the Queen's bedchamber, in which the Dauphin + also slept; the second, which was separated from the Queen's by a + small antechamber almost without light, was occupied by Madame + Royale and Madame Elisabeth. The King's apartments were on the + third story. He slept in the great room, and made a study of the + turret closet. There was a kitchen separated from the King's + chamber by a small dark room, which had been successively occupied + by M. de Chamilly and M. de Hue. The fourth story was shut up; and + on the ground floor there were kitchens of which no use was made." + --"Journal," p. 96.] + +The Tower was a square building, with a round tower at each corner and a +small turret on one side, usually called the Tourelle. In the narrative +of the Duchesse d'Angouleme she says that the soldiers who escorted the +royal prisoners wished to take the King alone to the Tower, and his +family to the Palace of the Temple, but that on the way Manuel received +an order to imprison them all in the Tower, where so little provision had +been made for their reception that Madame Elisabeth slept in the kitchen. +The royal family were accompanied by the Princesse de Lamballe, Madame de +Tourzel and her daughter Pauline, Mesdames de Navarre, de Saint-Brice, +Thibaut, and Bazire, MM. de Hug and de Chamilly, and three men-servants-- +An order from the Commune soon removed these devoted attendants, and M. +de Hue alone was permitted to return. "We all passed the day together," +says Madame Royale. "My father taught my brother geography; my mother +history, and to learn verses by heart; and my aunt gave him lessons in +arithmetic. My father fortunately found a library which amused him, and +my mother worked tapestry . . . . We went every day to walk in the +garden, for the sake of my brother's health, though the King was always +insulted by the guard. On the Feast of Saint Louis 'Ca Ira' was sung +under the walls of the Temple. Manuel that evening brought my aunt a +letter from her aunts at Rome. It was the last the family received from +without. My father was no longer called King. He was treated with no +kind of respect; the officers always sat in his presence and never took +off their hats. They deprived him of his sword and searched his pockets +. . . . Petion sent as gaoler the horrible man --[Rocher, a saddler +by trade] who had broken open my father's door on the 20th June, 1792, +and who had been near assassinating him. This man never left the Tower, +and was indefatigable in endeavouring to torment him. One time he would +sing the 'Caramgnole,' and a thousand other horrors, before us; again, +knowing that my mother disliked the smoke of tobacco, he would puff it in +her face, as well as in that of my father, as they happened to pass him. +He took care always to be in bed before we went to supper, because he +knew that we must pass through his room. My father suffered it all with +gentleness, forgiving the man from the bottom of his heart. My mother +bore it with a dignity that frequently repressed his insolence." +The only occasion, Madame Royale adds, on which the Queen showed any +impatience at the conduct of the officials, was when a municipal officer +woke the Dauphin suddenly in the night to make certain that he was safe, +as though the sight of the peacefully sleeping child would not have been +in itself the best assurance. + +Clery, the valet de chambre of the Dauphin, having with difficulty +obtained permission to resume his duties, entered the Temple on the 24th +August, and for eight days shared with M. de Hue the personal attendance; +but on the 2d September De Hue was arrested, seals were placed on the +little room he had occupied, and Clery passed the night in that of the +King. On the following morning Manuel arrived, charged by the Commune to +inform the King that De Hue would not be permitted to return, and to +offer to send another person. "I thank you," answered the King. "I will +manage with the valet de chambre of my son; and if the Council refuse I +will serve myself. I am determined to do it." On the 3d September +Manual visited the Temple and assured the King that Madame de Lamballe +and all the other prisoners who had been removed to La Force were well, +and safely guarded. "But at three o'clock," says Madame Royale, "just +after dinner, and as the King was sitting down to 'tric trac' with my +mother (which he played for the purpose of having an opportunity of saying +a few words to her unheard by the keepers), the most horrid shouts were +heard. The officer who happened to be on guard in the room behaved well. +He shut the door and the window, and even drew the curtains to prevent +their seeing anything; but outside the workmen and the gaoler Rocher +joined the assassins and increased the tumult. Several officers of the +guard and the municipality now arrived, and on my father's asking what +was the matter, a young officer replied, 'Well, since you will know, +it is the head of Madame de Lamballe that they want to show you.' +At these words my mother was overcome with horror; it was the only +occasion on which her firmness abandoned her. The municipal officers +were very angry with the young man; but the King, with his usual +goodness, excused him, saying that it was his own fault, since he had +questioned the officer. The noise lasted till five o'clock. We learned +that the people had wished to force the door, and that the municipal +officers had been enabled to prevent it only by putting a tricoloured +scarf across it, and allowing six of the murderers to march round our +prison with the head of the Princess, leaving at the door her body, which +they would have dragged in also." + +Clery was not so fortunate as to escape the frightful spectacle. He had +gone down to dine with Tison and his wife, employed as servants in the +Temple, and says: "We were hardly seated when a head, on the end of a +pike, was presented at the window. Tison's wife gave a great cry; the +assassins fancied they recognised the Queen's voice, and responded by +savage laughter. Under the idea that his Majesty was still at table, +they placed their dreadful trophy where it must be seen. It was the head +of the Princesse de Lamballe; although bleeding, it was not disfigured, +and her light hair, still in curls, hung about the pike." + +At length the immense mob that surrounded the Temple gradually withdrew, +"to follow the head of the Princess de Lamballe to the Palais Royal." + + [The pike that bore the head was fixed before the Duc d'Orleans's + window as he was going to dinner. It is said that he looked at this + horrid sight without horror, went into the dining-room, sat down to + table, and helped his guests without saying a word. His silence and + coolness left it doubtful whether the assassins, in presenting him + this bloody trophy, intended to offer him an insult or to pay him + homage.--DE MOLLEVILLE'S "Annals of the French Revolution," vol. + vii., p. 398.] + +Meanwhile the royal family could scarcely believe that for the time their +lives were saved. "My aunt and I heard the drums beating to arms all +night," says Madame Royale; "my unhappy mother did not even attempt to +sleep. We heard her sobs." + +In the comparative tranquillity which followed the September massacres, +the royal family resumed the regular habits they had adopted on entering +the Temple. "The King usually rose at six in the morning," says Clery. +"He shaved himself, and I dressed his hair; he then went to his reading- +room, which, being very small, the municipal officer on duty remained in +the bedchamber with the door open, that he might always keep the King in +sight. His Majesty continued praying on his knees for some time, and +then read till nine. During that interval, after putting his chamber to +rights and preparing the breakfast, I went down to the Queen, who never +opened her door till I arrived, in order to prevent the municipal officer +from going into her apartment. At nine o'clock the Queen, the children, +and Madame Elisabeth went up to the King's chamber to breakfast. At ten +the King and his family went down to the Queen's chamber, and there +passed the day. He employed himself in educating his son, made him +recite passages from Corneille and Racine, gave him lessons in geography, +and exercised him in colouring the maps. The Queen, on her part, was +employed in the education of her daughter, and these different lessons +lasted till eleven o'clock. The remaining time till noon was passed in +needlework, knitting, or making tapestry. At one o'clock, when the +weather was fine, the royal family were conducted to the garden by four +municipal officers and the commander of a legion of the National Guard. +As there were a number of workmen in the Temple employed in pulling down +houses and building new walls, they only allowed a part of the chestnut- +tree walk for the promenade, in which I was allowed to share, and where I +also played with the young Prince at ball, quoits, or races. At two we +returned to the Tower, where I served the dinner, at which time Santerre +regularly came to the Temple, attended by two aides-de-camp. The King +sometimes spoke to him,--the Queen never. + +"After the meal the royal family came down into the Queen's room, and +their Majesties generally played a game of piquet or tric-trac. At four +o'clock the King took a little repose, the Princesses round him, each +with a book . . . . When the King woke the conversation was resumed, +and I gave writing lessons to his son, taking the copies, according to +his instructions, from the works of, Montesquieu and other celebrated +authors. After the lesson I took the young Prince into Madame +Elisabeth's room, where we played at ball, and battledore and +shuttlecock. In the evening the family sat round a table, while the +Queen read to them from books of history, or other works proper to +instruct and amuse the children. Madame Elisabeth took the book in her +turn, and in this manner they read till eight o'clock. After that I +served the supper of the young Prince, in which the royal family shared, +and the King amused the children with charades out of a collection of +French papers which he found in the library. After the Dauphin had +supped, I undressed him, and the Queen heard him say his prayers. At +nine the King went to supper, and afterwards went for a moment to the +Queen's chamber, shook hands with her and his sister for the night, +kissed his children, and then retired to the turret-room, where he sat +reading till midnight. The Queen and the Princesses locked themselves +in, and one of the municipal officers remained in the little room which +parted their chamber, where he passed the night; the other followed his +Majesty. In this manner was the time passed as long as the King remained +in the small tower." + +But even these harmless pursuits were too often made the means of further +insulting and thwarting the unfortunate family. Commissary Le Clerc +interrupted the Prince's writing lessons, proposing to substitute +Republican works for those from which the King selected his copies. +A smith, who was present when the Queen was reading the history of France +to her children, denounced her to the Commune for choosing the period +when the Connstable de Bourbon took arms against France, and said she +wished to inspire her son with unpatriotic feelings; a municipal officer +asserted that the multiplication table the Prince was studying would +afford a means of "speaking in cipher," so arithmetic had to be +abandoned. Much the same occurred even with the needlework, +the Queen and Princess finished some chairbacks, which they wished to +send to the Duchesse de Tarente; but the officials considered that the +patterns were hieroglyphics, intended for carrying on a correspondence, +and ordered that none of the Princesses work should leave the Temple. +The short daily walk in the garden was also embittered by the rude +behaviour of the military and municipal gaolers; sometimes, however, it +afforded an opportunity for marks of sympathy to be shown. People would +station themselves at the windows of houses overlooking the Temple +gardens, and evince by gestures their loyal affection, and some of the +sentinels showed, even by tears, that their duty was painful to them. + +On the 21st September the National Convention was constituted, Petion +being made president and Collot d'Herbois moving the "abolition of +royalty" amidst transports of applause. That afternoon a municipal +officer attended by gendarmes a cheval, and followed by a crowd of +people, arrived at the Temple, and, after a flourish of trumpets, +proclaimed the establishment of the French Republic. The man, says +Clery, "had the voice of a Stentor." The royal family could distinctly +hear the announcement of the King's deposition. "Hebert, so well known +under the title of Pere Duchesne, and Destournelles were on guard. They +were sitting near the door, and turned to the King with meaning smiles. +He had a book in his hand, and went on reading without changing +countenance. The Queen showed the same firmness. The proclamation +finished, the trumpets sounded afresh. I went to the window; the people +took me for Louis XVI. and I was overwhelmed with insults." + +After the new decree the prisoners were treated with increased harshness. +Pens, paper, ink, and pencils were taken from them. The King and Madame +Elisabeth gave up all, but the Queen and her daughter each concealed a +pencil. "In the beginning of October," says Madame Royale, "after my +father had supped, he was told to stop, that he was not to return to his +former apartments, and that he was to be separated from his family. At +this dreadful sentence the Queen lost her usual courage. We parted from +him with abundance of tears, though we expected to see him again in the +morning. + + [At nine o'clock, says Clery, the King asked to be taken to his + family, but the municipal officers replied that they had "no orders + for that." Shortly afterwards a boy brought the King some bread and + a decanter of lemonade for his breakfast. The King gave half the + bread to Clery, saying, "It seems they have forgotten your + breakfast; take this, the rest is enough for me." Clery refused, + but the King insisted. "I could not contain my tears," he adds; + "the King perceived them, and his own fell also."] + +They brought in our breakfast separately from his, however. My mother +would take nothing. The officers, alarmed at her silent and concentrated +sorrow, allowed us to see the King, but at meal-times only, and on +condition that we should not speak low, nor in any foreign language, but +loud and in 'good French.' We went down, therefore, with the greatest +joy to dine with my father. In the evening, when my brother was in bed, +my mother and my aunt alternately sat with him or went with me to sup +with my father. In the morning, after breakfast, we remained in the +King's apartments while Clery dressed our hair, as he was no longer +allowed to come to my mother's room, and this arrangement gave us the +pleasure of spending a few moments more with my father." + + [When the first deputation from the Council of the Commune visited + the Temple, and formally inquired whether the King had any complaint + to make, he replied, "No; while he was permitted to remain with his + family he was happy."] + +The royal prisoners had no comfort except their affection for each other. +At that time even common necessaries were denied them. Their small stock +of linen had been lent them; by persons of the Court during the time they +spent at the Feuillans. The Princesses mended their clothes every day, +and after the King had gone to bed Madame Elisabeth mended his. "With +much trouble," says Clrry, "I procured some fresh linen for them. But +the workwomen having marked it with crowned letters, the Princesses were +ordered to pick them out." The room in the great tower to which the King +had been removed contained only one bed, and no other article of +furniture. A chair was brought on which Clery spent the first night; +painters were still at work on the room, and the smell of the paint, he +says, was almost unbearable. This room was afterwards furnished by +collecting from various parts of the Temple a chest of drawers, a small +bureau, a few odd chairs, a chimney-glass, and a bed hung with green +damask, which had been used by the captain of the guard to the Comte +d'Artois. A room for the Queen was being prepared over that of the King, +and she implored the workmen to finish it quickly, but it was not ready +for her occupation for some time, and when she was allowed to remove to +it the Dauphin was taken from her and placed with his father. When their +Majesties met again in the great Tower, says Clery, there was little +change in the hours fixed for meals, reading, walking and the education +of their children. They were not allowed to have mass said in the +Temple, and therefore commissioned Clery to get them the breviary in use +in the diocese of Paris. Among the books read by the King while in the +Tower were Hume's "History of England" (in the original), Tasso, and the +"De Imitatione Christi." The jealous suspicions of the municipal +officers led to the most absurd investigations; a draught-board was taken +to pieces lest the squares should hide treasonable papers; macaroons were +broken in half to see that they did not contain letters; peaches were cut +open and the stones cracked; and Clery was compelled to drink the essence +of soap prepared for shaving the King, under the pretence that it might +contain poison. + +In November the King and all the family had feverish colds, and Clery had +an attack of rheumatic fever. On the first day of his illness he got up +and tried to dress his master, but the King, seeing how ill he was, +ordered him to lie down, and himself dressed the Dauphin. The little +Prince waited on Clery all day, and in the evening the King contrived to +approach his bed, and said, in a low voice, "I should like to take care +of you myself, but you know how we are watched. Take courage; tomorrow +you shall see my doctor." Madame Elisabeth brought the valet cooling +draughts, of which she deprived herself; and after Clery was able to get +up, the young Prince one night with great difficulty kept awake till +eleven o'clock in order to give him a box of lozenges when he went to +make the King's bed. + +On 7th December a deputation from the Commune brought an order that the +royal family should be deprived of "knives, razors, scissors, penknives, +and all other cutting instruments." The King gave up a knife, and took +from a morocco case a pair of scissors and a penknife; and the officials +then searched the room, taking away the little toilet implements of gold +and silver, and afterwards removing the Princesses' working materials. +Returning to the King's room, they insisted upon seeing what remained in +his pocket-case. "Are these toys which I have in my hand also cutting +instruments?" asked the King, showing them a cork-screw, a turn-screw, +and a steel for lighting. These also were taken from him. Shortly +afterwards Madame Elisabeth was mending the King's coat, and, having no +scissors, was compelled to break the thread with her teeth. + +"What a contrast!" he exclaimed, looking at her tenderly. "You wanted +nothing in your pretty house at Montreuil." + +"Ah, brother," she answered, "how can I have any regret when I partake +your misfortunes?" + +The Queen had frequently to take on herself some of the humble duties of +a servant. This was especially painful to Louis XVI. when the +anniversary of some State festival brought the contrast between past and +present with unusual keenness before him. + +"Ah, Madame," he once exclaimed, "what an employment for a Queen of +France! Could they see that at Vienna! Who would have foreseen that, +in uniting your lot to mine, you would have descended so low?" + +"And do you esteem as nothing," she replied, "the glory of being the wife +of one of the best and most persecuted of men? Are not such misfortunes +the noblest honours?"--[Alison's "History of Europe," vol. ii., p. 299.] + +Meanwhile the Assembly had decided that the King should be brought to +trial. Nearly all parties, except the Girondists, no matter how bitterly +opposed to each other, could agree in making him the scapegoat; and the +first rumour of the approaching ordeal was conveyed to the Temple by +Clery's wife, who, with a friend, had permission occasionally to visit +him. "I did not know how to announce this terrible news to the King," he +says; "but time was pressing, and be had forbidden my concealing anything +from him. In the evening, while undressing him, I gave him an account of +all I had learnt, and added that there were only four days to concert +some plan of corresponding with the Queen. The arrival of the municipal +officer would not allow me to say more. Next morning, when the King +rose, I could not get a moment for speaking with him. He went up with +his son to breakfast with the Princesses, and I followed. After +breakfast he talked long with the Queen, who, by a look full of trouble, +made me understand that they were discussing what I had told the King. +During the day I found an opportunity of describing to Madame Elisabeth +how much it had cost me to augment the King's distresses by informing him +of his approaching trial. She reassured me, saying that the King felt +this as a mark of attachment on my part, and added, 'That which most +troubles him is the fear of being separated from us.' In the evening the +King told me how satisfied he was at having had warning that he was to +appear before the Convention. 'Continue,' he said, 'to endeavour to find +out something as to what they want to do with me. Never fear distressing +me. I have agreed with my family not to seem pre-informed, in order not +to compromise you.'" + +On the 11th December, at five o'clock in the morning, the prisoners heard +the generale beaten throughout Paris, and cavalry and cannon entered the +Temple gardens. At nine the King and the Dauphin went as usual to +breakfast with the Queen. They were allowed to remain together for an +hour, but constantly under the eyes of their republican guardians. At +last they were obliged to part, doubtful whether they would ever see each +other again. The little Prince, who remained with his father, and was +ignorant of the new cause for anxiety, begged hard that the King would +play at ninepins with him as usual. Twice the Dauphin could not get +beyond a certain number. "Each time that I get up to sixteen," he said, +with some vexation, "I lose the game." The King did not reply, but Clery +fancied the words made a painful impression on him. + +At eleven, while the King was giving the Dauphin a reading lesson, two +municipal officers entered and said they had come "to take young Louis to +his mother." The King inquired why, but was only told that such were the +orders of the Council. At one o'clock the Mayor of Paris, Chambon, +accompanied by Chaumette, Procureur de la Commune, Santerre, commandant +of the National Guard, and others, arrived at the Temple and read a +decree to the King, which ordered that "Louis Capet" should be brought +before the Convention. "Capet is not my name," he replied, "but that of +one of my ancestors. I could have wished," he added, "that you had left +my son with me during the last two hours. But this treatment is +consistent with all I have experienced here. I follow you, not because I +recognise the authority of the Convention, but because I can be compelled +to obey it." He then followed the Mayor to a carriage which waited, with +a numerous escort, at the gate of the Temple. The family left behind +were overwhelmed with grief and apprehension. "It is impossible to +describe the anxiety we suffered," says Madame Royale. "My mother used +every endeavour with the officer who guarded her to discover what was +passing; it was the first time she had condescended to question any of +these men. He would tell her nothing." + + + + + Trial of the King.--Parting of the Royal Family.--Execution. + +The crowd was immense as, on the morning of the 11th December, 1792, +Louis XVI. was driven slowly from the Temple to the Convention, escorted +by cavalry, infantry, and artillery. Paris looked like an armed camp: +all the posts were doubled; the muster-roll of the National Guard was +called over every hour; a picket of two hundred men watched in the court +of each of the right sections; a reserve with cannon was stationed at the +Tuileries, and strong detachments patroled the streets and cleared the +road of all loiterers. The trees that lined the boulevards, the doors +and windows of the houses, were alive with gazers, and all eyes were +fixed on the King. He was much changed since his people last beheld him. +The beard he had been compelled to grow after his razors were taken from +him covered cheeks, lips, and chin with light-coloured hair, which +concealed the melancholy expression of his mouth; he had become thin, and +his garments hung loosely on him; but his manner was perfectly collected +and calm, and he recognised and named to the Mayor the various quarters +through which he passed. On arriving at the Feuillans he was taken to a +room to await the orders of the Assembly. + +It was about half-past two when the King appeared at the bar. The Mayor +and Generaux Santerre and Wittengoff were at his side. Profound silence +pervaded the Assembly. All were touched by the King's dignity and the +composure of his looks under so great a reverse of fortune. By nature he +had been formed rather to endure calamity with patience than to contend +against it with energy. The approach of death could not disturb his +serenity. + +"Louis, you may be seated," said Barere. "Answer the questions that +shall be put to you." The King seated himself and listened to the +reading of the 'acte enonciatif', article by article. All the faults +of the Court were there enumerated and imputed to Louis XVI. personally. +He was charged with the interruption of the sittings of the 20th of June, +1789, with the Bed of Justice held on the 23d of the same month, the +aristocratic conspiracy thwarted by the insurrection of the 14th of July, +the entertainment of the Life Guards, the insults offered to the national +cockade, the refusal to sanction the Declaration of Rights, as well as +several constitutional articles; lastly, all the facts which indicated a +new conspiracy in October, and which were followed by the scenes of the +5th and 6th; the speeches of reconciliation which had succeeded all these +scenes, and which promised a change that was not sincere; the false oath +taken at the Federation of the 14th of July; the secret practices of +Talon and Mirabeau to effect a counter-revolution; the money spent in +bribing a great number of deputies; the assemblage of the "knights of +the dagger" on the 28th of February, 1791; the flight to Varennes; the +fusilade of the Champ de Mars; the silence observed respecting the Treaty +of Pilnitz; the delay in the promulgation of the decree which +incorporated Avignon with France; the commotions at Nimes, Montauban, +Mende, and Jales; the continuance of their pay to the emigrant Life +Guards and to the disbanded Constitutional Guard; the insufficiency of +the armies assembled on the frontiers; the refusal to sanction the decree +for the camp of twenty thousand men; the disarming of the fortresses; the +organisation of secret societies in the interior of Paris; the review of +the Swiss and the garrison of the palace on the 10th August; the +summoning the Mayor to the Tuileries; and lastly, the effusion of blood +which had resulted from these military dispositions. After each article +the President paused, and said, "What have you to answer?" The King, in +a firm voice, denied some of the facts, imputed others to his ministers, +and always appealed to the constitution, from which he declared he had +never deviated. His answers were very temperate, but on the charge, "You +spilt the blood of the people on the 10th of August," he exclaimed, with +emphasis, "No, monsieur, no; it was not I." + +All the papers on which the act of accusation was founded were then shown +to the King, and he disavowed some of them and disputed the existence of +the iron chest; this produced a bad impression, and was worse than +useless, as the fact had been proved. + + [A secret closet which the King had directed to be constructed in a + wall in the Tuileries. The door was of iron, whence it was + afterwards known by the name of the iron chest. See Thiers, and + Scott.] + +Throughout the examination the King showed great presence of mind. +He was careful in his answers never to implicate any members of the +constituent, and legislative Assemblies; many who then sat as his judges +trembled lest he should betray them. The Jacobins beheld with dismay the +profound impression made on the Convention by the firm but mild demeanour +of the sovereign. The most violent of the party proposed that he should +be hanged that very night; a laugh as of demons followed the proposal +from the benches of the Mountain, but the majority, composed of the +Girondists and the neutrals, decided that he should be formally tried. + +After the examination Santerre took the King by the arm and led him back +to the waiting-room of the Convention, accompanied by Chambon and +Chaumette. Mental agitation and the length of the proceedings had +exhausted him, and he staggered from weakness. Chaumette inquired if he +wished for refreshment, but the King refused it. A moment after, seeing +a grenadier of the escort offer the Procureur de la Commune half a small +loaf, Louis XVI. approached and asked him, in a whisper, for a piece. + +"Ask aloud for what you want," said Chaumette, retreating as though he +feared being suspected of pity. + +"I asked for a piece of your bread," replied the King. + +"Divide it with me," said Chaumette. "It is a Spartan breakfast. If I +had a root I would give you half."--[Lamartine's "History of the +Girondists," edit. 1870, vol. ii., p. 313.] + +Soon after six in the evening the King returned to the Temple. "He +seemed tired," says Clery, simply, "and his first wish was to be led to +his family. The officers refused, on the plea that they had no orders. +He insisted that at least they should be informed of his return, and this +was promised him. The King ordered me to ask for his supper at half-past +eight. The intervening hours he employed in his usual reading, +surrounded by four municipals. When I announced that supper was served, +the King asked the commissaries if his family could not come down. They +made no reply. 'But at least,' the King said, 'my son will pass the +night in my room, his bed being here?' The same silence. After supper +the King again urged his wish to see his family. They answered that they +must await the decision of the Convention. While I was undressing him +the King said, 'I was far from expecting all the questions they put to +me.' He lay down with perfect calmness. The order for my removal during +the night was not executed." On the King's return to the Temple being +known, "my mother asked to see him instantly," writes Madame Royale. +"She made the same request even to Chambon, but received no answer. My +brother passed the night with her; and as he had no bed, she gave him +hers, and sat up all the night in such deep affliction that we were +afraid to leave her; but she compelled my aunt and me to go to bed. Next +day she again asked to see my father, and to read the newspapers, that +she might learn the course of the trial. She entreated that if she was +to be denied this indulgence, his children, at least, might see him. Her +requests were referred to the Commune. The newspapers were refused; but +my brother and I were to be allowed to see my father on condition of +being entirely separated from my mother. My father replied that, great +as his happiness was in seeing his children, the important business which +then occupied him would not allow of his attending altogether to his son, +and that his daughter could not leave her mother." + + [During their last interview Madame Elisabeth had given Clery one of + her handkerchiefs, saying, "You shall keep it so long as my brother + continues well; if he becomes ill, send it to me among my nephew's + things."] + +The Assembly having, after a violent debate, resolved that Louis XVI. +should have the aid of counsel, a deputation was sent to the Temple to +ask whom he would choose. The King named Messieurs Target and Tronchet. +The former refused his services on the ground that he had discontinued +practice since 1785; the latter complied at once with the King's request; +and while the Assembly was considering whom to, nominate in Target's +place, the President received a letter from the venerable Malesherbes, + + [Christian Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, an eminent French + statesman, son of the Chancellor of France, was born at Paris in + 1721. In 1750 he succeeded his father as President of the Court of + Aids, and was also made superintendent of the press. On the + banishment of the Parliaments and the suppression of the Court of + Aids, Malesherbes was exiled to his country-seat. In 1775 he was + appointed Minister of State. On the decree of the Convention for + the King's trial, he emerged from his retreat to become the + voluntary advocate of his sovereign. Malesherbes was guillotined in + 1794, and almost his whole family were extirpated by their merciless + persecutors.] + +then seventy years old, and "the most respected magistrate in France," in +the course of which he said: "I have been twice called to be counsel for +him who was my master, in times when that duty was coveted by every one. +I owe him the same service now that it is a duty which many people deem +dangerous. If I knew any possible means of acquainting him with my +desires, I should not take the liberty of addressing myself to you." +Other citizens made similar proposals, but the King, being made +acquainted with them by a deputation from the Commune, while expressing +his gratitude for all the offers, accepted only that of Malesherbes. + + [The Citoyenne Olympia Degonges, calling herself a free and loyal + Republican without spot or blame, and declaring that the cold and + selfish cruelty of Target had inflamed her heroism and roused her + sensibility, asked permission to assist M, de Malesherbes in + defending the King. The Assembly passed to the order of the day on + this request.--BERTRAND DE MOLLEVILLE, "Annals," edit. 1802, vol, + viii., p. 254.] + +On 14th December M. Tronchet was allowed to confer with the King, and +later in the same day M. de Malesherbes was admitted to the Tower. "The +King ran up to this worthy old man, whom he clasped in his arms," said +Clery, "and the former minister melted into tears at the sight of his +master." + + [According to M. de Hue, "The first time M. de Malesherbes entered + the Temple, the King clasped him in his arms and said, 'Ah, is it + you, my friend? You fear not to endanger your own life to save + mine; but all will be useless. They will bring me to the scaffold. + No matter; I shall gain my cause if I leave an unspotted memory + behind me.'"] + +Another deputation brought the King the Act of Accusation and the +documents relating to it, numbering more than a hundred, and taking from +four o'clock till midnight to read. During this long process the King +had refreshments served to the deputies, taking nothing himself till they +had left, but considerately reproving Clery for not having supped. From +the 14th to the 26th December the King saw his counsel and their +colleague M. de Size every day. At this time a means of communication +between the royal family and the King was devised: a man named Turgi, who +had been in the royal kitchen, and who contrived to obtain employment in +the Temple, when conveying the meals of the royal family to their +apartments, or articles he had purchased for them, managed to give Madame +Elisabeth news of the King. Next day, the Princess, when Turgi was +removing the dinner, slipped into his hand a bit of paper on which she +had pricked with a pin a request for a word from her brother's own hand. +Turgi gave this paper to Clery, who conveyed it to the King the same +evening; and he, being allowed writing materials while preparing his +defence, wrote Madame Elisabeth a short note. An answer was conveyed in +a ball of cotton, which Turgi threw under Clery's bed while passing the +door of his room. Letters were also passed between the Princess's room +and that of Clery, who lodged beneath her, by means of a string let down +and drawn up at night. This communication with his family was a great +comfort to the King, who, nevertheless, constantly cautioned his faithful +servant. "Take care," he would say kindly, "you expose yourself too +much." + + [The King's natural benevolence was constantly shown while in the + Temple. His own dreadful position never prevented him from sympathy + with the smaller troubles of others. A servant in the Temple named + Marchand, the father of a family, was robbed of two hundred francs, + --his wages for two months. The King observed his distress, asked + its cause, and gave Clery the amount to be handed to Marchand, with + a caution not to speak of it to any one, and, above all, not to + thank the King, lest it should injure him with his employers.] + +During his separation from his family the King refused to go into the +garden. When it was proposed to him he said, "I cannot make up my mind +to go out alone; the walk was agreeable to me only when I shared it with +my family." But he did not allow himself to dwell on painful +reflections. He talked freely to the municipals on guard, and surprised +them by his varied and practical knowledge of their trades, and his +interest in their domestic affairs. On the 19th December the King's +breakfast was served as usual; but, being a fast-day, he refused to take +anything. At dinner-time the King said to Clery, "Fourteen years ago you +were up earlier than you were to-day; it is the day my daughter was born- +-today, her birthday," he repeated, with tears, "and to be prevented from +seeing her!" Madame Royale had wished for a calendar; the King ordered +Clery to buy her the "Almanac of the Republic," which had replaced the +"Court Almanac," and ran through it, marking with a pencil many names. + +"On Christmas Day," Says Clery, "the King wrote his will." + + [Madame Royale says: "On the 26th December, St. Stephen's Day, my + father made his will, because he expected to be assassinated that + day on his way to the bar of the Convention. He went thither, + nevertheless, with his usual calmness."--"Royal Memoirs," p. 196.] + +On the 26th December, 1792, the King appeared a second time before the +Convention. M. de Seze, labouring night and day, had completed his +defence. The King insisted on excluding from it all that was too +rhetorical, and confining it to the mere discussion of essential points. + + [When the pathetic peroration of M, de Seze was read to the King, + the evening before it was delivered to the Assembly, "I have to + request of you," he said, "to make a painful sacrifice; strike out + of your pleading the peroration. It is enough for me to appear + before such judges, and show my entire innocence; I will not move + their feelings.--"LACRETELLE.] + +At half-past nine in the morning the whole armed force was in motion to +conduct him from the Temple to the Feuillans, with the same precautions +and in the same order as had been observed on the former occasion. +Riding in the carriage of the Mayor, he conversed, on the way, with the +same composure as usual, and talked of Seneca, of Livy, of the hospitals. +Arrived at the Feuillans, he showed great anxiety for his defenders; he +seated himself beside them in the Assembly, surveyed with great composure +the benches where his accusers and his judges sat, seemed to examine +their faces with the view of discovering the impression produced by the +pleading of M. de Seze, and more than once conversed smilingly with +Tronchet and Malesherbes. The Assembly received his defence in sullen +silence, but without any tokens of disapprobation. + +Being afterwards conducted to an adjoining room with his counsel, the +King showed great anxiety about M. de Seze, who seemed fatigued by the +long defence. While riding back to the Temple he conversed with his +companions with the same serenity as he had shown on leaving it. + +No sooner had the King left the hall of the Convention than a violent +tumult arose there. Some were for opening the discussion. Others, +complaining of the delays which postponed the decision of this process, +demanded the vote immediately, remarking that in every court, after the +accused had been heard, the judges proceed to give their opinion. +Lanjuinais had from the commencement of the proceedings felt an +indignation which his impetuous disposition no longer suffered him to +repress. He darted to the tribune, and, amidst the cries excited by his +presence, demanded the annulling of the proceedings altogether. +He exclaimed that the days of ferocious men were gone by, that the +Assembly ought not to be so dishonoured as to be made to sit in judgment +on Louis XVI., that no authority in France had that right, and the +Assembly in particular had no claim to it; that if it resolved to act as +a political body, it could do no more than take measures of safety +against the ci-devant King; but that if it was acting as a court of +justice it was overstepping all principles, for it was subjecting the +vanquished to be tried by the conquerors, since most of the present +members had declared themselves the conspirators of the 10th of August. +At the word "conspirators" a tremendous uproar arose on all aides. Cries +of "Order!"--"To the Abbaye!"--"Down with the Tribune!" were heard. +Lanjuinais strove in vain to justify the word "conspirators," saying that +he meant it to be taken in a favourable sense, and that the 10th of +August was a glorious conspiracy. He concluded by declaring that he +would rather die a thousand deaths than condemn, contrary to all laws, +even the most execrable of tyrants. + +A great number of speakers followed, and the confusion continually +increased. The members, determined not to hear any more, mingled +together, formed groups, abused and threatened one another. After a +tempest of an hour's duration, tranquillity was at last restored; and the +Assembly, adopting the opinion of those who demanded the discussion on +the trial of Louis XVI., declared that it was opened, and that it should +be continued, to the exclusion of all other business, till sentence +should be passed. + +The discussion was accordingly resumed on the 27th, and there was a +constant succession of speakers from the 28th to the 31st. Vergniaud at +length ascended the tribune for the first time, and an extraordinary +eagerness was manifested to hear the Girondists express their sentiments +by the lips of their greatest orator. + +The speech of Vergniaud produced a deep impression on all his hearers. +Robespierre was thunderstruck by his earnest and, persuasive eloquence. +Vergniaud, however, had but shaken, not convinced, the Assembly, which +wavered between the two parties. Several members were successively +heard, for and against the appeal to the people. Brissot, Gensonne, +Petion, supported it in their turn. One speaker at length had a decisive +influence on the question. Barere, by his suppleness, and his cold and +evasive eloquence, was the model and oracle of the centre. He spoke at +great length on the trial, reviewed it in all its bearings--of facts, of +laws, and of policy--and furnished all those weak minds, who only wanted +specious reasons for yielding, with motives for the condemnation of the +King. From that moment the unfortunate King was condemned. The +discussion lasted till the 7th, and nobody would listen any longer to the +continual repetition of the same facts and arguments. It was therefore +declared to be closed without opposition, but the proposal of a fresh +adjournment excited a commotion among the most violent, and ended in a +decree which fixed the 14th of January for putting the questions to the +vote. + +Meantime the King did not allow the torturing suspense to disturb his +outward composure, or lessen his kindness to those around him. On the +morning after his second appearance at the bar of the Convention, the +commissary Vincent, who had undertaken secretly to convey to the Queen +a copy of the King's printed defence, asked for something which had +belonged to him, to treasure as a relic; the King took off his neck +handkerchief and gave it him; his gloves he bestowed on another +municipal, who had made the same request. "On January 1st," says Clery, +"I approached the King's bed and asked permission to offer him my warmest +prayers for the end of his misfortunes. 'I accept your good wishes with +affection,' he replied, extending his hand to me. As soon as he had +risen, he requested a municipal to go and inquire for his family, and +present them his good wishes for the new year. The officers were moved +by the tone in which these words, so heartrending considering the +position of the King, were pronounced . . . . The correspondence +between their Majesties went on constantly. The King being informed that +Madame Royale was ill, was very uneasy for some days. The Queen, after +begging earnestly, obtained permission for M. Brunnier, the medical +attendant of the royal children, to come to the Temple. This seemed to +quiet him." + +The nearer the moment which was to decide the King's fate approached, the +greater became the agitation in, Paris. "A report was circulated that +the atrocities of September were to be repeated there, and the prisoners +and their relatives beset the deputies with supplications that they would +snatch them from destruction. The Jacobins, on their part, alleged that +conspiracies were hatching in all quarters to save Louis XVI. from +punishment, and to restore royalty. Their anger, excited by delays and +obstacles, assumed a more threatening aspect; and the two parties thus +alarmed one another by supposing that each harboured sinister designs." + +On the 14th of January the Convention called for the order of the day, +being the final judgment of Louis XVI. + +"The sitting of the Convention which concluded the trial," says Hazlitt, +"lasted seventy-two hours. It might naturally be supposed that silence, +restraint, a sort of religious awe, would have pervaded the scene. On +the contrary, everything bore the marks of gaiety, dissipation, and the +most grotesque confusion. The farther end of the hall was converted into +boxes, where ladies, in a studied deshabille, swallowed ices, oranges, +liqueurs, and received the salutations of the members who went and came, +as on ordinary occasions. Here the doorkeepers on the Mountain side +opened and shut the boxes reserved for the mistresses of the Duc +d'Orleans; and there, though every sound of approbation or disapprobation +was strictly forbidden, you heard the long and indignant 'Ha, ha's!' of +the mother-duchess, the patroness of the bands of female Jacobins, +whenever her ears were not loudly greeted with the welcome sounds of +death. The upper gallery, reserved for the people, was during the whole +trial constantly full of strangers of every description, drinking wine as +in a tavern. + +"Bets were made as to the issue of the trial in all the neighbouring +coffee-houses. Ennui, impatience, disgust sat on almost every +countenance. The figures passing and repassing, rendered more ghastly by +the pallid lights, and who in a slow, sepulchral voice pronounced only +the word--Death; others calculating if they should have time to go to +dinner before they gave their verdict; women pricking cards with pins in +order to count the votes; some of the deputies fallen asleep, and only +waking up to give their sentence,--all this had the appearance rather of +a hideous dream than of a reality." + +The Duc d'Orleans, when called on to give his vote for the death of his +King and relation, walked with a faltering step, and a face paler than +death itself, to the appointed place, and there read these words: +"Exclusively governed by my duty, and convinced that all those who have +resisted the sovereignty of the people deserve death, my vote is for +death!" Important as the accession of the first Prince of the blood was +to the Terrorist faction, his conduct in this instance was too obviously +selfish and atrocious not to excite a general feeling of indignation; the +agitation of the Assembly became extreme; it seemed as if by this single +vote the fate of the monarch was irrevocably sealed. + +The President having examined the register, the result of the scrutiny +was proclaimed as follows + + + Against an appeal to the people........... 480 + For an appeal to the people............... 283 + + Majority for final judgment............... 197 + +The President having announced that he was about to declare the result of +the scrutiny, a profound silence ensued, and he then gave in the +following declaration: that, out of 719 votes, 366 were for DEATH, 319 +were for imprisonment during the war, two for perpetual imprisonment, +eight for a suspension of the execution of the sentence of death until +after the expulsion of the family of the Bourbons, twenty-three were for +not putting him to death until the French territory was invaded by any +foreign power, and one was for a sentence of death, but with power of +commutation of the punishment. + +After this enumeration the President took off his hat, and, lowering his +voice, said: "In consequence of this expression of opinion I declare that +the punishment pronounced by the National Convention against Louis Capet +is DEATH!" + +Previous to the passing of the sentence the President announced on the +part of the Foreign Minister the receipt of a letter from the Spanish +Minister relative to that sentence. The Convention, however, refused to +hear it. [It will be remembered that a similar remonstrance was +forwarded by the English Government.] + +M. de Malesherbes, according to his promise to the King, went to the +Temple at nine o'clock on the morning of the 17th?. + + [Louis was fully prepared for his fate. During the calling of the + votes he asked M. de Malesherbes, "Have you not met near the Temple + the White Lady?"--" What do you mean?" replied he. "Do you not + know," resumed the King with a smile, "that when a prince of our + house is about to die, a female dressed in white is seen wandering + about the palace? My friends," added he to his defenders, "I am + about to depart before you for the land of the just, but there, at + least, we shall be reunited." In fact, his Majesty's only + apprehension seemed to be for his family.--ALISON.] + +"All is lost," he said to Clery. "The King is condemned." The King, who +saw him arrive, rose to receive him. + + [When M. de Malesherbes went to the Temple to announce the result of + the vote, he found Louis with his forehead resting on his hands, and + absorbed in a deep reverie. Without inquiring concerning his fate, + he said: "For two hours I have been considering whether, during my + whole reign, I have voluntarily given any cause of complaint to my + subjects; and with perfect sincerity I declare that I deserve no + reproach at their hands, and that I have never formed a wish but for + their happiness." LACRETELLE.] + +M. de Malesherbes, choked by sobs, threw himself at his feet. The King +raised him up and affectionately embraced him. When he could control his +voice, De Malesherbes informed the King of the decree sentencing him to +death; he made no movement of surprise or emotion, but seemed only +affected by the distress of his advocate, whom he tried to comfort. + +On the 20th of January, at two in the afternoon, Louis XVI. was awaiting +his advocates, when he heard the approach of a numerous party. He +stopped with dignity at the door of his apartment, apparently unmoved: +Garat then told him sorrowfully that he was commissioned to communicate +to him the decrees of the Convention. Grouvelle, secretary of the +Executive Council, read them to him. The first declared Louis XVI. +guilty of treason against the general safety of the State; the second +condemned him to death; the third rejected any appeal to the people; and +the fourth and last ordered his execution in twenty-four hours. Louis, +looking calmly round, took the paper from Grouvelle, and read Garat a +letter, in which he demanded from the Convention three days to prepare +for death, a confessor to assist him in his last moments, liberty to see +his family, and permission for them to leave France. Garat took the +letter, promising to submit it immediately to the Convention. + +Louis XVI. then went back into his room with great composure, ordered his +dinner, and ate as usual. There were no knives on the table, and his +attendants refused to let him have any. "Do they think me so cowardly," +he exclaimed, "as to lay violent hands on myself? I am innocent, and I +am not afraid to die." + +The Convention refused the delay, but granted some other demands which he +had made. Garat sent for Edgeworth de Firmont, the ecclesiastic whom +Louis XVI. had chosen, and took him in his own carriage to the Temple. +M. Edgeworth, on being ushered into the presence of the King, would have +thrown himself at his feet, but Louis instantly raised him, and both shed +tears of emotion. He then, with eager curiosity, asked various questions +concerning the clergy of France, several bishops, and particularly the +Archbishop of Paris, requesting him to assure the latter that he died +faithfully attached to his communion.--The clock having struck eight, he +rose, begged M. Edgeworth to wait, and retired with emotion, saying that +he was going to see his family. The municipal officers, unwilling to +lose sight of the King, even while with his family, had decided that he +should see them in the dining-room, which had a glass door, through which +they could watch all his motions without hearing what he said. At half- +past eight the door opened. The Queen, holding the Dauphin by the hand, +Madame Elisabeth, and Madame Royale rushed sobbing into the arms of Louis +XVI. The door was closed, and the municipal officers, Clery, and M. +Edgeworth placed themselves behind it. During the first moments, it was +but a scene of confusion and despair. Cries and lamentations prevented +those who were on the watch from distinguishing anything. At length the +conversation became more calm, and the Princesses, still holding the King +clasped in their arms, spoke with him in a low tone. "He related his +trial to my mother," says Madame Royale, "apologising for the wretches +who had condemned him. He told her that he would not consent to any +attempt to save him, which might excite disturbance in the country. +He then gave my brother some religious advice, and desired him, above +all, to forgive those who caused his death; and he gave us his blessing. +My mother was very desirous that the whole family should pass the night +with my father, but he opposed this, observing to her that he much needed +some hours of repose and quiet." After a long conversation, interrupted +by silence and grief, the King put an end to the painful meeting, +agreeing to see his family again at eight the next morning. "Do you +promise that you will?" earnestly inquired the Princesses. "Yes, yes," +sorrowfully replied the King. + + ["But when we were gone," says his daughter, "he requested that we + might not be permitted to return, as our presence afflicted him too + much."] + +At this moment the Queen held him by one arm, Madame Elisabeth by the +other, while Madame Royale clasped him round the waist, and the Dauphin +stood before him, with one hand in that of his mother. At the moment of +retiring Madame Royale fainted; she was carried away, and the King +returned to M. Edgeworth deeply depressed by this painful interview. +The King retired to rest about midnight; M. Edgeworth threw himself upon +a bed, and Clery took his place near the pillow of his master. + +Next morning, the 21st of January, at five, the King awoke, called Clery, +and dressed with great calmness. He congratulated himself on having +recovered his strength by sleep. Clery kindled a fire,, and moved a +chest of drawers, out of which he formed an altar. M. Edgeworth put on +his pontifical robes, and began to celebrate mass. Clery waited on him, +and the King listened, kneeling with the greatest devotion. He then +received the communion from the hands of M. Edgeworth, and after mass +rose with new vigour, and awaited with composure the moment for going to +the scaffold. He asked for scissors that Clery might cut his hair; but +the Commune refused to trust him with a pair. + +At this moment the drums were beating in the capital. All who belonged +to the armed sections repaired to their company with complete submission. +It was reported that four or five hundred devoted men, were to make a +dash upon the carriage, and rescue the King. The Convention, the +Commune, the Executive Council, and the Jacobins were sitting. At eight. +in the morning, Santerre, with a deputation from the Commune, the +department, and the criminal tribunal, repaired to the Temple. Louis +XVI., on hearing them arrive, rose and prepared to depart. He desired +Clery to transmit his last farewell to his wife, his sister, and his +children; he gave him a sealed packet, hair, and various trinkets, with +directions to deliver these articles to them. + + [In the course of the morning the King said to me: "You will give + this seal to my son and this ring to the Queen, and assure her that + it is with pain I part with it. This little packet contains the + hair of all my family; you will give her that, too. Tell the Queen, + my dear sister, and my children, that, although I promised to see + them again this morning, I have resolved to spare them the pang of + so cruel a separation. Tell them how much it costs me to go away + without receiving their embraces once more!" He wiped away some + tears, and then added, in the most mournful accents, "I charge you + to bear them my last farewell."--CLERY.] + +He then clasped his hand and thanked him for his services. After this he +addressed himself to one of the municipal officers, requesting him to +transmit his last will to the Commune. This officer, who had formerly +been a priest, and was named Jacques Roux, brutally replied that his +business was to conduct him to execution, and not to perform his +commissions. Another person took charge of it, and Louis, turning +towards the party, gave with firmness the signal for starting. + +Officers of gendarmerie were placed on the front seat of the carriage. +The King and M. Edgeworth occupied the back. During the ride, which was +rather long, the King read in M. Edgeworth's breviary the prayers for +persons at the point of death; the two gendarmes were astonished at his +piety and tranquil resignation. The vehicle advanced slowly, and amidst +universal silence. At the Place de la Revolution an extensive space had +been left vacant about the scaffold. Around this space were planted +cannon; the most violent of the Federalists were stationed about the +scaffold; and the vile rabble, always ready to insult genius, virtue, and +misfortune, when a signal is given it to do so, crowded behind the ranks +of the Federalists, and alone manifested some outward tokens of +satisfaction. + +At ten minutes past ten the carriage stopped. Louis XVI., rising +briskly, stepped out into the Place. Three executioners came up; he +refused their assistance, and took off his clothes himself. But, +perceiving that they were going to bind his hands, he made a movement of +indignation, and seemed ready to resist. M. Edgeworth gave him a last +look, and said, "Suffer this outrage, as a last resemblance to that God +who is about to be your reward." At these words the King suffered +himself to be bound and conducted to the scaffold. All at once Louis +hurriedly advanced to address the people. "Frenchmen," said he, in a +firm voice, "I die innocent of the crimes which are imputed to me; I +forgive the authors of my death, and I pray that my blood may not fall +upon France." He would have continued, but the drums were instantly +ordered to beat: their rolling drowned his voice; the executioners laid +hold of him, and M. Edgeworth took his leave in these memorable words: +"Son of Saint Louis, ascend to heaven!" As soon as the blood flowed, +furious wretches dipped their pikes and handkerchiefs in it, then +dispersed throughout Paris, shouting "Vive la Republique! Vive la +Nation!" and even went to the gates of the Temple to display brutal and +factious joy. + + [The body of Louis was, immediately after the execution, removed to + the ancient cemetery of the Madeleine. Large quantities of + quicklime were thrown into the grave, which occasioned so rapid a + decomposition that, when his remains were nought for in 1816, it was + with difficulty any part could be recovered. Over the spot where he + was interred Napoleon commenced the splendid Temple of Glory, after + the battle of Jena; and the superb edifice was completed by the + Bourbons, and now forms the Church of the Madeleine, the most + beautiful structure in Paris. Louis was executed on the same ground + where the Queen, Madame Elisabeth, and so many other noble victims + of the Revolution perished; where Robespierre and Danton afterwards + suffered; and where the Emperor Alexander and the allied sovereigns + took their station, when their victorious troops entered Paris in + 1814! The history of modern Europe has not a scene fraught with + equally interesting recollections to exhibit. It is now marked by + the colossal obelisk of blood-red granite which was brought from + Thebes, in Upper Egypt, in 1833, by the French Government.-- + ALLISON.] + + + + + The Royal Prisoners.--Separation of the Dauphin from His Family. + --Removal of the Queen. + +On the morning of the King's execution, according to the narrative of +Madame Royale, his family rose at six: "The night before, my mother had +scarcely strength enough to put my brother to bed; She threw herself, +dressed as she was, on her own bed, where we heard her shivering with +cold and grief all night long. At a quarter-past six the door opened; we +believed that we were sent for to the King, but it was only the officers +looking for a prayer-book for him. We did not, however, abandon the hope +of seeing him, till shouts of joy from the infuriated populace told us +that all was over. In the afternoon my mother asked to see Clery, who +probably had some message for her; we hoped that seeing him would +occasion a burst of grief which might relieve the state of silent and +choking agony in which we saw her." The request was refused, and the +officers who brought the refusal said Clery was in "a frightful state of +despair" at not being allowed to see the royal family; shortly afterwards +he was dismissed from the Temple. + +"We had now a little more freedom," continues the Princess; "our guards +even believed that we were about to be sent out of France; but nothing +could calm my mother's agony; no hope could touch her heart, and life or +death became indifferent to her. Fortunately my own affliction increased +my illness so seriously that it distracted her thoughts . . . . +My mother would go no more to the garden, because she must have passed +the door of what had been my father's room, and that she could not bear. +But fearing lest want of air should prove injurious to my brother and me, +about the end of February she asked permission to walk on the leads of +the Tower, and it was granted." + +The Council of the Commune, becoming aware of the interest which these +sad promenades excited, and the sympathy with which they were observed +from the neighbouring houses, ordered that the spaces between the +battlements should be filled up with shutters, which intercepted the +view. But while the rules for the Queen's captivity were again made more +strict, some of the municipal commissioners tried slightly to alleviate +it, and by means of M. de Hue, who was at liberty in Paris, and the +faithful Turgi, who remained in the Tower, some communications passed +between the royal family and their friends. The wife of Tison, who +waited on the Queen, suspected and finally denounced these more lenient +guardians,--[Toulan, Lepitre, Vincent, Bruno, and others.]--who were +executed, the royal prisoners being subjected to a close examination. + +"On the 20th of April," says Madame Royale, "my mother and I had just +gone to bed when Hebert arrived with several municipals. We got up +hastily, and these men read us a decree of the Commune directing that we +should be searched. My poor brother was asleep; they tore him from his +bed under the pretext of examining it. My mother took him up, shivering +with cold. All they took was a shopkeeper's card which my mother had +happened to keep, a stick of sealing-wax from my aunt, and from me 'une +sacre coeur de Jesus' and a prayer for the welfare of France. The search +lasted from half-past ten at night till four o'clock in the morning." + +The next visit of the officials was to Madame Elisabeth alone; they found +in her room a hat which the King had worn during his imprisonment, and +which she had begged him to give her as a souvenir. They took it from +her in spite of her entreaties. "It was suspicious," said the cruel and +contemptible tyrants. + +The Dauphin became ill with fever, and it was long before his mother, +who watched by him night and day, could obtain medicine or advice for +him. When Thierry was at last allowed to see him his treatment relieved +the most violent symptoms, but, says Madame Royale, "his health was never +reestablished. Want of air and exercise did him great mischief, as well +as the kind of life which this poor child led, who at eight years of age +passed his days amidst the tears of his friends, and in constant anxiety +and agony." + +While the Dauphin's health was causing his family such alarm, they were +deprived of the services of Tison's wife, who became ill, and finally +insane, and was removed to the Hotel Dieu, where her ravings were +reported to the Assembly and made the ground of accusations against the +royal prisoners. + + [This woman, troubled by remorse, lost her reason, threw herself at + the feet of the Queen, implored her pardon, and disturbed the Temple + for many days with the sight and the noise of her madness. The + Princesses, forgetting the denunciations of this unfortunate being, + in consideration of her repentance and insanity, watched over her by + turns, and deprived themselves of their own food to relieve her.-- + LAMARTINE, "History of the Girondists," vol. iii., p.140.] + +No woman took her place, and the Princesses themselves made their beds, +swept their rooms, and waited upon the Queen. + +Far worse punishments than menial work were prepared for them. On 3d +July a decree of the Convention ordered that the Dauphin should be +separated from his family and "placed in the most secure apartment of the +Tower." As soon as he heard this decree pronounced, says his sister, "he +threw himself into my mother's arms, and with violent cries entreated not +to be parted from her. My mother would not let her son go, and she +actually defended against the efforts of the officers the bed in which +she had placed him. The men threatened to call up the guard and use +violence. My mother exclaimed that they had better kill her than tear +her child from her. At last they threatened our lives, and my mother's +maternal tenderness forced her to the sacrifice. My aunt and I dressed +the child, for my poor mother had no longer strength for anything. +Nevertheless, when he was dressed, she took him up in her arms and +delivered him herself to the officers, bathing him with her tears, +foreseeing that she was never to behold him again. The poor little +fellow embraced us all tenderly, and was carried away in a flood of +tears. My mother's horror was extreme when she heard that Simon, a +shoemaker by trade, whom she had seen as a municipal officer in the +Temple, was the person to whom her child was confided . . . . The +officers now no longer remained in my mother's apartment; they only came +three times a day to bring our meals and examine the bolts and bars of +our windows; we were locked up together night and day. We often went up +to the Tower, because my brother went, too, from the other side. The +only pleasure my mother enjoyed was seeing him through a crevice as he +passed at a distance. She would watch for hours together to see him as +he passed. It was her only hope, her only thought." + +The Queen was soon deprived even of this melancholy consolation. On 1st +August, 1793, it was resolved that she should be tried. Robespierre +opposed the measure, but Barere roused into action that deep-rooted +hatred of the Queen which not even the sacrifice of her life availed to +eradicate. "Why do the enemies of the Republic still hope for success?" +he asked. "Is it because we have too long forgotten the crimes of the +Austrian? The children of Louis the Conspirator are hostages for the +Republic . . .but behind them lurks a woman who has been the cause of +all the disasters of France." + +At two o'clock on the morning of the following day, the municipal +officers "awoke us," says Madame Royale, "to read to my mother the decree +of the Convention, which ordered her removal to the Conciergerie, + + [The Conciergerie was originally, as its name implies, the porter's + lodge of the ancient Palace of Justice, and became in time a prison, + from the custom of confining there persons who had committed + trifling offences about the Court.] + +preparatory to her trial. She heard it without visible emotion, and +without speaking a single word. My aunt and I immediately asked to be +allowed to accompany my mother, but this favour was refused us. All the +time my mother was making up a bundle of clothes to take with her, these +officers never left her. She was even obliged to dress herself before +them, and they asked for her pockets, taking away the trifles they +contained. She embraced me, charging me to keep up my spirits and my +courage, to take tender care of my aunt, and obey her as a second mother. +She then threw herself into my aunt's arms, and recommended her children +to her care; my aunt replied to her in a whisper, and she was then +hurried away. In leaving the Temple she struck her head against the +wicket, not having stooped low enough. + + [Mathieu, the gaoler, used to say, "I make Madame Veto and her + sister and daughter, proud though they are, salute me; for the door + is so low they cannot pass without bowing."] + +The officers asked whether she had hurt herself. 'No,' she replied, +'nothing can hurt me now." + + + + + The Last Moments of Marie Antoinette. + +We have already seen what changes had been made in the Temple. Marie +Antoinette had been separated from her sister, her daughter, and her Son, +by virtue of a decree which ordered the trial and exile of the last +members of the family of the Bourbons. She had been removed to the +Conciergerie, and there, alone in a narrow prison, she was reduced to +what was strictly necessary, like the other prisoners. The imprudence of +a devoted friend had rendered her situation still more irksome. +Michonnis, a member of the municipality, in whom she had excited a warm +interest, was desirous of introducing to her a person who, he said, +wished to see her out of curiosity. This man, a courageous emigrant, +threw to her a carnation, in which was enclosed a slip of very fine paper +with these words: "Your friends are ready,"--false hope, and equally +dangerous for her who received it, and for him who gave it! Michonnis +and the emigrant were detected and forthwith apprehended; and the +vigilance exercised in regard to the unfortunate prisoner became from +that day more rigorous than ever. + + [The Queen was lodged in a room called the council chamber, which + was considered as the moat unwholesome apartment in the Conciergerie + on account of its dampness and the bad smells by which it was + continually affected. Under pretence of giving her a person to wait + upon her they placed near her a spy,--a man of a horrible + countenance and hollow, sepulchral voice. This wretch, whose name + was Barassin, was a robber and murderer by profession. Such was the + chosen attendant on the Queen of France! A few days before her + trial this wretch was removed and a gendarme placed in her chamber, + who watched over her night and day, and from whom she was not + separated, even when in bed, but by a ragged curtain. In this + melancholy abode Marie Antoinette had no other dress than an old + black gown, stockings with holes, which she was forced to mend every + day; and she was entirely destitute of shoes.--DU BROCA.] + +Gendarmes were to mount guard incessantly at the door of her prison, and +they were expressly forbidden to answer anything that she might say to +them. + +That wretch Hebert, the deputy of Chaumette, and editor of the disgusting +paper Pere Duchesne, a writer of the party of which Vincent, Ronsin, +Varlet, and Leclerc were the leaders--Hebert had made it his particular +business to torment the unfortunate remnant of the dethroned family. +He asserted that the family of the tyrant ought not to be better treated +than any sans-culotte family; and he had caused a resolution to be passed +by which the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the Temple were +maintained was to be suppressed. They were no longer to be allowed +either poultry or pastry; they were reduced to one sort of aliment for +breakfast, and to soup or broth and a single dish for dinner, to two +dishes for supper, and half a bottle of wine apiece. Tallow candles were +to be furnished instead of wag, pewter instead of silver plate, and delft +ware instead of porcelain. The wood and water carriers alone were +permitted to enter their room, and that only accompanied by two +commissioners. Their food was to be introduced to them by means of a +turning box. The numerous establishment was reduced to a cook and an +assistant, two men-servants, and a woman-servant to attend to the linen. + +As soon as this resolution was passed, Hebert had repaired to the Temple +and inhumanly taken away from the unfortunate prisoners even the most +trifling articles to which they attached a high value. Eighty Louis +which Madame Elisabeth had in reserve, and which she had received from +Madame de Lamballe, were also taken away. No one is more dangerous, more +cruel, than the man without acquirements, without education, clothed with +a recent authority. If, above all, he possess a base nature, if, like +Hebert, who was check-taker at the door of a theatre, and embezzled money +out of the receipts, he be destitute of natural morality, and if he leap +all at once from the mud of his condition into power, he is as mean as he +is atrocious. Such was Hebert in his conduct at the Temple. He did not +confine himself to the annoyances which we have mentioned. He and some +others conceived the idea of separating the young Prince from his aunt +and sister. A shoemaker named Simon and his wife were the instructors to +whom it was deemed right to consign him for the purpose of giving him a +sans-cullotte education. Simon and his wife were shut up in the Temple, +and, becoming prisoners with the unfortunate child, were directed to +bring him up in their own way. Their food was better than that of the +Princesses, and they shared the table of the municipal commissioners who +were on duty. Simon was permitted to go down, accompanied by two +commissioners, to the court of the Temple, for the purpose of giving the +Dauphin a little exercise. + +Hebert conceived the infamous idea of wringing from this boy revelations +to criminate his unhappy mother. Whether this wretch imputed to the +child false revelations, or abused his, tender age and his condition to +extort from him what admissions soever he pleased, he obtained a +revolting deposition; and as the youth of the Prince did not admit of his +being brought before the tribunal, Hebert appeared and detailed the +infamous particulars which he had himself either dictated or invented. + +It was on the 14th of October that Marie Antoinette appeared before her +judges. Dragged before the sanguinary tribunal by inexorable +revolutionary vengeance, she appeared there without any chance of +acquittal, for it was not to obtain her acquittal that the Jacobins had +brought her before it. It was necessary, however, to make some charges. +Fouquier therefore collected the rumours current among the populace ever +since the arrival of the Princess in France, and, in the act of +accusation, he charged her with having plundered the exchequer, first for +her pleasures, and afterwards in order to transmit money to her brother, +the Emperor. He insisted on the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October, +and on the dinners of the Life Guards, alleging that she had at that +period framed a plot, which obliged the people to go to Versailles to +frustrate it. He afterwards accused her of having governed her husband, +interfered in the choice of ministers, conducted the intrigues with the +deputies gained by the Court, prepared the journey to Varennes, provoked +the war, and transmitted to the enemy's generals all our plans of +campaign. He further accused her of having prepared a new conspiracy on +the 10th of August, of having on that day caused the people to be fired +upon, having induced her husband to defend himself by taxing him with +cowardice; lastly, of having never ceased to plot and correspond with +foreigners since her captivity in the Temple, and of having there treated +her young son as King. We here observe how, on the terrible day of long- +deferred vengeance, when subjects at length break forth and strike such +of their princes as have not deserved the blow, everything is distorted +and converted into crime. We see how the profusion and fondness for +pleasure, so natural to a young princess, how her attachment to her +native country, her influence over her husband, her regrets, always more +indiscreet in a woman than a man, nay, even her bolder courage, appeared +to their inflamed or malignant imaginations. + +It was necessary to produce witnesses. Lecointre, deputy of Versailles, +who had seen what had passed on the 5th and 6th of October, Hebert, who +had frequently visited the Temple, various clerks in the ministerial +offices, and several domestic servants of the old Court were summoned.. +Admiral d'Estaing, formerly commandant of the guard of Versailles; +Manuel, the ex-procureur of the Commune; Latour-du-Pin, minister of war +in 1789; the venerable Bailly, who, it was said, had been, with La +Fayette, an accomplice in the journey to Varennes; lastly, Valaze one of +the Girondists destined to the scaffold, were taken from their prisons +and compelled to give evidence. + +No precise fact was elicited. Some had seen the Queen in high spirits +when the Life Guards testified their attachment; others had seen her +vexed and dejected while being conducted to Paris, or brought back from +Varennes; these had been present at splendid festivities which must have +cost enormous sums; those had heard it said in the ministerial offices +that the Queen was adverse to the sanction of the decrees. An ancient +waiting-woman of the Queen had heard the Duc de Coigny say, in 1788, that +the Emperor had already received two hundred millions from France to make +war upon the Turks. + +The cynical Hebert, being brought before the unfortunate Queen, dared at +length to prefer the charges wrung from the young Prince. He said that +Charles Capet had given Simon an account of the journey to Varennes, and +mentioned La Fayette and Bailly as having cooperated in it. He then +added that this boy was addicted to odious and very premature vices for +his age; that he had been surprised by Simon, who, on questioning him, +learned that he derived from his mother the vices in which he indulged. +Hebert said that it was no doubt the intention of Marie Antoinette, by +weakening thus, early the physical constitution of her son, to secure to +herself the means of ruling him in case he should ever ascend the throne. +The rumours which had been whispered for twenty years by a malicious +Court had given the people a most unfavourable opinion of the morals of +the Queen. That audience, however, though wholly Jacobin, was disgusted +at the accusations of Hebert. + + [Can there be a more infernal invention than that made against the. + Queen by Hdbert,-namely, that she had had an improper intimacy with + her own son? He made use of this sublime idea of which he boasted + in order to prejudice the women against the Queen, and to prevent + her execution from exciting pity. It had, however, no other effect + than that of disgusting all parties.--PRUDHOMME.] + +He nevertheless persisted in supporting them. + + [Hebert did not long survive her in whose sufferings he had taken + such an infamous part. He was executed on 26th March, 1794.] + +The unhappy mother made no reply. Urged a new to explain herself, she +said, with extraordinary emotion, "I thought that human nature would +excuse me from answering such an imputation, but I appeal from it to the +heart of every mother here present." This noble and simple reply +affected all who heard it. + +In the depositions of the witnesses, however, all was not so bitter for +Marie Antoinette. The brave D'Estaing, whose enemy she had been, would +not say anything to inculpate her, and spoke only of the courage which +she had shown on the 5th and 6th of October, and of the noble resolution +which she had expressed, to die beside her husband rather than fly. +Manuel, in spite of his enmity to the Court during the time of the +Legislative Assembly, declared that he could not say anything against the +accused. When the venerable Bailly was brought forward, who formerly so +often predicted to the Court the calamities which its imprudence must +produce, he appeared painfully affected; and when he was asked if he knew +the wife of Capet, "Yes," said he, bowing respectfully, "I have known +Madame." He declared that he knew nothing, and maintained that the +declarations extorted from the young Prince relative to the journey to +Varennes were false. In recompense for his deposition he was assailed +with outrageous reproaches, from which he might judge what fate would +soon be awarded to himself. + +In all the evidence there appeared but two serious facts, attested by +Latour-du-Pin and Valaze, who deposed to them because they could not help +it. Latour-du-Pin declared that Marie Antoinette had applied to him for +an accurate statement of the armies while he was minister of war. +Valaze, always cold, but respectful towards misfortune, would not say +anything to criminate the accused; yet he could not help declaring that, +as a member of the commission of twenty-four, being charged with his +colleagues to examine the papers found at the house of Septeuil, +treasurer of the civil list, he had seen bonds for various sums signed +Antoinette, which was very natural; but he added that he had also seen a +letter in which the minister requested the King to transmit to the Queen +the copy of the plan of campaign which he had in his hands. The most +unfavourable construction was immediately put upon these two facts, the +application for a statement of the armies, and the communication of the +plan of campaign; and it was concluded that they could not be wanted for +any other purpose than to be sent to the enemy, for it was not supposed +that a young princess should turn her attention, merely for her own +satisfaction, to matters of administration and military, plans. After +these depositions, several others were received respecting the expenses +of the Court, the influence of the Queen in public affairs, the scene of +the 10th of August, and what had passed in the Temple; and the most vague +rumours and most trivial circumstances were eagerly caught at as proofs. + +Marie Antoinette frequently repeated, with presence of mind and firmness, +that there was no precise fact against her; + + [At first the Queen, consulting only her own sense of dignity, had + resolved on her trial to make no other reply to the questions of her + judges than "Assassinate me as you have already assassinated my + husband!" Afterwards, however, she determined to follow the example + of the King, exert herself in her defence, and leave her judges + without any excuse or pretest for putting her to death.--WEBER'S + "Memoirs of Marie Antoinette."] + +that, besides, though the wife of Louis XVI., she was not answerable for +any of the acts of his reign. Fouquier nevertheless declared her to be +sufficiently convicted; Chaveau-Lagarde made unavailing efforts to defend +her; and the unfortunate Queen was condemned to suffer the same fate as +her husband. + +Conveyed back to the Conciergerie, she there passed in tolerable +composure the night preceding her execution, and, on the morning of the +following day, the 16th of October, + + [The Queen, after having written and prayed, slept soundly for some + hours. On her waking, Bault's daughter dressed her and adjusted her + hair with more neatness than on other days. Marie Antoinette wore a + white gown, a white handkerchief covered her shoulders, a white cap + her hair; a black ribbon bound this cap round her temples .... The + cries, the looks, the laughter, the jests of the people overwhelmed + her with humiliation; her colour, changing continually from purple + to paleness, betrayed her agitation .... On reaching the scaffold + she inadvertently trod on the executioner's foot. "Pardon me," she + said, courteously. She knelt for an instant and uttered a half- + audible prayer; then rising and glancing towards the towers of the + Temple, "Adieu, once again, my children," she said; "I go to rejoin + your father."--LAMARTINE.] + +she was conducted, amidst a great concourse of the populace, to the fatal +spot where, ten months before, Louis XVI. had perished. She listened +with calmness to the exhortations of the ecclesiastic who accompanied +her, and cast an indifferent look at the people who had so often +applauded her beauty and her grace, and who now as warmly applauded her +execution. On reaching the foot of the scaffold she perceived the +Tuileries, and appeared to be moved; but she hastened to ascend the fatal +ladder, and gave herself up with courage to the executioner. + + [Sorrow had blanched the Queen's once beautiful hair; but her + features and air still commanded the admiration of all who beheld + her; her cheeks, pale and emaciated, were occasionally tinged with a + vivid colour at the mention of those she had lost. When led out to + execution, she was dressed in white; she had cut off her hair with + her own hands. Placed in a tumbrel, with her arms tied behind her, + she was taken by a circuitous route to the Place de la Revolution, + and she ascended the scaffold with a firm and dignified step, as if + she had been about to take her place on a throne by the side of her + husband.-LACRETELLE.] + +The infamous wretch exhibited her head to the people, as he was +accustomed to do when he had sacrificed an illustrious victim. + + + + + The Last Separation.--Execution of Madame Elisabeth. + --Death of the Dauphin. + +The two Princesses left in the Temple were now almost inconsolable; they +spent days and nights in tears, whose only alleviation was that they were +shed together. "The company of my aunt, whom I loved so tenderly," said +Madame Royale, "was a great comfort to me. But alas! all that I loved +was perishing around me, and I was soon to lose her also . . . . In +the beginning of September I had an illness caused solely by my anxiety +about my mother; I never heard a drum beat that I did not expect another +3d of September."--[when the head of the Princesse de Lamballe was +carried to the Temple.] + +In the course of the month the rigour of their captivity was much +increased. The Commune ordered that they should only have one room; that +Tison (who had done the heaviest of the household work for them, and +since the kindness they showed to his insane wife had occasionally given +them tidings of the Dauphin) should be imprisoned in the turret; that +they should be supplied with only the barest necessaries; and that no one +should enter their room save to carry water and firewood. Their quantity +of firing was reduced, and they were not allowed candles. They were also +forbidden to go on the leads, and their large sheets were taken away, +"lest--notwithstanding the gratings!--they should escape from the +windows." + +On 8th October, 1793, Madame Royale was ordered to go downstairs, that +she might be interrogated by some municipal officers. "My aunt, who was +greatly affected, would have followed, but they stopped her. She asked +whether I should be permitted to come up again; Chaumette assured her +that I should. 'You may trust,' said he, 'the word of an honest +republican. She shall return.' I soon found myself in my brother's +room, whom I embraced tenderly; but we were torn asunder, and I was +obliged to go into another room.--[This was the last time the brother and +sister met] . . . Chaumette then questioned me about a thousand +shocking things of which they accused my mother and aunt; I was so +indignant at hearing such horrors that, terrified as I was, I could not +help exclaiming that they were infamous falsehoods. + +"But in spite of my tears they still pressed their questions. There were +some things which I did not comprehend, but of which I understood enough +to make me weep with indignation and horror . . . . They then asked +me about Varennes, and other things. I answered as well as I could +without implicating anybody. I had always heard my parents say that it +were better to die than to implicate anybody." When the examination was +over the Princess begged to be allowed to join her mother, but Chaumette +said he could not obtain permission for her to do so. She was then +cautioned to say nothing about her examination to her aunt, who was next +to appear before them. Madame Elisabeth, her niece declares, "replied +with still more contempt to their shocking questions." + +The only intimation of the Queen's fate which her daughter and her +sister-in-law were allowed to receive was through hearing her sentence +cried by the newsman. But "we could not persuade ourselves that she was +dead," writes Madame Royale. "A hope, so natural to the unfortunate, +persuaded us that she must have been saved. For eighteen months I +remained in this cruel suspense. We learnt also by the cries of the +newsman the death of the Duc d'Orleans. + + [The Duo d'Orleans, the early and interested propagator of the + Revolution, was its next victim. Billaud Varennes said in the + Convention: "The time has come when all the conspirators should be + known and struck. I demand that we no longer pass over in silence a + man whom we seem to have forgotten, despite the numerous facts + against him. I demand that D'ORLEANS be sent to the Revolutionary + Tribunal." The Convention, once his hireling adulators, unanimously + supported the proposal. In vain he alleged his having been + accessory to the disorders of 5th October, his support of the revolt + on 10th August, 1792, his vote against the King on 17th January, + 1793. His condemnation was pronounced. He then asked only for a + delay of twenty-four hours, and had a repast carefully prepared, on + which he feasted with avidity. When led out for execution he gazed + with a smile on the Palais Royal, the scene of his former orgies. + He was detained for a quarter of an hour before that palace by the + order of Robespierre, who had asked his daughter's hand, and + promised in return to excite a tumult in which the Duke's life + should be saved. Depraved though he was, he would not consent to + such a sacrifice, and he met his fate with stoical fortitude.-- + ALLISON, vol. iii., p. 172.] + +It was the only piece of news that reached us during the whole winter." + +The severity with which the prisoners were treated was carried into every +detail of their life. The officers who guarded them took away their +chessmen and cards because some of them were named kings and queens, and +all the books with coats of arms on them; they refused to get ointment +for a gathering on Madame Elisabeth's arm; they, would not allow her to +make a herb-tea which she thought would strengthen her niece; they +declined to supply fish or eggs on fast-days or during Lent, bringing +only coarse fat meat, and brutally replying to all remonstances, "None +but fools believe in that stuff nowadays." Madame Elisabeth never made +the officials another request, but reserved some of the bread and cafe- +au-fait from her breakfast for her second meal. The time during which +she could be thus tormented was growing short. + +On 9th May, 1794, as the Princesses were going to bed, the outside bolts +of the door were unfastened and a loud knocking was heard. "When my aunt +was dressed," says Madame Royale, "she opened the door, and they said to +her, 'Citoyenne, come down.'--'And my niece?'--'We shall take care of her +afterwards.' She embraced me, and to calm my agitation promised to +return. 'No, citoyenne,' said the men, 'bring your bonnet; you shall not +return.' They overwhelmed her with abuse, but she bore it patiently, +embracing me, and exhorting me to trust in Heaven, and never to forget +the last commands of my father and mother." + +Madame Elisabeth was then taken to the Conciergerie, where she was +interrogated by the vice-president at midnight,' and then allowed to take +some hours rest on the bed on which Marie Antoinette had slept for the +last time. In the morning she was brought before the tribunal, with +twenty-four other prisoners, of varying ages and both sexes, some of whom +had once been frequently seen at Court. + +"Of what has Elisabeth to complain?" Fouquier-Tinville satirically +asked. "At the foot of the guillotine, surrounded by faithful nobility, +she may imagine herself again at Versailles." + +"You call my brother a tyrant," the Princess replied to her accuser; "if +he had been what you say, you would not be where you are, nor I before +you!" + +She was sentenced to death, and showed neither surprise nor grief. "I am +ready to die," she said, "happy in the prospect of rejoining in a better +world those whom I loved on earth." + +On being taken to the room where those condemned to suffer at the same +time as herself were assembled, she spoke to them with so much piety and +resignation that they were encouraged by her example to show calmness and +courage like her own. The women, on leaving the cart, begged to embrace +her, and she said some words of comfort to each in turn as they mounted +the scaffold, which she was not allowed to ascend till all her companions +had been executed before her eyes. + + [Madame Elisabeth was one of those rare personages only seen at + distant intervals during the course of ages; she set an example of + steadfast piety in the palace of kings, she lived amid her family + the favourite of all and the admiration of the world .... When I + went to Versailles Madame Elisabeth was twenty-two years of age. + Her plump figure and pretty pink colour must have attracted notice, + and her air of calmness and contentment even more than her beauty. + She was fond of billiards, and her elegance and courage in riding + were remarkable. But she never allowed these amusements to + interfere with her religious observances. At that time her wish to + take the veil at St. Cyr was much talked of, but the King was too + fond of his sister to endure the separation. There were also + rumours of a marriage between Madame Elisabeth and the Emperor + Joseph. The Queen was sincerely attached to her brother, and loved + her sister-in-law most tenderly; she ardently desired this marriage + as a means of raising the Princess to one of the first thrones in + Europe, and as a possible means of turning the Emperor from his + innovations. She had been very carefully educated, had talent in + music and painting, spoke Italian and a little Latin, and understood + mathematics.... Her last moments were worthy of her courage and + virtue.--D'HEZECQUES's "Recollections," pp. 72-75.] + +"It is impossible to imagine my distress at finding myself separated from +my aunt," says Madame Royale. "Since I had been able to appreciate her +merits, I saw in her nothing but religion, gentleness, meekness, modesty, +and a devoted attachment to her family; she sacrificed her life for them, +since nothing could persuade her to leave the King and Queen. I never +can be sufficiently grateful to her for her goodness to me, which ended +only with her life. She looked on me as her child, and I honoured and +loved her as a second mother. I was thought to be very like her in +countenance, and I feel conscious that I have something of her character. +Would to God I might imitate her virtues, and hope that I may hereafter +deserve to meet her, as well as my dear parents, in the bosom of our +Creator, where I cannot doubt that they enjoy the reward of their +virtuous lives and meritorious deaths." + +Madame Royale vainly begged to be allowed to rejoin her mother or her +aunt, or at least to know their fate. The municipal officers would tell +her nothing, and rudely refused her request to have a woman placed with +her. "I asked nothing but what seemed indispensable, though it was often +harshly refused," she says. "But I at least could keep myself clean. I +had soap and water, and carefully swept out my room every day. I had no +light, but in the long days I did not feel this privation much . . . . +I had some religious works and travels, which I had read over and over. +I had also some knitting, 'qui m'ennuyait beaucoup'." Once, she +believes, Robespierre visited her prison: + + [It has been said that Robespierre vainly tried to obtain the hand + of Mademoiselle d'Orleans. It was also rumoured that Madame Royale + herself owed her life to his matrimonial ambition.] + +"The officers showed him great respect; the people in the Tower did not +know him, or at least would not tell me who he was. He stared insolently +at me, glanced at my books, and, after joining the municipal officers in +a search, retired." + + [On another occasion "three men in scarfs," who entered the + Princess's room, told her that they did not see why she should wish + to be released, as she seemed very comfortable! "It is dreadful,' + I replied, 'to be separated for more than a year from one's mother, + without even hearing what has become of her or of my aunt.'--'You + are not ill?'--'No, monsieur, but the cruellest illness is that of + the heart'--' We can do nothing for you. Be patient, and submit to + the justice and goodness of the French people: I had nothing more to + say."--DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME, "Royal Memoirs," p. 273.] + +When Laurent was appointed by the Convention to the charge of the young +prisoners, Madame Royale was treated with more consideration. "He was +always courteous," she says; he restored her tinderbox, gave her fresh +books, and allowed her candles and as much firewood as she wanted, "which +pleased me greatly." This simple expression of relief gives a clearer +idea of what the delicate girl must have suffered than a volume of +complaints. + +But however hard Madame Royale's lot might be, that of the Dauphin was +infinitely harder. Though only eight years old when he entered the +Temple, he was by nature and education extremely precocious; "his memory +retained everything, and his sensitiveness comprehended everything." His +features "recalled the somewhat effeminate look of Louis XV., and the +Austrian hauteur of Maria Theresa; his blue eyes, aquiline nose, elevated +nostrils, well-defined mouth, pouting lips, chestnut hair parted in the +middle and falling in thick curls on his shoulders, resembled his mother +before her years of tears and torture. All the beauty of his race, by +both descents, seemed to reappear in him."--[Lamartine]-- For some time +the care of his parents preserved his health and cheerfulness even in the +Temple; but his constitution was weakened by the fever recorded by his +sister, and his gaolers were determined that he should never regain +strength. + +"What does the Convention intend to do with him?" asked Simon, when the +innocent victim was placed in his clutches. "Transport him?" + +"No." + +"Kill him?" + +"No." + +"Poison him?" + +"No." + +"What, then?" + +"Why, get rid of him." + +For such a purpose they could not have chosen their instruments better. +"Simon and his wife, cut off all those fair locks that had been his +youthful glory and his mother's pride. This worthy pair stripped him of +the mourning he wore for his father; and as they did so, they called it +'playing at the game of the spoiled king.' They alternately induced him +to commit excesses, and then half starved him. They beat him +mercilessly; nor was the treatment by night less brutal than that by day. +As soon as the weary boy had sunk into his first profound sleep, they +would loudly call him by name, 'Capet! Capet!' Startled, nervous, bathed +in perspiration, or sometimes trembling with cold, he would spring up, +rush through the dark, and present himself at Simon's bedside, murmuring, +tremblingly, 'I am here, citizen.'--'Come nearer; let me feel you.' +He would approach the bed as he was ordered, although he knew the +treatment that awaited him. Simon would buffet him on the head, or kick +him away, adding the remark, 'Get to bed again, wolfs cub; I only wanted +to know that you were safe.' On one of these occasions, when the child +had fallen half stunned upon his own miserable couch, and lay there +groaning and faint with pain, Simon roared out with a laugh, 'Suppose you +were king, Capet, what would you do to me?' The child thought of his +father's dying words, and said, 'I would forgive you.'"--[THIERS] + +The change in the young Prince's mode of life, and the cruelties and +caprices to which he was subjected, soon made him fall ill, says his +sister. "Simon forced him to eat to excess, and to drink large +quantities of wine, which he detested . . . . He grew extremely fat +without increasing in height or strength." His aunt and sister, deprived +of the pleasure of tending him, had the pain of hearing his childish +voice raised in the abominable songs his gaolers taught him. The +brutality of Simon "depraved at once the body and soul of his pupil. He +called him the young wolf of the Temple. He treated him as the young of +wild animals are treated when taken from the mother and reduced to +captivity,--at once intimidated by blows and enervated by taming. He +punished for sensibility; he rewarded meanness; he encouraged vice; he +made the child wait on him at table, sometimes striking him on the face +with a knotted towel, sometimes raising the poker and threatening to +strike him with it." + + [Simon left the Temple to become a municipal officer. He was + involved in the overthrow of Robespierre, and guillotined the day + after him, 29th July, 1794.] + +Yet when Simon was removed the poor young Prince's condition became even +worse. His horrible loneliness induced an apathetic stupor to which any +suffering would have been preferable. "He passed his days without any +kind of occupation; they did not allow him light in the evening. His +keepers never approached him but to give him food;" and on the rare +occasions when they took him to the platform of the Tower, he was unable +or unwilling to move about. When, in November, 1794, a commissary named +Gomin arrived at the Temple, disposed to treat the little prisoner with +kindness, it was too late. "He took extreme care of my brother," says +Madame Royale. "For a long time the unhappy child had been shut up in +darkness, and he was dying of fright. He was very grateful for the +attentions of Gomin, and became much attached to him." But his physical +condition was alarming, and, owing to Gomin's representations, a +commission was instituted to examine him. "The commissioners appointed +were Harmond, Mathieu, and Reverchon, who visited 'Louis Charles,' as he +was now called, in the month of February, 1795. They found the young +Prince seated at a square deal table, at which he was playing with some +dirty cards, making card houses and the like,--the materials having been +furnished him, probably, that they might figure in the report as +evidences of indulgence. He did not look up from the table as the +commissioners entered. He was in a slate-coloured dress, bareheaded; the +room was reported as clean, the bed in good condition, the linen fresh; +his clothes were also reported as new; but, in spite of all these +assertions, it is well known that his bed had not been made for months, +that he had not left his room, nor was permitted to leave it, for any +purpose whatever, that it was consequently uninhabitable, and that he was +covered with vermin and with sores. The swellings at his knees alone +were sufficient to disable him from walking. One of the commissioners +approached the young Prince respectfully. The latter did not raise his +head. Harmond in a kind voice begged him to speak to them. The eyes of +the boy remained fixed on the table before him. They told him of the +kindly intentions of the Government, of their hopes that he would yet be +happy, and their desire that he would speak unreservedly to the medical +man that was to visit him. He seemed to listen with profound attention, +but not a single word passed his lips. It was an heroic principle that +impelled that poor young heart to maintain the silence of a mute in +presence of these men. He remembered too well the days when three other +commissaries waited on him, regaled him with pastry and wine, and +obtained from him that hellish accusation against the mother that he +loved. He had learnt by some means the import of the act, so far as it +was an injury to his mother. He now dreaded seeing again three +commissaries, hearing again kind words, and being treated again with fine +promises. Dumb as death itself he sat before them, and remained +motionless as stone, and as mute." [THIERS] + +His disease now made rapid progress, and Gomin and Lasne, superintendents +of the Temple, thinking it necessary to inform the Government of the +melancholy condition of their prisoner, wrote on the register: "Little +Capet is unwell." No notice was taken of this account, which was renewed +next day in more urgent terms: "Little Capet is dangerously ill." Still +there was no word from beyond the walls. "We must knock harder," said +the keepers to each other, and they added, "It is feared he will not +live," to the words "dangerously ill." At length, on Wednesday, 6th May, +1795, three days after the first report, the authorities appointed M. +Desault to give the invalid the assistance of his art. After having +written down his name on the register he was admitted to see the Prince. +He made a long and very attentive examination of the unfortunate child, +asked him many questions without being able to obtain an answer, and +contented himself with prescribing a decoction of hops, to be taken by +spoonfuls every half-hour, from six o'clock in the morning till eight in +the evening. On the first day the Prince steadily refused to take it. +In vain Gomin several times drank off a glass of the potion in his +presence; his example proved as ineffectual as his words. Next day Lasne +renewed his solicitations. "Monsieur knows very well that I desire +nothing but the good of his health, and he distresses me deeply by thus +refusing to take what might contribute to it. I entreat him as a favour +not to give me this cause of grief." And as Lasne, while speaking, began +to taste the potion in a glass, the child took what he offered him out of +his hands. "You have, then, taken an oath that I should drink it," said +he, firmly; "well, give it me, I will drink it." From that moment he +conformed with docility to whatever was required of him, but the policy +of the Commune had attained its object; help had been withheld till it +was almost a mockery to supply it. + +The Prince's weakness was excessive; his keepers could scarcely drag him +to the, top of the Tower; walking hurt his tender feet, and at every step +he stopped to press the arm of Lasne with both hands upon his breast. At +last he suffered so much that it was no longer possible for him to walk, +and his keeper carried him about, sometimes on the platform, and +sometimes in the little tower, where the royal family had lived at first. +But the slight improvement to his health occasioned by the change of air +scarcely compensated for the pain which his fatigue gave him. On the +battlement of the platform nearest the left turret, the rain had, by +perseverance through ages, hollowed out a kind of basin. The water that +fell remained there for several days; and as, during the spring of 1795, +storms were of frequent occurrence, this little sheet of water was kept +constantly supplied. Whenever the child was brought out upon the +platform, he saw a little troop of sparrows, which used to come to drink +and bathe in this reservoir. At first they flew away at his approach, +but from being accustomed to see him walking quietly there every day, +they at last grew more familiar, and did not spread their wings for +flight till he came up close to them. They were always the same, he knew +them by sight, and perhaps like himself they were inhabitants of that +ancient pile. He called them his birds; and his first action, when the +door into the terrace was opened, was to look towards that side,--and +the sparrows were always there. He delighted in their chirping, and he +must have envied them their wings. + +Though so little could be done to alleviate his sufferings, a moral +improvement was taking place in him. He was touched by the lively +interest displayed by his physician, who never failed to visit him at +nine o'clock every morning. He seemed pleased with the attention paid +him, and ended by placing entire confidence in M. Desault. Gratitude +loosened his tongue; brutality and insult had failed to extort a murmur, +but kind treatment restored his speech he had no words for anger, but he +found them to express his thanks. M. Desault prolonged his visits as +long as the officers of the municipality would permit. When they +announced the close of the visit, the child, unwilling to beg them to +allow a longer time, held back M. Desault by the skirt of his coat. +Suddenly M. Desault's visits ceased. Several days passed and nothing was +heard of him. The keepers wondered at his absence, and the poor little +invalid was much distressed at it. The commissary on duty (M. Benoist) +suggested that it would be proper to send to the physician's house to +make inquiries as to the cause of so long an absence. Gomin and Larne +had not yet ventured to follow this advice, when next day M. Benoist was +relieved by M. Bidault, who, hearing M. Desault's name mentioned as he +came in, immediately said, "You must not expect to see him any more; he +died yesterday." + +M. Pelletan, head surgeon of the Grand Hospice de l'Humanite, was next +directed to attend the prisoner, and in June he found him in so alarming +a state that he at once asked for a coadjutor, fearing to undertake the +responsibility alone. The physician--sent for form's sake to attend the +dying child, as an advocate is given by law to a criminal condemned +beforehand--blamed the officers of the municipality for not having +removed the blind, which obstructed the light, and the numerous bolts, +the noise of which never failed to remind the victim of his captivity. +That sound, which always caused him an involuntary shudder, disturbed him +in the last mournful scene of his unparalleled tortures. M. Pelletan +said authoritatively to the municipal on duty, "If you will not take +these bolts and casings away at once, at least you can make no objection +to our carrying the child into another room, for I suppose we are sent +here to take charge of him." The Prince, being disturbed by these words, +spoken as they were with great animation, made a sign to the physician to +come nearer. "Speak lower, I beg of you," said he; "I am afraid they +will hear you up-stairs, and I should be very sorry for them to know that +I am ill, as it would give them much uneasiness." + +At first the change to a cheerful and airy room revived the Prince and +gave him evident pleasure, but the improvement did not last. Next day M. +Pelletan learned that the Government had acceded to his request for a +colleague. M. Dumangin, head physician of the Hospice de l'Unite, made +his appearance at his house on the morning of Sunday, 7th June, with the +official despatch sent him by the committee of public safety. They +repaired together immediately to the Tower. On their arrival they heard +that the child, whose weakness was excessive, had had a fainting fit, +which had occasioned fears to be entertained that his end was +approaching. He had revived a little, however, when the physicians went +up at about nine o'clock. Unable to contend with increasing exhaustion, +they perceived there was no longer any hope of prolonging an existence +worn out by so much suffering, and that all their art could effect would +be to soften the last stage of this lamentable disease. While standing +by the Prince's bed, Gomin noticed that he was quietly crying, and asked +him. kindly what was the matter. "I am always alone," he said. "My +dear mother remains in the other tower." Night came,--his last night,-- +which the regulations of the prison condemned him to pass once more in +solitude, with suffering, his old companion, only at his side. This +time, however, death, too, stood at his pillow. When Gomin went up to +the child's room on the morning of 8th June, he said, seeing him calm, +motionless, and mute: + +"I hope you are not in pain just now?" + +"Oh, yes, I am still in pain, but not nearly so much,--the music is so +beautiful!" + +Now there was no music to be heard, either in the Tower or anywhere near. + +Gomin, astonished, said to him, "From what direction do you hear this +music?" + +"From above!" + +"Have you heard it long?" + +"Since you knelt down. Do you not hear it? Listen! Listen!" And the +child, with a nervous motion, raised his faltering hand, as he opened his +large eyes illuminated by delight. His poor keeper, unwilling to destroy +this last sweet illusion, appeared to listen also. + +After a few minutes of attention the child again started, and cried out, +in intense rapture, "Amongst all the voices I have distinguished that of +my mother!" + +These were almost his last words. At a quarter past two he died, Lasne +only being in the room. at the time. Lasne acquainted Gomin and Damont, +the commissary on duty, with the event, and they repaired to the chamber +of death. The poor little royal corpse was carried from the room into +that where he had suffered so long,--where for two years he had never +ceased to suffer. From this apartment the father had gone to the +scaffold, and thence the son must pass to the burial-ground. The remains +were laid out on the bed, and the doors of the apartment were set open,-- +doors which had remained closed ever since the Revolution had seized on a +child, then full of vigour and grace and life and health! + +At eight o'clock next morning (9th June) four members of the committee of +general safety came to the Tower to make sure that the Prince was really +dead. When they were admitted to the death-chamber by Lasne and Damont +they affected the greatest indifference. "The event is not of the least +importance," they repeated, several times over; "the police commissary of +the section will come and receive the declaration of the decease; he will +acknowledge it, and proceed to the interment without any ceremony; and +the committee will give the necessary directions." As they withdrew, +some officers of the Temple guard asked to see the remains of little +Capet. Damont having observed that the guard would not permit the bier +to pass without its being opened, the deputies decided that the officers +and non-commissioned officers of the guard going off duty, together with +those coming on, should be all invited to assure themselves of the +child's death. All having assembled in the room where the body lay, he +asked them if they recognised it as that of the ex-Dauphin, son of the +last King of France. Those who had seen the young Prince at the +Tuileries, or at the Temple (and most of them had), bore witness to its +being the body of Louis XVII. When they were come down into the council- +room, Darlot drew up the minutes of this attestation, which was signed by +a score of persons. These minutes were inserted in the journal of the +Temple tower, which was afterwards deposited in the office of the +Minister of the Interior. + +During this visit the surgeons entrusted with the autopsy arrived at the +outer gate of the Temple. These were Dumangin, head physician of the +Hospice de l'Unite; Pelletan, head surgeon of the Grand Hospice de +l'Humanite; Jeanroy, professor in the medical schools of Paris; and +Laasus, professor of legal medicine at the Ecole de Sante of Paris. +The last two were selected by Dumangin and Pelletan because of the former +connection of M. Lassus with Mesdames de France, and of M. Jeanroy with +the House of Lorraine, which gave a peculiar weight to their signatures. +Gomin received them in the council-room, and detained them until the +National Guard, descending from the second floor, entered to sign the +minutes prepared by Darlot. This done, Lasne, Darlot, and Bouquet went +up again with the surgeons, and introduced them into the apartment of +Louis XVII., whom they at first examined as he lay on his death-bed; but +M. Jeanroy observing that the dim light of this room was but little +favourable to the accomplishment of their mission, the commissaries +prepared a table in the first room, near the window, on which the corpse +was laid, and the surgeons began their melancholy operation. + +At seven o'clock the police commissary ordered the body to be taken up, +and that they should proceed to the cemetery. It was the season of the +longest days, and therefore the interment did not take place in secrecy +and at night, as some misinformed narrators have said or written; it took +place in broad daylight, and attracted a great concourse of people before +the gates of the Temple palace. One of the municipals wished to have the +coffin carried out secretly by the door opening into the chapel +enclosure; but M. Duaser, police commiasary, who was specially entrusted +with the arrangement of the ceremony, opposed this indecorous measure, +and the procession passed out through the great gate. The crowd that was +pressing round was kept back, and compelled to keep a line, by a +tricoloured ribbon, held at short distances by gendarmes. Compassion and +sorrow were impressed on every countenance. + +A small detachment of the troops of the line from the garrison of Paris, +sent by the authorities, was waiting to serve as an escort. The bier, +still covered with the pall, was carried on a litter on the shoulders of +four men, who relieved each other two at a time; it was preceded by six +or eight men, headed by a sergeant. The procession was accompanied a +long way by the crowd, and a great number of persona followed it even to +the cemetery. The name of "Little Capet," and the more popular title of +Dauphin, spread from lip to lip, with exclamations of pity and +compassion. The funeral entered the cemetery of Ste. Marguerite, not by +the church, as some accounts assert, but by the old gate of the cemetery. +The interment was made in the corner, on the left, at a distance of eight +or nine feet from the enclosure wall, and at an equal distance from a +small house, which subsequently served as a school. The grave was filled +up,--no mound marked its place, and not even a trace remained of the +interment! Not till then did the commissaries of police and the +municipality withdraw, and enter the house opposite the church to draw up +the declaration of interment. It was nearly nine o'clock, and still +daylight. + + + + + Release of Madame Royale.--Her Marriage to the Duc d'Angouleme. + --Return to France.--Death. + +The last person to hear of the sad events in the Temple was the one for +whom they had the deepest and most painful interest. After her brother's +death the captivity of Madame Royale was much lightened. She was allowed +to walk in the Temple gardens, and to receive visits from some ladies of +the old Court, and from Madame de Chantereine, who at last, after several +times evading her questions, ventured cautiously to tell her of the +deaths of her mother, aunt, and brother. Madame Royale wept bitterly, +but had much difficulty in expressing her feelings. "She spoke so +confusedly," says Madame de la Ramiere in a letter to Madame de Verneuil, +"that it was difficult to understand her. It took her more than a +month's reading aloud, with careful study of pronunciation, to make +herself intelligible,--so much had she lost the power of expression." +She was dressed with plainness amounting to poverty, and her hands were +disfigured by exposure to cold and by the menial work she had been so +long accustomed to do for herself, and which it was difficult to persuade +her to leave off. When urged to accept the services of an attendant, she +replied, with a sad prevision of the vicissitudes of her future life, +that she did not like to form a habit which she might have again to +abandon. She suffered herself, however, to be persuaded gradually to +modify her recluse and ascetic habits. It was well she did so, as a +preparation for the great changes about to follow. + +Nine days after the death of her brother, the city of Orleans interceded +for the daughter of Louis XVI., and sent deputies to the Convention to +pray for her deliverance and restoration to her family. Names followed +this example; and Charette, on the part of the Vendeans, demanded, as a +condition of the pacification of La Vendee, that the Princess should be +allowed to join her relations. At length the Convention decreed that +Madame Royale should be exchanged with Austria for the representatives +and ministers whom Dumouriez had given up to the Prince of Cobourg,-- +Drouet, Semonville, Maret, and other prisoners of importance. At +midnight on 19th December, 1795, which was her birthday, the Princess was +released from prison, the Minister of the Interior, M. Benezech, to avoid +attracting public attention and possible disturbance, conducting her on +foot from the Temple to a neighbouring street, where his carriage awaited +her. She made it her particular request that Gomin, who had been so +devoted to her brother, should be the commissary appointed to accompany +her to the frontier; Madame de Soucy, formerly under-governess to the +children of France, was also in attendance; and the Princess took with +her a dog named Coco, which had belonged to Louis XVI. + + [The mention of the little dog taken from the Temple by Madame + Royale reminds me how fond all the family were of these creatures. + Each Princess kept a different kind. Mesdames had beautiful + spaniels; little grayhounds were preferred by Madame Elisabeth. + Louis XVI. was the only one of all his family who had no dogs in his + room. I remember one day waiting in the great gallery for the + King's retiring, when he entered with all his family and the whole + pack, who were escorting him. All at once all the dogs began to + bark, one louder than another, and ran away, passing like ghosts + along those great dark rooms, which rang with their hoarse cries. + The Princesses shouting, calling them, running everywhere after + them, completed a ridiculous spectacle, which made those august + persons very merry.--D'HEZECQUES, p. 49.] + +She was frequently recognised on her way through France, and always with +marks of pleasure and respect. + +It might have been supposed that the Princess would rejoice to leave +behind her the country which had been the scene of so many horrors and +such bitter suffering. But it was her birthplace, and it held the graves +of all she loved; and as she crossed the frontier she said to those +around her, "I leave France with regret, for I shall never cease to +consider it my country." She arrived in Vienna on 9th January, 1796, and +her first care was to attend a memorial service for her murdered +relatives. After many weeks of close retirement she occasionally began +to appear in public, and people looked with interest at the pale, grave, +slender girl of seventeen, dressed in the deepest mourning, over whose +young head such terrible storms had swept. The Emperor wished her to +marry the Archduke Charles of Austria, but her father and mother had, +even in the cradle, destined her hand for her cousin, the Duc +d'Angouleme, son of the Comte d'Artois, and the memory of their lightest +wish was law to her. + +Her quiet determination entailed anger and opposition amounting to +persecution. Every effort was made to alienate her from her French +relations. She was urged to claim Provence, which had become her own if +Louis XVIII. was to be considered King of France. A pressure of opinion +was brought to bear upon her which might well have overawed so young a +girl. "I was sent for to the Emperor's cabinet," she writes, "where I +found the imperial family assembled. The ministers and chief imperial +counsellors were also present . . . . When the Emperor invited me to +express my opinion, I answered that to be able to treat fittingly of such +interests I thought, I ought to be surrounded not only by my mother's +relatives, but also by those of my father . . . . Besides, I said, +I was above all things French, and in entire subjection to the laws of +France, which had rendered me alternately the subject of the King my +father, the King my brother, and the King my uncle, and that I would +yield obedience to the latter, whatever might be his commands. This +declaration appeared very much to dissatisfy all who were present, and +when they observed that I was not to be shaken, they declared that my +right being independent of my will, my resistance would not be the +slightest obstacle to the measures they might deem it necessary to adopt +for the preservation of my interests." + +In their anxiety to make a German princess of Marie Therese, her imperial +relations suppressed her French title as much as possible. When, with +some difficulty, the Duc de Grammont succeeded in obtaining an audience +of her, and used the familiar form of address, she smiled faintly, and +bade him beware. "Call me Madame de Bretagne, or de Bourgogne, or de +Lorraine," she said, "for here I am so identified with these provinces +--[which the Emperor wished her to claim from her uncle Louis XVIII.]-- +that I shall end in believing in my own transformation." After these +discussions she was so closely watched, and so many restraints were +imposed upon her, that she was scarcely less a prisoner than in the old +days of the Temple, though her cage was this time gilded. Rescue, +however, was at hand. + +In 1798 Louis XVIII. accepted a refuge offered to him at Mittau by the +Czar Paul, who had promised that he would grant his guest's first +request, whatever it might be. Louis begged the Czar to use his +influence with the Court of Vienna to allow his niece to join him. +"Monsieur, my brother," was Paul's answer, "Madame Royale shall be +restored to you, or I shall cease to be Paul I." Next morning the Czar +despatched a courier to Vienna with a demand for the Princess, so +energetically worded that refusal must have been followed by war. +Accordingly, in May, 1799, Madame Royale was allowed to leave the capital +which she had found so uncongenial an asylum. + +In the old ducal castle of Mittau, the capital of Courland, Louis XVIII. +and his wife, with their nephews, the Ducs d'Angouleme + + [The Duc d'Angonleme was quiet and reserved. He loved hunting as + means of killing time; was given to early hours and innocent + pleasures. He was a gentleman, and brave as became one. He had not + the "gentlemanly vices" of his brother, and was all the better for + it. He was ill educated, but had natural good sense, and would have + passed for having more than that had he cared to put forth + pretensions. Of all his family he was the one most ill spoken of, + and least deserving of it.--DOCTOR DORAN.] + +and de Berri, were awaiting her, attended by the Abbe Edgeworth, as chief +ecclesiastic, and a little Court of refugee nobles and officers. With +them were two men of humbler position, who must have been even more +welcome to Madame Royale,--De Malden, who had acted as courier to Louis +XVI. during the flight to Varennes, and Turgi, who had waited on the +Princesses in the Temple. It was a sad meeting, though so long anxiously +desired, and it was followed on 10th June, 1799, by an equally sad +wedding,--exiles, pensioners on the bounty of the Russian monarch, +fulfilling an engagement founded, not on personal preference, but on +family policy and reverence for the wishes of the dead, the bride and +bridegroom had small cause for rejoicing. During the eighteen months of +tranquil seclusion which followed her marriage, the favourite occupation +of the Duchess was visiting and relieving the poor. In January, 1801, +the Czar Paul, in compliance with the demand of Napoleon, who was just +then the object of his capricious enthusiasm, ordered the French royal +family to leave Mittau. Their wanderings commenced on the 21st, a day of +bitter memories; and the young Duchess led the King to his carriage +through a crowd of men, women, and children, whose tears and blessings +attended them on their way. + + [The Queen was too ill to travel. The Duc d'Angouleme took another + route to join a body of French gentlemen in arms for the Legitimist + cause.] + +The exiles asked permission from the King of Prussia to settle in his +dominions, and while awaiting his answer at Munich they were painfully +surprised by the entrance of five old soldiers of noble birth, part of +the body-guard they had left behind at Mittau, relying on the protection +of Paul. The "mad Czar" had decreed their immediate expulsion, and, +penniless and almost starving, they made their way to Louis XVIII. All +the money the royal family possessed was bestowed on these faithful +servants, who came to them in detachments for relief, and then the +Duchess offered her diamonds to the Danish consul for an advance of two +thousand ducats, saying she pledged her property "that in our common +distress it may be rendered of real use to my uncle, his faithful +servants, and myself." The Duchess's consistent and unselfish kindness +procured her from the King, and those about him who knew her best, the +name of "our angel." + +Warsaw was for a brief time the resting-place of the wanderers, but there +they were disturbed in 1803 by Napoleon's attempt to threaten and bribe +Louis XVIII. into abdication. It was suggested that refusal might bring +upon them expulsion from Prussia. "We are accustomed to suffering," was +the King's answer, "and we do not dread poverty. I would, trusting in +God, seek another asylum." In 1808, after many changes of scene, this +asylum was sought in England, Gosfield Hall, Essex, being placed at their +disposal by the Marquis of Buckingham. From Gosfield, the King moved to +Hartwell Hall, a fine old Elizabethan mansion rented from Sir George Lee +for L 500 a year. A yearly grant of L 24,000 was made to the exiled +family by the British Government, out of which a hundred and forty +persons were supported, the royal dinner-party generally numbering two +dozen. + +At Hartwell, as in her other homes, the Duchess was most popular amongst +the poor. In general society she was cold and reserved, and she disliked +the notice of strangers. In March, 1814, the royalist successes at +Bordeaux paved the way for the restoration of royalty in France, and +amidst general sympathy and congratulation, with the Prince Regent +himself to wish them good fortune, the King, the Duchess, and their suite +left Hartwell in April, 1814. The return to France was as triumphant as +a somewhat half-hearted and doubtful enthusiasm could make it, and most +of such cordiality as there was fell to the share of the Duchess. As she +passed to Notre-Dame in May, 1814, on entering Paris, she was +vociferously greeted. The feeling of loyalty, however, was not much +longer-lived than the applause by which it was expressed; the Duchess had +scarcely effected one of the strongest wishes of her heart,--the +identification of what remained of her parents' bodies, and the +magnificent ceremony with which they were removed from the cemetery of +the Madeleine to the Abbey of St. Denis,--when the escape of Napoleon +from Elba in February,1815, scattered the royal family and their +followers like chaff before the wind. The Duc d'Angouleme, compelled to +capitulate at Toulouse, sailed from Cette in a Swedish vessel. The Comte +d'Artois, the Duc de Berri, and the Prince de Conde withdrew beyond the +frontier. The King fled from the capital. The Duchesse d'Angouleme, +then at Bordeaux celebrating the anniversary of the Proclamation of Louis +XVIII., alone of all her family made any stand against the general panic. +Day after day she mounted her horse and reviewed the National Guard. She +made personal and even passionate appeals to the officers and men, +standing firm, and prevailing on a handful of soldiers to remain by her, +even when the imperialist troops were on the other side of the river and +their cannon were directed against the square where the Duchess was +reviewing her scanty followers. + + ["It was the Duchesse d'Angouleme who saved you," said the gallant + General Clauzel, after these events, to a royalist volunteer; + "I could not bring myself to order such a woman to be fired upon, + at the moment when she was providing material for the noblest page + in her history."--"Fillia Dolorosa," vol. vii., p. 131.] + +With pain and difficulty she was convinced that resistance was vain; +Napoleon's banner soon floated over Bordeaux; the Duchess issued a +farewell proclamation to her "brave Bordelais," and on the 1st April, +1815, she started for Pouillac, whence she embarked for Spain. During a +brief visit to England she heard that the reign of a hundred days was +over, and the 27th of July, 1815, saw her second triumphal return to the +Tuileries. She did not take up her abode there with any wish for State +ceremonies or Court gaieties. Her life was as secluded as her position +would allow. Her favourite retreat was the Pavilion, which had been +inhabited by her mother, and in her little oratory she collected relics +of her family, over which on the anniversaries of their deaths she wept +and prayed. In her daily drives through Paris she scrupulously avoided +the spot on which they had suffered; and the memory of the past seemed to +rule all her sad and self-denying life, both in what she did and what she +refrained from doing. + + [She was so methodical and economical, though liberal in her + charities, that one of her regular evening occupations was to tear + off the seals from the letters she had received during the day, in + order that the wax might be melted down and sold; the produce made + one poor family "passing rich with forty pounds a year."--See "Filia + Dolorosa," vol. ii., p. 239.] + +Her somewhat austere goodness was not of a nature to make her popular. +The few who really understood her loved her, but the majority of her +pleasure-seeking subjects regarded her either with ridicule or dread. +She is said to have taken no part in politics, and to have exerted no +influence in public affairs, but her sympathies were well known, and "the +very word liberty made her shudder;" like Madame Roland, she had seen "so +many crimes perpetrated under that name." + +The claims of three pretended Dauphins--Hervagault, the son of the tailor +of St. Lo; Bruneau, son of the shoemaker of Vergin; and Naundorf or +Norndorff, the watchmaker somewhat troubled her peace, but never for a +moment obtained her sanction. Of the many other pseudo-Dauphins (said to +number a dozen and a half) not even the names remain. In February,1820, +a fresh tragedy befell the royal family in the assassination of the Duc +de Berri, brother-in-law of the Duchesse d'Angouleme, as he was seeing +his wife into her carriage at the door of the Opera-house. He was +carried into the theatre, and there the dying Prince and his wife were +joined by the Duchess, who remained till he breathed his last, and was +present when he, too, was laid in the Abbey of St. Denis. She was +present also when his son, the Duc de Bordeaux, was born, and hoped that +she saw in him a guarantee for the stability of royalty in France. In +September, 1824, she stood by the death-bed of Louis XVIII., and +thenceforward her chief occupation was directing the education of the +little Duc de Bordeaux, who generally resided with her at Villeneuve +l'Etang, her country house near St. Cloud. Thence she went in July, +1830, to the Baths of Vichy, stopping at Dijon on her way to Paris, and +visiting the theatre on the evening of the 27th. She was received with +"a roar of execrations and seditious cries," and knew only too well what +they signified. She instantly left the theatre and proceeded to Tonnere, +where she received news of the rising in Paris, and, quitting the town by +night, was driven to Joigny with three attendants. Soon after leaving +that place it was thought more prudent that the party should separate and +proceed on foot, and the Duchess and M. de Foucigny, disguised as +peasants, entered Versailles arm-in-arm, to obtain tidings of the King. +The Duchess found him at Rambouillet with her husband, the Dauphin, and +the King met her with a request for "pardon," being fully conscious, too +late, that his unwise decrees and his headlong flight had destroyed the +last hopes of his family. The act of abdication followed, by which the +prospect of royalty passed from the Dauphin and his wife, as well as from +Charles X.--Henri V. being proclaimed King, and the Duc d'Orleans (who +refused to take the boy monarch under his personal protection) +lieutenant-general of the kingdom. + +Then began the Duchess's third expatriation. At Cherbourg the royal +family, accompanied by the little King without a kingdom, embarked in the +'Great Britain', which stood out to sea. The Duchess, remaining on deck +for a last look at the coast of France, noticed a brig which kept, she +thought, suspiciously near them. + +"Who commands that vessel?" she inquired. + +"Captain Thibault." + +And what are his orders?" + +"To fire into and sink the vessels in which we sail, should any attempt +be made to return to France." + +Such was the farewell of their subjects to the House of Bourbon. The +fugitives landed at Weymouth; the Duchesse d'Angouleme under the title of +Comtesse de Marne, the Duchesse de Berri as Comtesse de Rosny, and her +son, Henri de Bordeaux, as Comte de Chambord, the title he retained till +his death, originally taken from the estate presented to him in infancy +by his enthusiastic people. Holyrood, with its royal and gloomy +associations, was their appointed dwelling. The Duc and Duchesse +d'Angouleme, and the daughter of the Duc de Berri, travelled thither by +land, the King and the young Comte de Chambord by sea. "I prefer my +route to that of my sister," observed the latter, "because I shall see the +coast of France again, and she will not." + +The French Government soon complained that at Holyrood the exiles were +still too near their native land, and accordingly, in 1832, Charles X., +with his son and grandson, left Scotland for Hamburg, while the Duchesse +d'Angouleme and her niece repaired to Vienna. The family were reunited +at Prague in 1833, where the birthday of the Comte de Chambord was +celebrated with some pomp and rejoicing, many Legitimists flocking +thither to congratulate him on attaining the age of thirteen, which the +old law of monarchical France had fixed as the majority of her princes. +Three years later the wanderings of the unfortunate family recommenced; +the Emperor Francis II. was dead, and his successor, Ferdinand, must +visit Prague to be crowned, and Charles X. feared that the presence of a +discrowned monarch might be embarrassing on such an occasion. Illness +and sorrow attended the exiles on their new journey, and a few months +after they were established in the Chateau of Graffenburg at Goritz, +Charles X. died of cholera, in his eightieth year. At Goritz, also, on +the 31st May, 1844, the Duchesse d'Angouleme, who had sat beside so many +death-beds, watched over that of her husband. Theirs had not been a +marriage of affection in youth, but they respected each other's virtues, +and to a great extent shared each other's tastes; banishment and +suffering had united them very closely, and of late years they had been +almost inseparable,--walking, riding, and reading together. When the +Duchesse d'Angouleme had seen her husband laid by his father's side in +the vault of the Franciscan convent, she, accompanied by her nephew and +niece, removed to Frohsdorf, where they spent seven tranquil years. Here +she was addressed as "Queen" by her household for the first time in her +life, but she herself always recognised Henri, Comte de Chambord, as her +sovereign. The Duchess lived to see the overthrow of Louis Philippe, the +usurper of the inheritance of her family. Her last attempt to exert +herself was a characteristic one. She tried to rise from a sick-bed in +order to attend the memorial service held for her mother, Marie +Antoinette, on the 16th October, the anniversary of her execution. But +her strength was not equal to the task; on the 19th she expired, with her +hand in that of the Comte de Chambord, and on 28th October, 1851, Marie +Therese Charlotte, Duchesse d'Angouleme, was buried in the Franciscan +convent. + + + + + The Ceremony of Expiation. + +"In the spring of 1814 a ceremony took place in Paris at which I was +present because there was nothing in it that could be mortifying to a +French heart. The death of Louis XVI. had long been admitted to be one +of the most serious misfortunes of the Revolution. The Emperor Napoleon +never spoke of that sovereign but in terms of the highest respect, and +always prefixed the epithet unfortunate to his name. The ceremony to +which I allude was proposed by the Emperor of Russia and the King of +Prussia. It consisted of a kind of expiation and purification of the +spot on which Louis XVI. and his Queen were beheaded. I went to see the +ceremony, and I had a place at a window in the Hotel of Madame de +Remusat, next to the Hotel de Crillon, and what was termed the Hotel de +Courlande. + +"The expiation took place on the 10th of April. The weather was +extremely fine and warm for the season. The Emperor of Russia and King +of Prussia, accompanied by Prince Schwartzenberg, took their station at +the entrance of the Rue Royale; the King of Prussia being on the right of +the Emperor Alexander, and Prince Schwartzenberg on his left. There was +a long parade, during which the Russian, Prussian and Austrian military +bands vied with each other in playing the air, 'Vive Henri IV.!' +The cavalry defiled past, and then withdrew into the Champs Elysees; +but the infantry ranged themselves round an altar which was raised in the +middle of the Place, and which was elevated on a platform having twelve +or fifteen steps. The Emperor of Russia alighted from his horse, and, +followed by the King of Prussia, the Grand Duke Constantine, Lord +Cathcart, and Prince Schwartzenberg, advanced to the altar. When the +Emperor had nearly reached the altar the "Te Deum" commenced. At the +moment of the benediction, the sovereigns and persons who accompanied +them, as well as the twenty-five thousand troops who covered the Place, +all knelt down. The Greek priest presented the cross to the Emperor +Alexander, who kissed it; his example was followed by the individuals who +accompanied him, though they were not of the Greek faith. On rising, the +Grand Duke Constantine took off his hat, and immediately salvoes of +artillery were heard." + + + + +NOTE. + +The following titles have the signification given below during the period +covered by this work: + +MONSEIGNEUR........... The Dauphin. + +MONSIEUR.............. The eldest brother of the King, Comte de Provence, + afterwards Louis XVIII. + +MONSIEUR LE PRINCE.... The Prince de Conde, head of the House of Conde. + +MONSIEUR LE DUC....... The Duc de Bourbon, the eldest son of the Prince + de Condo (and the father of the Duc d'Enghien shot + by Napoleon). + +MONSIEUR LE GRAND..... The Grand Equerry under the ancien regime. + +MONSIEUR LE PREMIER... The First Equerry under the ancien regime. + +ENFANS DE FRANCE...... The royal children. + +MADAME & MESDAMES..... Sisters or daughters of the King, or Princesses +near the Throne (sometimes used also for the wife of Monsieur, the eldest +brother of the King, the Princesses Adelaide, Victoire, Sophie, Louise, +daughters of Louis XV., and aunts of Louis XVI.) + +MADAME ELISABETH...... The Princesse Elisabeth, sister of Louis XVI. + +MADAME ROYALE......... The Princesse Marie Therese, daughter of Louis + XVI., afterwards Duchesse d'Angouleme. + +MADEMOISELLE.......... The daughter of Monsieur, the brother of the King. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Allowed her candles and as much firewood as she wanted +Better to die than to implicate anybody +Duc d'Orleans, when called on to give his vote for death of King +Formed rather to endure calamity with patience than to contend +How can I have any regret when I partake your misfortunes +Louis Philippe, the usurper of the inheritance of her family +My father fortunately found a library which amused him +No one is more dangerous than a man clothed with recent authority +Rabble, always ready to insult genius, virtue, and misfortune +So many crimes perpetrated under that name (liberty) +Subjecting the vanquished to be tried by the conquerors + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, v7 +by Madame Campan + diff --git a/old/cm53b10.zip b/old/cm53b10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4649fdb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cm53b10.zip |