Latest / Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette / 27 - Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette by Henriette Campan
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Volume two, Chapter ten, Part two of Memoirs of the
- 0:04Speaker 1: Court of Marie Antoinette by Madame Campin. This LibriVox recording
- 0:08Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Ten Part two note by
- 0:14Speaker 1: the editor The informant cited by Montois thus relates the
- 0:19Speaker 1: efforts made by monsieurro Derere with the people and the
- 0:21Speaker 1: National Guard, and the conversation he afterwards had with the
- 0:25Speaker 1: King in his closet. This account of the tenth of
- 0:28Speaker 1: August contains also several other important particulars, but we refer
- 0:32Speaker 1: them all to the historical illustrations letter k not to
- 0:35Speaker 1: interrupt Madame Compin's narrative. Monsieur Derere, it must be said,
- 0:40Speaker 1: to his praise, tried all means. At last, being unable
- 0:43Speaker 1: to subdue the fury of the people, he calmed it
- 0:46Speaker 1: for a few minutes. They granted him half an hour,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and the depositaries of the law instantly returned into the
- 0:52Speaker 1: castle yard. Here they met with obstacles of another kind.
- 0:56Speaker 1: The National Guard seemed perfectly resolute and well disposed. Monsieur
- 1:01Speaker 1: ro Derere called their attention to the extent of the danger.
- 1:05Speaker 1: He made them promise to remain firm at their posts.
- 1:08Speaker 1: He exhorted them not to attack their fellow citizens, their brethren,
- 1:12Speaker 1: as long as they should remain inactive. But he foresaw
- 1:15Speaker 1: the approaching moment when the chateau would be attacked. He
- 1:19Speaker 1: explained to them the principles of the lawful defense, and
- 1:21Speaker 1: made the requisition prescribed by the law of the month
- 1:24Speaker 1: of May seventeen ninety one, relative to the public force.
- 1:28Speaker 1: The National Guard, however, remained silent, and the gunners discharged
- 1:32Speaker 1: their cannon. What could the authorities of the department then do?
- 1:38Speaker 1: They joined the King's ministers, and all with one consent,
- 1:41Speaker 1: conjured him to save himself with his family and take
- 1:44Speaker 1: refuge in the bosom of the National Assembly. Their only sire,
- 1:49Speaker 1: said Monsieur derere, in the midst of the representatives of
- 1:52Speaker 1: the people, Can your majesty, the Queen and the royal
- 1:55Speaker 1: family be in safety? Come let us fly in another
- 2:00Speaker 1: quarter of an hour. Perhaps we shall not be able
- 2:02Speaker 1: to command a retreat. The king hesitated. The queen manifested
- 2:08Speaker 1: the highest dissatisfaction. What said, she are we alone? Is
- 2:14Speaker 1: there nobody who can act? Yes, Madame alone, action is useless.
- 2:20Speaker 1: Resistance is impossible. One of the members of the department.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Monsieur Girdre resolved to add his voice. He insisted upon
- 2:29Speaker 1: the prompt execution of the proposed measure. Silence, Sir, said
- 2:33Speaker 1: the queen to him, silence, you are the only person
- 2:37Speaker 1: who ought to be silent here. When the mischief is done,
- 2:41Speaker 1: those who did it should not pretend to wish to
- 2:44Speaker 1: remedy it. And note we saw the royal family pass
- 2:49Speaker 1: between two lines formed by the Swiss Grenadiers and those
- 2:53Speaker 1: of the battalions of the Petty Pas and the fill
- 2:56Speaker 1: Saint Omain. They were so pressed upon by the crowd
- 2:59Speaker 1: that you uring that short passage. The Queen was robbed
- 3:02Speaker 1: of her watch and purse. A man of frightful height
- 3:05Speaker 1: and atrocious appearance, one of such as were to be
- 3:08Speaker 1: seen at the head of all the insurrections, drew near
- 3:10Speaker 1: the Dauphain, whom the Queen was leading by the hand,
- 3:13Speaker 1: and took him up in his arms. The queen uttered
- 3:16Speaker 1: a scream of terror and was ready to faint. The
- 3:19Speaker 1: man said to her, don't be frightened. I will do
- 3:22Speaker 1: him no harm, and he gave him back to her
- 3:24Speaker 1: at the entrance of the chamber. I leave to history
- 3:28Speaker 1: all the details of that too memorable day, confining myself
- 3:32Speaker 1: to retracing a few of the frightful scenes acted in
- 3:35Speaker 1: the interior of the Tuiliris after the king had quitted
- 3:37Speaker 1: the palace. The assailants did not know that the king
- 3:41Speaker 1: and his family had betaken themselves to the bosom of
- 3:44Speaker 1: the assembly, and those who defended the palace on the
- 3:47Speaker 1: court side were equally ignorant of it. It is supposed
- 3:50Speaker 1: that if they had been aware of the fact, the
- 3:53Speaker 1: siege would never have taken place. The Marseilles wi began
- 3:57Speaker 1: by driving several Swiss, who yielded without resist, distance from
- 4:00Speaker 1: their posts. A few of the assailants fired upon them.
- 4:04Speaker 1: Some of the Swiss officers, unable to contain themselves at
- 4:07Speaker 1: seeing their men fall thus, and perhaps thinking the King
- 4:10Speaker 1: was still at the Tuiliris, gave the word to a
- 4:13Speaker 1: whole battalion to fire. The aggressors were thrown into disorder
- 4:17Speaker 1: and the carousel was cleared in a moment, but they
- 4:20Speaker 1: soon returned, spurred on by rage and revenge. The Swiss
- 4:24Speaker 1: were but eight hundred strong. They fell back into the
- 4:27Speaker 1: interior of the castle. Some of the doors were battered
- 4:31Speaker 1: in by the guns, others broken through with hatchets. The
- 4:35Speaker 1: populace rushed from all quarters into the interior of the palace.
- 4:39Speaker 1: Almost all the Swiss were massacred. The nobles flying through
- 4:43Speaker 1: the gallery which leads to the louver, were either stabbed
- 4:46Speaker 1: or pistoled, and the bodies were thrown out of the windows.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Mensieur Pallace and Monsieur de Marche, ushers of the King's chamber,
- 4:53Speaker 1: were killed in defending the door of the council chamber.
- 4:57Speaker 1: Many others of the King's servants fell victims of their
- 4:59Speaker 1: attachment to their master. I mentioned these two persons in
- 5:03Speaker 1: particular because, with their hats pulled over their brows and
- 5:06Speaker 1: their swords in their hands, they exclaimed, as they defended
- 5:09Speaker 1: themselves with unavailing but praiseworthy courage, we will not survive.
- 5:14Speaker 1: This is our post. Our duty is to die at it.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Monsieuriette behaved in the same manner at the door of
- 5:21Speaker 1: the Queen's bedchamber. He experienced the same fate. The Princess
- 5:27Speaker 1: de Tarrant had fortunately opened the door of the entrance
- 5:30Speaker 1: into the apartments. Otherwise the dreadful band, seeing several women
- 5:34Speaker 1: collected in the queen's saloon, would have fancied she was
- 5:36Speaker 1: among us, and would have immediately massacred us if their
- 5:39Speaker 1: rage had been increased by resistance. However, we were all
- 5:43Speaker 1: about to perish when a man with a long beard
- 5:46Speaker 1: came up, exclaiming, in the name of Pition, spare the women,
- 5:50Speaker 1: don't disgrace the nation. A particular circumstance placed me in
- 5:55Speaker 1: a greater danger than the others. In my confusion, I imagined
- 5:59Speaker 1: a moment before them the assailants entered the Queen's apartments,
- 6:02Speaker 1: that my sister was not among the group of women
- 6:04Speaker 1: collected there. And I went up to an attrasse where
- 6:07Speaker 1: I supposed she had taken refuge, to induce her to
- 6:10Speaker 1: come down, fancying it of consequence to our safety that
- 6:13Speaker 1: we should not be separated. I did not find her.
- 6:16Speaker 1: In the room in question, I saw there only are
- 6:19Speaker 1: two Famme de Chambres, and one of the Queen's two
- 6:21Speaker 1: high ducks, a man of great height and a perfectly
- 6:24Speaker 1: martial physiognomy. I cried out to him, fly the footmen
- 6:29Speaker 1: and our people are already safe. I cannot, said the
- 6:33Speaker 1: man to me. I am dying of fear. As he spoke,
- 6:37Speaker 1: I heard a number of men rushing hastily up the staircase.
- 6:40Speaker 1: They threw themselves upon him, and I saw him assassinated.
- 6:44Speaker 1: I ran towards the staircase, followed by our women. The
- 6:48Speaker 1: murderers left the high duck to come to me. The
- 6:51Speaker 1: women threw themselves at their feet and held their sabers.
- 6:54Speaker 1: The narrowness of the staircase impeded the assassins, but I
- 6:58Speaker 1: had already felt a horror. At hand thrust down my
- 7:01Speaker 1: back to seize me by my clothes, when some one
- 7:04Speaker 1: called out from the bottom of the staircase, what are
- 7:07Speaker 1: you doing above there? The terrible Mersey, while who was
- 7:11Speaker 1: going to massacre me, answered by a hem, the sound
- 7:14Speaker 1: of which will never escape my memory. The other voice
- 7:17Speaker 1: replied only by these words, we don't kill women. I
- 7:22Speaker 1: was on my knees. My executioner quitted his hold of
- 7:26Speaker 1: me and said, get up, you, jade. The nation pardons you.
- 7:31Speaker 1: The brutality of these words did not prevent my suddenly
- 7:34Speaker 1: experiencing an indescribable feeling, which partook almost equally of the
- 7:39Speaker 1: love of life and the idea that I was going
- 7:42Speaker 1: to see my son and all that was dear to
- 7:45Speaker 1: me again. A moment before I had thought less of
- 7:49Speaker 1: death than of the pain which the steel suspended over
- 7:52Speaker 1: my head would occasion me. Death is seldom seen so
- 7:56Speaker 1: close without striking his blow. I can assert that upon
- 8:00Speaker 1: such an occasion the organs, unless fainting ensues, are in
- 8:04Speaker 1: full activity, and that I heard every syllable uttered by
- 8:07Speaker 1: the assassins, just as if I had been calm. Five
- 8:11Speaker 1: or six men seized me and my women, and, having
- 8:14Speaker 1: made us get upon benches placed before the windows, ordered
- 8:17Speaker 1: us to call out the nation. Forever I passed over
- 8:22Speaker 1: several corpses, I recognized that of the old Viscount de
- 8:25Speaker 1: brus to whom the Queen had sent me at the
- 8:27Speaker 1: beginning of the night to desire him and another old
- 8:30Speaker 1: gentleman in her name to go home. These brave men desired,
- 8:34Speaker 1: I would tell her Majesty that they had but too
- 8:37Speaker 1: strictly obeyed the King's orders in all circumstances under which
- 8:40Speaker 1: they ought to have exposed their own lives in order
- 8:43Speaker 1: to preserve his, and that for this once they would
- 8:47Speaker 1: not obey, but would cherish the recollection of the Queen's goodness.
- 8:52Speaker 1: Near the grating on the side next to the bridge,
- 8:54Speaker 1: the men who conducted me asked whether I wished to go.
- 8:58Speaker 1: Upon my asking in my turn, whether they were at
- 9:01Speaker 1: liberty to take me wherever I might wish to go.
- 9:03Speaker 1: One of them, who was a messeoi, asked me, giving
- 9:06Speaker 1: me at the same time a push with the butt
- 9:08Speaker 1: end of his musket, whether I still doubted the power
- 9:10Speaker 1: of the people. I answered no, and I mentioned the
- 9:14Speaker 1: number of my father in law's house. I saw my
- 9:18Speaker 1: sister ascending the steps of the parapet of the bridge,
- 9:20Speaker 1: surrounded by men of the National Guard. I called to her,
- 9:24Speaker 1: and she turned round. Would you have her go with you?
- 9:28Speaker 1: Said my guardian to me. I told him I did
- 9:31Speaker 1: wish it. They called the people who were leading my
- 9:34Speaker 1: sister to prison. She joined me. Madame de la Rochemont
- 9:38Speaker 1: and her daughter, Mademoiselle Pauline Tooselle, Lady to the Princess
- 9:42Speaker 1: de la Beale. The other females belonging to the Queen
- 9:45Speaker 1: and the old Count dea Friy were led off together
- 9:48Speaker 1: to the prisons of the Abbelle. Our progress from the
- 9:52Speaker 1: palace of the Tuiliri to my sister's house was most distressing.
- 9:56Speaker 1: We saw several Swiss pursued and killed, and musket shots
- 10:01Speaker 1: were crossing each other in all directions. We passed under
- 10:05Speaker 1: the walls of the gallery of the Louver. They were
- 10:07Speaker 1: firing from the parapet into the windows of the gallery
- 10:10Speaker 1: to hit the knights of the dagger. For thus did
- 10:13Speaker 1: the populace designate those faithful subjects who had assembled at
- 10:16Speaker 1: the chilery to defend the king. The brigands broke some
- 10:20Speaker 1: vessels of water in the Queen's first antechamber. The mixture
- 10:24Speaker 1: of blood and water stained the bottoms of our white gowns.
- 10:28Speaker 1: The poissades screamed after us in the streets that we
- 10:31Speaker 1: were attached to the Austrian. Our protectors then showed some
- 10:35Speaker 1: consideration for us and made us go up a gateway
- 10:38Speaker 1: to pull off our gowns, but our petticoats being too
- 10:41Speaker 1: short and making us look like persons in disguise, other
- 10:45Speaker 1: poissads began to ball out that we were young Swiss
- 10:48Speaker 1: dressed up like women. We then saw a tribe of
- 10:52Speaker 1: female cannibals enter the street carrying the head of poor Mada.
- 10:56Speaker 1: Our guards hastily made us enter a little public house
- 11:00Speaker 1: for wine and desired us to drink with them. They
- 11:03Speaker 1: assured the landlady that we were their sisters and good patriots.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Happily the Masseoi had quitted us to return to the Tuiliri.
- 11:11Speaker 1: One of the men who remained with us said to
- 11:13Speaker 1: me in an undervoice, I am a gauze worker in
- 11:16Speaker 1: the fau boules I was forced to march. I am
- 11:19Speaker 1: not for all this. I have not killed anybody and
- 11:23Speaker 1: have rescued you. You ran a great risk when we
- 11:26Speaker 1: met the mad women who are carrying Manda's head. These
- 11:29Speaker 1: horrible women said yesterday at midnight, upon the sight of
- 11:32Speaker 1: the bastie, that they must have their revenge for the
- 11:35Speaker 1: sixth of October at Versailles, and that they had sworn
- 11:38Speaker 1: to kill the Queen and all the women attached to her.
- 11:42Speaker 1: The danger of the action saved you all. As I
- 11:45Speaker 1: crossed the carousel, I saw my house in flames. But
- 11:49Speaker 1: as soon as the first moment of affright was over,
- 11:52Speaker 1: I thought no more of my personal misfortunes. My ideas
- 11:56Speaker 1: turned solely upon the dreadful situation of the queen. On
- 12:00Speaker 1: reaching my sisters, we found all our family in despair,
- 12:03Speaker 1: believing they should never see us again. I could not
- 12:07Speaker 1: remain at her house. Some of the mob collected round
- 12:10Speaker 1: the door exclaimed that Marie Antoinette's confidant was in the
- 12:13Speaker 1: house and that they must have her head. I disguised
- 12:18Speaker 1: myself and was concealed at the house of Monsieur Merl,
- 12:21Speaker 1: secretary for the lottery. On the morrow I was inquired
- 12:25Speaker 1: for there in the name of the Queen, A deputy
- 12:28Speaker 1: whose sentiments were known to her, took upon himself to
- 12:30Speaker 1: find me out. I borrowed clothes and went with my
- 12:34Speaker 1: sister to the Faillont. We got there at the same
- 12:37Speaker 1: time with Monsieur Tierie de ville Devrie, the King's first
- 12:40Speaker 1: valet de chambre. We were taken into an office where
- 12:44Speaker 1: we wrote down our names and places of abode, and
- 12:47Speaker 1: we received tickets for admission up into the rooms belonging
- 12:50Speaker 1: to Camuse, the keeper of the archives, where the king
- 12:53Speaker 1: was with his family. As we entered the first room,
- 12:57Speaker 1: a person who was there said to me, ah, you
- 13:00Speaker 1: are a good creature, But where is that Tierrie, that
- 13:04Speaker 1: man loaded with his master's bounties. He is here, said I.
- 13:08Speaker 1: He is following me, and I perceive that even scenes
- 13:11Speaker 1: of death do not banish jealous feelings from among you.
- 13:16Speaker 1: Note by Madame compan Monsieur Tirie, who never ceased to
- 13:20Speaker 1: give his sovereign proofs of the most respectful and unalterable attachment,
- 13:25Speaker 1: was one of the victims of the second of September,
- 13:28Speaker 1: And note, having belonged to the court from my earliest youth,
- 13:32Speaker 1: I was known to many persons whom I did not know.
- 13:36Speaker 1: As I traversed a corridor above the cloisters which led
- 13:39Speaker 1: to the cells inhabited by the unfortunate Louisi's and his family,
- 13:43Speaker 1: several of the grenadiers spoke to me, calling me by name.
- 13:46Speaker 1: One of them said to me, well, the poor king
- 13:50Speaker 1: is lost. The Count d'Artois would have managed it better.
- 13:54Speaker 1: Not a bit, said another. The royal family occupied a
- 13:59Speaker 1: small suite of apartments consisting of four cells, formerly belonging
- 14:03Speaker 1: to the ancient monastery of the fayont In. The first
- 14:06Speaker 1: were the man who had accompanied the king, the Prince
- 14:09Speaker 1: des Bois, the Baron d'ubille, Monsieur de Saint Pardieu, equerry
- 14:14Speaker 1: to Madame Dizabet, Monsieur Gouglars, Monsieur Chemilie, and Monsieur in
- 14:20Speaker 1: the second we found the king. He was having his
- 14:23Speaker 1: hair dressed. He took two locks of it and gave
- 14:25Speaker 1: one to my sister and one to me. We offered
- 14:28Speaker 1: to kiss his hand. He opposed it and embraced us
- 14:31Speaker 1: without saying anything. In the third was the Queen in
- 14:35Speaker 1: bed and in an indescribable state of affliction. We found her,
- 14:40Speaker 1: accompanied only by a bulky woman who appeared tolerably civil.
- 14:45Speaker 1: She was the keeper of the apartments. She waited upon
- 14:48Speaker 1: the Queen, who as yet had none of her own
- 14:50Speaker 1: people about her. Her majesty stretched out her arms to us, saying, come,
- 14:55Speaker 1: unfortunate women, come and see one still more unhappy than yourself.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Since she has been the cause of all your misfortunes,
- 15:05Speaker 1: we are ruined, continued she. We are arrived at that
- 15:09Speaker 1: point to which they have been leading us for three years,
- 15:12Speaker 1: through all possible outrages. We shall fall in this dreadful revolution,
- 15:17Speaker 1: and many others will perish after us. All have alike
- 15:21Speaker 1: contributed to our downfall. The reformers have urged it like
- 15:24Speaker 1: mad people and others, through ambition for their own interest.
- 15:28Speaker 1: For the wildest Jacobe seeks wealth and distinction, and the
- 15:32Speaker 1: mob is eager for plunder. There is not one lover
- 15:36Speaker 1: of his country among all this infamous horde the emigrant
- 15:39Speaker 1: party had their intrigues and schemes. Foreigners sought to profit
- 15:43Speaker 1: by the dissensions of France. Every one had a share
- 15:47Speaker 1: in our misfortunes. The Dauphin came in with Madame and
- 15:51Speaker 1: the Marchioness de Tourzelles. On seeing them, the Queen said,
- 15:55Speaker 1: to me, poor children, how heart rending it is instead
- 16:00Speaker 1: of handing down to them so fine an inheritance to
- 16:02Speaker 1: say it ends with us. She afterwards conversed with me
- 16:07Speaker 1: about the Tuiliris and the persons who had fallen. She
- 16:10Speaker 1: condescended also to mention the burning of my house without
- 16:14Speaker 1: the smallest affectation, I say it. I looked upon that
- 16:18Speaker 1: loss as a mischance which ought not to dwell upon
- 16:20Speaker 1: her mind, and I told her so. She spoke of
- 16:24Speaker 1: the Princess de Tarrante, whom she greatly loved and valued,
- 16:27Speaker 1: of Madame de la roche Emmon and her daughter, of
- 16:30Speaker 1: other persons, whom she had left at the palace, and
- 16:32Speaker 1: of the Duchess de Louinne, who was to have passed
- 16:35Speaker 1: the night at the Tuiliris. Respecting her, she said hers
- 16:39Speaker 1: was one of the first heads turned by the rage.
- 16:42Speaker 1: For that mischievous philosophy. But her heart brought her back,
- 16:46Speaker 1: and I again found a friend in her note by
- 16:49Speaker 1: Madame Campan. During the reign of Terror, I withdrew to
- 16:53Speaker 1: the Chateau de Coubertain, near that of de D'anpierre. The
- 16:57Speaker 1: Duchess de lou Winne frequently came to request I would
- 17:00Speaker 1: repeat to her what the Queen had said about her
- 17:01Speaker 1: at the fayon we wept together, and she would say
- 17:05Speaker 1: as she went away, I have often need to request
- 17:08Speaker 1: you to repeat those words of the Queen and note.
- 17:12Speaker 1: I asked the Queen what the ambassadors from foreign powers
- 17:15Speaker 1: had done under existing circumstances. She told me that they
- 17:19Speaker 1: could do nothing, and that the wife of the English
- 17:22Speaker 1: ambassador had just given her a proof of the private
- 17:25Speaker 1: interest she took in her welfare by sending her linen
- 17:28Speaker 1: for her son. I informed her that in the pillaging
- 17:31Speaker 1: of my house, all my accounts with her had been
- 17:34Speaker 1: thrown into the Calousese, and that every sheet of my
- 17:37Speaker 1: month's expenditure was signed by her, sometimes leaving four or
- 17:40Speaker 1: five inches of blank paper above her signature, a circumstance
- 17:44Speaker 1: which rendered me very uneasy. From an apprehension that an
- 17:47Speaker 1: improper use might be made of those signatures. She desired
- 17:51Speaker 1: me to demand admission into the Committee of General Safety
- 17:54Speaker 1: and to make this declaration there. I repaired thither instantly
- 17:59Speaker 1: and found the deputy with whose name I have never
- 18:01Speaker 1: yet become acquainted. After hearing me, he said that he
- 18:05Speaker 1: would not receive my deposition, that Malie Antoinette was now
- 18:09Speaker 1: nothing more than any other frenchwoman, and that if any
- 18:13Speaker 1: of those detached papers bearing her signature should be misapplied,
- 18:16Speaker 1: she would have at a future period a right to
- 18:19Speaker 1: make a complaint and to support her declaration by the
- 18:22Speaker 1: facts which I had just related. The Queen regretted having
- 18:26Speaker 1: sent me, and entertained an apprehension that she had, by
- 18:29Speaker 1: her very caution, pointed out a method of fabricating forgeries
- 18:33Speaker 1: which might be dangerous to her. Then again, she exclaimed,
- 18:37Speaker 1: my apprehensions are as absurd as the step I make
- 18:40Speaker 1: you take. They need nothing more for our ruin. All
- 18:44Speaker 1: is over. She gave us an account of what had
- 18:47Speaker 1: taken place subsequently to the King's arrival at the Assembly.
- 18:51Speaker 1: It is all well known, and I have no occasion
- 18:54Speaker 1: to repeat it. I will merely mention that she told us,
- 18:57Speaker 1: though with much delicacy, that she was not a little
- 19:00Speaker 1: hurt at the king's conduct, since he had been at
- 19:02Speaker 1: the fayon, that his habit of laying no restraint upon
- 19:05Speaker 1: himself and his great appetite had prompted him to eat
- 19:07Speaker 1: as if he had been at his palace, That those
- 19:10Speaker 1: who did not know him as she did did not
- 19:12Speaker 1: feel the piety and the magnanimity of his resignation, all
- 19:15Speaker 1: which produced so bad an effect, that deputies who were
- 19:18Speaker 1: devoted to him had warned him of it, but that
- 19:21Speaker 1: no change could be effected. I still see in imagination,
- 19:26Speaker 1: and shall always see that narrow cell at the Faya,
- 19:29Speaker 1: hung with green paper, that wretched couch, whence the dethroned
- 19:33Speaker 1: queen stretched out her arms to us, saying that our misfortunes,
- 19:37Speaker 1: of which she was the cause, aggravated her own. There
- 19:41Speaker 1: for the last time I saw the tears, I heard
- 19:44Speaker 1: the sobs of her, whom her high birth, the endowments
- 19:47Speaker 1: of nature, and above all, the goodness of her heart,
- 19:50Speaker 1: had seemed to DestinE for the ornament of a throne
- 19:53Speaker 1: and the happiness of her people. It is impossible for
- 19:57Speaker 1: those who have lived with Leuisi's and Marionne Foinette not
- 20:01Speaker 1: to be fully convinced, even doing all justice to the
- 20:04Speaker 1: King's virtues, that if the Queen had been, from the
- 20:07Speaker 1: moment of her arrival in France the object of the
- 20:10Speaker 1: care and affection of a prince of decision and authority,
- 20:13Speaker 1: she would have greatly contributed to the glory of his reign.
- 20:17Speaker 1: What affecting things I have heard the Queen say, in
- 20:20Speaker 1: the depth of her affliction, occasioned by the ill founded
- 20:23Speaker 1: opinion of a part of the court and the whole
- 20:25Speaker 1: of the people, that she did not love France. How
- 20:29Speaker 1: did that opinion shock those who knew her heart and
- 20:32Speaker 1: her sentiments. Twice did I see her on the point
- 20:36Speaker 1: of going forth from her apartments in the Julie into
- 20:38Speaker 1: the gardens, for the purpose of addressing the immense throng
- 20:41Speaker 1: constantly assembled there to insult her, Yes, exclaimed she, as
- 20:46Speaker 1: she paced her chamber with hurried steps. I will say
- 20:49Speaker 1: to them, Frenchmen, they have had the cruelty to persuade
- 20:53Speaker 1: you that I do not love France. I the mother
- 20:57Speaker 1: of a duphain who will reign over this noble country,
- 21:00Speaker 1: I whom Providence has seated upon the most powerful throne
- 21:04Speaker 1: of Europe. Of all the daughters of Maria Teresa, am
- 21:09Speaker 1: I not the one whom fortune has most highly favored?
- 21:12Speaker 1: And ought I not to feel all these advantages? What
- 21:16Speaker 1: should I find at Vienna nothing but sepulchers? What should
- 21:21Speaker 1: I lose in France? Everything by which honorable pride and
- 21:25Speaker 1: sensibility can be flattered? I protest, I only repeat her
- 21:30Speaker 1: own words here, But if prompted by existing circumstances, her
- 21:34Speaker 1: noble heart did at first send forth this burst of
- 21:37Speaker 1: feeling the soundness of her judgments, soon pointed out to
- 21:40Speaker 1: her the dangers of such a proceeding with regard to
- 21:42Speaker 1: the people. I should descend from the throne, said she, merely,
- 21:47Speaker 1: perhaps to excite a momentary sensibility which the factious would
- 21:51Speaker 1: soon render more injurious than beneficial to me. Yes, not
- 21:56Speaker 1: only did Marie Antoinette love France, but few women possessed
- 22:00Speaker 1: in greater vigor than herself that feeling of pride which
- 22:03Speaker 1: the courage of frenchmen must inspire. I could adduce some
- 22:08Speaker 1: multitude of proofs of this. I will relate two traits
- 22:12Speaker 1: which demonstrate the noblest national enthusiasm. The Queen was telling
- 22:17Speaker 1: me that at the period of the coronation of the
- 22:19Speaker 1: Emperor Francis the Second, that Prince, in bespeaking the admiration
- 22:23Speaker 1: of a French general officer who was then an emigrant,
- 22:26Speaker 1: in favor of the fine appearance of his troops, said
- 22:29Speaker 1: to him, there are the men to beat your sancudot
- 22:33Speaker 1: that remains to be seen. Sire, instantly replied the officer.
- 22:37Speaker 1: The Queen added, I don't know the name of the
- 22:40Speaker 1: brave Frenchman, but I will learn it. The King ought
- 22:44Speaker 1: to be in possession of it. As she was reading
- 22:47Speaker 1: the public papers a few days before the tenth of August,
- 22:50Speaker 1: she observed that mention was made of the courage of
- 22:52Speaker 1: a young man who died in defending the flag he
- 22:55Speaker 1: carried and shouting vive la nacion Ah. The fine fellow,
- 23:00Speaker 1: said the Queen, What a happiness it would have been
- 23:03Speaker 1: for us if such men had never left off crying
- 23:06Speaker 1: vive le rois. In all that I have hitherto said
- 23:10Speaker 1: of this most unfortunate of women and of queens. Those
- 23:13Speaker 1: who did not live with her, those who knew her
- 23:15Speaker 1: but partially, and especially the majority of foreigners prejudiced by
- 23:19Speaker 1: infamous libels, may imagine I have thought it my duty
- 23:22Speaker 1: to sacrifice truth on the altar of gratitude. Fortunately, there
- 23:27Speaker 1: are still in existence unexceptionable witnesses whom I can invoke.
- 23:31Speaker 1: They will declare whether what I assert that I have
- 23:33Speaker 1: seen and heard appears to them either untrue or improbable.
- 23:39Speaker 1: End of Chapter ten.