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29 - Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Imbert de Saint-Amand · Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine of Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information ought a volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Read for you by Chiqito Craster.
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  Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Imbact de
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  Speaker 1: Saint Amand translated by Elizabeth G. Martin. Chapter twenty nine,
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  Speaker 1: the box of the logograph. The royal family had just
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  Speaker 1: entered the session chamber. It will find there not an asylum,
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  Speaker 1: but the vestibule of the prison and the scaffold. The
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  Speaker 1: man who had taken the Dauphin from the Queen's arms
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  Speaker 1: at the door of the assembly set him down on
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  Speaker 1: the secretary's desk with an air of triumph, and the
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  Speaker 1: young prince was greeted with applause. Marie Antoinette advanced with dignity.
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  Speaker 1: According to Vaublanc's expression, she would not have had a
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  Speaker 1: different bearing or a more august serenity on a day
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  Speaker 1: of royal pomer Louis the sixteenth took a place near
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  Speaker 1: the President, the Queen, her daughter Madame Elizabeth, and Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Tourzelle sat down on the ministerial benures. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as the Dauphire was left to himself, he sprang towards
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  Speaker 1: his mother. A voice cried, take him to the king.
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  Speaker 1: The Austrian woman is unworthy of the people's confidence, and
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  Speaker 1: usher attempted to obey this injunction. However, the child began
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  Speaker 1: to cry. People were affected, and he was allowed to
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  Speaker 1: remain with the Queen. At this moment, some armed nobleman
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  Speaker 1: made their appearance at the extremity of the hall. You
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  Speaker 1: promised the king's safety, exclaimed some one, and the nobles retired.
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  Speaker 1: Order was restored. Louis the sixteenth began to speak. I
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  Speaker 1: came here, said he to prevent a great crime, and
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  Speaker 1: I think that I could be no way more secure
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  Speaker 1: than amidst the representatives of the nation. Alas the crime
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  Speaker 1: will not be prevented, but only adjourned. Wergneu occupied the
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  Speaker 1: president's chair. Sire, he replied, you may count in the
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  Speaker 1: firmness of the National Assembly. It knows its duties. Its
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  Speaker 1: members have been sworn to die in defending the rights
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  Speaker 1: of the people and the constituted authorities. So they still
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  Speaker 1: call Louis the sixteenth, sire. Presently they will call him
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  Speaker 1: nothing but Louis Capey. They allow him to take an
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  Speaker 1: arm chair near the President. But in a few minutes
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  Speaker 1: they will find this place too good for him. And
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  Speaker 1: it is the voice of this very venue who, a
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  Speaker 1: few hours from now will pronounce his deposition, and five
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  Speaker 1: months later his sentence of death. Hardly had the unhappy
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  Speaker 1: king sat down when Chabou, the unfrocked Cabuchin claimed that
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  Speaker 1: a clause of the Constitution forbid the Assembly to deliberate
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  Speaker 1: in the presence of the sovereign. Under this pretext, his
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  Speaker 1: place was changed, and Louis the sixteenth, with all his family,
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  Speaker 1: was shut up in the reporter's gallery, sometimes called the
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  Speaker 1: box of the logograph. This miserable hole, about six feet
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  Speaker 1: high by twelve wide, was on a level with the
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  Speaker 1: last ranks of the Assembly, behind the President's chair and
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  Speaker 1: the seats of the secretaries. It was ordinarily set apart
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  Speaker 1: for the editors, or rather for the stenographers, of a
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  Speaker 1: great newspaper which reported the proceedings, and which was called
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  Speaker 1: the Jounal Logographique or the Logo tachi Graf, usually abbreviated
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  Speaker 1: into the Logograph. Louis the sixteenth, seated himself in the
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  Speaker 1: front of the box. Marie Antoinette half concealed herself in
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  Speaker 1: a corner where she sought a little shelter against so
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  Speaker 1: many humiliations. Her children and their governess took places on
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  Speaker 1: a bench with Madame Elizabeth and the Princess de Lambai.
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  Speaker 1: Several noblemen, the latest courtiers of misfortune, stood up behind them. Roderer,
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  Speaker 1: who was at the bar, then made a report in
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  Speaker 1: the name of the municipal department, in which he explained
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  Speaker 1: that all had taken place. He declared that he had
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  Speaker 1: said to the soldiers a national guard detailed for the
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  Speaker 1: defense of the tuilerie. We do not ask you to
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  Speaker 1: shed the blood of your brethren, not to attack your
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  Speaker 1: fellow's citizens. Your canons are there for your defense, not
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  Speaker 1: for an attack. But I require this defense in the
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  Speaker 1: name of the law, in the name of the Constitution.
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  Speaker 1: The law authorizes you, when violence is used against you,
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  Speaker 1: to repress it vigorously. Once more, you are not to
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  Speaker 1: be assailants, but to act on the defensive only. Roderer
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  Speaker 1: added that the Cannoneers, instead of complying with his urgent exhortations,
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  Speaker 1: gave no response save that of unloading their pieces before him.
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  Speaker 1: After having explained how greatly the defense was disorganized, he
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  Speaker 1: thus ended his report. We felt ourselves no longer in
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  Speaker 1: a position to protect the charge confided to us. This
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  Speaker 1: charge was the King. The king is a man. This
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  Speaker 1: man is a father. The children ask us to assure
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  Speaker 1: the existence of the father. The law asks us to
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  Speaker 1: assure the existence of the King of France. Humanity asks
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  Speaker 1: of us the existence of the man. No longer able
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  Speaker 1: to defend this charge, no other idea presented itself than
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  Speaker 1: that of entreating the King to come with his family
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  Speaker 1: to the National Assembly. We have nothing to add to
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  Speaker 1: what I have just said, except that our force, being
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  Speaker 1: paralyzed and no longer in existence, we can have none
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  Speaker 1: but that which it shall please the National Assembly to communicate.
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  Speaker 1: We are ready to die in the execution of the
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  Speaker 1: orders it may give us, we ask, while awaiting them
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  Speaker 1: to remain near it, being useless everywhere else. The Assembly
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  Speaker 1: not then, suspecting that it would so soon depose Louis
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  Speaker 1: the sixteenth applauded without contradiction from the galleries. The President
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  Speaker 1: said to Rodererer, the Assembly has listened to your account
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  Speaker 1: with the greatest interest, it invites you to be present
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  Speaker 1: at a session. The advice given by Roteerer to the
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  Speaker 1: King has been greatly blamed. The event has seriously influenced
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  Speaker 1: the judgment since passed upon it. If Louis the sixteenth
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  Speaker 1: had received the support he had a right to count
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  Speaker 1: on from the representatives, things would have appeared in quite
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  Speaker 1: another light. Count de Vaublanc, in his memoirs, has rendered
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  Speaker 1: full justice to the royal intentions of the municipal attorney.
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  Speaker 1: The advice he gave has been accounted a crime, said
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Vaublanc. I think it is an unjust reproach.
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  Speaker 1: Until then he had done all that lay in his
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  Speaker 1: power to contribute to the defense of the palace. He
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  Speaker 1: must have seen clearly that as the King would not
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  Speaker 1: defend himself, he could no longer be defended. If the
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  Speaker 1: rebels had been attacked, neither Monsieur Rotoraier nor any one
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  Speaker 1: else would have proposed going to the assembly. But since
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  Speaker 1: they were on the defensive and without any recognized leader,
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  Speaker 1: the magistrate might doubtless have been struck with a single thought.
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  Speaker 1: The King and his family are about to be massacred.
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  Speaker 1: The king put an end to all irresolution in saying
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  Speaker 1: these words, there is nothing more to do here. At first,
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  Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth seemed not to repent of the step
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  Speaker 1: he had been obliged to take. Even in that wretched
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  Speaker 1: hole the logograph box. His face at first was calm
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  Speaker 1: and even confident, as the shouting had increased outside, when
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  Speaker 1: Yo ordered the removal of the iron grating separating this
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  Speaker 1: box from the hall, so that in case the populace
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  Speaker 1: made an irruption into the lobbies, the King could take
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  Speaker 1: refuge in the midst of the deputies. In default of
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  Speaker 1: workmen and tools, the deputies nearest at hand, the Duke
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  Speaker 1: de Choischrix Prass des Pois and the ministers undertook to
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  Speaker 1: tear away the grating, and Louis the sixteenth, himself, accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to the rough work of a locksmith, joined his efforts
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  Speaker 1: to theirs, the fastenings having been broken. In this manner,
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  Speaker 1: the unfortunate Sovereign seemed not to doubt the sentiments of
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  Speaker 1: the National Assembly. He pointed out the most remarkable deputies
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  Speaker 1: to the Dauphin, chatted with several among them, and looked
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  Speaker 1: on at the session like a mere spectator in a box.
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  Speaker 1: At the theater. The royal family had been nearly two
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  Speaker 1: hours at the assembly when all of a sudden, a
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  Speaker 1: frightful discharge of musketry and artillery was heard. The deputies
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  Speaker 1: of the left grew pale with fear and anger, thinking
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  Speaker 1: themselves betrayed. Casting glances of uneasiness and wrath at the
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  Speaker 1: feeble monarch, they accused him of having ordered a massacre,
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  Speaker 1: and said that all was lost. An officer of the
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  Speaker 1: National Guard rushed in, crying, we are pursued, we are overpowered.
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  Speaker 1: The Galleries, affrighted, imagined that the Swiss would arrive at
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  Speaker 1: any moment. Excitement was at its height, sinister imposing, dreadful moment,
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  Speaker 1: solemn hour, when the monarchy amidst a frightful tempest, was
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  Speaker 1: like a venerable oak which lightning had just stricken, when terror,
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  Speaker 1: wrath and pity disputed the possession of men's souls, and
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  Speaker 1: when the king, already captive, was present like Charles the
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  Speaker 1: Fifth at his own funeral. Marie Antoinette had started at
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  Speaker 1: the sound of the cannon. Her cheeks kindled and her
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  Speaker 1: eyes blazed. A vague hope animated her. Perhaps she said
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  Speaker 1: within herself, the monarchy is at last to be avenged.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the Swiss are about to give the insurrection a lesson.
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  Speaker 1: It will remember, Perhaps Louisa sixteenth will re enter in
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  Speaker 1: triumph the palace of his forefathers. The daughters of Caesar's
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  Speaker 1: prayed God in silence and supplicated him to grant victory
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  Speaker 1: to the defenders of the throne. Chimeras Vain hopes Louis
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  Speaker 1: the sixteenth has no longer but one idea to cast
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  Speaker 1: off all responsibility for events. He mustered up, so to say,
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  Speaker 1: the little authority he had yet remaining, to write hastily
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  Speaker 1: in pencil the last order he was to sign, the
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  Speaker 1: order to stop firing. He flattered himself that the prohibition
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  Speaker 1: to shoot would justify him completely in the sight of
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  Speaker 1: the National Assembly and induce them to treat him with
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  Speaker 1: more consideration. But he asked himself anxiously, who would be
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  Speaker 1: bold enough to carry his orders as far as the palace.
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  Speaker 1: Would not so perilous a mission intimidate even the most
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  Speaker 1: heroic Monsieur de v Ye, who was at this moment
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  Speaker 1: in the box of the logograph, offered himself as the
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  Speaker 1: King and Queen at first refused his offer and pointed
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  Speaker 1: out all the dangers of such an errand I beg
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  Speaker 1: their majesties, cried he, not to think of my danger.
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  Speaker 1: My duty is to brave everything in their service. My
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  Speaker 1: place is in the midst of the firing, and if
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  Speaker 1: I were afraid of it, I should be unworthy of
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  Speaker 1: my uniform. These words determined Louis the sixteenth to give
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur de vs Ye the order signed by his own hand.
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  Speaker 1: The valiant nobleman, bearing this order, which was to have
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  Speaker 1: such disastrous consequences for the defenders of the Palace, went
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  Speaker 1: hastily out of the assembly Hall and made his way
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  Speaker 1: to the Tuilerie through a rain of balls and canister.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter twenty nine. Read for you by Chikito Crauster, Birmingham, Alabama.