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31 - Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette by Henriette Campan · Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette

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  Speaker 1: Volume two, final chapter of Memoirs of the Court of
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  Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette by Madame Campin. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. From the death of Louisyes to the
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  Speaker 1: emancipation of Madame Royal. After the decapitation of the sixteenth Louis,
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  Speaker 1: some weary months elapsed, during which the condition of the
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  Speaker 1: hapless survivors of that most unfortunate of kings gradually but
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  Speaker 1: continually deteriorated. They were stripped one by one of every
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  Speaker 1: resource that might tend to cheer or alleviate the sad
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  Speaker 1: monotony of confinement, and they were now to endure the
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  Speaker 1: last extremities to which the fury of their persecutors could
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  Speaker 1: subject them. The only comfort still left to them was
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  Speaker 1: that of living together, and that was speedily taken from them.
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  Speaker 1: A part of the enormities which they endured are thus
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  Speaker 1: described by one whose known partiality for the Revolution and
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  Speaker 1: tenderness towards the motives and memories of its worst monsters
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  Speaker 1: such as Robespierre, Pitzion and Fouchet are too well known
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  Speaker 1: to reach acquire comment, and who, in consequence deserves implicit
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  Speaker 1: confidence when he feels compelled to state anything against them.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, we allude to the celebrated author of the
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  Speaker 1: history of the French Revolution and the history of the
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  Speaker 1: Consulate and Empire, that Rechebert, the Deputy of Chomet and
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  Speaker 1: editor of the disgusting paper of Pale Duchen. A writer
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  Speaker 1: of the party of which Vacant Monselt, Vallets and le
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  Speaker 1: Claire were the leaders. Ebert had made it his particular
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  Speaker 1: business to torment the unfortunate remnant of the dethroned family.
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  Speaker 1: He asserted that the family of the tyrant ought not
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  Speaker 1: to be better treated than any Saccuilotte family, and he
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  Speaker 1: had caused a resolution to be passed by which the
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  Speaker 1: sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the temple
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  Speaker 1: were maintained was to be suppressed. They were no longer
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  Speaker 1: to be allowed either poultry or pastry. They were reduced
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  Speaker 1: to one sort of aliment for breakfast, and to super
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  Speaker 1: broth and a single dish for dinner, to two dishes
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  Speaker 1: for supper, and half a bottle of wine apiece. Tallow
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  Speaker 1: candles were to be furnished instead of wax, pewter instead
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  Speaker 1: of silver plate, and delftware instead of porcelain. The wood
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  Speaker 1: and water carriers alone were permitted to enter their room,
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  Speaker 1: and that only accompanied by two commissioners. Their food was
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  Speaker 1: to be introduced to them by means of a turning box.
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  Speaker 1: The numerous establishment was reduced to a cook and an assistant,
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  Speaker 1: two men servants and a woman servant to attend to
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  Speaker 1: the linen. As soon as this resolution was passed, a
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  Speaker 1: beat had repaired to the temple and inhumanly taken away
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  Speaker 1: from the unfortunate prisoners. Even the most trifling articles to
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  Speaker 1: which they attached to high value at Luis, which Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Zibete had in reserve, and which she had received
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  Speaker 1: from Madame de Lambal, were also taken away. No one
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  Speaker 1: is more dangerous, more cruel than the man without acquirements,
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  Speaker 1: without education, clothed with the recent authority. If above all
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  Speaker 1: he possesses a base nature, If like a beet who
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  Speaker 1: was a check taker at the door of a theater
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  Speaker 1: and embezzled money out of the receipts, he be destitute
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  Speaker 1: of natural morality. And if he leap all at once
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  Speaker 1: from the mud of his condition into power, he is
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  Speaker 1: as mean as he is atrocious. Such was a bear
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  Speaker 1: in his conduct at the temple. He did not confine
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  Speaker 1: himself to the annoyances which we have mentioned, He and
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  Speaker 1: some others conceived the idea of separating the young prince
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  Speaker 1: from his aunt and sister. A shoemaker named Simon and
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  Speaker 1: his wife were the instructors to whom it was deemed
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  Speaker 1: right to consign him for the purpose of giving him
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  Speaker 1: a sanculot education. Simon and his wife were shut up
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  Speaker 1: in the temple, and, becoming prisoners with the unfortunate child,
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  Speaker 1: were directed to bring him up in their own way.
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  Speaker 1: Their food was better than that of the princesses, and
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  Speaker 1: they shared the table of the municipal commissioners who were
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  Speaker 1: on duty. Simon was permitted to go down, accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: two commissioners, to the court of the temple, for the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of giving him a little exercise. This s wretched Simon,
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  Speaker 1: to whom was in trust to the care of the
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  Speaker 1: miserable child, who born to so high promise, so speedily
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  Speaker 1: felt to so sad. Reality is described in these words
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  Speaker 1: by Clerie, and no person can doubt that it was
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  Speaker 1: for his brutal qualities alone, and the certainty that he
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  Speaker 1: would exercise them to the utmost, for the torture of
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  Speaker 1: his captives, that he was indebted for his situation as
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  Speaker 1: jailor and tutor to the infant, hitherto so sedulously nurtured quote.
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  Speaker 1: A man named Simon, a shoemaker and municipal officer, was
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  Speaker 1: one of the six commissioners appointed to inspect the works
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  Speaker 1: and the expenses of the temple. This man, whenever he
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  Speaker 1: appeared in the presence of the royal family, always treated
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  Speaker 1: them with the vilest insolence, and would frequently say to
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  Speaker 1: me so near the King as to be heard by
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  Speaker 1: him clerie ask cape if he wants anything that I
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  Speaker 1: mayn't have the trouble of coming up twice end quote.
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  Speaker 1: On the third of July, however, even the last wretched
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  Speaker 1: consolation of suffering in common was thought too great a
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  Speaker 1: boon by the wretched, who composed the National Convention of
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  Speaker 1: France for those who had committed no offense toward God
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  Speaker 1: or against man, unless it be a crime, as assuredly
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  Speaker 1: it seems a misfortune to be borne to elevated station.
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  Speaker 1: A decree was passed on that day that the young
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  Speaker 1: Dauphin or King should be torn from the arms of
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  Speaker 1: his mother. When Marie Antoinette struggled against the efforts of
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  Speaker 1: the officers who would literally have forced him violently from
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  Speaker 1: her embrace until threatened by those fiends for men they
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  Speaker 1: cannot be called, that they would kill both him and
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  Speaker 1: her daughter before her eyes when she released him, not
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  Speaker 1: to see him on earth any more, in an agony
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  Speaker 1: of tenderness and grief so touching that even her iron
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  Speaker 1: jailers melted, and, according to their own confession, wept. They
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  Speaker 1: wept at sufferings which they themselves had enhanced, if they
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  Speaker 1: had not actually created, and which they still persisted in
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  Speaker 1: enhancing to the utmost of their ability. So strangely inconsistent
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  Speaker 1: is French if we should not rather say human nature
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  Speaker 1: with the child. For the present we have done, choosing
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  Speaker 1: rather to present the sad tale of the queen's last
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  Speaker 1: days in an unbroken thread, than to interrupt them in
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  Speaker 1: order to treat of other matters which can in another
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  Speaker 1: place be more fitly treated. For one month longer she
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  Speaker 1: was suffered to remain with her sister in law, Madame Rizabete,
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  Speaker 1: and her daughter Madame Royal, But on the second of
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  Speaker 1: August she was separated from these also and consigned to
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  Speaker 1: the common prison of the Conciergerie as the subject of
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  Speaker 1: her trial or summary condemnation, was already in contemplation. She was, then,
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  Speaker 1: as we learned from de brosa, lodged in a room
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  Speaker 1: called the council Chamber, which was considered as the most
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  Speaker 1: unwholesome apartment in the Conciergerie, on account of its dampness
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  Speaker 1: and the bed smelled by which it was continually affected.
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  Speaker 1: Under pretense of giving her a person to wait upon her,
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  Speaker 1: they placed near her a spy, a man of a
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  Speaker 1: horrible countenance and hollow, sepulchral voice. This wretch, whose name
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  Speaker 1: was Barassain, was a robber and murderer by profession. Such
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  Speaker 1: was the chosen attendant on the Queen of France. A
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  Speaker 1: few days before her trial, this wretch was removed and
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  Speaker 1: a gendarme placed in her chamber, who watched over her
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  Speaker 1: night and day, and from whom she was not separated
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  Speaker 1: even when in bed, but by a ragged curtain. In
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  Speaker 1: this melancholy abode, mally Antoinette had no other dress than
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  Speaker 1: an old black gown, stockings with holes, which she was
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  Speaker 1: forced to mend every day, and she was entirely destitute
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  Speaker 1: of shoes. The only furniture in this miserable cell was
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  Speaker 1: a straw bed covered by a ragged mattress and an old,
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  Speaker 1: worn out coverlet. And the various necessaries and decencies of
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  Speaker 1: life were denied to the woman in which light, at least,
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  Speaker 1: if not as the princess, she was entitled to them.
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  Speaker 1: But what were all bodily sufferings to the mental tortures
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  Speaker 1: which she must have endured. She the fairest and most
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  Speaker 1: favorite princess of the proudest and most ancient house of Europe,
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  Speaker 1: that great house of Habsburg, which had for so many
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  Speaker 1: centuries filled the imperial throne of the West, who had
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  Speaker 1: exchanged those maiden honors only to become the bride of
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  Speaker 1: the most powerful king of Europe. Yet mental sufferings and
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  Speaker 1: bodily affliction served only to bring forth the native dignity
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  Speaker 1: and firmness of her virtue. If she had failed somewhat
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  Speaker 1: of the highest standard, while seated on the pinnacle of
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  Speaker 1: human splendor and magnificence, she soared even above it from
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  Speaker 1: the squalor and obscenity of her foul prison house. If
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  Speaker 1: not in all things equal to prosperity, she proved herself
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  Speaker 1: superior to the direst adversity, Her serene dignity, her proud self, possession,
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  Speaker 1: her majestic mildness, awed those whom it could not move.
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  Speaker 1: Yet let it be recorded that it did move Robespierre.
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  Speaker 1: For so deep need has that monstrous blot on the
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  Speaker 1: escutcheon of humanity, of one redeeming trait, that it must
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  Speaker 1: be recorded of him that he did strive to avert
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  Speaker 1: the trial tantamount to the condemnation of the queen. His
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  Speaker 1: resistance was, however, of no avail, was overpowered by a
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  Speaker 1: huge majority, and the trial of the Queen was decided
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  Speaker 1: on the fourteenth of October. Accordingly, she was led before
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  Speaker 1: the Revolutionary tribunal. At first, the Queen, consulting her own
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  Speaker 1: sense of dignity, had resolved on her trial to make
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  Speaker 1: no other reply to the question of her judges than
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  Speaker 1: assassinate me, as you have already assassinated my husband. Afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: she determined to follow the example of the King, exert
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  Speaker 1: herself in her defense, and leave her judges without any
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  Speaker 1: excuse or pretext for putting her to death. The revolutionary
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  Speaker 1: tribunal had determined to sacrifice the Queen, but still even
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  Speaker 1: they felt it necessary, as Thier states, to produce witnesses Lecuentre,
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  Speaker 1: Deputy of Versailles, who had seen what had passed on
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  Speaker 1: the fifth and sixth of October. Ebert, who had frequently
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  Speaker 1: visited the temple, various clerks in the ministerial offices, and
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  Speaker 1: several domestic servants of the old court, were summoned at
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  Speaker 1: Morel d'estein, formerly commandant of the Guard of Versailles, Manuel,
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  Speaker 1: the ex procureur of the Commune le Tour du Pet,
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  Speaker 1: Minister at war in seventeen eighty nine. The Venerable Bills,
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  Speaker 1: who it was said had been with Lafayette and accomplice
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  Speaker 1: in the journey to Varens. Lastly, Balazie, one of the
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  Speaker 1: gen Deainn destined to the scaffold, were taken from their
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  Speaker 1: prisons and compelled to give evidence. No precise fact was elicited.
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  Speaker 1: Some had seen the queen in high spirits when the
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  Speaker 1: life guards testified their attachment. Others had seen her vexed
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  Speaker 1: and dejected while being conducted to Paris or brought back
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  Speaker 1: from Varin. These had been present at splendid festivities, which
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  Speaker 1: must have caused enormous sums. Those had heard it said
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  Speaker 1: in the ministerial offices that the Queen was adverse to
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  Speaker 1: the sanction of the decrees. An ancient waiting woman of
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  Speaker 1: the Queen had heard the Duc de Cuannie say in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty eight that the Emperor had already received two
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  Speaker 1: hundred millions from France to make war upon the Turks.
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  Speaker 1: The cynical Ebert, being brought before the unfortunate Queen, dared
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  Speaker 1: at length to prefer the charges rung from the young prince.
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  Speaker 1: He said that chal Cape had given Simon an account
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  Speaker 1: of the journey to Varens, and mentioned Lafayette and Baillus
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  Speaker 1: having co operated in it. He then added that this
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  Speaker 1: boy was addicted to odious and very premature vices for
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  Speaker 1: his age, that he had been surprised by Simon, who,
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  Speaker 1: on questioning him, learned that he derived from his mother
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  Speaker 1: the vices in which he indulged. Ebert said that it
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  Speaker 1: was no doubt the intention of Marie Antoinette, by weakening
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  Speaker 1: thus early the physical constitution of her son, to secure
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  Speaker 1: to herself the means of ruling him in case he
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  Speaker 1: should ever send the throne. The rumors which had been
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  Speaker 1: whispered for twenty years by a malicious court, had given
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  Speaker 1: the people a most unfavorable opinion of the morals of
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  Speaker 1: the Queen that audience. However, though Holy Jaccabay was disgusted
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  Speaker 1: at the accusations of Ebert, he nevertheless pursued in supporting them.
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  Speaker 1: The unhappy mother made no reply, urged anew to explain herself.
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  Speaker 1: She said, with extraordinary emotion, I thought that human nature
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  Speaker 1: would excuse me from answering such an imputation. But I
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  Speaker 1: appeal from it to the heart of every mother here present.
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  Speaker 1: This noble and simple reply affected all who heard it.
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  Speaker 1: In the depositions of the witnesses. However, all was not
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  Speaker 1: so bitter for Marie Antoinette. The brave d'estae, whose enemy
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  Speaker 1: she had been, would not say anything to inculpate her,
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  Speaker 1: and spoke only of the courage which she had shown
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  Speaker 1: on the fifth and sixth of October, and of the
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  Speaker 1: noble resolution which she had expressed to die beside her
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  Speaker 1: husband rather than fly. Manuel, in spite of his enmity
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  Speaker 1: to the court during the time of the Legislative Assembly,
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  Speaker 1: declared that he could not say anything against the accused.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: When the venerable Ballie was brought forward, who formerly had
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  Speaker 1: so often predicted to the court, the calamities which its
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  Speaker 1: imprudence must produce, appeared painfully affected, and when he was
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  Speaker 1: asked if he knew the wife of Cape Yes, said he,
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  Speaker 1: bowing respectfully, I have known, Madame. He declared that he
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  Speaker 1: knew nothing, and maintained that the declarations extorted from the
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  Speaker 1: young Prince relative to the journey to Varens were false.
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  Speaker 1: In recompense for his deposition, he was assailed with outrageous
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  Speaker 1: reproaches from which he might judge what fate would soon
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  Speaker 1: be awarded to himself. In the whole of the evidence,
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  Speaker 1: there appeared but two serious facts, attested by Latuur Dupay
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  Speaker 1: and Valazie, who deposed to them because they could not
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  Speaker 1: help it. L Touur du Pain declared that Marie Antoinette
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  Speaker 1: had applied to him for an accurate statement of the
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  Speaker 1: armies while he was Minister at war. Valaesie, always cold
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  Speaker 1: but respectful towards misfortune, would not say anything to criminate
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  Speaker 1: the accused. Yet he could not help declaring that as
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  Speaker 1: a member of the Commission of twenty four, being charged
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  Speaker 1: with his colleagues to examine the papers found at the
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  Speaker 1: House of Septe Treasure of the Civil List, he had
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  Speaker 1: seen bonds for various sum signed Antoinette, which was very natural.
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  Speaker 1: But he added that he had also seen a letter
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  Speaker 1: in which the Minister requested the King to transmit to
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  Speaker 1: the Queen the copy of the plan of campaign, which
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  Speaker 1: he had in his hands. The most unfavorable construction was
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  Speaker 1: immediately put upon these two facts, the application for a
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  Speaker 1: statement of the armies and the communication of the plan
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  Speaker 1: of campaign, and it was concluded that they could not
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  Speaker 1: be wanted for any other purpose than to be sent
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  Speaker 1: to the enemy, For it was not supposed that a
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  Speaker 1: young princess should turn her attention merely for her own
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  Speaker 1: satisfaction to matters of administration and military plans. After these depositions,
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  Speaker 1: several others were received respecting the expenses of the court,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the influence of the Queen in public affairs, the scene
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  Speaker 1: of the tenth of August, and what had passed in
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  Speaker 1: the temple, and the most vague rumors and most trivial
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  Speaker 1: circumstances were eagerly caught as proofs. Marie Antoinette frequently repeated,
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  Speaker 1: with presence of mind and firmness, that there was no
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  Speaker 1: precise fact against her. That besides, though the wife of
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  Speaker 1: Louisay's she was not answerable for any of the acts
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  Speaker 1: of his reign. Fouquiet nevertheless declared her to be sufficiently convicted.
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  Speaker 1: Chevou la Gade made unavailing efforts to defend her, and
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  Speaker 1: the unfortunate queen was condemned to suffer the same fate
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  Speaker 1: as her husband. Conveyed back to the Conciergerie, she there
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  Speaker 1: passed in tolerable composure the night preceding her execution, and
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of the following day, the sixteenth of October,
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  Speaker 1: she was conducted amidst a great concourse of the populace
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  Speaker 1: to the fatal spot where ten months before Louiseys had perished.
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  Speaker 1: Quote by Allison, at four o'clock in the morning of
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the day of her execution, the queen wrote a letter
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  Speaker 1: to the Princess Elizabeth. To you, my sister, said she,
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  Speaker 1: I address myself for the last time. I have been condemned,
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  Speaker 1: not to an ignominious death. It is so only to
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  Speaker 1: the guilty, but to rejoin your brother. I weep only
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  Speaker 1: for my children. I hope that one day, when they
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  Speaker 1: have regained their rank, they may be reunited to you
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  Speaker 1: and feel the blessing of your tender care. May my
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  Speaker 1: son never forget the last words of his father, which
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  Speaker 1: I now repeat from myself, never attempt to revenge our death.
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  Speaker 1: I die true to the Catholic religion. Deprived of all
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  Speaker 1: spiritual consolation, I can only seek for pardon from heaven.
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  Speaker 1: I ask forgiveness of all who know me. I pray
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  Speaker 1: for forgiveness to all my enemies. And she listened with
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  Speaker 1: calmness to the exhortations of the ecclesiastic who accompanied her,
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  Speaker 1: and cast an indifferent look at the people who had
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  Speaker 1: so often applauded her beauty and her grace, and who
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  Speaker 1: now as warmly applauded her execution. On reaching the foot
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  Speaker 1: of the scaffold, she perceived the juiliri and appeared to
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  Speaker 1: be moved, But she hastened to ascend the fatal ladder
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  Speaker 1: and gave herself up with courage. To the executioner. The
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  Speaker 1: infamous wretch exhibited her head to the people, as he
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  Speaker 1: was accustomed to do when he had sacrificed an illustrious
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: victim quote by Lacretelle. Sorrow had blanched the queen's once
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  Speaker 1: beautiful hair, but her features and air still commanded the
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  Speaker 1: admiration of all who beheld her. Her cheeks, pale and emaciated,
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  Speaker 1: were occasionally tinged with a vivid color at the mention
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  Speaker 1: of those she had lost. When led out to execution,
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  Speaker 1: she was dressed in white. She had cut off her
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  Speaker 1: hair with her own hands, placed in a tumble, with
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  Speaker 1: her arms tied behind her. She was taken by a
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  Speaker 1: circuitous route to the place de la revolucion, and she
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  Speaker 1: ascended the scaffold with a firm and dignified step, as
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  Speaker 1: if she had been about to take her place on
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  Speaker 1: a throne by the side of her husband. End quote.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: The Jaccabay were overjoyed. Let these tidings be carried to Austria,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: said they. The rowe sold the ground occupied by Hannibal.
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  Speaker 1: We strike off the heads that are dearest to the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: sovereigns who have invaded our territory. It is a little remarkable,
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  Speaker 1: or perhaps we should say not a little remarkable, that
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  Speaker 1: all the Gironde, who signed and sealed their own just
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  Speaker 1: condemnation by their signing and sealing the unjust condemnation of
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  Speaker 1: Louis briefly followed her to the same scaffold. We know
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  Speaker 1: not wherefore Carlyle, who so detests all human weakness, defends
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and shrieks, as he would term it, over the weakness
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  Speaker 1: and guillotining of the murderer's Valneus, Valaisie and their confederates,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: while he has no shriek for their murdered victims. It
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was not until the twenty second of April following that,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: after the Girente, after Dante himself and others of the
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  Speaker 1: mountain had been decapitated, some weeping, some bellowing, all blaspheming,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: by the hands of the impassive saint, sent the king's
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: surviving sister, Madame, and Dizabet was sent to death. Her try,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: says Carlyle, was like the rest four plots, four plots.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: She was among the kindliest, most innocent of women. There
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: sat with her amid four and twenty others, a once
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: timorous Marchioness de Crussol, courageous, now expressing towards her the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: liveliest loyalty. At the foot of the scaffold, Elizabeth, with
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: tears in her eyes, thanked. This marchioness said she was
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: grieved she could not reward her Ah, Madame, would your
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Royal highness deign to embrace me? My wishes were complete
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: right willingly, Madame de Crussol, and with all my heart.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Thus they at the foot of the scaffold. The royal
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: family are now reduced to two, a girl and a
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: little boy. This boy, once named d'auphain, was taken from
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: his mother while she yet lived, and given to one
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Simon by trade, a court wainer on service then about
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the temple to bring him up in the principles of soacculotism.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: From Carlisle we will quote no farther, For in this
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: very passage, which he begins so nobly and pathetically, before
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: the end he degenerates into his usual pantagrualistic cynicism, and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: grins and sneers like a hyena over the corpse of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: fallen royalty. What right has he to pretend to the
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: title of philosopher, who puissant to destroy, is powerless to
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: build up, Who the habitual admirer of strong vice and
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: de rider of innocent weakness, has no plan or counsel
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: for giving the power to innocence or depriving strength of
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: its vice. Two very brief extracts, one from the memoirs
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of the Duchess Donjulem, one from the pages of the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: English Allison sums up this brief and sad tale. The
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: young prince was taken to that part of the tower
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: which Louis says had previously occupied, and the manner in
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: which simonau educated him may be judged by the statement
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: of his sister afterwards, the Duchess Donjulem, in her interesting
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: history of the confinement of the royal family, she says,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: we sometimes received intelligence of my brother through the municipal officers,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: but even that did not last long. We heard him
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: every day singing in company with Simon, the song of
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: La Carmagnol, the Marseilles Hymn, and a thousand other horrible
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: compositions of the sort. Simon dressed him in a red
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: cap and a kermanoel, a small tight jacket, and made
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: him sing at the window so as to be heard
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: by the guard, and taught him to utter the most
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: dreadful blasphemies and curses against God, his family, and the aristocrats.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Simon gave him the coarsest food to eat, and made him,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: by force drink a quantity of wine, which he naturally detested.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: The night of Termida came too late to save the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: infant King of France, Luisisette, his jailer. Simon was indeed
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: beheaded and a less cruel tyrant substituted in his place,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: But the temper of the times would not at first
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: admit of any decided measures of indulgence in favor of
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the heir to the throne. The barbarous treatment he had
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: experienced from Simon had alienated his reason, but not extinguished
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: his feelings of gratitude. On one occasion that inhuman wretch
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: had seized him by the hair and threatened to dash
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: his head against the wall. The surgeon Nolain interfered to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: prevent him, and the child next day presented him with
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: two pairs which had been given him for his supper
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the preceding evening, lamenting at the same time that he
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: had no other means of testifying his gratitude. Simon and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Ibert had put him to the torture to extract from
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: him an avowal of crimes connected with his mother, which
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: he was too young to understand. After that cruel day,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: he almost always preserved silence, lest his words should prove
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: fatal to some of his relations. This resolution and the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: closeness of his confinement soon preyed upon his health. In
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: February seventeen ninety five, he was seized with a fever
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and visited by three members of the Committee of Public Safety.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: They found him seated at a little table making castles
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: of carts. They addressed to him the words of kindness,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: but could not obtain any answer. In May, the state
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of his health became so alarming that the celebrated surgeon
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Dessault was directed by the convention to visit him. His
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: generous attentions assuaged the sufferings of the child's latter days,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: but could not prolong his life. He died of a
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: tumor in the knee, as it was said, arising from
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: a scrofulous affection, but in reality from the miseries he
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: endured in his confinement, the horrible nature of his food,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and the filth amid which he was intentionally forced to
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: live by his tormentors. After his death, the sufferings of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: his sister gradually diminished. She was detained in prison, indeed,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: but was treated with some sort of humanity and decorum,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: not as a wild beast, but as a woman, if
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: not a princess. It was at length agreed with Austria,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: that she should be released from captivity and placed in
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the hands of that power, on condition of the release
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: by her of the deputies placed in her hands by
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: de Morurier, as also Lafayette and his associates. She was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: released from the temple on the nineteenth of December seventeen
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: ninety five. The Minister of the Interior himself went to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: fetch her and conducted her with the greatest respect to
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: his own hotel. Whence she set out, accompanied by persons
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: of her own selection. An ample provision was made for
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: her journey, and she was thus conveyed to the frontiers.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: She afterwards married her cousin, the Duke den Joulemme, and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: obtained by her conduct at Baldeaux in eighteen fifteen the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: highest praise for her courage. Napoleon is said to have
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: observed with regard to her, that she was the only
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: man in the family by the death of the child d'aufay. Otherwise,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Louis the seventeenth, the crown hereditary of France, devolved on
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the head of the Count of Provence, who became on
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the restoration in eighteen fifteen. King Louis Desuet of France
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: on his death without heirs male. He was succeeded by
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: his brother Chaldis, who lost his throne in the three
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: days of July eighteen thirty. He subsequently died in exile,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: and the hereditary Crowndjille now rests, though probably it never
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: will do so de facto on the head of his son,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the duc de Baldeaux, titularly Arisanc of France. Thus ends
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: this awful history of crime and sorrow, a lesson both
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to sovereigns and to nations. Would sovereigns or nations either
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: ever give ear to the teachings of history, but of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a verity. The course of human events as they occur
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: age after age, so similar as almost to seem the same,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: go far to show the truth of the old Romans,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: saying that whom God willeth to destroy, he first dementeth.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: End of Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette by
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Madame Campin recorded by Celin Maschur. Thank you for listening.