Latest / Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette / 24 - Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette by Henriette Campan
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Volume two, Chapter eight, 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. Eight Part two. I determined
- 0:14Speaker 1: to sacrifice myself to my duty, but by no means
- 0:17Speaker 1: to any intrigue. And I thought that circumstanced as I was,
- 0:21Speaker 1: I ought to confine myself to obedience to the Queen's orders.
- 0:25Speaker 1: I frequently set off couriers to foreign countries, and they
- 0:28Speaker 1: were never discovered. So many precautions did I take. I
- 0:32Speaker 1: am indebted for the preservation of my own existence to
- 0:35Speaker 1: the care I took never to admit any deputy whatever
- 0:38Speaker 1: to my abode, and to refuse all interviews which even
- 0:41Speaker 1: people of the highest importance often requested of me. This
- 0:45Speaker 1: line of conduct appeared to me the only one suitable
- 0:48Speaker 1: to my sex and my situation at court. But it
- 0:51Speaker 1: left me exposed to every species of ill will. And
- 0:54Speaker 1: on one and the same day, I saw myself denounced
- 0:57Speaker 1: by Purudaume in his Gazette Revolutionaire as capable of making
- 1:01Speaker 1: an aristocrat of the Mother of Gracy if a person
- 1:04Speaker 1: so dangerous as myself could have got into her household,
- 1:08Speaker 1: And by Gautier's Gazette Royalist as a monarchist, a constitutional
- 1:12Speaker 1: more dangerous to the Queen's interests than a jacquebet. At
- 1:17Speaker 1: this period, an event with which I had nothing to
- 1:19Speaker 1: do placed me in a still more critical situation. My brother,
- 1:24Speaker 1: Monsieur Genet, began his diplomatic career successfully. At eighteen he
- 1:28Speaker 1: was attached to the embassy to Vienna. At twenty he
- 1:32Speaker 1: was appointed chief Secretary of Legation in England. On occasion
- 1:35Speaker 1: of the Peace of seventeen eighty three, a memorial which
- 1:39Speaker 1: he presented to Monsieur de Vergin, upon the dangers of
- 1:42Speaker 1: the Treaty of Commerce than entered into with England, gave
- 1:44Speaker 1: offense to Monsieur de Calloune, a patron of that treaty,
- 1:47Speaker 1: and particularly to Monsieur gerarderin Val, chief Clerk for foreign affairs.
- 1:53Speaker 1: So long as Monsieur de Vergeen, lived, Having upon my
- 1:56Speaker 1: father's death, declared himself the protector of my brother, he
- 1:59Speaker 1: supported him against the enemies his memorial had raised up.
- 2:03Speaker 1: But upon his death Monsieur de Montmorrey, being much in
- 2:06Speaker 1: need of the long experience in business which he found
- 2:09Speaker 1: in Monsieur de reine Vale, guided himself solely by the latter,
- 2:12Speaker 1: and according to his instigation, the office of which my
- 2:16Speaker 1: brother was the head, was suppressed and added to the
- 2:19Speaker 1: other offices of foreign affairs. My brother went to Petersburg
- 2:23Speaker 1: strongly recommended to the Count de Seigeur, minister from France
- 2:27Speaker 1: to that court, who appointed him Secretary of Legation. Some
- 2:31Speaker 1: time afterwards, the Count des Sigur left him at Petersburg,
- 2:34Speaker 1: charged with the affairs of France. Note by Madame Campan.
- 2:39Speaker 1: After his return from Russia, Monsieur Jernee was appointed ambassador
- 2:42Speaker 1: to the United States by the party called Girondist, the
- 2:45Speaker 1: deputies who headed it being from the Department of the
- 2:48Speaker 1: girond He was shortly afterwards recalled by the Robespierre party,
- 2:53Speaker 1: which overthrew the former faction on the thirty first of
- 2:55Speaker 1: May seventeen ninety three, and condemned to appear at the
- 2:59Speaker 1: bar of the convention, that is to say, to ascend
- 3:02Speaker 1: the scaffold. Vice President Clinton, at that time governor of
- 3:06Speaker 1: New York, offered him an asylum in his house and
- 3:09Speaker 1: the hand of Cornelia Clinton, his daughter. Monsieur's crime was
- 3:13Speaker 1: the execution of instructions which he had received on setting
- 3:16Speaker 1: out from the party then in power. He settled in
- 3:19Speaker 1: America and lives there as a rich planter and the
- 3:22Speaker 1: beloved father of a family. And note my brother quitted
- 3:27Speaker 1: Versailles much hurt at being deprived of a considerable income,
- 3:30Speaker 1: for having penned a memorial which his zeal alone had dictated,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and the importance of which was afterwards but too well understood.
- 3:38Speaker 1: I had perceived from his correspondence that he inclined to
- 3:42Speaker 1: some of the new notions, and had taken the alarm
- 3:44Speaker 1: at it. When he wrote me a letter which left
- 3:46Speaker 1: me no further room for doubt as to his opinions,
- 3:49Speaker 1: he told me it was right he should no longer
- 3:51Speaker 1: conceal from me that he sided with the constitutional Party,
- 3:55Speaker 1: that the King had in fact commanded it, having himself
- 3:58Speaker 1: accepted the Constitution, that he would proceed firmly in that course,
- 4:02Speaker 1: because in this case disingenuousness would be fatal, and that
- 4:05Speaker 1: he took that side of the question because he had
- 4:08Speaker 1: had it proved to him that the foreign powers would
- 4:10Speaker 1: not serve the King's cause without advancing pretensions prompted by
- 4:14Speaker 1: the most ancient interests, and which would always remain in
- 4:17Speaker 1: the spirit of their counsels, that he saw no salvation
- 4:20Speaker 1: for the King and Queen but from the interior of France,
- 4:23Speaker 1: and that only by using every exertion to calm existing
- 4:27Speaker 1: apprehensions and to restore harmony to the minds of men,
- 4:31Speaker 1: And that he would serve the constitutional King as he
- 4:34Speaker 1: served him before the revolution had created a necessity for
- 4:37Speaker 1: settling the destinies of France by a new code. And lastly,
- 4:41Speaker 1: he requested me to impart to the Queen the real
- 4:44Speaker 1: sentiments of one of His Majesty's agents at a foreign court.
- 4:48Speaker 1: I immediately went to the Queen and gave her my
- 4:51Speaker 1: brother's letter. She read it attentively and said, this is
- 4:54Speaker 1: the letter of a young man led astray by discontent
- 4:57Speaker 1: and ambition. I know you do not think as he does.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Do not fear that you will lose the confidence of
- 5:04Speaker 1: the King or mine. I offered to discontinue all correspondence
- 5:08Speaker 1: with my brother. She opposed that, saying it would be dangerous.
- 5:12Speaker 1: I then entreated she would permit me in future to
- 5:15Speaker 1: show her my own and my brother's letters, to which
- 5:18Speaker 1: she consented. I wrote warmly to my brother against the
- 5:21Speaker 1: course he had adopted. I sent my letters by shore channels.
- 5:26Speaker 1: He answered me by the post, and no longer touched
- 5:29Speaker 1: upon anything but his family affairs. Once only he wrote
- 5:33Speaker 1: to me that if I should write to him respecting
- 5:35Speaker 1: the affairs of the day, he would give me no answer.
- 5:38Speaker 1: Serve your august Mistress, with the unbounded devotion which is
- 5:41Speaker 1: due from you, said he, and let us eat do
- 5:44Speaker 1: our duty. I will only observe to you that at Paris,
- 5:48Speaker 1: the fogs of the sin prevent people from seeing that
- 5:51Speaker 1: immense capital, even from the pavilion of Flora, and I
- 5:54Speaker 1: see it more clearly from Petersburg. The Queen said, as
- 5:58Speaker 1: she read this letter. Perhaps he speaks but too truly,
- 6:02Speaker 1: who can decide upon so disastrous a position as ours
- 6:05Speaker 1: as become. The very day on which I gave the
- 6:09Speaker 1: Queen my brother's first letter to read, she had several
- 6:12Speaker 1: audiences to give to ladies and other persons belonging to
- 6:14Speaker 1: the court, who came on purpose to inform her that
- 6:17Speaker 1: my brother was an avowed constitutional and revolutionist. The Queen replied,
- 6:22Speaker 1: I know it, Madame Compa came to tell me so.
- 6:26Speaker 1: Persons envious of my situation, and some of ille regulated minds,
- 6:30Speaker 1: having subjected me to mortifications, and these unpleasant circumstances recurring daily,
- 6:35Speaker 1: I requested the Queen's permission to withdraw from the court.
- 6:39Speaker 1: She exclaimed against the very idea, represented it to me
- 6:42Speaker 1: as extremely dangerous for my own reputation, and had the
- 6:46Speaker 1: kindness to add that for my sake as well as
- 6:48Speaker 1: for her own, she never would consent to it. After
- 6:52Speaker 1: this conversation, during which I was at her Majesty's knees
- 6:55Speaker 1: bathing her hands with my tears, I retired to my apartment.
- 7:00Speaker 1: A few minutes afterwards, a footman brought me a note
- 7:02Speaker 1: from her, couched in these terms. I have never ceased
- 7:06Speaker 1: to distinguish you, nor to give you and yours proofs
- 7:09Speaker 1: of my attachment. I wish to tell you in writing
- 7:12Speaker 1: that I have full faith in your honor and fidelity,
- 7:15Speaker 1: as well as in your other good qualities, and that
- 7:18Speaker 1: I ever rely on the zeal and address you exert
- 7:21Speaker 1: to serve me. Note by Madame Campent. I had just
- 7:25Speaker 1: received this letter from the Queen when Monsieur de la Chapelle,
- 7:28Speaker 1: Commissary General of the King's Household and head of the
- 7:31Speaker 1: offices of Monsieur de la Pote, Minister of the Civilist
- 7:34Speaker 1: came to see me the palace having been already forced
- 7:38Speaker 1: by the brigands on the twentieth of June. He proposed
- 7:40Speaker 1: that I should entrust the paper to him, that he
- 7:42Speaker 1: might place it in a safer situation than the apartments
- 7:45Speaker 1: of the unfortunate Queen would be. When he returned into
- 7:49Speaker 1: his offices, he placed the letter she had condescended to
- 7:52Speaker 1: write to me behind a large picture in his closet.
- 7:55Speaker 1: But on the tenth of August, Monsieur de la Chapelle
- 7:57Speaker 1: was thrown into the prisons of the Abbeyee, and the
- 8:00Speaker 1: Committee of Public Safety established themselves in his offices, whence
- 8:03Speaker 1: they issued all their decrees of death. There it was
- 8:07Speaker 1: that a villainous servant belonging to Monsieur de la Pot
- 8:10Speaker 1: went to declare that in the minister's apartment, under a
- 8:13Speaker 1: board in the floor, a number of papers would be found.
- 8:16Speaker 1: They were brought forth, and Monsieur de la Pot was
- 8:19Speaker 1: sent the first of all to the scaffold, where he
- 8:21Speaker 1: suffered for having betrayed the state by serving his master
- 8:24Speaker 1: and sovereign. Monsieur de la Chapelle was saved, as if
- 8:28Speaker 1: by a miracle, from the massacres of the second of September,
- 8:32Speaker 1: the Committee of Public Safety having abolished his employments in
- 8:35Speaker 1: order to seat itself in the King's apartments at the treaty,
- 8:38Speaker 1: Monsieur de la Chepell had permission to return to his
- 8:41Speaker 1: closet to take away some property belonging to him, turning
- 8:45Speaker 1: up the picture behind which he had hidden the Queen's letter.
- 8:47Speaker 1: He found it in the place into which he had
- 8:49Speaker 1: slipped it, and delighted to see that I was safe
- 8:52Speaker 1: from the ill consequences the discovery of this paper might
- 8:55Speaker 1: have brought upon me. He burnt it instantly. In troublesome times,
- 9:00Speaker 1: a mere nothing may save life or destroy it. And note,
- 9:05Speaker 1: at the very moment that I was going to express
- 9:07Speaker 1: to the Queen the gratitude with which I was penetrated,
- 9:10Speaker 1: I heard a tapping at the door of my room,
- 9:12Speaker 1: which opened upon the Queen's inner corridor. I opened it.
- 9:16Speaker 1: It was the King. I was confused. He perceived it
- 9:20Speaker 1: and said to me kindly, I alarm you, Madame Campent.
- 9:24Speaker 1: I come, however, to comfort you. The Queen has told
- 9:27Speaker 1: me how much she has heard at the injustice of
- 9:29Speaker 1: several persons towards you. But how is it that you
- 9:33Speaker 1: complain of injustice and calumny when you see that we
- 9:35Speaker 1: are victims of them. In some of your companions, it
- 9:39Speaker 1: is jealousy. In the people belonging to the court, it
- 9:42Speaker 1: is anxiety. Our situation is so disastrous, and we have
- 9:46Speaker 1: met with so much ingratitude and treachery, that the apprehensions
- 9:50Speaker 1: of those who love us are excusable. I could quiet
- 9:53Speaker 1: them by telling them all the secret services you perform
- 9:56Speaker 1: for us daily, but I will not do it out
- 10:00Speaker 1: of good will to you. They would repeat all I
- 10:02Speaker 1: should say, and you would be lost with the assembly.
- 10:06Speaker 1: It is much better for you and for us that
- 10:08Speaker 1: you should be thought a constitutional It has been mentioned
- 10:12Speaker 1: to me a hundred times already. I have never contradicted it.
- 10:16Speaker 1: But I come to give you my word that, if
- 10:18Speaker 1: we are fortunate enough to see an end of all this,
- 10:21Speaker 1: I will, at the Queen's residence and in the presence
- 10:24Speaker 1: of my brothers, relate to the important services you have
- 10:27Speaker 1: rendered us, and I will recompense you and your son
- 10:30Speaker 1: for them. I threw myself at the King's feet and
- 10:34Speaker 1: kissed his hand. He raised me up, saying, come, come,
- 10:38Speaker 1: do not grieve. The queen who loves you confides in
- 10:42Speaker 1: your sentiments as I do. Occasions for mysterious and secret
- 10:47Speaker 1: services recurred every moment. Bell Nave was the only one
- 10:51Speaker 1: of the three coalesced deputies who had not seen the
- 10:53Speaker 1: King and Queen since the Valiant journey. The espionage of
- 10:57Speaker 1: the Assembly was more apprehended on his account than on
- 11:00Speaker 1: that of any other. Down to the day of the acceptance,
- 11:04Speaker 1: it was impossible to introduce Balnave into the interior of
- 11:07Speaker 1: the palace, but as the Queen was now rid of
- 11:10Speaker 1: the inner guard, she said she would see him. The
- 11:13Speaker 1: very great precautions which it was necessary for the deputy
- 11:16Speaker 1: to take in order to conceal his connection with the
- 11:19Speaker 1: King and Queen compelled them to spend two hours in
- 11:22Speaker 1: waiting for him in one of the corridors of the Julie,
- 11:24Speaker 1: and all in vain. The first day that he was
- 11:28Speaker 1: to be admitted, a man whom Balnave knew to be suspicious.
- 11:31Speaker 1: Having met him in the courtyard of the palace, he
- 11:33Speaker 1: determined to cross it without stopping, and walked in the
- 11:36Speaker 1: gardens in order to lull suspicion. I was desired to
- 11:40Speaker 1: wait for Balnave at a little door belonging to the
- 11:43Speaker 1: entresoil of the palace with my hand upon the open lock.
- 11:46Speaker 1: I had been in that position an hour. The King
- 11:50Speaker 1: came to me frequently and always to speak to me
- 11:53Speaker 1: of the uneasiness which a servant belonging to the castle,
- 11:55Speaker 1: who was a patriot gave him. He came again to
- 11:59Speaker 1: ask me whither I had heard the door called de
- 12:01Speaker 1: du Crey opened. I assured him nobody had been in
- 12:05Speaker 1: the corridor, and he became easy. He was dreadfully apprehensive
- 12:09Speaker 1: that his connection with Balnave would be discovered. It would,
- 12:13Speaker 1: said the King, be aground for capital accusations, and the
- 12:17Speaker 1: unfortunate man would be lost. I then ventured to remind
- 12:21Speaker 1: his Majesty that, as I was not the only one
- 12:24Speaker 1: in the secret of the business which brought Bernave in
- 12:27Speaker 1: contact with their majesties, one of his colleagues might be
- 12:30Speaker 1: induced to speak of the communication with which they were honored,
- 12:33Speaker 1: and that in letting them know by my presence that
- 12:36Speaker 1: I also was informed of it, a risk was incurred
- 12:39Speaker 1: of removing from those gentlemen part of the responsibility of
- 12:42Speaker 1: the secret. Upon this observation, the King quitted me hastily
- 12:46Speaker 1: and returned a moment afterwards with the Queen, give me
- 12:50Speaker 1: your place, said she, I will wait for him in
- 12:53Speaker 1: my turn. You have convinced the King we must not
- 12:57Speaker 1: increase in their eyes the number of persons in form
- 13:00Speaker 1: of their communications with us. The police of Monsieur le Pote,
- 13:04Speaker 1: intendant of the civil List, apprised him as early as
- 13:07Speaker 1: the latter end of seventeen ninety one that a man
- 13:10Speaker 1: belonging to the King's officers, who had set up as
- 13:13Speaker 1: a pastry cook at the paler Rooyal, was about to
- 13:15Speaker 1: re enter upon the duties of his situation, which had
- 13:18Speaker 1: devolved upon him again on the death of one who
- 13:20Speaker 1: held it for life. That he was so furious as Jaccabay,
- 13:24Speaker 1: that he had dared to say it would be a
- 13:26Speaker 1: good thing for France if the King's days were shortened.
- 13:30Speaker 1: His duty was confined to the mere laying out of
- 13:32Speaker 1: the pastry. He was closely watched by the head officers
- 13:36Speaker 1: of the kitchen, who were devoted to his majesty. But
- 13:39Speaker 1: it is so easy to introduce a subtle poison into
- 13:42Speaker 1: made dishes that it was determined the King and Queen
- 13:44Speaker 1: should eat only plain roasted meat in future, that their
- 13:47Speaker 1: bread should be brought to them by Monsieuterieri de Billderey,
- 13:50Speaker 1: intendent of the smaller apartments, who was likewise to take
- 13:53Speaker 1: upon himself to supply the wine. The King was fond
- 13:57Speaker 1: of pastry. I was directed to orders some, as if
- 14:00Speaker 1: for myself, sometimes of one pastry cook, and sometimes of another.
- 14:05Speaker 1: The pounded sugar, too, was kept in my room. The King,
- 14:09Speaker 1: the Queen, and Madame E dihizebet ate together, and nobody
- 14:12Speaker 1: remained to wait on them. Each had a dumb waiter
- 14:16Speaker 1: and a little bell to call the servants when they
- 14:18Speaker 1: were wanted. Monster Tierri used himself to bring me their
- 14:21Speaker 1: Majesty's bread and wine, and I locked them up in
- 14:24Speaker 1: a private cupboard in the King's closet on the ground floor.
- 14:28Speaker 1: As soon as the King sat down to table, I
- 14:30Speaker 1: took in the pastry and bread. All was hidden under
- 14:34Speaker 1: the table, lest it might be necessary to have the
- 14:36Speaker 1: servants in. The King thought it dangerous, as well as distressing,
- 14:40Speaker 1: to show any apprehension of attempts against his person, or
- 14:43Speaker 1: any mistrust of his officers of the kitchen, as he
- 14:46Speaker 1: never drank a whole bottle of wine at his meals,
- 14:49Speaker 1: the princesses drank nothing but water. He filled up that
- 14:52Speaker 1: out of which he had drank about half from the
- 14:54Speaker 1: bottle served up by the officers of his butterlry. I
- 14:57Speaker 1: took it away after dinner. Although he never ate any
- 15:01Speaker 1: other pastry than that which I brought, he took care
- 15:04Speaker 1: in the same manner that it should seem that he
- 15:06Speaker 1: had eaten of that served at table. The lady who
- 15:09Speaker 1: succeeded found this duty all regulated, and she executed it
- 15:13Speaker 1: in the same manner. The public never was in possession
- 15:16Speaker 1: of these particulars, nor of the apprehensions which gave rise
- 15:19Speaker 1: to them. At the end of three or four months,
- 15:22Speaker 1: the police of Monsieur de la Pote gave notice that
- 15:25Speaker 1: nothing more was to be dreaded from that sort of
- 15:27Speaker 1: plot against the King's life, that the plan was entirely changed,
- 15:31Speaker 1: and that all future attempts would be directed as much
- 15:34Speaker 1: against the throne as against the person of the sovereign.
- 15:38Speaker 1: There are others besides myself who know that about this
- 15:41Speaker 1: time one of the things about which the Queen most
- 15:43Speaker 1: desired to be satisfied was the opinion of the famous Pitt.
- 15:48Speaker 1: She would sometimes say to me, I never pronounce the
- 15:51Speaker 1: name of Pitt, but I feel death at my shoulder
- 15:54Speaker 1: I repeat here her very expressions that man is the
- 15:58Speaker 1: mortal enemy of France, and he takes a dreadful revenge
- 16:02Speaker 1: for the impolitics support given by the Cabinet of Versailles
- 16:05Speaker 1: to the American insurgents. He wishes, by our destruction to
- 16:09Speaker 1: guarantee the maritime power of his country forever, against the
- 16:13Speaker 1: efforts made by the King to improve his marine power
- 16:16Speaker 1: and their happy results during the last war. He knows
- 16:20Speaker 1: that it is not only the King's policy but his
- 16:23Speaker 1: private inclination to be solicitous about his fleets, and that
- 16:27Speaker 1: the most active step he has taken during his whole
- 16:30Speaker 1: reign was to visit the port of Cherbeau. Pitt has
- 16:34Speaker 1: served the cause of the French Revolution from the first disturbances.
- 16:38Speaker 1: He will perhaps serve it until its annihilation. I will
- 16:42Speaker 1: endeavor to learn to what point he intends to lead us,
- 16:44Speaker 1: and I am sending Monsieur three Asterisks to London for
- 16:48Speaker 1: that purpose. He has been intimately connected with Pitt, and
- 16:52Speaker 1: they have often had political conversations respecting the French government.
- 16:56Speaker 1: I will get him to make him speak out, at
- 16:58Speaker 1: least as far as such a man can speak out.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Note by Madame campent I thought for some time that
- 17:05Speaker 1: this secret agent was Monsieur Crawford. His memoirs, which I
- 17:09Speaker 1: have read very eagerly, have altered my opinion, because he
- 17:12Speaker 1: certainly would have mentioned this mission. I have forgotten the
- 17:16Speaker 1: name of the person whom the Queen sent to London,
- 17:18Speaker 1: though she condescended to entrust me with it, And note
- 17:23Speaker 1: some time afterwards the Queen told me that her secret
- 17:26Speaker 1: envoy was returned from London, and that all he had
- 17:29Speaker 1: been able to wring from Pitt, whom he found alarmingly reserved,
- 17:32Speaker 1: was that he would not suffer the French monarchy to fall,
- 17:35Speaker 1: that to suffer the revolutionary spirit to erect an organized
- 17:38Speaker 1: republican France would be a great error as regarding the
- 17:41Speaker 1: tranquility of all Europe. Whenever, said she Pitt expressed himself
- 17:47Speaker 1: upon the necessity of supporting a monarchy in France, he
- 17:50Speaker 1: maintained the most profound silence. Upon what concerns the monarch.
- 17:54Speaker 1: The result of these conversations is anything but encouraging. But
- 17:58Speaker 1: even as to that monarchy which he wishes to save,
- 18:01Speaker 1: will he have means and strength to save it? If
- 18:04Speaker 1: he suffers us to fall the death of the Emperor
- 18:07Speaker 1: Leopold took place on the first of March seventeen ninety two.
- 18:12Speaker 1: When the news of this event reached the Juilirie, the
- 18:14Speaker 1: queen was gone out. Upon her return I put the
- 18:17Speaker 1: letter containing it into her hands. She exclaimed that the
- 18:21Speaker 1: Emperor had been poisoned. That she had remarked and preserved
- 18:25Speaker 1: a newspaper in which, in an article upon the sitting
- 18:27Speaker 1: of the Jacobay at the time when the Emperor Leopold
- 18:31Speaker 1: declared for the coalition, it was said, speaking of him
- 18:34Speaker 1: that a pie crust would settle that matter. From this moment.
- 18:38Speaker 1: The Queen considered the expression as one which had involuntarily
- 18:42Speaker 1: escaped the propagandists. She lamented her brother. However, the education
- 18:47Speaker 1: of Francis the Second, which had been superintended by the
- 18:50Speaker 1: Emperor Joseph, inspired her with new hopes. She thought he
- 18:54Speaker 1: must have inherited the sentiments of the latter for her,
- 18:57Speaker 1: and did not doubt that he had, under the care
- 18:59Speaker 1: of his uncle, imbibed that valiant spirit so necessary for
- 19:03Speaker 1: the support of a crown. At this period. Bernave obtained
- 19:07Speaker 1: the Queen's consent that he should read all the letters
- 19:10Speaker 1: she should write. He was fearful of private correspondences that
- 19:14Speaker 1: might clog the plan marked out for her. He mistrusted
- 19:17Speaker 1: her Majesty's sincerity upon this point, and the diversity of counsels,
- 19:22Speaker 1: and the necessity of yielding, on one hand to some
- 19:25Speaker 1: of the views of the constitutionals, and on the other
- 19:27Speaker 1: to those of the French princes and even of the
- 19:30Speaker 1: foreign courts, were, unfortunately the circumstances which most rapidly impelled
- 19:35Speaker 1: the court toward its ruin. The Queen wished to have
- 19:38Speaker 1: shown Balnave the letter of condolence which she wrote to
- 19:41Speaker 1: Francis the Second. This letter was to be shown to
- 19:44Speaker 1: her triumvirate. For thus did she sometimes designate the three
- 19:47Speaker 1: deputies whom I have named. She would not have a
- 19:51Speaker 1: single word which, from its interference with their plans, might
- 19:54Speaker 1: prevent its going. She was also fearful of introducing into
- 19:58Speaker 1: it anything contradictory to her p pate sentiments which the
- 20:01Speaker 1: Emperor might learn by other means. Sit down at that table,
- 20:05Speaker 1: said she to me, and sketch me out a letter
- 20:09Speaker 1: dwell upon the idea that I see in my nephew,
- 20:11Speaker 1: the pupil of Joseph. If yours be better than mine,
- 20:15Speaker 1: you shall dictate it to me. I wrote a letter.
- 20:18Speaker 1: She read it and said, it is the very thing.
- 20:21Speaker 1: I was too deeply interested to keep the true line
- 20:24Speaker 1: as you have done. The Party of the Princess was
- 20:28Speaker 1: much alarmed on being informed of the connection of the
- 20:31Speaker 1: wreck of the Constitutional Party with the Queen, and the
- 20:34Speaker 1: Queen on her part, always dreaded the Party of the
- 20:37Speaker 1: Princess and the attempts of the French who composed it.
- 20:40Speaker 1: She did justice to the Count d'Artois, and often said
- 20:44Speaker 1: that his party would act in contravention of his sentiments
- 20:46Speaker 1: towards the King, his brother, and herself, but that he
- 20:50Speaker 1: would be led away by people over whom Calun had
- 20:52Speaker 1: a most lamentable ascendancy. She reproached Countess Terrazie, whom she
- 20:58Speaker 1: had loaded with favors, for having sided with Cadon so
- 21:01Speaker 1: entirely that she had reason to consider him absolutely as
- 21:04Speaker 1: an enemy. However, the immigrants showed great apprehensions of the
- 21:09Speaker 1: consequences which might follow in the interior from a connection
- 21:12Speaker 1: with the Constitutionals, whom they described as a party existing
- 21:15Speaker 1: no longer but an idea, and totally without means of
- 21:19Speaker 1: preparing their errors. The Jaccabay were preferred to them, because,
- 21:23Speaker 1: said they, there would be no treaty to be made
- 21:25Speaker 1: with any one at the moment of extricating the King
- 21:28Speaker 1: and his family from the abyss in which they are plunged.
- 21:32Speaker 1: I frequently read to the Queen the letters written to
- 21:34Speaker 1: her by vaunave One, among others. Struck me forcibly, and
- 21:38Speaker 1: I think I have retained the substance of it sufficiently
- 21:41Speaker 1: well to enable me to give a faithful account of it.
- 21:44Speaker 1: He told the Queen she did not really sufficiently on
- 21:47Speaker 1: the strength remaining in the Constitutional Party. That their flag
- 21:52Speaker 1: was indeed torn, but the word constitution was still legible
- 21:56Speaker 1: upon it. That this word would recover its virtue if
- 22:00Speaker 1: the King and his friends would rally round it. Sincerely,
- 22:03Speaker 1: that the authors of the Constitution, enlightened with respect to
- 22:07Speaker 1: their own errors, might yet amend it and restore to
- 22:09Speaker 1: the throne all its splendor. That the Queen must not
- 22:13Speaker 1: believe the public mind was favorably disposed towards the jacobay,
- 22:17Speaker 1: that the weak joined them because there was no strength elsewhere.
- 22:20Speaker 1: But the general opinion was for the Constitution. That the
- 22:24Speaker 1: party of the French princes, unfortunately shackled by the policy
- 22:28Speaker 1: of foreign courts ought not to be depended on, that
- 22:31Speaker 1: the majority of the emigrants had already destroyed by misconduct
- 22:35Speaker 1: much of the interest excited by their misfortunes, That entire
- 22:39Speaker 1: confidence ought not to be reposed in the foreign powers,
- 22:42Speaker 1: guided as they were by the policy of their cabinets
- 22:45Speaker 1: and not by the ties of blood, and that the
- 22:48Speaker 1: interior alone was capable of supporting the integrity of the kingdom.
- 22:53Speaker 1: He concluded the letter by saying that he laid at
- 22:55Speaker 1: her Majesty's feet the only national party still in existence,
- 23:00Speaker 1: that he feared to name it, but that she ought
- 23:02Speaker 1: not to forget that Ariquetre was not assisted by foreign
- 23:06Speaker 1: princes in regaining his dominions, and that he assented a
- 23:09Speaker 1: Catholic throne after having fought at the head of a
- 23:12Speaker 1: Protestant party. Bernave and his friends presumed too far upon
- 23:17Speaker 1: their strength it was exhausted in the contest with the court.
- 23:21Speaker 1: The Queen was aware of this, and if she did
- 23:24Speaker 1: seem to have any confidence in them, it is probable
- 23:27Speaker 1: that she was actuated by a policy which, it must
- 23:30Speaker 1: be confessed, could only prove injurious to her. End of
- 23:35Speaker 1: Chapter eight