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28 - 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, conclusion of Memoirs of the Court of Marie
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Speaker 1: Antoinette by Madame Campin. This LibriVox recording is in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. Conclusion the Queen, having lost her watch and
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Speaker 1: purse as she was passing from the Tuiliriy to the Fayllont,
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Speaker 1: requested my sister to lend her twenty five louis note
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Speaker 1: by Madame Carpin. On being interrogated, the queen declared that
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Speaker 1: these five and twenty louis had been led to her
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Speaker 1: by my sister. This formed a pretense for arresting her
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Speaker 1: and myself and led to the death of that virtuous
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Speaker 1: mother of a family. Note added by the editor. Madame Oguhi,
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Speaker 1: who was remarkable for her height and beauty, was a
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Speaker 1: woman of the greatest resolution. Death had no terrors for her,
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Speaker 1: but the idea of perishing innocent upon a scaffold aroused
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Speaker 1: her indignation. Never said she shall the executioner lay his
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Speaker 1: hand on me. Her religious sentiments would perhaps have inspired
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Speaker 1: her with more resignation, but she was a mother, and
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Speaker 1: the desier of preserving her property to her family suffered
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Speaker 1: her to think of nothing but the means of anticipating
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Speaker 1: an arrest otherwise inevitable. At the instant, when the officers
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Speaker 1: presented themselves for the purpose of arresting her, she precipitated
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Speaker 1: herself from a third floor. This last sacrifice of maternal
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Speaker 1: tenderness renders her and as honorable as her self. Devotion
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Speaker 1: to the Queen had been praisedworthy and affecting and notes.
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Speaker 1: I spent part of the day at the Fallon, and
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Speaker 1: her Majesty told me she would ask Pition to let
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Speaker 1: me be with her in the place which the assembly
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Speaker 1: should decree for the prison. I then returned home to
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Speaker 1: prepare everything that might be necessary for me to accompany her.
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Speaker 1: On the same day, eleventh August, at nine in the evening,
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Speaker 1: I returned to the Fallont. I found there were orders
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Speaker 1: at all the gates forbidding my being admitted. I claimed
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Speaker 1: a right to enter by virtue of the first permission
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Speaker 1: which had been given to me. I was again refused.
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Speaker 1: I was told that the Queen had as many people
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Speaker 1: as were requisite about her. My sister was with her,
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Speaker 1: as well as one of my companions who came out
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Speaker 1: of the prisons of the Abbeee. On the eleventh I
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Speaker 1: renewed my solicitations on the twelfth. My tears and entreaties
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Speaker 1: moved neither the keepers of the gates, nor even a
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Speaker 1: deputy to whom I addressed myself. I soon heard of
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Speaker 1: the transfer of Louisi's and his family to the temple.
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Speaker 1: I went to Pition's, accompanied by a man for whom
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Speaker 1: I had procured a place in the post office, Monsieur Valadont,
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Speaker 1: and who was much disposed to serve me. He determined
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Speaker 1: to go up to Pition alone. He supplicated him and
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Speaker 1: told him that those who requested to be confined could
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Speaker 1: not be suspected of evil designs, and that no political
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Speaker 1: opinion could afford a ground of objection to these solicitations.
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Speaker 1: Seeing that the well meaning man did not succeed, I
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Speaker 1: thought to do more in person, But Pition persisted in
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Speaker 1: his refusal and threatened to send me to the princes
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Speaker 1: of Lavos. He was still more cruel when thinking to
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Speaker 1: give me a sort of consolation, he added, I might
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Speaker 1: be certain that all those who were then with Louisaye's
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Speaker 1: and his family would not stay with them long. And
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Speaker 1: in fact, two or three days afterwards, the Princess de l'amval,
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Speaker 1: Madame de Toosell, her daughter, the Queen's first woman, the
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Speaker 1: first woman of the Dauphain, and Madame Monsieur de Chemilie
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Speaker 1: and Monsieur were carried off during the night and transferred
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Speaker 1: to Lafos. After the departure of the King and Queen
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Speaker 1: from the temple, my sister was detained a prisoner in
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Speaker 1: the apartments their majesties had quitted for twenty four hours.
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Speaker 1: From this time I was reduced to the misery of
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Speaker 1: having no further intelligence of my august and unfortunate mistress,
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Speaker 1: but through the medium of the newspapers or the National
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Speaker 1: Guard who did duty at the temple. The King and
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Speaker 1: Queen said nothing to me at the fayllon about the
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Speaker 1: portfolio which had been deposited with me. No doubt they
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Speaker 1: expected to see me again. The Minister Roland and the
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Speaker 1: deputies composing the provisional government were very intent on search
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Speaker 1: for papers belonging to their majesties. They had the whole
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Speaker 1: of the Tudli ransacked. The infamous Robespierre bethought himself of
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Speaker 1: Monsieur Campin, the Queen's private secretary, and said that his
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Speaker 1: death was feigned, that he was living unknown in some
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Speaker 1: obscure part of France, and was doubtless the depositary of
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Speaker 1: all the important papers in a great portfolio belonging to
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Speaker 1: the king. There had been found a solitary letter from
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Speaker 1: the Count d'Artois, which, by its date and the subjects
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Speaker 1: of which it treated, indicated the existence of a continued correspondence.
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Speaker 1: This letter appears among the documents used on the trial
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Speaker 1: of Louisay's. A former preceptor of my sons had studied
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Speaker 1: with Robespierre. The latter, meeting him in the street, and
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Speaker 1: knowing the connection which had subsisted between him and the
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Speaker 1: family of Monsieur Campin, required him to say, upon his
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Speaker 1: honor whether he was certain of the death of the latter.
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Speaker 1: The man replied that Monsieur Campin had died at Les
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Speaker 1: Aprec in seventeen ninety one, and that he had seen
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Speaker 1: him interred in the cemetery of epinat well. Then resumed, Robespierre,
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Speaker 1: bring me the certificate of his burial at twelve tomorrow.
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Speaker 1: It is a document for which I have pressing occasion.
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Speaker 1: Upon hearing the deputy's demand, I instantly sent for a
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Speaker 1: certificate of Monsieur Campas's burial, and Robespierre received it at
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Speaker 1: nine o'clock the next morning. But I considered that, in
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Speaker 1: thinking of my father in law, they were coming very
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Speaker 1: near me, the real depositary of these important papers. I
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Speaker 1: passed days and nights in considering what I could do
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Speaker 1: for the best or what would be least mischievous under
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Speaker 1: such circumstances. I was thus situated when the order to
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Speaker 1: inform against what were called the Etanta of the tenth
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Speaker 1: of August led to domiciliary visits. My servants were informed
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Speaker 1: that the people of the quarter in which I lived
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Speaker 1: talked much of the search that would be made in
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Speaker 1: my house, and came to apprise me of it. I
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Speaker 1: heard that if the armed men would make themselves masters
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Speaker 1: of Monsieur Ogier's house, where I then was. I had
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Speaker 1: just received this intelligence when Monsieur Gugeaud, the King's Metre
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Speaker 1: d'hotel and receiver general of the household, a man much
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Speaker 1: attached to his sovereign, came into my room, wrapped up
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Speaker 1: in a riding cloak, under which, with great difficulty he
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Speaker 1: carried the King's portfolio, which I had entrusted to him.
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Speaker 1: He threw it down at my feet and said to me,
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Speaker 1: there is your deposit I did not receive it from
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Speaker 1: our unfortunate king's own hands. In delivering it to you,
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Speaker 1: I have executed my trust. After saying this, he was
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Speaker 1: about to withdraw. I stopped him, praying him to concert
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Speaker 1: with me what I ought to do in such a
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Speaker 1: trying emergency. He would not listen to my entreaties or
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Speaker 1: even hear me describe the course I intended to pursue.
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Speaker 1: I told him my abode was about to be surrounded.
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Speaker 1: I imparted to him what the Queen had said to
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Speaker 1: me about the contents of the portfolio. To all this,
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Speaker 1: he answered, there it is decide for yourself. I will
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Speaker 1: have no hand in it. Upon that, I remained a
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Speaker 1: few seconds buried in thought, and I remember that my
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Speaker 1: conduct was founded upon the following reasons. I spoke aloud,
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Speaker 1: although to myself I walked about the room with agitated steps.
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Speaker 1: The unfortunate Gugenau was thunderstruck. Yes, said I, when we
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Speaker 1: can no longer communicate with our king and receive his orders,
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Speaker 1: however attached we may be to him, we can only
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Speaker 1: serve him according to the best of our own judgment.
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Speaker 1: The Queen said to me, this portfolio contains scarcely anything
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Speaker 1: but documents of a most dangerous description in the event
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Speaker 1: of a trial taking place, if it should fall into
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Speaker 1: the hands of revolutionary persons. She mentioned too, a single
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Speaker 1: document which would, under the same circumstances be useful. It
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Speaker 1: is my duty to translate her words and consider them
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Speaker 1: as orders. She meant to say, you will save such
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Speaker 1: a paper, you will destroy the red if they are
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Speaker 1: likely to be taken from you. If it were not so,
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Speaker 1: was there any occasion for her to enter into any
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Speaker 1: particulars of what the portfolio contained? The order to keep
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Speaker 1: it was sufficient. Probably it contains moreover, the letters of
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Speaker 1: that part of the family which has emigrated. There is
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Speaker 1: nothing which may have been foreseen or decided upon that
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Speaker 1: can be useful now, And there can be no political
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Speaker 1: thread which has not been cut by the events of
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Speaker 1: the tenth of August and the imprisonment of the king.
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Speaker 1: My house is about to be surrounded. I cannot conceal
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Speaker 1: anything of such bulk. I might, then, through my want
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Speaker 1: of foresight, give up that which would possibly cause the
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Speaker 1: condemnation of the king. Let us open the portfolio, save
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Speaker 1: the document alluded to, and destroy the rest. I took
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Speaker 1: a knife and cut open one side of the portfolio.
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Speaker 1: I saw a great number of envelopes endorsed with the
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Speaker 1: King's own hand. Monsieur Guseeneau found there the ancient seals
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Speaker 1: of the King, such as they were before the Assembly
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Speaker 1: changed the inscription. Note by Madame Campent. No doubt it
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Speaker 1: was in order to have the ancient seals ready at
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Speaker 1: a moment's notice in case of a counter revolution, that
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Speaker 1: the Queen desired me not to quit the twility. Monsieur
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Speaker 1: Guchseeaud threw the seals into the river, one from off
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Speaker 1: the pont Neuf, and the other from near the pont Royal,
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Speaker 1: and note at this moment we heard a great noise.
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Speaker 1: He agreed to tie up the portfolio, take it again
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Speaker 1: under his cloak, and go to a safe place to
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Speaker 1: execute what I had taken upon me to determine. He
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Speaker 1: made me swear by all I held most sacred, that
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Speaker 1: I would affirm, under every possible emergency, that the course
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Speaker 1: I was pursuing had not been dictated to me by anybody,
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Speaker 1: and that whatever might be the result, I would take
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Speaker 1: all the credit or all the blame upon myself. I
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Speaker 1: lifted up my hand and took the oath he required.
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Speaker 1: He went out. Half an hour afterwards, a great number
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Speaker 1: of armed men came to my house. They placed sentinels
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Speaker 1: at all the outlets. They broke open secretaries and closets,
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Speaker 1: of which they had not the keys. They searched the
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Speaker 1: garden pots and boxes. They examined the sellers, and the
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Speaker 1: commandant repeatedly said, look particularly for papers. In the afternoon,
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Speaker 1: Monsieur Gushino returned. He had still the seals of France
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Speaker 1: about him, and he brought me a statement of all
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Speaker 1: that he had burnt. The portfolio contained twenty letters from
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Speaker 1: Monsieur eighteen or nineteen from the Count d'Artois, seventeen from
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Speaker 1: Madame ad Laide, eighteen from Madame Victois, a great many
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Speaker 1: letters from Count Alexandre de la Mete, and many from
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Speaker 1: Monsieur de maise Elbe, with documents and acts to them.
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Speaker 1: There were also some from Monsieur de Montmary and other
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Speaker 1: ex ministers or ambassadors. Each correspondence had its title written
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Speaker 1: in the king's own hand upon the blank paper which
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Speaker 1: contained it. The most voluminous was that of Mirabeau. It
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Speaker 1: was tied up with a scheme for an escape which
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Speaker 1: he thought necessary. Monsieur Gougeaud who had skimmed over these
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Speaker 1: letters with more attention than the rest, told me they
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Speaker 1: were of so interesting a nature that the King had
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Speaker 1: no doubt kept them as documents exceedingly valuable for a
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Speaker 1: history of his reign, and that the correspondence with the princes,
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Speaker 1: which was entirely relative to what was going forward without
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Speaker 1: in concert with the King, would have been fatal to
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Speaker 1: him if it had been seized. After he had finished,
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Speaker 1: he placed in my hands the possevelbal signed by all
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Speaker 1: the ministers, to which the King attached so much importance
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Speaker 1: because he had given his opinion against the declaration of war,
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Speaker 1: a copy of the letter written by the King to
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Speaker 1: the Princess his brothers inviting them to return to France.
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Speaker 1: An account of the diamonds which the Queen had sent
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Speaker 1: to Brussels. These two documents were in my handwriting. And
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Speaker 1: a receipt for four hundred thousand francs under the hand
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Speaker 1: of a celebrated banker. This sum was part of the
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Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand francs which the Queen had gradually saved
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Speaker 1: during her reign, out of her pension of three hundred
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Speaker 1: thousand francs and out of the one hundred thousand francs
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Speaker 1: given by way of present on the birth of the Dauphain.
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Speaker 1: This receipt, written on a very small piece of paper,
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Speaker 1: was in the cover of an almanac. I agreed with
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Speaker 1: Monsieur Gugeaud, who was obliged by his station to reside
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Speaker 1: in Paris, that he should retain the prosevererbad of the
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Speaker 1: council and the receipt for the four hundred thousand francs,
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Speaker 1: and that we should wait either for orders or for
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Speaker 1: the means of transmitting these documents to the King or Queen.
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Speaker 1: And I set out for Versailles. The strictness of the
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Speaker 1: precautions taken to guard the illustrious prisoners was daily increased.
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Speaker 1: The idea that I could not inform the King of
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Speaker 1: the course I had adopted, of burning his papers, and
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Speaker 1: the fear that I should not be able to transmit
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Speaker 1: him that which he had pointed out as necessary to him,
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Speaker 1: tormented me to such a degree that it is wonderful
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Speaker 1: my health endured the trial. I was moreover harassed every
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Speaker 1: morning by the fears and projects of a very worthy person,
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Speaker 1: who proved to me that entire times of civil tumults
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Speaker 1: terror causes. The Commission of actions which assists the factious,
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Speaker 1: and that secrets of importance should be entrusted to none
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Speaker 1: but persons of strong minds incapable of feeling fear. The seamstress,
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Speaker 1: who had been shut up a week in my apartment
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Speaker 1: at the Tuiliers to make the king's breastplate there, was
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Speaker 1: very pious and very much attached to the royal family.
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Speaker 1: I thought I could rely upon her. But the poor
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Speaker 1: woman persuaded herself that she, her children, and her husband
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Speaker 1: were in danger of destruction if she did not go
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Speaker 1: to the Assembly and declare that at such a time
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Speaker 1: she had been sent for to the castle of the
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Speaker 1: Tuilierers for a purpose which she thought it her duty
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Speaker 1: to denounce. She came every morning as soon as I
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Speaker 1: awoke to inform me that she was going to Paris,
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Speaker 1: and that she would not ruin her whole family. I
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Speaker 1: calmed her and brought her to her senses. I proved
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Speaker 1: to her that I had merely used her as she
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Speaker 1: would her own needle, that the affair could not transpire
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Speaker 1: unless she disclosed it, and that in case it did,
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Speaker 1: which however, appeared to me impossible, the unfortunate monarch would
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Speaker 1: be first attacked for having ordered the work, and next
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Speaker 1: I should be called in question for having procured it
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Speaker 1: to be executed, But that she, who had only worked
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Speaker 1: by the day under my direction, had nothing to fear.
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Speaker 1: She would leave me in a more quiet state, but
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Speaker 1: would return on the morrow fraught with new fears. Nor
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Speaker 1: were visions wotting in the case the Virgin had told
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Speaker 1: her that her children and husband were not to be
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Speaker 1: sacrificed for any human being. Homsoever, I remained at least
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Speaker 1: a fortnight tormented by this perpetual uneasiness. Happily time set
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Speaker 1: her weak head at rest. When the Assembly held up
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Speaker 1: to the people Louisayes and Marie Antoinette as having wished
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Speaker 1: to put all Paris to the sword, they would not
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Speaker 1: have failed to impute weakness to the king on account
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Speaker 1: of his breast plate, which he had at first consented
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Speaker 1: to wear merely in compliance with the Queen's entreaties, and
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Speaker 1: of which he had refused to make use. On the
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Speaker 1: night of the tenth of August, the dreadful trial drew
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Speaker 1: near official defenders were granted to the king. The heroic
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Speaker 1: virtue of Monsieur de Maizelb induced him to brave the
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Speaker 1: most imminent dangers, either to save his master or to
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Speaker 1: perish with him. I hoped also to be able to
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Speaker 1: find some means of informing his Majesty of what I
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Speaker 1: had thought it right to do. I sent a man
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Speaker 1: on whom I could rely, to Paris to request Monsieur
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Speaker 1: Gugineou to come to me at Bessailles. He came immediately.
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Speaker 1: We agreed that he should see Monsieur de Maizeb, without
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Speaker 1: availing himself of any intermediate person for that purpose. Monsieur
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Speaker 1: Gugineoux awaited his return from the temple at the door
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Speaker 1: of his hotel, and made a sign that he wished
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Speaker 1: to speak to him. A moment afterwards, a servant came
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Speaker 1: to introduce him into the magistrate's room. He imparted to
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Speaker 1: Monsieur de Mazelb what I had thought right to do
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Speaker 1: with respect to the King's papers, and placed in his
15:52
Speaker 1: hands the posselbal of the Council, which his Majesty had
15:55
Speaker 1: preserved in order to serve if occasion required it for
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Speaker 1: a ground of his defense. However, this paper is not
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Speaker 1: mentioned in either of the speeches of his defender. Probably
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Speaker 1: it was determined not to make use of it. I
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Speaker 1: pause at that terrible period which is marked by the
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Speaker 1: assassination of a king whose divine virtues are well known.
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Speaker 1: But I cannot refrain from relating what he deigned to
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Speaker 1: say in my favor to Monsieur de maiseelb Let, Madame
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Speaker 1: campand know that she did what I should myself have
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Speaker 1: ordered her to do. I thank her for it. She
16:29
Speaker 1: is one of those whom I regret. I have it
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Speaker 1: not in my power to recompense for their fidelity to
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Speaker 1: my person and for their good services. I did not
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Speaker 1: hear of this until the morning after he had suffered,
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Speaker 1: and I think I should have sunk under my despair
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Speaker 1: if I had not been consoled by this honorable testimony.
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Speaker 1: Note by the editor. Madame Compon's memoirs terminate here. Her
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Speaker 1: recital ends with her services about the unfortunate princess who
16:57
Speaker 1: fully appreciated her zeal and herself. She was unwilling to
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Speaker 1: speak of anything but what she had seen with her
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Speaker 1: own eyes or learned from the mouth of the Queen herself,
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Speaker 1: and her silence respecting the lamentable events which succeeded the
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Speaker 1: tenth of August gives greater weight to her testimony upon
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Speaker 1: all that goes before and note end of conclusion.