MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE

Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen

Volume 7

CHAPTER IX. 

The Queen having been robbed of her purse as she was passing from theTuileries to the Feuillans, requested my sister to lend her twenty-fivelouis. 

[On being interrogated the Queen declared that these five and twenty louishad been lent to her by my sister; this formed a pretence for arrestingher and me, and led to her death. --MADAME CAMPAN. ]

I spent part of the day at the Feuillans, and her Majesty told me shewould ask Potion to let me be with her in the place which the Assemblyshould decree for her prison. I then returned home to prepare everythingthat might be necessary for me to accompany her. 

On the same day (11th August), at nine in the evening, I returned to theFeuillans. I found there were orders at all the gates forbidding my beingadmitted. I claimed a right to enter by virtue of the first permissionwhich had been given to me; I was again refused. I was told that theQueen had as many people as were requisite about her. My sister was withher, as well as one of my companions, who came out of the prisons of theAbbaye on the 11th. I renewed my solicitations on the 12th; my tears andentreaties moved neither the keepers of the gates, nor even a deputy, towhom I addressed myself. 

I soon heard of the removal of Louis XVI. And his family to the Temple. Iwent to Potion accompanied by M. Valadon, for whom I had procured a placein the post-office, and who was devoted to me. He determined to go up toPotion alone; he told him that those who requested to be confined couldnot be suspected of evil designs, and that no political opinion couldafford a ground of objection to these solicitations. Seeing that thewell-meaning man did not succeed, I thought to do more in person; butPetion persisted in his refusal, and threatened to send me to La Force. Thinking to give me a kind of consolation, he added I might be certainthat all those who were then with Louis XVI. And his family would not staywith them long. And in fact, two or three days afterwards the Princessede Lamballe, Madame de Tourzel, her daughter, the Queen's first woman, thefirst woman of the Dauphin and of Madame, M. De Chamilly, and M. De Huewere carried off during the night and transferred to La Force. After thedeparture of the King and Queen for the Temple, my sister was detained aprisoner in the apartments their Majesties had quitted for twenty-fourhours. 

From this time I was reduced to the misery of having no furtherintelligence of my august and unfortunate mistress but through the mediumof the newspapers or the National Guard, who did duty at the Temple. 

The King and Queen said nothing to me at the Feuillans about the portfoliowhich had been deposited with me; no doubt they expected to see me again. The minister Roland and the deputies composing the provisional governmentwere very intent on a search for papers belonging to their Majesties. They had the whole of the Tuileries ransacked. The infamous Robespierrebethought himself of M. Campan, the Queen's private secretary, and saidthat his death was feigned; that he was living unknown in some obscurepart of France, and was doubtless the depositary of all the importantpapers. In a great portfolio belonging to the King there had been found asolitary letter from the Comte d'Artois, which, by its date, and thesubjects of which it treated, indicated the existence of a continuedcorrespondence. (This letter appeared among the documents used on thetrial of Louis XVI. ) A former preceptor of my son's had studied withRobespierre; the latter, meeting him in the street, and knowing theconnection which had subsisted between him and the family of M. Campan, required him to say, upon his honour, whether he was certain of the deathof the latter. The man replied that M. Campan had died at La Briche in1791, and that he had seen him interred in the cemetery of Epinay. "well, then, " resumed Robespierre, "bring me the certificate of his burial attwelve to-morrow; it is a document for which I have pressing occasion. "Upon hearing the deputy's demand I instantly sent for a certificate of M. Campan's burial, and Robespierre received it at nine o'clock the nextmorning. But I considered that, in thinking of my father-in-law, theywere coming very near me, the real depositary of these important papers. I passed days and nights in considering what I could do for the best undersuch circumstances. 

I was thus situated when the order to inform against those who had beendenounced as suspected on the 10th of August led to domiciliary visits. Myservants were told that the people of the quarter in which I lived weretalking much of the search that would be made in my house, and came toapprise me of it. I heard that fifty armed men would make themselvesmasters of M. Auguies house, where I then was. I had just received thisintelligence when M. Gougenot, the King's maitre d'hotel andreceiver-general of the taxes, a man much attached to his sovereign, cameinto my room wrapped in a ridingcloak, under which, with great difficulty, he carried the King's portfolio, which I had entrusted to him. He threwit down at my feet, and said to me, "There is your deposit; I did notreceive it from our unfortunate King's own hands; in delivering it to youI have executed my trust. " After saying this he was about to withdraw. Istopped him, praying him to consult with me what I ought to do in such atrying emergency. He would not listen to my entreaties, or even hear medescribe the course I intended to pursue. I told him my abode was aboutto be surrounded; I imparted to him what the Queen had said to me aboutthe contents of the portfolio. To all this he answered, "There it is;decide for yourself; I will have no hand in it. " Upon that I remained afew seconds thinking, and my conduct was founded upon the followingreasons. I spoke aloud, although to myself; I walked about the room withagitated steps; M. Gougenot was thunderstruck. "Yes, " said I, "when wecan no longer communicate with our King and receive his orders, howeverattached we may be to him, we can only serve him according to the best ofour own judgment. The Queen said to me, 'This portfolio contains scarcelyanything but documents of a most dangerous description in the event of atrial taking place, if it should fall into the hands of revolutionarypersons. ' She mentioned, too, a single document which would, under thesame circumstances, be useful. It is my duty to interpret her words, andconsider them as orders. She meant to say, 'You will save such a paper, you will destroy the rest if they are likely to be taken from you. ' If itwere not so, was there any occasion for her to enter into any detail as towhat the portfolio contained? The order to keep it was sufficient. Probably it contains, moreover, the letters of that part of the familywhich has emigrated; there is nothing which may have been foreseen ordecided upon that can be useful now; and there can be no political threadwhich has not been cut by the events of the 10th of August and theimprisonment of the King. My house is about to be surrounded; I cannotconceal anything of such bulk; I might, then, through want of foresight, give up that which would cause the condemnation of the King. Let us openthe portfolio, save the document alluded to, and destroy the rest. " Itook a knife and cut open one side of the portfolio. I saw a great numberof envelopes endorsed by the King's own hand. M. Gougenot found there theformer seals of the King, [No doubt it was in order to have the ancient seals ready at a moment'snotice, in case of a counter-revolution, that the Queen desired me not toquit the Tuileries. M. Gougenot threw the seals into the river, one fromabove the Pont Neuf, and the other from near the Pont Royal. --MADAMECAMPAN. ]

such as they were before the Assembly had changed the inscription. Atthis moment we heard a great noise; he agreed to tie up the portfolio, take it again under his cloak, and go to a safe place to execute what Ihad taken upon me to determine. He made me swear, by all I held mostsacred, that I would affirm, under every possible emergency, that thecourse I was pursuing had not been dictated to me by anybody; and that, whatever might be the result, I would take all the credit or all the blameupon myself. I lifted up my hand and took the oath he required; he wentout. Half an hour afterwards a great number of armed men came to myhouse; they placed sentinels at all the outlets; they broke opensecretaires and closets of which they had not the keys; they 'searched theflower-pots and boxes; they examined the cellars; and the commandantrepeatedly said, "Look particularly for papers. " In the afternoon M. Gougenot returned. He had still the seals of France about him, and hebrought me a statement of all that he had burnt. 

The portfolio contained twenty letters from Monsieur, eighteen or nineteenfrom the Comte d'Artois, seventeen from Madame Adelaide, eighteen fromMadame Victoire, a great many letters from Comte Alexandre de Lameth, andmany from M. De Malesherbes, with documents annexed to them. There werealso some from M. De Montmorin and other ex-ministers or ambassadors. Each correspondence had its title written in the King's own hand upon theblank paper which contained it. The most voluminous was that fromMirabeau. It was tied up with a scheme for an escape, which he thoughtnecessary. M. Gougenot, who had skimmed over these letters with moreattention than the rest, told me they were of so interesting a nature thatthe King had no doubt kept them as documents exceedingly valuable for ahistory of his reign, and that the correspondence with the Princes, whichwas entirely relative to what was going forward abroad, in concert withthe King, would have been fatal to him if it had been seized. After hehad finished he placed in my hands the proces-verbal, signed by all theministers, to which the King attached so much importance, because he hadgiven his opinion against the declaration of war; a copy of the letterwritten by the King to the Princes, his brothers, inviting them to returnto France; an account of the diamonds which the Queen had sent to Brussels(these two documents were in my handwriting); and a receipt for fourhundred thousand francs, under the hand of a celebrated banker. This sumwas part of the eight hundred thousand francs which the Queen hadgradually saved during her reign, out of her pension of three hundredthousand francs per annum, and out of the one hundred thousand francsgiven by way of present on the birth of the Dauphin. 

This receipt, written on a very small piece of paper, was in the cover ofan almanac. I agreed with M. Gougenot, who was obliged by his office toreside in Paris, that he should retain the proces-verbal of the Counciland the receipt for the four hundred thousand francs, and that we shouldwait either for orders or for the means of transmitting these documents tothe King or Queen; and I set out for Versailles. 

The strictness of the precautions taken to guard the illustrious prisonerswas daily increased. The idea that I could not inform the King of thecourse I had adopted of burning his papers, and the fear that I should notbe able to transmit to him that which he had pointed out as necessary, tormented me to such a degree that it is wonderful my health endured thestrain. 

The dreadful trial drew near. Official advocates were granted to theKing; the heroic virtue of M. De Malesherbes induced him to brave the mostimminent dangers, either to save his master or to perish with him. I hopedalso to be able to find some means of informing his Majesty of what I hadthought it right to do. I sent a man, on whom I could rely, to Paris, torequest M. Gougenot to come to me at Versailles he came immediately. Weagreed that he should see M. De Malesherbes without availing himself ofany intermediate person for that purpose. 

M. Gougenot awaited his return from the Temple at the door of his hotel, and made a sign that he wished to speak to him. A moment afterwards aservant came to introduce him into the magistrates' room. He imparted toM. De Malesherbes what I had thought it right to do with respect to theKing's papers, and placed in his hands the proces-verbal of the Council, which his Majesty had preserved in order to serve, if occasion requiredit, for a ground of his defence. However, that paper is not mentioned ineither of the speeches of his advocate; probably it was determined not tomake use of it. 

I stop at that terrible period which is marked by the assassination of aKing whose virtues are well known; but I cannot refrain from relating whathe deigned to say in my favour to M. De Malesherbes:

"Let Madame Campan know that she did what I should myself have ordered herto do; I thank her for it; she is one of those whom I regret I have it notin my power to recompense for their fidelity to my person, and for theirgood services. " I did not hear of this until the morning after he hadsuffered, and I think I should have sunk under my despair if thishonourable testimony had not given me some consolation. 

SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER IX. 

MADAME CAMPAN'S narrative breaking off abruptly at the time of the painfulend met with by her sister, we have supplemented it by abridged accountsof the chief incidents in the tragedy which overwhelmed the royal houseshe so faithfully served, taken from contemporary records and the besthistorical authorities. 

The Royal Family in the Temple. 

The Assembly having, at the instance of the Commune of Paris, decreed thatthe royal family should be immured in the Temple, they were removedthither from the Feuillans on the 13th of August, 1792, in the charge ofPotion, Mayor of Paris, and Santerre, the commandant-general. TwelveCommissioners of the general council were to keep constant watch at theTemple, which had been fortified by earthworks and garrisoned bydetachments of the National Guard, no person being allowed to enterwithout permission from the municipality. 

The Temple, formerly the headquarters of the Knights Templars in Paris, consisted of two buildings, --the Palace, facing the Rue de Temple, usuallyoccupied by one of the Princes of the blood; and the Tower, standingbehind the Palace. 

[Clery gives a more minute description of this singular building: "Thesmall tower of the Temple in which the King was then confined stood withits back against the great tower, without any interior communication, andformed a long square, flanked by two turrets. In one of these turretsthere was a narrow staircase that led from the first floor to a gallery onthe platform; in the other were small rooms, answering to each story ofthe tower. The body of the building was four stories high. The firstconsisted of an antechamber, a dining-room, and a small room in theturret, where there was a library containing from twelve to fifteenhundred volumes. The second story was divided nearly in the same manner. The largest room was the Queen's bedchamber, in which the Dauphin alsoslept; the second, which was separated from the Queen's by a smallantechamber almost without light, was occupied by Madame Royale and MadameElisabeth. The King's apartments were on the third story. He slept inthe great room, and made a study of the turret closet. There was akitchen separated from the King's chamber by a small dark room, which hadbeen successively occupied by M. De Chamilly and M. De Hue. The fourthstory was shut up; and on the ground floor there were kitchens of which nouse was made. " --"Journal, " p. 96. ]

The Tower was a square building, with a round tower at each corner and asmall turret on one side, usually called the Tourelle. In the narrativeof the Duchesse d'Angouleme she says that the soldiers who escorted theroyal prisoners wished to take the King alone to the Tower, and his familyto the Palace of the Temple, but that on the way Manuel received an orderto imprison them all in the Tower, where so little provision had been madefor their reception that Madame Elisabeth slept in the kitchen. The royalfamily were accompanied by the Princesse de Lamballe, Madame de Tourzeland her daughter Pauline, Mesdames de Navarre, de Saint-Brice, Thibaut, and Bazire, MM. De Hug and de Chamilly, and three men-servants--An orderfrom the Commune soon removed these devoted attendants, and M. De Huealone was permitted to return. "We all passed the day together, " saysMadame Royale. "My father taught my brother geography; my mother history, and to learn verses by heart; and my aunt gave him lessons in arithmetic. My father fortunately found a library which amused him, and my motherworked tapestry . . . . We went every day to walk in the garden, forthe sake of my brother's health, though the King was always insulted bythe guard. On the Feast of Saint Louis 'Ca Ira' was sung under the wallsof the Temple. Manuel that evening brought my aunt a letter from heraunts at Rome. It was the last the family received from without. Myfather was no longer called King. He was treated with no kind of respect;the officers always sat in his presence and never took off their hats. They deprived him of his sword and searched his pockets . . . . Petionsent as gaoler the horrible man--[Rocher, a saddler by trade] who hadbroken open my father's door on the 20th June, 1792, and who had been nearassassinating him. This man never left the Tower, and was indefatigablein endeavouring to torment him. One time he would sing the 'Caramgnole, 'and a thousand other horrors, before us; again, knowing that my motherdisliked the smoke of tobacco, he would puff it in her face, as well as inthat of my father, as they happened to pass him. He took care always to bein bed before we went to supper, because he knew that we must pass throughhis room. My father suffered it all with gentleness, forgiving the manfrom the bottom of his heart. My mother bore it with a dignity thatfrequently repressed his insolence. " The only occasion, Madame Royaleadds, on which the Queen showed any impatience at the conduct of theofficials, was when a municipal officer woke the Dauphin suddenly in thenight to make certain that he was safe, as though the sight of thepeacefully sleeping child would not have been in itself the bestassurance. 

Clery, the valet de chambre of the Dauphin, having with difficultyobtained permission to resume his duties, entered the Temple on the 24thAugust, and for eight days shared with M. De Hue the personal attendance;but on the 2d September De Hue was arrested, seals were placed on thelittle room he had occupied, and Clery passed the night in that of theKing. On the following morning Manuel arrived, charged by the Commune toinform the King that De Hue would not be permitted to return, and to offerto send another person. "I thank you, " answered the King. "I will managewith the valet de chambre of my son; and if the Council refuse I willserve myself. I am determined to do it. " On the 3d September Manualvisited the Temple and assured the King that Madame de Lamballe and allthe other prisoners who had been removed to La Force were well, and safelyguarded. "But at three o'clock, " says Madame Royale, "just after dinner, and as the King was sitting down to 'tric trac' with my mother (which heplayed for the purpose of having an opportunity of saying a few words toher unheard by the keepers), the most horrid shouts were heard. Theofficer who happened to be on guard in the room behaved well. He shut thedoor and the window, and even drew the curtains to prevent their seeinganything; but outside the workmen and the gaoler Rocher joined theassassins and increased the tumult. Several officers of the guard and themunicipality now arrived, and on my father's asking what was the matter, ayoung officer replied, 'Well, since you will know, it is the head ofMadame de Lamballe that they want to show you. ' At these words my motherwas overcome with horror; it was the only occasion on which her firmnessabandoned her. The municipal officers were very angry with the young man;but the King, with his usual goodness, excused him, saying that it was hisown fault, since he had questioned the officer. The noise lasted tillfive o'clock. We learned that the people had wished to force the door, and that the municipal officers had been enabled to prevent it only byputting a tricoloured scarf across it, and allowing six of the murderersto march round our prison with the head of the Princess, leaving at thedoor her body, which they would have dragged in also. "

Clery was not so fortunate as to escape the frightful spectacle. He hadgone down to dine with Tison and his wife, employed as servants in theTemple, and says: "We were hardly seated when a head, on the end of apike, was presented at the window. Tison's wife gave a great cry; theassassins fancied they recognised the Queen's voice, and responded bysavage laughter. Under the idea that his Majesty was still at table, theyplaced their dreadful trophy where it must be seen. It was the head ofthe Princesse de Lamballe; although bleeding, it was not disfigured, andher light hair, still in curls, hung about the pike. "

At length the immense mob that surrounded the Temple gradually withdrew, "to follow the head of the Princess de Lamballe to the Palais Royal. "

[The pike that bore the head was fixed before the Duc d'Orleans's windowas he was going to dinner. It is said that he looked at this horrid sightwithout horror, went into the dining-room, sat down to table, and helpedhis guests without saying a word. His silence and coolness left itdoubtful whether the assassins, in presenting him this bloody trophy, intended to offer him an insult or to pay him homage. --DE MOLLEVILLE'S"Annals of the French Revolution, " vol. Vii. , p. 398. ]

Meanwhile the royal family could scarcely believe that for the time theirlives were saved. "My aunt and I heard the drums beating to arms allnight, " says Madame Royale; "my unhappy mother did not even attempt tosleep. We heard her sobs. "

In the comparative tranquillity which followed the September massacres, the royal family resumed the regular habits they had adopted on enteringthe Temple. "The King usually rose at six in the morning, " says Clery. "He shaved himself, and I dressed his hair; he then went to hisreading-room, which, being very small, the municipal officer on dutyremained in the bedchamber with the door open, that he might always keepthe King in sight. His Majesty continued praying on his knees for sometime, and then read till nine. During that interval, after putting hischamber to rights and preparing the breakfast, I went down to the Queen, who never opened her door till I arrived, in order to prevent themunicipal officer from going into her apartment. At nine o'clock theQueen, the children, and Madame Elisabeth went up to the King's chamber tobreakfast. At ten the King and his family went down to the Queen'schamber, and there passed the day. He employed himself in educating hisson, made him recite passages from Corneille and Racine, gave him lessonsin geography, and exercised him in colouring the maps. The Queen, on herpart, was employed in the education of her daughter, and these differentlessons lasted till eleven o'clock. The remaining time till noon waspassed in needlework, knitting, or making tapestry. At one o'clock, whenthe weather was fine, the royal family were conducted to the garden byfour municipal officers and the commander of a legion of the NationalGuard. As there were a number of workmen in the Temple employed in pullingdown houses and building new walls, they only allowed a part of thechestnut-tree walk for the promenade, in which I was allowed to share, andwhere I also played with the young Prince at ball, quoits, or races. Attwo we returned to the Tower, where I served the dinner, at which timeSanterre regularly came to the Temple, attended by two aides-de-camp. TheKing sometimes spoke to him, --the Queen never. 

"After the meal the royal family came down into the Queen's room, andtheir Majesties generally played a game of piquet or tric-trac. At fouro'clock the King took a little repose, the Princesses round him, each witha book . . . . When the King woke the conversation was resumed, and Igave writing lessons to his son, taking the copies, according to hisinstructions, from the works of, Montesquieu and other celebrated authors. After the lesson I took the young Prince into Madame Elisabeth's room, where we played at ball, and battledore and shuttlecock. In the eveningthe family sat round a table, while the Queen read to them from books ofhistory, or other works proper to instruct and amuse the children. MadameElisabeth took the book in her turn, and in this manner they read tilleight o'clock. After that I served the supper of the young Prince, inwhich the royal family shared, and the King amused the children withcharades out of a collection of French papers which he found in thelibrary. After the Dauphin had supped, I undressed him, and the Queenheard him say his prayers. At nine the King went to supper, andafterwards went for a moment to the Queen's chamber, shook hands with herand his sister for the night, kissed his children, and then retired to theturret-room, where he sat reading till midnight. The Queen and thePrincesses locked themselves in, and one of the municipal officersremained in the little room which parted their chamber, where he passedthe night; the other followed his Majesty. In this manner was the timepassed as long as the King remained in the small tower. "

But even these harmless pursuits were too often made the means of furtherinsulting and thwarting the unfortunate family. Commissary Le Clercinterrupted the Prince's writing lessons, proposing to substituteRepublican works for those from which the King selected his copies. Asmith, who was present when the Queen was reading the history of France toher children, denounced her to the Commune for choosing the period whenthe Connstable de Bourbon took arms against France, and said she wished toinspire her son with unpatriotic feelings; a municipal officer assertedthat the multiplication table the Prince was studying would afford a meansof "speaking in cipher, " so arithmetic had to be abandoned. Much the sameoccurred even with the needlework, the Queen and Princess finished somechairbacks, which they wished to send to the Duchesse de Tarente; but theofficials considered that the patterns were hieroglyphics, intended forcarrying on a correspondence, and ordered that none of the Princesses workshould leave the Temple. The short daily walk in the garden was alsoembittered by the rude behaviour of the military and municipal gaolers;sometimes, however, it afforded an opportunity for marks of sympathy to beshown. People would station themselves at the windows of housesoverlooking the Temple gardens, and evince by gestures their loyalaffection, and some of the sentinels showed, even by tears, that theirduty was painful to them. 

On the 21st September the National Convention was constituted, Petionbeing made president and Collot d'Herbois moving the "abolition ofroyalty" amidst transports of applause. That afternoon a municipalofficer attended by gendarmes a cheval, and followed by a crowd of people, arrived at the Temple, and, after a flourish of trumpets, proclaimed theestablishment of the French Republic. The man, says Clery, "had the voiceof a Stentor. " The royal family could distinctly hear the announcement ofthe King's deposition. "Hebert, so well known under the title of PereDuchesne, and Destournelles were on guard. They were sitting near thedoor, and turned to the King with meaning smiles. He had a book in hishand, and went on reading without changing countenance. The Queen showedthe same firmness. The proclamation finished, the trumpets soundedafresh. I went to the window; the people took me for Louis XVI. And I wasoverwhelmed with insults. "

After the new decree the prisoners were treated with increased harshness. Pens, paper, ink, and pencils were taken from them. The King and MadameElisabeth gave up all, but the Queen and her daughter each concealed apencil. "In the beginning of October, " says Madame Royale, "after myfather had supped, he was told to stop, that he was not to return to hisformer apartments, and that he was to be separated from his family. Atthis dreadful sentence the Queen lost her usual courage. We parted fromhim with abundance of tears, though we expected to see him again in themorning. 

[At nine o'clock, says Clery, the King asked to be taken to his family, but the municipal officers replied that they had "no orders for that. "Shortly afterwards a boy brought the King some bread and a decanter oflemonade for his breakfast. The King gave half the bread to Clery, saying, "It seems they have forgotten your breakfast; take this, the restis enough for me. " Clery refused, but the King insisted. "I could notcontain my tears, " he adds; "the King perceived them, and his own fellalso. "]

They brought in our breakfast separately from his, however. My motherwould take nothing. The officers, alarmed at her silent and concentratedsorrow, allowed us to see the King, but at meal-times only, and oncondition that we should not speak low, nor in any foreign language, butloud and in 'good French. ' We went down, therefore, with the greatest joyto dine with my father. In the evening, when my brother was in bed, mymother and my aunt alternately sat with him or went with me to sup with myfather. In the morning, after breakfast, we remained in the King'sapartments while Clery dressed our hair, as he was no longer allowed tocome to my mother's room, and this arrangement gave us the pleasure ofspending a few moments more with my father. "

[When the first deputation from the Council of the Commune visited theTemple, and formally inquired whether the King had any complaint to make, he replied, "No; while he was permitted to remain with his family he washappy. "]

The royal prisoners had no comfort except their affection for each other. At that time even common necessaries were denied them. Their small stockof linen had been lent them; by persons of the Court during the time theyspent at the Feuillans. The Princesses mended their clothes every day, and after the King had gone to bed Madame Elisabeth mended his. "Withmuch trouble, " says Clrry, "I procured some fresh linen for them. But theworkwomen having marked it with crowned letters, the Princesses wereordered to pick them out. " The room in the great tower to which the Kinghad been removed contained only one bed, and no other article offurniture. A chair was brought on which Clery spent the first night;painters were still at work on the room, and the smell of the paint, hesays, was almost unbearable. This room was afterwards furnished bycollecting from various parts of the Temple a chest of drawers, a smallbureau, a few odd chairs, a chimney-glass, and a bed hung with greendamask, which had been used by the captain of the guard to the Comted'Artois. A room for the Queen was being prepared over that of the King, and she implored the workmen to finish it quickly, but it was not readyfor her occupation for some time, and when she was allowed to remove to itthe Dauphin was taken from her and placed with his father. When theirMajesties met again in the great Tower, says Clery, there was littlechange in the hours fixed for meals, reading, walking and the education oftheir children. They were not allowed to have mass said in the Temple, and therefore commissioned Clery to get them the breviary in use in thediocese of Paris. Among the books read by the King while in the Towerwere Hume's "History of England" (in the original), Tasso, and the "DeImitatione Christi. " The jealous suspicions of the municipal officers ledto the most absurd investigations; a draught-board was taken to pieceslest the squares should hide treasonable papers; macaroons were broken inhalf to see that they did not contain letters; peaches were cut open andthe stones cracked; and Clery was compelled to drink the essence of soapprepared for shaving the King, under the pretence that it might containpoison. 

In November the King and all the family had feverish colds, and Clery hadan attack of rheumatic fever. On the first day of his illness he got upand tried to dress his master, but the King, seeing how ill he was, ordered him to lie down, and himself dressed the Dauphin. The littlePrince waited on Clery all day, and in the evening the King contrived toapproach his bed, and said, in a low voice, "I should like to take care ofyou myself, but you know how we are watched. Take courage; tomorrow youshall see my doctor. " Madame Elisabeth brought the valet coolingdraughts, of which she deprived herself; and after Clery was able to getup, the young Prince one night with great difficulty kept awake tilleleven o'clock in order to give him a box of lozenges when he went to makethe King's bed. 

On 7th December a deputation from the Commune brought an order that theroyal family should be deprived of "knives, razors, scissors, penknives, and all other cutting instruments. " The King gave up a knife, and tookfrom a morocco case a pair of scissors and a penknife; and the officialsthen searched the room, taking away the little toilet implements of goldand silver, and afterwards removing the Princesses' working materials. Returning to the King's room, they insisted upon seeing what remained inhis pocket-case. "Are these toys which I have in my hand also cuttinginstruments?" asked the King, showing them a cork-screw, a turn-screw, and a steel for lighting. These also were taken from him. Shortlyafterwards Madame Elisabeth was mending the King's coat, and, having noscissors, was compelled to break the thread with her teeth. 

"What a contrast!" he exclaimed, looking at her tenderly. "You wantednothing in your pretty house at Montreuil. "

"Ah, brother, " she answered, "how can I have any regret when I partakeyour misfortunes?"

The Queen had frequently to take on herself some of the humble duties of aservant. This was especially painful to Louis XVI. When the anniversaryof some State festival brought the contrast between past and present withunusual keenness before him. 

"Ah, Madame, " he once exclaimed, "what an employment for a Queen ofFrance! Could they see that at Vienna! Who would have foreseen that, inuniting your lot to mine, you would have descended so low?"

"And do you esteem as nothing, " she replied, "the glory of being the wifeof one of the best and most persecuted of men? Are not such misfortunesthe noblest honours?"--[Alison's "History of Europe, " vol. Ii. , p. 299. ]

Meanwhile the Assembly had decided that the King should be brought totrial. Nearly all parties, except the Girondists, no matter how bitterlyopposed to each other, could agree in making him the scapegoat; and thefirst rumour of the approaching ordeal was conveyed to the Temple byClery's wife, who, with a friend, had permission occasionally to visithim. "I did not know how to announce this terrible news to the King, " hesays; "but time was pressing, and he had forbidden my concealing anythingfrom him. In the evening, while undressing him, I gave him an account ofall I had learnt, and added that there were only four days to concert someplan of corresponding with the Queen. The arrival of the municipalofficer would not allow me to say more. Next morning, when the King rose, I could not get a moment for speaking with him. He went up with his sonto breakfast with the Princesses, and I followed. After breakfast hetalked long with the Queen, who, by a look full of trouble, made meunderstand that they were discussing what I had told the King. During theday I found an opportunity of describing to Madame Elisabeth how much ithad cost me to augment the King's distresses by informing him of hisapproaching trial. She reassured me, saying that the King felt this as amark of attachment on my part, and added, 'That which most troubles him isthe fear of being separated from us. ' In the evening the King told me howsatisfied he was at having had warning that he was to appear before theConvention. 'Continue, ' he said, 'to endeavour to find out something asto what they want to do with me. Never fear distressing me. I haveagreed with my family not to seem pre-informed, in order not to compromiseyou. '"

On the 11th December, at five o'clock in the morning, the prisoners heardthe generale beaten throughout Paris, and cavalry and cannon entered theTemple gardens. At nine the King and the Dauphin went as usual tobreakfast with the Queen. They were allowed to remain together for anhour, but constantly under the eyes of their republican guardians. Atlast they were obliged to part, doubtful whether they would ever see eachother again. The little Prince, who remained with his father, and wasignorant of the new cause for anxiety, begged hard that the King wouldplay at ninepins with him as usual. Twice the Dauphin could not getbeyond a certain number. "Each time that I get up to sixteen, " he said, with some vexation, "I lose the game. " The King did not reply, but Cleryfancied the words made a painful impression on him. 

At eleven, while the King was giving the Dauphin a reading lesson, twomunicipal officers entered and said they had come "to take young Louis tohis mother. " The King inquired why, but was only told that such were theorders of the Council. At one o'clock the Mayor of Paris, Chambon, accompanied by Chaumette, Procureur de la Commune, Santerre, commandant ofthe National Guard, and others, arrived at the Temple and read a decree tothe King, which ordered that "Louis Capet" should be brought before theConvention. "Capet is not my name, " he replied, "but that of one of myancestors. I could have wished, " he added, "that you had left my son withme during the last two hours. But this treatment is consistent with all Ihave experienced here. I follow you, not because I recognise theauthority of the Convention, but because I can be compelled to obey it. "He then followed the Mayor to a carriage which waited, with a numerousescort, at the gate of the Temple. The family left behind wereoverwhelmed with grief and apprehension. "It is impossible to describethe anxiety we suffered, " says Madame Royale. "My mother used everyendeavour with the officer who guarded her to discover what was passing;it was the first time she had condescended to question any of these men. He would tell her nothing. "

Trial of the King. --Parting of the Royal Family. --Execution. 

The crowd was immense as, on the morning of the 11th December, 1792, LouisXVI. Was driven slowly from the Temple to the Convention, escorted bycavalry, infantry, and artillery. Paris looked like an armed camp: allthe posts were doubled; the muster-roll of the National Guard was calledover every hour; a picket of two hundred men watched in the court of eachof the right sections; a reserve with cannon was stationed at theTuileries, and strong detachments patroled the streets and cleared theroad of all loiterers. The trees that lined the boulevards, the doors andwindows of the houses, were alive with gazers, and all eyes were fixed onthe King. He was much changed since his people last beheld him. The beardhe had been compelled to grow after his razors were taken from him coveredcheeks, lips, and chin with light-coloured hair, which concealed themelancholy expression of his mouth; he had become thin, and his garmentshung loosely on him; but his manner was perfectly collected and calm, andhe recognised and named to the Mayor the various quarters through which hepassed. On arriving at the Feuillans he was taken to a room to await theorders of the Assembly. 

It was about half-past two when the King appeared at the bar. The Mayorand Generaux Santerre and Wittengoff were at his side. Profound silencepervaded the Assembly. All were touched by the King's dignity and thecomposure of his looks under so great a reverse of fortune. By nature hehad been formed rather to endure calamity with patience than to contendagainst it with energy. The approach of death could not disturb hisserenity. 

"Louis, you may be seated, " said Barere. "Answer the questions that shallbe put to you. " The King seated himself and listened to the reading ofthe 'acte enonciatif', article by article. All the faults of the Courtwere there enumerated and imputed to Louis XVI. Personally. He was chargedwith the interruption of the sittings of the 20th of June, 1789, with theBed of Justice held on the 23d of the same month, the aristocraticconspiracy thwarted by the insurrection of the 14th of July, theentertainment of the Life Guards, the insults offered to the nationalcockade, the refusal to sanction the Declaration of Rights, as well asseveral constitutional articles; lastly, all the facts which indicated anew conspiracy in October, and which were followed by the scenes of the5th and 6th; the speeches of reconciliation which had succeeded all thesescenes, and which promised a change that was not sincere; the false oathtaken at the Federation of the 14th of July; the secret practices of Talonand Mirabeau to effect a counter-revolution; the money spent in bribing agreat number of deputies; the assemblage of the "knights of the dagger" onthe 28th of February, 1791; the flight to Varennes; the fusilade of theChamp de Mars; the silence observed respecting the Treaty of Pilnitz; thedelay in the promulgation of the decree which incorporated Avignon withFrance; the commotions at Nimes, Montauban, Mende, and Jales; thecontinuance of their pay to the emigrant Life Guards and to the disbandedConstitutional Guard; the insufficiency of the armies assembled on thefrontiers; the refusal to sanction the decree for the camp of twentythousand men; the disarming of the fortresses; the organisation of secretsocieties in the interior of Paris; the review of the Swiss and thegarrison of the palace on the 10th August; the summoning the Mayor to theTuileries; and lastly, the effusion of blood which had resulted from thesemilitary dispositions. After each article the President paused, and said, "What have you to answer?" The King, in a firm voice, denied some of thefacts, imputed others to his ministers, and always appealed to theconstitution, from which he declared he had never deviated. His answerswere very temperate, but on the charge, "You spilt the blood of the peopleon the 10th of August, " he exclaimed, with emphasis, "No, monsieur, no; itwas not I. "

All the papers on which the act of accusation was founded were then shownto the King, and he disavowed some of them and disputed the existence ofthe iron chest; this produced a bad impression, and was worse thanuseless, as the fact had been proved. 

[A secret closet which the King had directed to be constructed in a wallin the Tuileries. The door was of iron, whence it was afterwards known bythe name of the iron chest. See Thiers, and Scott. ]

Throughout the examination the King showed great presence of mind. He wascareful in his answers never to implicate any members of the constituent, and legislative Assemblies; many who then sat as his judges trembled lesthe should betray them. The Jacobins beheld with dismay the profoundimpression made on the Convention by the firm but mild demeanour of thesovereign. The most violent of the party proposed that he should behanged that very night; a laugh as of demons followed the proposal fromthe benches of the Mountain, but the majority, composed of the Girondistsand the neutrals, decided that he should be formally tried. 

After the examination Santerre took the King by the arm and led him backto the waiting-room of the Convention, accompanied by Chambon andChaumette. Mental agitation and the length of the proceedings hadexhausted him, and he staggered from weakness. Chaumette inquired if hewished for refreshment, but the King refused it. A moment after, seeing agrenadier of the escort offer the Procureur de la Commune half a smallloaf, Louis XVI. Approached and asked him, in a whisper, for a piece. 

"Ask aloud for what you want, " said Chaumette, retreating as though hefeared being suspected of pity. 

"I asked for a piece of your bread, " replied the King. 

"Divide it with me, " said Chaumette. "It is a Spartan breakfast. If Ihad a root I would give you half. "--[Lamartine's "History of theGirondists, " edit. 1870, vol. Ii. , p. 313. ]

Soon after six in the evening the King returned to the Temple. "He seemedtired, " says Clery, simply, "and his first wish was to be led to hisfamily. The officers refused, on the plea that they had no orders. Heinsisted that at least they should be informed of his return, and this waspromised him. The King ordered me to ask for his supper at half-pasteight. The intervening hours he employed in his usual reading, surroundedby four municipals. When I announced that supper was served, the Kingasked the commissaries if his family could not come down. They made noreply. 'But at least, ' the King said, 'my son will pass the night in myroom, his bed being here?' The same silence. After supper the King againurged his wish to see his family. They answered that they must await thedecision of the Convention. While I was undressing him the King said, 'Iwas far from expecting all the questions they put to me. ' He lay downwith perfect calmness. The order for my removal during the night was notexecuted. " On the King's return to the Temple being known, "my motherasked to see him instantly, " writes Madame Royale. "She made the samerequest even to Chambon, but received no answer. My brother passed thenight with her; and as he had no bed, she gave him hers, and sat up allthe night in such deep affliction that we were afraid to leave her; butshe compelled my aunt and me to go to bed. Next day she again asked tosee my father, and to read the newspapers, that she might learn the courseof the trial. She entreated that if she was to be denied this indulgence, his children, at least, might see him. Her requests were referred to theCommune. The newspapers were refused; but my brother and I were to beallowed to see my father on condition of being entirely separated from mymother. My father replied that, great as his happiness was in seeing hischildren, the important business which then occupied him would not allowof his attending altogether to his son, and that his daughter could notleave her mother. "

[During their last interview Madame Elisabeth had given Clery one of herhandkerchiefs, saying, "You shall keep it so long as my brother continueswell; if he becomes ill, send it to me among my nephew's things. "]

The Assembly having, after a violent debate, resolved that Louis XVI. Should have the aid of counsel, a deputation was sent to the Temple to askwhom he would choose. The King named Messieurs Target and Tronchet. Theformer refused his services on the ground that he had discontinuedpractice since 1785; the latter complied at once with the King's request;and while the Assembly was considering whom to, nominate in Target'splace, the President received a letter from the venerable Malesherbes, [Christian Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, an eminent Frenchstatesman, son of the Chancellor of France, was born at Paris in 1721. In1750 he succeeded his father as President of the Court of Aids, and wasalso made superintendent of the press. On the banishment of theParliaments and the suppression of the Court of Aids, Malesherbes wasexiled to his country-seat. In 1775 he was appointed Minister of State. On the decree of the Convention for the King's trial, he emerged from hisretreat to become the voluntary advocate of his sovereign. Malesherbeswas guillotined in 1794, and almost his whole family were extirpated bytheir merciless persecutors. ]

then seventy years old, and "the most respected magistrate in France, " inthe course of which he said: "I have been twice called to be counsel forhim who was my master, in times when that duty was coveted by every one. Iowe him the same service now that it is a duty which many people deemdangerous. If I knew any possible means of acquainting him with mydesires, I should not take the liberty of addressing myself to you. " Othercitizens made similar proposals, but the King, being made acquainted withthem by a deputation from the Commune, while expressing his gratitude forall the offers, accepted only that of Malesherbes. 

[The Citoyenne Olympia Degonges, calling herself a free and loyalRepublican without spot or blame, and declaring that the cold and selfishcruelty of Target had inflamed her heroism and roused her sensibility, asked permission to assist M, de Malesherbes in defending the King. TheAssembly passed to the order of the day on this request. --BERTRAND DEMOLLEVILLE, "Annals, " edit. 1802, vol, viii. , p. 254. ]

On 14th December M. Tronchet was allowed to confer with the King, andlater in the same day M. De Malesherbes was admitted to the Tower. "TheKing ran up to this worthy old man, whom he clasped in his arms, " saidClery, "and the former minister melted into tears at the sight of hismaster. "

[According to M. De Hue, "The first time M. De Malesherbes entered theTemple, the King clasped him in his arms and said, 'Ah, is it you, myfriend? You fear not to endanger your own life to save mine; but all willbe useless. They will bring me to the scaffold. No matter; I shall gainmy cause if I leave an unspotted memory behind me. '"]

Another deputation brought the King the Act of Accusation and thedocuments relating to it, numbering more than a hundred, and taking fromfour o'clock till midnight to read. During this long process the King hadrefreshments served to the deputies, taking nothing himself till they hadleft, but considerately reproving Clery for not having supped. From the14th to the 26th December the King saw his counsel and their colleague M. De Size every day. At this time a means of communication between theroyal family and the King was devised: a man named Turgi, who had been inthe royal kitchen, and who contrived to obtain employment in the Temple, when conveying the meals of the royal family to their apartments, orarticles he had purchased for them, managed to give Madame Elisabeth newsof the King. Next day, the Princess, when Turgi was removing the dinner, slipped into his hand a bit of paper on which she had pricked with a pin arequest for a word from her brother's own hand. Turgi gave this paper toClery, who conveyed it to the King the same evening; and he, being allowedwriting materials while preparing his defence, wrote Madame Elisabeth ashort note. An answer was conveyed in a ball of cotton, which Turgi threwunder Clery's bed while passing the door of his room. Letters were alsopassed between the Princess's room and that of Clery, who lodged beneathher, by means of a string let down and drawn up at night. Thiscommunication with his family was a great comfort to the King, who, nevertheless, constantly cautioned his faithful servant. "Take care, " hewould say kindly, "you expose yourself too much. "

[The King's natural benevolence was constantly shown while in the Temple. His own dreadful position never prevented him from sympathy with thesmaller troubles of others. A servant in the Temple named Marchand, thefather of a family, was robbed of two hundred francs, --his wages for twomonths. The King observed his distress, asked its cause, and gave Clerythe amount to be handed to Marchand, with a caution not to speak of it toany one, and, above all, not to thank the King, lest it should injure himwith his employers. ]

During his separation from his family the King refused to go into thegarden. When it was proposed to him he said, "I cannot make up my mind togo out alone; the walk was agreeable to me only when I shared it with myfamily. " But he did not allow himself to dwell on painful reflections. He talked freely to the municipals on guard, and surprised them by hisvaried and practical knowledge of their trades, and his interest in theirdomestic affairs. On the 19th December the King's breakfast was served asusual; but, being a fast-day, he refused to take anything. At dinner-timethe King said to Clery, "Fourteen years ago you were up earlier than youwere to-day; it is the day my daughter was born--today, her birthday, " herepeated, with tears, "and to be prevented from seeing her!" MadameRoyale had wished for a calendar; the King ordered Clery to buy her the"Almanac of the Republic, " which had replaced the "Court Almanac, " and ranthrough it, marking with a pencil many names. 

"On Christmas Day, " Says Clery, "the King wrote his will. "

[Madame Royale says: "On the 26th December, St. Stephen's Day, my fathermade his will, because he expected to be assassinated that day on his wayto the bar of the Convention. He went thither, nevertheless, with hisusual calmness. "--"Royal Memoirs, " p. 196. ]

On the 26th December, 1792, the King appeared a second time before theConvention. M. De Seze, labouring night and day, had completed hisdefence. The King insisted on excluding from it all that was toorhetorical, and confining it to the mere discussion of essential points. 

[When the pathetic peroration of M, de Seze was read to the King, theevening before it was delivered to the Assembly, "I have to request ofyou, " he said, "to make a painful sacrifice; strike out of your pleadingthe peroration. It is enough for me to appear before such judges, andshow my entire innocence; I will not move their feelings. --"LACRETELLE. ]

At half-past nine in the morning the whole armed force was in motion toconduct him from the Temple to the Feuillans, with the same precautionsand in the same order as had been observed on the former occasion. Ridingin the carriage of the Mayor, he conversed, on the way, with the samecomposure as usual, and talked of Seneca, of Livy, of the hospitals. Arrived at the Feuillans, he showed great anxiety for his defenders; heseated himself beside them in the Assembly, surveyed with great composurethe benches where his accusers and his judges sat, seemed to examine theirfaces with the view of discovering the impression produced by the pleadingof M. De Seze, and more than once conversed smilingly with Tronchet andMalesherbes. The Assembly received his defence in sullen silence, butwithout any tokens of disapprobation. 

Being afterwards conducted to an adjoining room with his counsel, the Kingshowed great anxiety about M. De Seze, who seemed fatigued by the longdefence. While riding back to the Temple he conversed with his companionswith the same serenity as he had shown on leaving it. 

No sooner had the King left the hall of the Convention than a violenttumult arose there. Some were for opening the discussion. Others, complaining of the delays which postponed the decision of this process, demanded the vote immediately, remarking that in every court, after theaccused had been heard, the judges proceed to give their opinion. Lanjuinais had from the commencement of the proceedings felt anindignation which his impetuous disposition no longer suffered him torepress. He darted to the tribune, and, amidst the cries excited by hispresence, demanded the annulling of the proceedings altogether. Heexclaimed that the days of ferocious men were gone by, that the Assemblyought not to be so dishonoured as to be made to sit in judgment on LouisXVI. , that no authority in France had that right, and the Assembly inparticular had no claim to it; that if it resolved to act as a politicalbody, it could do no more than take measures of safety against theci-devant King; but that if it was acting as a court of justice it wasoverstepping all principles, for it was subjecting the vanquished to betried by the conquerors, since most of the present members had declaredthemselves the conspirators of the 10th of August. At the word"conspirators" a tremendous uproar arose on all aides. Cries of"Order!"--"To the Abbaye!"--"Down with the Tribune!" were heard. Lanjuinais strove in vain to justify the word "conspirators, " saying thathe meant it to be taken in a favourable sense, and that the 10th of Augustwas a glorious conspiracy. He concluded by declaring that he would ratherdie a thousand deaths than condemn, contrary to all laws, even the mostexecrable of tyrants. 

A great number of speakers followed, and the confusion continuallyincreased. The members, determined not to hear any more, mingledtogether, formed groups, abused and threatened one another. After atempest of an hour's duration, tranquillity was at last restored; and theAssembly, adopting the opinion of those who demanded the discussion on thetrial of Louis XVI. , declared that it was opened, and that it should becontinued, to the exclusion of all other business, till sentence should bepassed. 

The discussion was accordingly resumed on the 27th, and there was aconstant succession of speakers from the 28th to the 31st. Vergniaud atlength ascended the tribune for the first time, and an extraordinaryeagerness was manifested to hear the Girondists express their sentimentsby the lips of their greatest orator. 

The speech of Vergniaud produced a deep impression on all his hearers. Robespierre was thunderstruck by his earnest and, persuasive eloquence. Vergniaud, however, had but shaken, not convinced, the Assembly, whichwavered between the two parties. Several members were successively heard, for and against the appeal to the people. Brissot, Gensonne, Petion, supported it in their turn. One speaker at length had a decisiveinfluence on the question. Barere, by his suppleness, and his cold andevasive eloquence, was the model and oracle of the centre. He spoke atgreat length on the trial, reviewed it in all its bearings--of facts, oflaws, and of policy--and furnished all those weak minds, who only wantedspecious reasons for yielding, with motives for the condemnation of theKing. From that moment the unfortunate King was condemned. Thediscussion lasted till the 7th, and nobody would listen any longer to thecontinual repetition of the same facts and arguments. It was thereforedeclared to be closed without opposition, but the proposal of a freshadjournment excited a commotion among the most violent, and ended in adecree which fixed the 14th of January for putting the questions to thevote. 

Meantime the King did not allow the torturing suspense to disturb hisoutward composure, or lessen his kindness to those around him. On themorning after his second appearance at the bar of the Convention, thecommissary Vincent, who had undertaken secretly to convey to the Queen acopy of the King's printed defence, asked for something which had belongedto him, to treasure as a relic; the King took off his neck handkerchiefand gave it him; his gloves he bestowed on another municipal, who had madethe same request. "On January 1st, " says Clery, "I approached the King'sbed and asked permission to offer him my warmest prayers for the end ofhis misfortunes. 'I accept your good wishes with affection, ' he replied, extending his hand to me. As soon as he had risen, he requested amunicipal to go and inquire for his family, and present them his goodwishes for the new year. The officers were moved by the tone in whichthese words, so heartrending considering the position of the King, werepronounced . . . . The correspondence between their Majesties went onconstantly. The King being informed that Madame Royale was ill, was veryuneasy for some days. The Queen, after begging earnestly, obtainedpermission for M. Brunnier, the medical attendant of the royal children, to come to the Temple. This seemed to quiet him. "

The nearer the moment which was to decide the King's fate approached, thegreater became the agitation in, Paris. "A report was circulated that theatrocities of September were to be repeated there, and the prisoners andtheir relatives beset the deputies with supplications that they wouldsnatch them from destruction. The Jacobins, on their part, alleged thatconspiracies were hatching in all quarters to save Louis XVI. Frompunishment, and to restore royalty. Their anger, excited by delays andobstacles, assumed a more threatening aspect; and the two parties thusalarmed one another by supposing that each harboured sinister designs. "

On the 14th of January the Convention called for the order of the day, being the final judgment of Louis XVI. 

"The sitting of the Convention which concluded the trial, " says Hazlitt, "lasted seventy-two hours. It might naturally be supposed that silence, restraint, a sort of religious awe, would have pervaded the scene. On thecontrary, everything bore the marks of gaiety, dissipation, and the mostgrotesque confusion. The farther end of the hall was converted intoboxes, where ladies, in a studied deshabille, swallowed ices, oranges, liqueurs, and received the salutations of the members who went and came, as on ordinary occasions. Here the doorkeepers on the Mountain sideopened and shut the boxes reserved for the mistresses of the Ducd'Orleans; and there, though every sound of approbation or disapprobationwas strictly forbidden, you heard the long and indignant 'Ha, ha's!' ofthe mother-duchess, the patroness of the bands of female Jacobins, whenever her ears were not loudly greeted with the welcome sounds ofdeath. The upper gallery, reserved for the people, was during the wholetrial constantly full of strangers of every description, drinking wine asin a tavern. 

"Bets were made as to the issue of the trial in all the neighbouringcoffee-houses. Ennui, impatience, disgust sat on almost everycountenance. The figures passing and repassing, rendered more ghastly bythe pallid lights, and who in a slow, sepulchral voice pronounced only theword--Death; others calculating if they should have time to go to dinnerbefore they gave their verdict; women pricking cards with pins in order tocount the votes; some of the deputies fallen asleep, and only waking up togive their sentence, --all this had the appearance rather of a hideousdream than of a reality. "

The Duc d'Orleans, when called on to give his vote for the death of hisKing and relation, walked with a faltering step, and a face paler thandeath itself, to the appointed place, and there read these words:"Exclusively governed by my duty, and convinced that all those who haveresisted the sovereignty of the people deserve death, my vote is fordeath!" Important as the accession of the first Prince of the blood wasto the Terrorist faction, his conduct in this instance was too obviouslyselfish and atrocious not to excite a general feeling of indignation; theagitation of the Assembly became extreme; it seemed as if by this singlevote the fate of the monarch was irrevocably sealed. 

The President having examined the register, the result of the scrutiny wasproclaimed as follows

 Against an appeal to the people. . . . . . . . . . . 480 For an appeal to the people. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

 Majority for final judgment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

The President having announced that he was about to declare the result ofthe scrutiny, a profound silence ensued, and he then gave in the followingdeclaration: that, out of 719 votes, 366 were for DEATH, 319 were forimprisonment during the war, two for perpetual imprisonment, eight for asuspension of the execution of the sentence of death until after theexpulsion of the family of the Bourbons, twenty-three were for not puttinghim to death until the French territory was invaded by any foreign power, and one was for a sentence of death, but with power of commutation of thepunishment. 

After this enumeration the President took off his hat, and, lowering hisvoice, said: "In consequence of this expression of opinion I declare thatthe punishment pronounced by the National Convention against Louis Capetis DEATH!"

Previous to the passing of the sentence the President announced on thepart of the Foreign Minister the receipt of a letter from the SpanishMinister relative to that sentence. The Convention, however, refused tohear it. [It will be remembered that a similar remonstrance was forwardedby the English Government. ]

M. De Malesherbes, according to his promise to the King, went to theTemple at nine o'clock on the morning of the 17th?. 

[Louis was fully prepared for his fate. During the calling of the voteshe asked M. De Malesherbes, "Have you not met near the Temple the WhiteLady?"--" What do you mean?" replied he. "Do you not know, " resumed theKing with a smile, "that when a prince of our house is about to die, afemale dressed in white is seen wandering about the palace? My friends, "added he to his defenders, "I am about to depart before you for the landof the just, but there, at least, we shall be reunited. " In fact, hisMajesty's only apprehension seemed to be for his family. --ALISON. ]

"All is lost, " he said to Clery. "The King is condemned. " The King, whosaw him arrive, rose to receive him. 

[When M. De Malesherbes went to the Temple to announce the result of thevote, he found Louis with his forehead resting on his hands, and absorbedin a deep reverie. Without inquiring concerning his fate, he said: "Fortwo hours I have been considering whether, during my whole reign, I havevoluntarily given any cause of complaint to my subjects; and with perfectsincerity I declare that I deserve no reproach at their hands, and that Ihave never formed a wish but for their happiness. " LACRETELLE. ]

M. De Malesherbes, choked by sobs, threw himself at his feet. The Kingraised him up and affectionately embraced him. When he could control hisvoice, De Malesherbes informed the King of the decree sentencing him todeath; he made no movement of surprise or emotion, but seemed onlyaffected by the distress of his advocate, whom he tried to comfort. 

On the 20th of January, at two in the afternoon, Louis XVI. Was awaitinghis advocates, when he heard the approach of a numerous party. He stoppedwith dignity at the door of his apartment, apparently unmoved: Garat thentold him sorrowfully that he was commissioned to communicate to him thedecrees of the Convention. Grouvelle, secretary of the Executive Council, read them to him. The first declared Louis XVI. Guilty of treason againstthe general safety of the State; the second condemned him to death; thethird rejected any appeal to the people; and the fourth and last orderedhis execution in twenty-four hours. Louis, looking calmly round, took thepaper from Grouvelle, and read Garat a letter, in which he demanded fromthe Convention three days to prepare for death, a confessor to assist himin his last moments, liberty to see his family, and permission for them toleave France. Garat took the letter, promising to submit it immediatelyto the Convention. 

Louis XVI. Then went back into his room with great composure, ordered hisdinner, and ate as usual. There were no knives on the table, and hisattendants refused to let him have any. "Do they think me so cowardly, "he exclaimed, "as to lay violent hands on myself? I am innocent, and I amnot afraid to die. "

The Convention refused the delay, but granted some other demands which hehad made. Garat sent for Edgeworth de Firmont, the ecclesiastic whomLouis XVI. Had chosen, and took him in his own carriage to the Temple. M. Edgeworth, on being ushered into the presence of the King, would havethrown himself at his feet, but Louis instantly raised him, and both shedtears of emotion. He then, with eager curiosity, asked various questionsconcerning the clergy of France, several bishops, and particularly theArchbishop of Paris, requesting him to assure the latter that he diedfaithfully attached to his communion. --The clock having struck eight, herose, begged M. Edgeworth to wait, and retired with emotion, saying thathe was going to see his family. The municipal officers, unwilling to losesight of the King, even while with his family, had decided that he shouldsee them in the dining-room, which had a glass door, through which theycould watch all his motions without hearing what he said. At half-pasteight the door opened. The Queen, holding the Dauphin by the hand, MadameElisabeth, and Madame Royale rushed sobbing into the arms of Louis XVI. The door was closed, and the municipal officers, Clery, and M. Edgeworthplaced themselves behind it. During the first moments, it was but a sceneof confusion and despair. Cries and lamentations prevented those who wereon the watch from distinguishing anything. At length the conversationbecame more calm, and the Princesses, still holding the King clasped intheir arms, spoke with him in a low tone. "He related his trial to mymother, " says Madame Royale, "apologising for the wretches who hadcondemned him. He told her that he would not consent to any attempt tosave him, which might excite disturbance in the country. He then gave mybrother some religious advice, and desired him, above all, to forgivethose who caused his death; and he gave us his blessing. My mother wasvery desirous that the whole family should pass the night with my father, but he opposed this, observing to her that he much needed some hours ofrepose and quiet. " After a long conversation, interrupted by silence andgrief, the King put an end to the painful meeting, agreeing to see hisfamily again at eight the next morning. "Do you promise that you will?"earnestly inquired the Princesses. "Yes, yes, " sorrowfully replied theKing. 

["But when we were gone, " says his daughter, "he requested that we mightnot be permitted to return, as our presence afflicted him too much. "]

At this moment the Queen held him by one arm, Madame Elisabeth by theother, while Madame Royale clasped him round the waist, and the Dauphinstood before him, with one hand in that of his mother. At the moment ofretiring Madame Royale fainted; she was carried away, and the Kingreturned to M. Edgeworth deeply depressed by this painful interview. TheKing retired to rest about midnight; M. Edgeworth threw himself upon abed, and Clery took his place near the pillow of his master. 

Next morning, the 21st of January, at five, the King awoke, called Clery, and dressed with great calmness. He congratulated himself on havingrecovered his strength by sleep. Clery kindled a fire, , and moved a chestof drawers, out of which he formed an altar. M. Edgeworth put on hispontifical robes, and began to celebrate mass. Clery waited on him, andthe King listened, kneeling with the greatest devotion. He then receivedthe communion from the hands of M. Edgeworth, and after mass rose with newvigour, and awaited with composure the moment for going to the scaffold. He asked for scissors that Clery might cut his hair; but the Communerefused to trust him with a pair. 

At this moment the drums were beating in the capital. All who belonged tothe armed sections repaired to their company with complete submission. Itwas reported that four or five hundred devoted men, were to make a dashupon the carriage, and rescue the King. The Convention, the Commune, theExecutive Council, and the Jacobins were sitting. At eight. In themorning, Santerre, with a deputation from the Commune, the department, andthe criminal tribunal, repaired to the Temple. Louis XVI. , on hearingthem arrive, rose and prepared to depart. He desired Clery to transmithis last farewell to his wife, his sister, and his children; he gave him asealed packet, hair, and various trinkets, with directions to deliverthese articles to them. 

[In the course of the morning the King said to me: "You will give thisseal to my son and this ring to the Queen, and assure her that it is withpain I part with it. This little packet contains the hair of all myfamily; you will give her that, too. Tell the Queen, my dear sister, andmy children, that, although I promised to see them again this morning, Ihave resolved to spare them the pang of so cruel a separation. Tell themhow much it costs me to go away without receiving their embraces oncemore!" He wiped away some tears, and then added, in the most mournfulaccents, "I charge you to bear them my last farewell. "--CLERY. ]

He then clasped his hand and thanked him for his services. After this headdressed himself to one of the municipal officers, requesting him totransmit his last will to the Commune. This officer, who had formerlybeen a priest, and was named Jacques Roux, brutally replied that hisbusiness was to conduct him to execution, and not to perform hiscommissions. Another person took charge of it, and Louis, turning towardsthe party, gave with firmness the signal for starting. 

Officers of gendarmerie were placed on the front seat of the carriage. TheKing and M. Edgeworth occupied the back. During the ride, which wasrather long, the King read in M. Edgeworth's breviary the prayers forpersons at the point of death; the two gendarmes were astonished at hispiety and tranquil resignation. The vehicle advanced slowly, and amidstuniversal silence. At the Place de la Revolution an extensive space hadbeen left vacant about the scaffold. Around this space were plantedcannon; the most violent of the Federalists were stationed about thescaffold; and the vile rabble, always ready to insult genius, virtue, andmisfortune, when a signal is given it to do so, crowded behind the ranksof the Federalists, and alone manifested some outward tokens ofsatisfaction. 

At ten minutes past ten the carriage stopped. Louis XVI. , rising briskly, stepped out into the Place. Three executioners came up; he refused theirassistance, and took off his clothes himself. But, perceiving that theywere going to bind his hands, he made a movement of indignation, andseemed ready to resist. M. Edgeworth gave him a last look, and said, "Suffer this outrage, as a last resemblance to that God who is about to beyour reward. " At these words the King suffered himself to be bound andconducted to the scaffold. All at once Louis hurriedly advanced toaddress the people. "Frenchmen, " said he, in a firm voice, "I dieinnocent of the crimes which are imputed to me; I forgive the authors ofmy death, and I pray that my blood may not fall upon France. " He wouldhave continued, but the drums were instantly ordered to beat: theirrolling drowned his voice; the executioners laid hold of him, and M. Edgeworth took his leave in these memorable words: "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to heaven!" As soon as the blood flowed, furious wretches dippedtheir pikes and handkerchiefs in it, then dispersed throughout Paris, shouting "Vive la Republique! Vive la Nation!" and even went to thegates of the Temple to display brutal and factious joy. 

[The body of Louis was, immediately after the execution, removed to theancient cemetery of the Madeleine. Large quantities of quicklime werethrown into the grave, which occasioned so rapid a decomposition that, when his remains were sought for in 1816, it was with difficulty any partcould be recovered. Over the spot where he was interred Napoleoncommenced the splendid Temple of Glory, after the battle of Jena; and thesuperb edifice was completed by the Bourbons, and now forms the Church ofthe Madeleine, the most beautiful structure in Paris. Louis was executedon the same ground where the Queen, Madame Elisabeth, and so many othernoble victims of the Revolution perished; where Robespierre and Dantonafterwards suffered; and where the Emperor Alexander and the alliedsovereigns took their station, when their victorious troops entered Parisin 1814! The history of modern Europe has not a scene fraught withequally interesting recollections to exhibit. It is now marked by thecolossal obelisk of blood-red granite which was brought from Thebes, inUpper Egypt, in 1833, by the French Government. --ALLISON. ]

The Royal Prisoners. --Separation of the Dauphin from His Family. --Removal of the Queen. 

On the morning of the King's execution, according to the narrative ofMadame Royale, his family rose at six: "The night before, my mother hadscarcely strength enough to put my brother to bed; She threw herself, dressed as she was, on her own bed, where we heard her shivering with coldand grief all night long. At a quarter-past six the door opened; webelieved that we were sent for to the King, but it was only the officerslooking for a prayer-book for him. We did not, however, abandon the hopeof seeing him, till shouts of joy from the infuriated populace told usthat all was over. In the afternoon my mother asked to see Clery, whoprobably had some message for her; we hoped that seeing him would occasiona burst of grief which might relieve the state of silent and choking agonyin which we saw her. " The request was refused, and the officers whobrought the refusal said Clery was in "a frightful state of despair" atnot being allowed to see the royal family; shortly afterwards he wasdismissed from the Temple. 

"We had now a little more freedom, " continues the Princess; "our guardseven believed that we were about to be sent out of France; but nothingcould calm my mother's agony; no hope could touch her heart, and life ordeath became indifferent to her. Fortunately my own affliction increasedmy illness so seriously that it distracted her thoughts . . . . Mymother would go no more to the garden, because she must have passed thedoor of what had been my father's room, and that she could not bear. Butfearing lest want of air should prove injurious to my brother and me, about the end of February she asked permission to walk on the leads of theTower, and it was granted. "

The Council of the Commune, becoming aware of the interest which these sadpromenades excited, and the sympathy with which they were observed fromthe neighbouring houses, ordered that the spaces between the battlementsshould be filled up with shutters, which intercepted the view. But whilethe rules for the Queen's captivity were again made more strict, some ofthe municipal commissioners tried slightly to alleviate it, and by meansof M. De Hue, who was at liberty in Paris, and the faithful Turgi, whoremained in the Tower, some communications passed between the royal familyand their friends. The wife of Tison, who waited on the Queen, suspectedand finally denounced these more lenient guardians, --[Toulan, Lepitre, Vincent, Bruno, and others. ]--who were executed, the royal prisoners beingsubjected to a close examination. 

"On the 20th of April, " says Madame Royale, "my mother and I had just goneto bed when Hebert arrived with several municipals. We got up hastily, and these men read us a decree of the Commune directing that we should besearched. My poor brother was asleep; they tore him from his bed underthe pretext of examining it. My mother took him up, shivering with cold. All they took was a shopkeeper's card which my mother had happened tokeep, a stick of sealing-wax from my aunt, and from me 'une sacre coeur deJesus' and a prayer for the welfare of France. The search lasted fromhalf-past ten at night till four o'clock in the morning. "

The next visit of the officials was to Madame Elisabeth alone; they foundin her room a hat which the King had worn during his imprisonment, andwhich she had begged him to give her as a souvenir. They took it from herin spite of her entreaties. "It was suspicious, " said the cruel andcontemptible tyrants. 

The Dauphin became ill with fever, and it was long before his mother, whowatched by him night and day, could obtain medicine or advice for him. When Thierry was at last allowed to see him his treatment relieved themost violent symptoms, but, says Madame Royale, "his health was neverreestablished. Want of air and exercise did him great mischief, as wellas the kind of life which this poor child led, who at eight years of agepassed his days amidst the tears of his friends, and in constant anxietyand agony. "

While the Dauphin's health was causing his family such alarm, they weredeprived of the services of Tison's wife, who became ill, and finallyinsane, and was removed to the Hotel Dieu, where her ravings were reportedto the Assembly and made the ground of accusations against the royalprisoners. 

[This woman, troubled by remorse, lost her reason, threw herself at thefeet of the Queen, implored her pardon, and disturbed the Temple for manydays with the sight and the noise of her madness. The Princesses, forgetting the denunciations of this unfortunate being, in considerationof her repentance and insanity, watched over her by turns, and deprivedthemselves of their own food to relieve her. --LAMARTINE, "History of theGirondists, " vol. Iii. , p. 140. ]

No woman took her place, and the Princesses themselves made their beds, swept their rooms, and waited upon the Queen. 

Far worse punishments than menial work were prepared for them. On 3d Julya decree of the Convention ordered that the Dauphin should be separatedfrom his family and "placed in the most secure apartment of the Tower. "As soon as he heard this decree pronounced, says his sister, "he threwhimself into my mother's arms, and with violent cries entreated not to beparted from her. My mother would not let her son go, and she actuallydefended against the efforts of the officers the bed in which she hadplaced him. The men threatened to call up the guard and use violence. Mymother exclaimed that they had better kill her than tear her child fromher. At last they threatened our lives, and my mother's maternaltenderness forced her to the sacrifice. My aunt and I dressed the child, for my poor mother had no longer strength for anything. Nevertheless, whenhe was dressed, she took him up in her arms and delivered him herself tothe officers, bathing him with her tears, foreseeing that she was never tobehold him again. The poor little fellow embraced us all tenderly, andwas carried away in a flood of tears. My mother's horror was extreme whenshe heard that Simon, a shoemaker by trade, whom she had seen as amunicipal officer in the Temple, was the person to whom her child wasconfided . . . . The officers now no longer remained in my mother'sapartment; they only came three times a day to bring our meals and examinethe bolts and bars of our windows; we were locked up together night andday. We often went up to the Tower, because my brother went, too, fromthe other side. The only pleasure my mother enjoyed was seeing himthrough a crevice as he passed at a distance. She would watch for hourstogether to see him as he passed. It was her only hope, her onlythought. "

The Queen was soon deprived even of this melancholy consolation. On 1stAugust, 1793, it was resolved that she should be tried. Robespierreopposed the measure, but Barere roused into action that deep-rooted hatredof the Queen which not even the sacrifice of her life availed toeradicate. "Why do the enemies of the Republic still hope for success?"he asked. "Is it because we have too long forgotten the crimes of theAustrian? The children of Louis the Conspirator are hostages for theRepublic . . . But behind them lurks a woman who has been the cause ofall the disasters of France. "

At two o'clock on the morning of the following day, the municipal officers"awoke us, " says Madame Royale, "to read to my mother the decree of theConvention, which ordered her removal to the Conciergerie, [The Conciergerie was originally, as its name implies, the porter's lodgeof the ancient Palace of Justice, and became in time a prison, from thecustom of confining there persons who had committed trifling offencesabout the Court. ]

preparatory to her trial. She heard it without visible emotion, andwithout speaking a single word. My aunt and I immediately asked to beallowed to accompany my mother, but this favour was refused us. All thetime my mother was making up a bundle of clothes to take with her, theseofficers never left her. She was even obliged to dress herself beforethem, and they asked for her pockets, taking away the trifles theycontained. She embraced me, charging me to keep up my spirits and mycourage, to take tender care of my aunt, and obey her as a second mother. She then threw herself into my aunt's arms, and recommended her childrento her care; my aunt replied to her in a whisper, and she was then hurriedaway. In leaving the Temple she struck her head against the wicket, nothaving stooped low enough. 

[Mathieu, the gaoler, used to say, "I make Madame Veto and her sister anddaughter, proud though they are, salute me; for the door is so low theycannot pass without bowing. "]

The officers asked whether she had hurt herself. 'No, ' she replied, 'nothing can hurt me now. "

The Last Moments of Marie Antoinette. 

We have already seen what changes had been made in the Temple. MarieAntoinette had been separated from her sister, her daughter, and her Son, by virtue of a decree which ordered the trial and exile of the lastmembers of the family of the Bourbons. She had been removed to theConciergerie, and there, alone in a narrow prison, she was reduced to whatwas strictly necessary, like the other prisoners. The imprudence of adevoted friend had rendered her situation still more irksome. Michonnis, amember of the municipality, in whom she had excited a warm interest, wasdesirous of introducing to her a person who, he said, wished to see herout of curiosity. This man, a courageous emigrant, threw to her acarnation, in which was enclosed a slip of very fine paper with thesewords: "Your friends are ready, "--false hope, and equally dangerous forher who received it, and for him who gave it! Michonnis and the emigrantwere detected and forthwith apprehended; and the vigilance exercised inregard to the unfortunate prisoner became from that day more rigorous thanever. 

[The Queen was lodged in a room called the council chamber, which wasconsidered as the moat unwholesome apartment in the Conciergerie onaccount of its dampness and the bad smells by which it was continuallyaffected. Under pretence of giving her a person to wait upon her theyplaced near her a spy, --a man of a horrible countenance and hollow, sepulchral voice. This wretch, whose name was Barassin, was a robber andmurderer by profession. Such was the chosen attendant on the Queen ofFrance! A few days before her trial this wretch was removed and agendarme placed in her chamber, who watched over her night and day, andfrom whom she was not separated, even when in bed, but by a raggedcurtain. In this melancholy abode Marie Antoinette had no other dressthan an old black gown, stockings with holes, which she was forced to mendevery day; and she was entirely destitute of shoes. --DU BROCA. ]

Gendarmes were to mount guard incessantly at the door of her prison, andthey were expressly forbidden to answer anything that she might say tothem. 

That wretch Hebert, the deputy of Chaumette, and editor of the disgustingpaper Pere Duchesne, a writer of the party of which Vincent, Ronsin, Varlet, and Leclerc were the leaders--Hebert had made it his particularbusiness to torment the unfortunate remnant of the dethroned family. Heasserted that the family of the tyrant ought not to be better treated thanany sans-culotte family; and he had caused a resolution to be passed bywhich the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the Temple weremaintained was to be suppressed. They were no longer to be allowed eitherpoultry or pastry; they were reduced to one sort of aliment for breakfast, and to soup or broth and a single dish for dinner, to two dishes forsupper, and half a bottle of wine apiece. Tallow candles were to befurnished instead of wag, pewter instead of silver plate, and delft wareinstead of porcelain. The wood and water carriers alone were permitted toenter their room, and that only accompanied by two commissioners. Theirfood was to be introduced to them by means of a turning box. The numerousestablishment was reduced to a cook and an assistant, two men-servants, and a woman-servant to attend to the linen. 

As soon as this resolution was passed, Hebert had repaired to the Templeand inhumanly taken away from the unfortunate prisoners even the mosttrifling articles to which they attached a high value. Eighty Louis whichMadame Elisabeth had in reserve, and which she had received from Madame deLamballe, were also taken away. No one is more dangerous, more cruel, than the man without acquirements, without education, clothed with arecent authority. If, above all, he possess a base nature, if, likeHebert, who was check-taker at the door of a theatre, and embezzled moneyout of the receipts, he be destitute of natural morality, and if he leapall at once from the mud of his condition into power, he is as mean as heis atrocious. Such was Hebert in his conduct at the Temple. He did notconfine himself to the annoyances which we have mentioned. He and someothers conceived the idea of separating the young Prince from his aunt andsister. A shoemaker named Simon and his wife were the instructors to whomit was deemed right to consign him for the purpose of giving him asans-cullotte education. Simon and his wife were shut up in the Temple, and, becoming prisoners with the unfortunate child, were directed to bringhim up in their own way. Their food was better than that of thePrincesses, and they shared the table of the municipal commissioners whowere on duty. Simon was permitted to go down, accompanied by twocommissioners, to the court of the Temple, for the purpose of giving theDauphin a little exercise. 

Hebert conceived the infamous idea of wringing from this boy revelationsto criminate his unhappy mother. Whether this wretch imputed to the childfalse revelations, or abused his, tender age and his condition to extortfrom him what admissions soever he pleased, he obtained a revoltingdeposition; and as the youth of the Prince did not admit of his beingbrought before the tribunal, Hebert appeared and detailed the infamousparticulars which he had himself either dictated or invented. 

It was on the 14th of October that Marie Antoinette appeared before herjudges. Dragged before the sanguinary tribunal by inexorablerevolutionary vengeance, she appeared there without any chance ofacquittal, for it was not to obtain her acquittal that the Jacobins hadbrought her before it. It was necessary, however, to make some charges. Fouquier therefore collected the rumours current among the populace eversince the arrival of the Princess in France, and, in the act ofaccusation, he charged her with having plundered the exchequer, first forher pleasures, and afterwards in order to transmit money to her brother, the Emperor. He insisted on the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October, andon the dinners of the Life Guards, alleging that she had at that periodframed a plot, which obliged the people to go to Versailles to frustrateit. He afterwards accused her of having governed her husband, interferedin the choice of ministers, conducted the intrigues with the deputiesgained by the Court, prepared the journey to Varennes, provoked the war, and transmitted to the enemy's generals all our plans of campaign. Hefurther accused her of having prepared a new conspiracy on the 10th ofAugust, of having on that day caused the people to be fired upon, havinginduced her husband to defend himself by taxing him with cowardice;lastly, of having never ceased to plot and correspond with foreignerssince her captivity in the Temple, and of having there treated her youngson as King. We here observe how, on the terrible day of long-deferredvengeance, when subjects at length break forth and strike such of theirprinces as have not deserved the blow, everything is distorted andconverted into crime. We see how the profusion and fondness for pleasure, so natural to a young princess, how her attachment to her native country, her influence over her husband, her regrets, always more indiscreet in awoman than a man, nay, even her bolder courage, appeared to their inflamedor malignant imaginations. 

It was necessary to produce witnesses. Lecointre, deputy of Versailles, who had seen what had passed on the 5th and 6th of October, Hebert, whohad frequently visited the Temple, various clerks in the ministerialoffices, and several domestic servants of the old Court were summoned. . Admiral d'Estaing, formerly commandant of the guard of Versailles; Manuel, the ex-procureur of the Commune; Latour-du-Pin, minister of war in 1789;the venerable Bailly, who, it was said, had been, with La Fayette, anaccomplice in the journey to Varennes; lastly, Valaze one of theGirondists destined to the scaffold, were taken from their prisons andcompelled to give evidence. 

No precise fact was elicited. Some had seen the Queen in high spiritswhen the Life Guards testified their attachment; others had seen her vexedand dejected while being conducted to Paris, or brought back fromVarennes; these had been present at splendid festivities which must havecost enormous sums; those had heard it said in the ministerial officesthat the Queen was adverse to the sanction of the decrees. An ancientwaiting-woman of the Queen had heard the Duc de Coigny say, in 1788, thatthe Emperor had already received two hundred millions from France to makewar upon the Turks. 

The cynical Hebert, being brought before the unfortunate Queen, dared atlength to prefer the charges wrung from the young Prince. He said thatCharles Capet had given Simon an account of the journey to Varennes, andmentioned La Fayette and Bailly as having cooperated in it. He then addedthat this boy was addicted to odious and very premature vices for his age;that he had been surprised by Simon, who, on questioning him, learned thathe derived from his mother the vices in which he indulged. Hebert saidthat it was no doubt the intention of Marie Antoinette, by weakening thus, early the physical constitution of her son, to secure to herself the meansof ruling him in case he should ever ascend the throne. The rumours whichhad been whispered for twenty years by a malicious Court had given thepeople a most unfavourable opinion of the morals of the Queen. Thataudience, however, though wholly Jacobin, was disgusted at the accusationsof Hebert. 

[Can there be a more infernal invention than that made against the. Queenby Hdbert, --namely, that she had had an improper intimacy with her ownson? He made use of this sublime idea of which he boasted in order toprejudice the women against the Queen, and to prevent her execution fromexciting pity. It had, however, no other effect than that of disgustingall parties. --PRUDHOMME. ]

He nevertheless persisted in supporting them. 

[Hebert did not long survive her in whose sufferings he had taken such aninfamous part. He was executed on 26th March, 1794. ]

The unhappy mother made no reply. Urged a new to explain herself, shesaid, with extraordinary emotion, "I thought that human nature wouldexcuse me from answering such an imputation, but I appeal from it to theheart of every mother here present. " This noble and simple reply affectedall who heard it. 

In the depositions of the witnesses, however, all was not so bitter forMarie Antoinette. The brave D'Estaing, whose enemy she had been, wouldnot say anything to inculpate her, and spoke only of the courage which shehad shown on the 5th and 6th of October, and of the noble resolution whichshe had expressed, to die beside her husband rather than fly. Manuel, inspite of his enmity to the Court during the time of the LegislativeAssembly, declared that he could not say anything against the accused. When the venerable Bailly was brought forward, who formerly so oftenpredicted to the Court the calamities which its imprudence must produce, he appeared painfully affected; and when he was asked if he knew the wifeof Capet, "Yes, " said he, bowing respectfully, "I have known Madame. " Hedeclared that he knew nothing, and maintained that the declarationsextorted from the young Prince relative to the journey to Varennes werefalse. In recompense for his deposition he was assailed with outrageousreproaches, from which he might judge what fate would soon be awarded tohimself. 

In all the evidence there appeared but two serious facts, attested byLatour-du-Pin and Valaze, who deposed to them because they could not helpit. Latour-du-Pin declared that Marie Antoinette had applied to him foran accurate statement of the armies while he was minister of war. Valaze, always cold, but respectful towards misfortune, would not say anything tocriminate the accused; yet he could not help declaring that, as a memberof the commission of twenty-four, being charged with his colleagues toexamine the papers found at the house of Septeuil, treasurer of the civillist, he had seen bonds for various sums signed Antoinette, which was verynatural; but he added that he had also seen a letter in which the ministerrequested the King to transmit to the Queen the copy of the plan ofcampaign which he had in his hands. The most unfavourable constructionwas immediately put upon these two facts, the application for a statementof the armies, and the communication of the plan of campaign; and it wasconcluded that they could not be wanted for any other purpose than to besent to the enemy, for it was not supposed that a young princess shouldturn her attention, merely for her own satisfaction, to matters ofadministration and military, plans. After these depositions, severalothers were received respecting the expenses of the Court, the influenceof the Queen in public affairs, the scene of the 10th of August, and whathad passed in the Temple; and the most vague rumours and most trivialcircumstances were eagerly caught at as proofs. 

Marie Antoinette frequently repeated, with presence of mind and firmness, that there was no precise fact against her;

[At first the Queen, consulting only her own sense of dignity, hadresolved on her trial to make no other reply to the questions of herjudges than "Assassinate me as you have already assassinated my husband!"Afterwards, however, she determined to follow the example of the King, exert herself in her defence, and leave her judges without any excuse orpretest for putting her to death. --WEBER'S "Memoirs of Marie Antoinette. "]

that, besides, though the wife of Louis XVI. , she was not answerable forany of the acts of his reign. Fouquier nevertheless declared her to besufficiently convicted; Chaveau-Lagarde made unavailing efforts to defendher; and the unfortunate Queen was condemned to suffer the same fate asher husband. 

Conveyed back to the Conciergerie, she there passed in tolerable composurethe night preceding her execution, and, on the morning of the followingday, the 16th of October, [The Queen, after having written and prayed, slept soundly for some hours. On her waking, Bault's daughter dressed her and adjusted her hair withmore neatness than on other days. Marie Antoinette wore a white gown, awhite handkerchief covered her shoulders, a white cap her hair; a blackribbon bound this cap round her temples . . . . The cries, the looks, thelaughter, the jests of the people overwhelmed her with humiliation; hercolour, changing continually from purple to paleness, betrayed heragitation . . . . On reaching the scaffold she inadvertently trod on theexecutioner's foot. "Pardon me, " she said, courteously. She knelt for aninstant and uttered a half-audible prayer; then rising and glancingtowards the towers of the Temple, "Adieu, once again, my children, " shesaid; "I go to rejoin your father. "--LAMARTINE. ]

she was conducted, amidst a great concourse of the populace, to the fatalspot where, ten months before, Louis XVI. Had perished. She listenedwith calmness to the exhortations of the ecclesiastic who accompanied her, and cast an indifferent look at the people who had so often applauded herbeauty and her grace, and who now as warmly applauded her execution. Onreaching the foot of the scaffold she perceived the Tuileries, andappeared to be moved; but she hastened to ascend the fatal ladder, andgave herself up with courage to the executioner. 

[Sorrow had blanched the Queen's once beautiful hair; but her features andair still commanded the admiration of all who beheld her; her cheeks, paleand emaciated, were occasionally tinged with a vivid colour at the mentionof those she had lost. When led out to execution, she was dressed inwhite; she had cut off her hair with her own hands. Placed in a tumbrel, with her arms tied behind her, she was taken by a circuitous route to thePlace de la Revolution, and she ascended the scaffold with a firm anddignified step, as if she had been about to take her place on a throne bythe side of her husband. -LACRETELLE. ]

The infamous wretch exhibited her head to the people, as he was accustomedto do when he had sacrificed an illustrious victim. 

The Last Separation. --Execution of Madame Elisabeth. --Death of the Dauphin. 

The two Princesses left in the Temple were now almost inconsolable; theyspent days and nights in tears, whose only alleviation was that they wereshed together. "The company of my aunt, whom I loved so tenderly, " saidMadame Royale, "was a great comfort to me. But alas! all that I lovedwas perishing around me, and I was soon to lose her also . . . . Inthe beginning of September I had an illness caused solely by my anxietyabout my mother; I never heard a drum beat that I did not expect another3d of September. "--[when the head of the Princesse de Lamballe was carriedto the Temple. ]

In the course of the month the rigour of their captivity was muchincreased. The Commune ordered that they should only have one room; thatTison (who had done the heaviest of the household work for them, and sincethe kindness they showed to his insane wife had occasionally given themtidings of the Dauphin) should be imprisoned in the turret; that theyshould be supplied with only the barest necessaries; and that no oneshould enter their room save to carry water and firewood. Their quantityof firing was reduced, and they were not allowed candles. They were alsoforbidden to go on the leads, and their large sheets were taken away, "lest--notwithstanding the gratings!--they should escape from thewindows. "

On 8th October, 1793, Madame Royale was ordered to go downstairs, that shemight be interrogated by some municipal officers. "My aunt, who wasgreatly affected, would have followed, but they stopped her. She askedwhether I should be permitted to come up again; Chaumette assured her thatI should. 'You may trust, ' said he, 'the word of an honest republican. She shall return. ' I soon found myself in my brother's room, whom Iembraced tenderly; but we were torn asunder, and I was obliged to go intoanother room. --[This was the last time the brother and sister met] . . . Chaumette then questioned me about a thousand shocking things of whichthey accused my mother and aunt; I was so indignant at hearing suchhorrors that, terrified as I was, I could not help exclaiming that theywere infamous falsehoods. 

"But in spite of my tears they still pressed their questions. There weresome things which I did not comprehend, but of which I understood enoughto make me weep with indignation and horror . . . . They then asked meabout Varennes, and other things. I answered as well as I could withoutimplicating anybody. I had always heard my parents say that it werebetter to die than to implicate anybody. " When the examination was overthe Princess begged to be allowed to join her mother, but Chaumette saidhe could not obtain permission for her to do so. She was then cautionedto say nothing about her examination to her aunt, who was next to appearbefore them. Madame Elisabeth, her niece declares, "replied with stillmore contempt to their shocking questions. "

The only intimation of the Queen's fate which her daughter and hersister-in-law were allowed to receive was through hearing her sentencecried by the newsman. But "we could not persuade ourselves that she wasdead, " writes Madame Royale. "A hope, so natural to the unfortunate, persuaded us that she must have been saved. For eighteen months Iremained in this cruel suspense. We learnt also by the cries of thenewsman the death of the Duc d'Orleans. 

[The Duc d'Orleans, the early and interested propagator of the Revolution, was its next victim. Billaud Varennes said in the Convention: "The timehas come when all the conspirators should be known and struck. I demandthat we no longer pass over in silence a man whom we seem to haveforgotten, despite the numerous facts against him. I demand thatD'ORLEANS be sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal. " The Convention, oncehis hireling adulators, unanimously supported the proposal. In vain healleged his having been accessory to the disorders of 5th October, hissupport of the revolt on 10th August, 1792, his vote against the King on17th January, 1793. His condemnation was pronounced. He then asked onlyfor a delay of twenty-four hours, and had a repast carefully prepared, onwhich he feasted with avidity. When led out for execution he gazed with asmile on the Palais Royal, the scene of his former orgies. He was detainedfor a quarter of an hour before that palace by the order of Robespierre, who had asked his daughter's hand, and promised in return to excite atumult in which the Duke's life should be saved. Depraved though he was, he would not consent to such a sacrifice, and he met his fate with stoicalfortitude. --ALLISON, vol. Iii. , p. 172. ]

It was the only piece of news that reached us during the whole winter. "

The severity with which the prisoners were treated was carried into everydetail of their life. The officers who guarded them took away theirchessmen and cards because some of them were named kings and queens, andall the books with coats of arms on them; they refused to get ointment fora gathering on Madame Elisabeth's arm; they, would not allow her to make aherb-tea which she thought would strengthen her niece; they declined tosupply fish or eggs on fast-days or during Lent, bringing only coarse fatmeat, and brutally replying to all remonstances, "None but fools believein that stuff nowadays. " Madame Elisabeth never made the officialsanother request, but reserved some of the bread and cafe-au-lait from herbreakfast for her second meal. The time during which she could be thustormented was growing short. 

On 9th May, 1794, as the Princesses were going to bed, the outside boltsof the door were unfastened and a loud knocking was heard. "When my auntwas dressed, " says Madame Royale, "she opened the door, and they said toher, 'Citoyenne, come down. '--'And my niece?'--'We shall take care of herafterwards. ' She embraced me, and to calm my agitation promised to return. 'No, citoyenne, ' said the men, 'bring your bonnet; you shall not return. 'They overwhelmed her with abuse, but she bore it patiently, embracing me, and exhorting me to trust in Heaven, and never to forget the last commandsof my father and mother. "

Madame Elisabeth was then taken to the Conciergerie, where she wasinterrogated by the vice-president at midnight, and then allowed to takesome hours rest on the bed on which Marie Antoinette had slept for thelast time. In the morning she was brought before the tribunal, withtwenty-four other prisoners, of varying ages and both sexes, some of whomhad once been frequently seen at Court. 

"Of what has Elisabeth to complain?" Fouquier-Tinville satirically asked. "At the foot of the guillotine, surrounded by faithful nobility, she mayimagine herself again at Versailles. "

"You call my brother a tyrant, " the Princess replied to her accuser; "ifhe had been what you say, you would not be where you are, nor I beforeyou!"

She was sentenced to death, and showed neither surprise nor grief. "I amready to die, " she said, "happy in the prospect of rejoining in a betterworld those whom I loved on earth. "

On being taken to the room where those condemned to suffer at the sametime as herself were assembled, she spoke to them with so much piety andresignation that they were encouraged by her example to show calmness andcourage like her own. The women, on leaving the cart, begged to embraceher, and she said some words of comfort to each in turn as they mountedthe scaffold, which she was not allowed to ascend till all her companionshad been executed before her eyes. 

[Madame Elisabeth was one of those rare personages only seen at distantintervals during the course of ages; she set an example of steadfast pietyin the palace of kings, she lived amid her family the favourite of all andthe admiration of the world . . . . When I went to Versailles MadameElisabeth was twenty-two years of age. Her plump figure and pretty pinkcolour must have attracted notice, and her air of calmness and contentmenteven more than her beauty. She was fond of billiards, and her elegance andcourage in riding were remarkable. But she never allowed these amusementsto interfere with her religious observances. At that time her wish totake the veil at St. Cyr was much talked of, but the King was too fond ofhis sister to endure the separation. There were also rumours of amarriage between Madame Elisabeth and the Emperor Joseph. The Queen wassincerely attached to her brother, and loved her sister-in-law mosttenderly; she ardently desired this marriage as a means of raising thePrincess to one of the first thrones in Europe, and as a possible means ofturning the Emperor from his innovations. She had been very carefullyeducated, had talent in music and painting, spoke Italian and a littleLatin, and understood mathematics. . . . Her last moments were worthy of hercourage and virtue. --D'HEZECQUES's "Recollections, " pp. 72-75. ]

"It is impossible to imagine my distress at finding myself separated frommy aunt, " says Madame Royale. "Since I had been able to appreciate hermerits, I saw in her nothing but religion, gentleness, meekness, modesty, and a devoted attachment to her family; she sacrificed her life for them, since nothing could persuade her to leave the King and Queen. I never canbe sufficiently grateful to her for her goodness to me, which ended onlywith her life. She looked on me as her child, and I honoured and lovedher as a second mother. I was thought to be very like her in countenance, and I feel conscious that I have something of her character. Would to GodI might imitate her virtues, and hope that I may hereafter deserve to meether, as well as my dear parents, in the bosom of our Creator, where Icannot doubt that they enjoy the reward of their virtuous lives andmeritorious deaths. "

Madame Royale vainly begged to be allowed to rejoin her mother or heraunt, or at least to know their fate. The municipal officers would tellher nothing, and rudely refused her request to have a woman placed withher. "I asked nothing but what seemed indispensable, though it was oftenharshly refused, " she says. "But I at least could keep myself clean. Ihad soap and water, and carefully swept out my room every day. I had nolight, but in the long days I did not feel this privation much . . . . I had some religious works and travels, which I had read over and over. Ihad also some knitting, 'qui m'ennuyait beaucoup'. " Once, she believes, Robespierre visited her prison:

[It has been said that Robespierre vainly tried to obtain the hand ofMademoiselle d'Orleans. It was also rumoured that Madame Royale herselfowed her life to his matrimonial ambition. ]

"The officers showed him great respect; the people in the Tower did notknow him, or at least would not tell me who he was. He stared insolentlyat me, glanced at my books, and, after joining the municipal officers in asearch, retired. "

[On another occasion "three men in scarfs, " who entered the Princess'sroom, told her that they did not see why she should wish to be released, as she seemed very comfortable! "It is dreadful, ' I replied, 'to beseparated for more than a year from one's mother, without even hearingwhat has become of her or of my aunt. '--'You are not ill?'--'No, monsieur, but the cruellest illness is that of the heart'--' We can do nothing foryou. Be patient, and submit to the justice and goodness of the Frenchpeople: I had nothing more to say. "--DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME, "RoyalMemoirs, " p. 273. ]

When Laurent was appointed by the Convention to the charge of the youngprisoners, Madame Royale was treated with more consideration. "He wasalways courteous, " she says; he restored her tinderbox, gave her freshbooks, and allowed her candles and as much firewood as she wanted, "whichpleased me greatly. " This simple expression of relief gives a cleareridea of what the delicate girl must have suffered than a volume ofcomplaints. 

But however hard Madame Royale's lot might be, that of the Dauphin wasinfinitely harder. Though only eight years old when he entered theTemple, he was by nature and education extremely precocious; "his memoryretained everything, and his sensitiveness comprehended everything. " Hisfeatures "recalled the somewhat effeminate look of Louis XV. , and theAustrian hauteur of Maria Theresa; his blue eyes, aquiline nose, elevatednostrils, well-defined mouth, pouting lips, chestnut hair parted in themiddle and falling in thick curls on his shoulders, resembled his motherbefore her years of tears and torture. All the beauty of his race, byboth descents, seemed to reappear in him. "--[Lamartine]--For some time thecare of his parents preserved his health and cheerfulness even in theTemple; but his constitution was weakened by the fever recorded by hissister, and his gaolers were determined that he should never regainstrength. 

"What does the Convention intend to do with him?" asked Simon, when theinnocent victim was placed in his clutches. "Transport him?"

"No. "

"Kill him?"

"No. "

"Poison him?"

"No. "

"What, then?"

"Why, get rid of him. "

For such a purpose they could not have chosen their instruments better. "Simon and his wife, cut off all those fair locks that had been hisyouthful glory and his mother's pride. This worthy pair stripped him ofthe mourning he wore for his father; and as they did so, they called it'playing at the game of the spoiled king. ' They alternately induced himto commit excesses, and then half starved him. They beat him mercilessly;nor was the treatment by night less brutal than that by day. As soon asthe weary boy had sunk into his first profound sleep, they would loudlycall him by name, 'Capet! Capet!' Startled, nervous, bathed inperspiration, or sometimes trembling with cold, he would spring up, rushthrough the dark, and present himself at Simon's bedside, murmuring, tremblingly, 'I am here, citizen. '--'Come nearer; let me feel you. ' Hewould approach the bed as he was ordered, although he knew the treatmentthat awaited him. Simon would buffet him on the head, or kick him away, adding the remark, 'Get to bed again, wolfs cub; I only wanted to knowthat you were safe. ' On one of these occasions, when the child had fallenhalf stunned upon his own miserable couch, and lay there groaning andfaint with pain, Simon roared out with a laugh, 'Suppose you were king, Capet, what would you do to me?' The child thought of his father's dyingwords, and said, 'I would forgive you. '"--[THIERS]

The change in the young Prince's mode of life, and the cruelties andcaprices to which he was subjected, soon made him fall ill, says hissister. "Simon forced him to eat to excess, and to drink large quantitiesof wine, which he detested . . . . He grew extremely fat withoutincreasing in height or strength. " His aunt and sister, deprived of thepleasure of tending him, had the pain of hearing his childish voice raisedin the abominable songs his gaolers taught him. The brutality of Simon"depraved at once the body and soul of his pupil. He called him the youngwolf of the Temple. He treated him as the young of wild animals aretreated when taken from the mother and reduced to captivity, --at onceintimidated by blows and enervated by taming. He punished forsensibility; he rewarded meanness; he encouraged vice; he made the childwait on him at table, sometimes striking him on the face with a knottedtowel, sometimes raising the poker and threatening to strike him with it. "

[Simon left the Temple to become a municipal officer. He was involved inthe overthrow of Robespierre, and guillotined the day after him, 29thJuly, 1794. ]

Yet when Simon was removed the poor young Prince's condition became evenworse. His horrible loneliness induced an apathetic stupor to which anysuffering would have been preferable. "He passed his days without anykind of occupation; they did not allow him light in the evening. Hiskeepers never approached him but to give him food;" and on the rareoccasions when they took him to the platform of the Tower, he was unableor unwilling to move about. When, in November, 1794, a commissary namedGomin arrived at the Temple, disposed to treat the little prisoner withkindness, it was too late. "He took extreme care of my brother, " saysMadame Royale. "For a long time the unhappy child had been shut up indarkness, and he was dying of fright. He was very grateful for theattentions of Gomin, and became much attached to him. " But his physicalcondition was alarming, and, owing to Gomin's representations, acommission was instituted to examine him. "The commissioners appointedwere Harmond, Mathieu, and Reverchon, who visited 'Louis Charles, ' as hewas now called, in the month of February, 1795. They found the youngPrince seated at a square deal table, at which he was playing with somedirty cards, making card houses and the like, --the materials having beenfurnished him, probably, that they might figure in the report as evidencesof indulgence. He did not look up from the table as the commissionersentered. He was in a slate-coloured dress, bareheaded; the room wasreported as clean, the bed in good condition, the linen fresh; his clotheswere also reported as new; but, in spite of all these assertions, it iswell known that his bed had not been made for months, that he had not lefthis room, nor was permitted to leave it, for any purpose whatever, that itwas consequently uninhabitable, and that he was covered with vermin andwith sores. The swellings at his knees alone were sufficient to disablehim from walking. One of the commissioners approached the young Princerespectfully. The latter did not raise his head. Harmond in a kind voicebegged him to speak to them. The eyes of the boy remained fixed on thetable before him. They told him of the kindly intentions of theGovernment, of their hopes that he would yet be happy, and their desirethat he would speak unreservedly to the medical man that was to visit him. He seemed to listen with profound attention, but not a single word passedhis lips. It was an heroic principle that impelled that poor young heartto maintain the silence of a mute in presence of these men. He rememberedtoo well the days when three other commissaries waited on him, regaled himwith pastry and wine, and obtained from him that hellish accusationagainst the mother that he loved. He had learnt by some means the importof the act, so far as it was an injury to his mother. He now dreadedseeing again three commissaries, hearing again kind words, and beingtreated again with fine promises. Dumb as death itself he sat beforethem, and remained motionless as stone, and as mute. " [THIERS]

His disease now made rapid progress, and Gomin and Lasne, superintendentsof the Temple, thinking it necessary to inform the Government of themelancholy condition of their prisoner, wrote on the register: "LittleCapet is unwell. " No notice was taken of this account, which was renewednext day in more urgent terms: "Little Capet is dangerously ill. " Stillthere was no word from beyond the walls. "We must knock harder, " said thekeepers to each other, and they added, "It is feared he will not live, " tothe words "dangerously ill. " At length, on Wednesday, 6th May, 1795, three days after the first report, the authorities appointed M. Desault togive the invalid the assistance of his art. After having written down hisname on the register he was admitted to see the Prince. He made a long andvery attentive examination of the unfortunate child, asked him manyquestions without being able to obtain an answer, and contented himselfwith prescribing a decoction of hops, to be taken by spoonfuls everyhalf-hour, from six o'clock in the morning till eight in the evening. Onthe first day the Prince steadily refused to take it. In vain Gominseveral times drank off a glass of the potion in his presence; his exampleproved as ineffectual as his words. Next day Lasne renewed hissolicitations. "Monsieur knows very well that I desire nothing but thegood of his health, and he distresses me deeply by thus refusing to takewhat might contribute to it. I entreat him as a favour not to give methis cause of grief. " And as Lasne, while speaking, began to taste thepotion in a glass, the child took what he offered him out of his hands. "You have, then, taken an oath that I should drink it, " said he, firmly;"well, give it me, I will drink it. " From that moment he conformed withdocility to whatever was required of him, but the policy of the Communehad attained its object; help had been withheld till it was almost amockery to supply it. 

The Prince's weakness was excessive; his keepers could scarcely drag himto the, top of the Tower; walking hurt his tender feet, and at every stephe stopped to press the arm of Lasne with both hands upon his breast. Atlast he suffered so much that it was no longer possible for him to walk, and his keeper carried him about, sometimes on the platform, and sometimesin the little tower, where the royal family had lived at first. But theslight improvement to his health occasioned by the change of air scarcelycompensated for the pain which his fatigue gave him. On the battlement ofthe platform nearest the left turret, the rain had, by perseverancethrough ages, hollowed out a kind of basin. The water that fell remainedthere for several days; and as, during the spring of 1795, storms were offrequent occurrence, this little sheet of water was kept constantlysupplied. Whenever the child was brought out upon the platform, he saw alittle troop of sparrows, which used to come to drink and bathe in thisreservoir. At first they flew away at his approach, but from beingaccustomed to see him walking quietly there every day, they at last grewmore familiar, and did not spread their wings for flight till he came upclose to them. They were always the same, he knew them by sight, andperhaps like himself they were inhabitants of that ancient pile. Hecalled them his birds; and his first action, when the door into theterrace was opened, was to look towards that side, --and the sparrows werealways there. He delighted in their chirping, and he must have enviedthem their wings. 

Though so little could be done to alleviate his sufferings, a moralimprovement was taking place in him. He was touched by the livelyinterest displayed by his physician, who never failed to visit him at nineo'clock every morning. He seemed pleased with the attention paid him, andended by placing entire confidence in M. Desault. Gratitude loosened histongue; brutality and insult had failed to extort a murmur, but kindtreatment restored his speech he had no words for anger, but he found themto express his thanks. M. Desault prolonged his visits as long as theofficers of the municipality would permit. When they announced the closeof the visit, the child, unwilling to beg them to allow a longer time, held back M. Desault by the skirt of his coat. Suddenly M. Desault'svisits ceased. Several days passed and nothing was heard of him. Thekeepers wondered at his absence, and the poor little invalid was muchdistressed at it. The commissary on duty (M. Benoist) suggested that itwould be proper to send to the physician's house to make inquiries as tothe cause of so long an absence. Gomin and Larne had not yet ventured tofollow this advice, when next day M. Benoist was relieved by M. Bidault, who, hearing M. Desault's name mentioned as he came in, immediately said, "You must not expect to see him any more; he died yesterday. "

M. Pelletan, head surgeon of the Grand Hospice de l'Humanite, was nextdirected to attend the prisoner, and in June he found him in so alarming astate that he at once asked for a coadjutor, fearing to undertake theresponsibility alone. The physician--sent for form's sake to attend thedying child, as an advocate is given by law to a criminal condemnedbeforehand--blamed the officers of the municipality for not having removedthe blind, which obstructed the light, and the numerous bolts, the noiseof which never failed to remind the victim of his captivity. That sound, which always caused him an involuntary shudder, disturbed him in the lastmournful scene of his unparalleled tortures. M. Pelletan saidauthoritatively to the municipal on duty, "If you will not take thesebolts and casings away at once, at least you can make no objection to ourcarrying the child into another room, for I suppose we are sent here totake charge of him. " The Prince, being disturbed by these words, spokenas they were with great animation, made a sign to the physician to comenearer. "Speak lower, I beg of you, " said he; "I am afraid they will hearyou up-stairs, and I should be very sorry for them to know that I am ill, as it would give them much uneasiness. "

At first the change to a cheerful and airy room revived the Prince andgave him evident pleasure, but the improvement did not last. Next day M. Pelletan learned that the Government had acceded to his request for acolleague. M. Dumangin, head physician of the Hospice de l'Unite, madehis appearance at his house on the morning of Sunday, 7th June, with theofficial despatch sent him by the committee of public safety. Theyrepaired together immediately to the Tower. On their arrival they heardthat the child, whose weakness was excessive, had had a fainting fit, which had occasioned fears to be entertained that his end was approaching. He had revived a little, however, when the physicians went up at aboutnine o'clock. Unable to contend with increasing exhaustion, theyperceived there was no longer any hope of prolonging an existence worn outby so much suffering, and that all their art could effect would be tosoften the last stage of this lamentable disease. While standing by thePrince's bed, Gomin noticed that he was quietly crying, and asked him. Kindly what was the matter. "I am always alone, " he said. "My dearmother remains in the other tower. " Night came, --his last night, --whichthe regulations of the prison condemned him to pass once more in solitude, with suffering, his old companion, only at his side. This time, however, death, too, stood at his pillow. When Gomin went up to the child's roomon the morning of 8th June, he said, seeing him calm, motionless, andmute:

"I hope you are not in pain just now?"

"Oh, yes, I am still in pain, but not nearly so much, --the music is sobeautiful!"

Now there was no music to be heard, either in the Tower or anywhere near. 

Gomin, astonished, said to him, "From what direction do you hear thismusic?"

"From above!"

"Have you heard it long?"

"Since you knelt down. Do you not hear it? Listen! Listen!" And thechild, with a nervous motion, raised his faltering hand, as he opened hislarge eyes illuminated by delight. His poor keeper, unwilling to destroythis last sweet illusion, appeared to listen also. 

After a few minutes of attention the child again started, and cried out, in intense rapture, "Amongst all the voices I have distinguished that ofmy mother!"

These were almost his last words. At a quarter past two he died, Lasneonly being in the room at the time. Lasne acquainted Gomin and Damont, the commissary on duty, with the event, and they repaired to the chamberof death. The poor little royal corpse was carried from the room intothat where he had suffered so long, --where for two years he had neverceased to suffer. From this apartment the father had gone to thescaffold, and thence the son must pass to the burial-ground. The remainswere laid out on the bed, and the doors of the apartment were setopen, --doors which had remained closed ever since the Revolution hadseized on a child, then full of vigour and grace and life and health!

At eight o'clock next morning (9th June) four members of the committee ofgeneral safety came to the Tower to make sure that the Prince was reallydead. When they were admitted to the death-chamber by Lasne and Damontthey affected the greatest indifference. "The event is not of the leastimportance, " they repeated, several times over; "the police commissary ofthe section will come and receive the declaration of the decease; he willacknowledge it, and proceed to the interment without any ceremony; and thecommittee will give the necessary directions. " As they withdrew, someofficers of the Temple guard asked to see the remains of little Capet. Damont having observed that the guard would not permit the bier to passwithout its being opened, the deputies decided that the officers andnon-commissioned officers of the guard going off duty, together with thosecoming on, should be all invited to assure themselves of the child'sdeath. All having assembled in the room where the body lay, he asked themif they recognised it as that of the ex-Dauphin, son of the last King ofFrance. Those who had seen the young Prince at the Tuileries, or at theTemple (and most of them had), bore witness to its being the body of LouisXVII. When they were come down into the council-room, Darlot drew up theminutes of this attestation, which was signed by a score of persons. These minutes were inserted in the journal of the Temple tower, which wasafterwards deposited in the office of the Minister of the Interior. 

During this visit the surgeons entrusted with the autopsy arrived at theouter gate of the Temple. These were Dumangin, head physician of theHospice de l'Unite; Pelletan, head surgeon of the Grand Hospice del'Humanite; Jeanroy, professor in the medical schools of Paris; andLaasus, professor of legal medicine at the Ecole de Sante of Paris. Thelast two were selected by Dumangin and Pelletan because of the formerconnection of M. Lassus with Mesdames de France, and of M. Jeanroy withthe House of Lorraine, which gave a peculiar weight to their signatures. Gomin received them in the council-room, and detained them until theNational Guard, descending from the second floor, entered to sign theminutes prepared by Darlot. This done, Lasne, Darlot, and Bouquet went upagain with the surgeons, and introduced them into the apartment of LouisXVII. , whom they at first examined as he lay on his death-bed; but M. Jeanroy observing that the dim light of this room was but littlefavourable to the accomplishment of their mission, the commissariesprepared a table in the first room, near the window, on which the corpsewas laid, and the surgeons began their melancholy operation. 

At seven o'clock the police commissary ordered the body to be taken up, and that they should proceed to the cemetery. It was the season of thelongest days, and therefore the interment did not take place in secrecyand at night, as some misinformed narrators have said or written; it tookplace in broad daylight, and attracted a great concourse of people beforethe gates of the Temple palace. One of the municipals wished to have thecoffin carried out secretly by the door opening into the chapel enclosure;but M. Duaser, police commiasary, who was specially entrusted with thearrangement of the ceremony, opposed this indecorous measure, and theprocession passed out through the great gate. The crowd that was pressinground was kept back, and compelled to keep a line, by a tricolouredribbon, held at short distances by gendarmes. Compassion and sorrow wereimpressed on every countenance. 

A small detachment of the troops of the line from the garrison of Paris, sent by the authorities, was waiting to serve as an escort. The bier, still covered with the pall, was carried on a litter on the shoulders offour men, who relieved each other two at a time; it was preceded by six oreight men, headed by a sergeant. The procession was accompanied a longway by the crowd, and a great number of persona followed it even to thecemetery. The name of "Little Capet, " and the more popular title ofDauphin, spread from lip to lip, with exclamations of pity and compassion. The funeral entered the cemetery of Ste. Marguerite, not by the church, assome accounts assert, but by the old gate of the cemetery. The intermentwas made in the corner, on the left, at a distance of eight or nine feetfrom the enclosure wall, and at an equal distance from a small house, which subsequently served as a school. The grave was filled up, --no moundmarked its place, and not even a trace remained of the interment! Nottill then did the commissaries of police and the municipality withdraw, and enter the house opposite the church to draw up the declaration ofinterment. It was nearly nine o'clock, and still daylight. 

Release of Madame Royale. --Her Marriage to the Duc d'Angouleme. --Return to France. --Death. 

The last person to hear of the sad events in the Temple was the one forwhom they had the deepest and most painful interest. After her brother'sdeath the captivity of Madame Royale was much lightened. She was allowedto walk in the Temple gardens, and to receive visits from some ladies ofthe old Court, and from Madame de Chantereine, who at last, after severaltimes evading her questions, ventured cautiously to tell her of the deathsof her mother, aunt, and brother. Madame Royale wept bitterly, but hadmuch difficulty in expressing her feelings. "She spoke so confusedly, "says Madame de la Ramiere in a letter to Madame de Verneuil, "that it wasdifficult to understand her. It took her more than a month's readingaloud, with careful study of pronunciation, to make herselfintelligible, --so much had she lost the power of expression. " She wasdressed with plainness amounting to poverty, and her hands were disfiguredby exposure to cold and by the menial work she had been so long accustomedto do for herself, and which it was difficult to persuade her to leaveoff. When urged to accept the services of an attendant, she replied, witha sad prevision of the vicissitudes of her future life, that she did notlike to form a habit which she might have again to abandon. She sufferedherself, however, to be persuaded gradually to modify her recluse andascetic habits. It was well she did so, as a preparation for the greatchanges about to follow. 

Nine days after the death of her brother, the city of Orleans intercededfor the daughter of Louis XVI. , and sent deputies to the Convention topray for her deliverance and restoration to her family. Names followedthis example; and Charette, on the part of the Vendeans, demanded, as acondition of the pacification of La Vendee, that the Princess should beallowed to join her relations. At length the Convention decreed thatMadame Royale should be exchanged with Austria for the representatives andministers whom Dumouriez had given up to the Prince of Cobourg, --Drouet, Semonville, Maret, and other prisoners of importance. At midnight on 19thDecember, 1795, which was her birthday, the Princess was released fromprison, the Minister of the Interior, M. Benezech, to avoid attractingpublic attention and possible disturbance, conducting her on foot from theTemple to a neighbouring street, where his carriage awaited her. She madeit her particular request that Gomin, who had been so devoted to herbrother, should be the commissary appointed to accompany her to thefrontier; Madame de Soucy, formerly under-governess to the children ofFrance, was also in attendance; and the Princess took with her a dog namedCoco, which had belonged to Louis XVI. 

[The mention of the little dog taken from the Temple by Madame Royalereminds me how fond all the family were of these creatures. Each Princesskept a different kind. Mesdames had beautiful spaniels; little grayhoundswere preferred by Madame Elisabeth. Louis XVI. Was the only one of all hisfamily who had no dogs in his room. I remember one day waiting in thegreat gallery for the King's retiring, when he entered with all his familyand the whole pack, who were escorting him. All at once all the dogsbegan to bark, one louder than another, and ran away, passing like ghostsalong those great dark rooms, which rang with their hoarse cries. ThePrincesses shouting, calling them, running everywhere after them, completed a ridiculous spectacle, which made those august persons verymerry. --D'HEZECQUES, p. 49. ]

She was frequently recognised on her way through France, and always withmarks of pleasure and respect. 

It might have been supposed that the Princess would rejoice to leavebehind her the country which had been the scene of so many horrors andsuch bitter suffering. But it was her birthplace, and it held the gravesof all she loved; and as she crossed the frontier she said to those aroundher, "I leave France with regret, for I shall never cease to consider itmy country. " She arrived in Vienna on 9th January, 1796, and her firstcare was to attend a memorial service for her murdered relatives. Aftermany weeks of close retirement she occasionally began to appear in public, and people looked with interest at the pale, grave, slender girl ofseventeen, dressed in the deepest mourning, over whose young head suchterrible storms had swept. The Emperor wished her to marry the ArchdukeCharles of Austria, but her father and mother had, even in the cradle, destined her hand for her cousin, the Duc d'Angouleme, son of the Comted'Artois, and the memory of their lightest wish was law to her. 

Her quiet determination entailed anger and opposition amounting topersecution. Every effort was made to alienate her from her Frenchrelations. She was urged to claim Provence, which had become her own ifLouis XVIII. Was to be considered King of France. A pressure of opinionwas brought to bear upon her which might well have overawed so young agirl. "I was sent for to the Emperor's cabinet, " she writes, "where Ifound the imperial family assembled. The ministers and chief imperialcounsellors were also present . . . . When the Emperor invited me toexpress my opinion, I answered that to be able to treat fittingly of suchinterests I thought, I ought to be surrounded not only by my mother'srelatives, but also by those of my father . . . . Besides, I said, Iwas above all things French, and in entire subjection to the laws ofFrance, which had rendered me alternately the subject of the King myfather, the King my brother, and the King my uncle, and that I would yieldobedience to the latter, whatever might be his commands. This declarationappeared very much to dissatisfy all who were present, and when theyobserved that I was not to be shaken, they declared that my right beingindependent of my will, my resistance would not be the slightest obstacleto the measures they might deem it necessary to adopt for the preservationof my interests. "

In their anxiety to make a German princess of Marie Therese, her imperialrelations suppressed her French title as much as possible. When, withsome difficulty, the Duc de Grammont succeeded in obtaining an audience ofher, and used the familiar form of address, she smiled faintly, and badehim beware. "Call me Madame de Bretagne, or de Bourgogne, or deLorraine, " she said, "for here I am so identified with theseprovinces--[which the Emperor wished her to claim from her uncle LouisXVIII. ]--that I shall end in believing in my own transformation. " Afterthese discussions she was so closely watched, and so many restraints wereimposed upon her, that she was scarcely less a prisoner than in the olddays of the Temple, though her cage was this time gilded. Rescue, however, was at hand. 

In 1798 Louis XVIII. Accepted a refuge offered to him at Mittau by theCzar Paul, who had promised that he would grant his guest's first request, whatever it might be. Louis begged the Czar to use his influence with theCourt of Vienna to allow his niece to join him. "Monsieur, my brother, "was Paul's answer, "Madame Royale shall be restored to you, or I shallcease to be Paul I. " Next morning the Czar despatched a courier to Viennawith a demand for the Princess, so energetically worded that refusal musthave been followed by war. Accordingly, in May, 1799, Madame Royale wasallowed to leave the capital which she had found so uncongenial an asylum. 

In the old ducal castle of Mittau, the capital of Courland, Louis XVIII. And his wife, with their nephews, the Ducs d'Angouleme

[The Duc d'Angonleme was quiet and reserved. He loved hunting as means ofkilling time; was given to early hours and innocent pleasures. He was agentleman, and brave as became one. He had not the "gentlemanly vices" ofhis brother, and was all the better for it. He was ill educated, but hadnatural good sense, and would have passed for having more than that had hecared to put forth pretensions. Of all his family he was the one most illspoken of, and least deserving of it. --DOCTOR DORAN. ]

and de Berri, were awaiting her, attended by the Abbe Edgeworth, as chiefecclesiastic, and a little Court of refugee nobles and officers. Withthem were two men of humbler position, who must have been even morewelcome to Madame Royale, --De Malden, who had acted as courier to LouisXVI. During the flight to Varennes, and Turgi, who had waited on thePrincesses in the Temple. It was a sad meeting, though so long anxiouslydesired, and it was followed on 10th June, 1799, by an equally sadwedding, --exiles, pensioners on the bounty of the Russian monarch, fulfilling an engagement founded, not on personal preference, but onfamily policy and reverence for the wishes of the dead, the bride andbridegroom had small cause for rejoicing. During the eighteen months oftranquil seclusion which followed her marriage, the favourite occupationof the Duchess was visiting and relieving the poor. In January, 1801, theCzar Paul, in compliance with the demand of Napoleon, who was just thenthe object of his capricious enthusiasm, ordered the French royal familyto leave Mittau. Their wanderings commenced on the 21st, a day of bittermemories; and the young Duchess led the King to his carriage through acrowd of men, women, and children, whose tears and blessings attended themon their way. 

[The Queen was too ill to travel. The Duc d'Angouleme took another routeto join a body of French gentlemen in arms for the Legitimist cause. ]

The exiles asked permission from the King of Prussia to settle in hisdominions, and while awaiting his answer at Munich they were painfullysurprised by the entrance of five old soldiers of noble birth, part of thebody-guard they had left behind at Mittau, relying on the protection ofPaul. The "mad Czar" had decreed their immediate expulsion, and, penniless and almost starving, they made their way to Louis XVIII. Allthe money the royal family possessed was bestowed on these faithfulservants, who came to them in detachments for relief, and then the Duchessoffered her diamonds to the Danish consul for an advance of two thousandducats, saying she pledged her property "that in our common distress itmay be rendered of real use to my uncle, his faithful servants, andmyself. " The Duchess's consistent and unselfish kindness procured herfrom the King, and those about him who knew her best, the name of "ourangel. "

Warsaw was for a brief time the resting-place of the wanderers, but therethey were disturbed in 1803 by Napoleon's attempt to threaten and bribeLouis XVIII. Into abdication. It was suggested that refusal might bringupon them expulsion from Prussia. "We are accustomed to suffering, " wasthe King's answer, "and we do not dread poverty. I would, trusting inGod, seek another asylum. " In 1808, after many changes of scene, thisasylum was sought in England, Gosfield Hall, Essex, being placed at theirdisposal by the Marquis of Buckingham. From Gosfield, the King moved toHartwell Hall, a fine old Elizabethan mansion rented from Sir George Leefor L 500 a year. A yearly grant of L 24, 000 was made to the exiledfamily by the British Government, out of which a hundred and forty personswere supported, the royal dinner-party generally numbering two dozen. 

At Hartwell, as in her other homes, the Duchess was most popular amongstthe poor. In general society she was cold and reserved, and she dislikedthe notice of strangers. In March, 1814, the royalist successes atBordeaux paved the way for the restoration of royalty in France, andamidst general sympathy and congratulation, with the Prince Regent himselfto wish them good fortune, the King, the Duchess, and their suite leftHartwell in April, 1814. The return to France was as triumphant as asomewhat half-hearted and doubtful enthusiasm could make it, and most ofsuch cordiality as there was fell to the share of the Duchess. As shepassed to Notre-Dame in May, 1814, on entering Paris, she was vociferouslygreeted. The feeling of loyalty, however, was not much longer-lived thanthe applause by which it was expressed; the Duchess had scarcely effectedone of the strongest wishes of her heart, --the identification of whatremained of her parents' bodies, and the magnificent ceremony with whichthey were removed from the cemetery of the Madeleine to the Abbey of St. Denis, --when the escape of Napoleon from Elba in February, 1815, scatteredthe royal family and their followers like chaff before the wind. The Ducd'Angouleme, compelled to capitulate at Toulouse, sailed from Cette in aSwedish vessel. The Comte d'Artois, the Duc de Berri, and the Prince deConde withdrew beyond the frontier. The King fled from the capital. TheDuchesse d'Angouleme, then at Bordeaux celebrating the anniversary of theProclamation of Louis XVIII. , alone of all her family made any standagainst the general panic. Day after day she mounted her horse andreviewed the National Guard. She made personal and even passionateappeals to the officers and men, standing firm, and prevailing on ahandful of soldiers to remain by her, even when the imperialist troopswere on the other side of the river and their cannon were directed againstthe square where the Duchess was reviewing her scanty followers. 

["It was the Duchesse d'Angouleme who saved you, " said the gallant GeneralClauzel, after these events, to a royalist volunteer; "I could not bringmyself to order such a woman to be fired upon, at the moment when she wasproviding material for the noblest page in her history. "--"FilliaDolorosa, " vol. Vii. , p. 131. ]

With pain and difficulty she was convinced that resistance was vain;Napoleon's banner soon floated over Bordeaux; the Duchess issued afarewell proclamation to her "brave Bordelais, " and on the 1st April, 1815, she started for Pouillac, whence she embarked for Spain. During abrief visit to England she heard that the reign of a hundred days wasover, and the 27th of July, 1815, saw her second triumphal return to theTuileries. She did not take up her abode there with any wish for Stateceremonies or Court gaieties. Her life was as secluded as her positionwould allow. Her favourite retreat was the Pavilion, which had beeninhabited by her mother, and in her little oratory she collected relics ofher family, over which on the anniversaries of their deaths she wept andprayed. In her daily drives through Paris she scrupulously avoided thespot on which they had suffered; and the memory of the past seemed to ruleall her sad and self-denying life, both in what she did and what sherefrained from doing. 

[She was so methodical and economical, though liberal in her charities, that one of her regular evening occupations was to tear off the seals fromthe letters she had received during the day, in order that the wax mightbe melted down and sold; the produce made one poor family "passing richwith forty pounds a year. "--See "Filia Dolorosa, " vol. Ii. , p. 239. ]

Her somewhat austere goodness was not of a nature to make her popular. Thefew who really understood her loved her, but the majority of herpleasure-seeking subjects regarded her either with ridicule or dread. Sheis said to have taken no part in politics, and to have exerted noinfluence in public affairs, but her sympathies were well known, and "thevery word liberty made her shudder;" like Madame Roland, she had seen "somany crimes perpetrated under that name. "

The claims of three pretended Dauphins--Hervagault, the son of the tailorof St. Lo; Bruneau, son of the shoemaker of Vergin; and Naundorf orNorndorff, the watchmaker somewhat troubled her peace, but never for amoment obtained her sanction. Of the many other pseudo-Dauphins (said tonumber a dozen and a half) not even the names remain. In February, 1820, afresh tragedy befell the royal family in the assassination of the Duc deBerri, brother-in-law of the Duchesse d'Angouleme, as he was seeing hiswife into her carriage at the door of the Opera-house. He was carriedinto the theatre, and there the dying Prince and his wife were joined bythe Duchess, who remained till he breathed his last, and was present whenhe, too, was laid in the Abbey of St. Denis. She was present also whenhis son, the Duc de Bordeaux, was born, and hoped that she saw in him aguarantee for the stability of royalty in France. In September, 1824, shestood by the death-bed of Louis XVIII. , and thenceforward her chiefoccupation was directing the education of the little Duc de Bordeaux, whogenerally resided with her at Villeneuve l'Etang, her country house nearSt. Cloud. Thence she went in July, 1830, to the Baths of Vichy, stopping at Dijon on her way to Paris, and visiting the theatre on theevening of the 27th. She was received with "a roar of execrations andseditious cries, " and knew only too well what they signified. Sheinstantly left the theatre and proceeded to Tonnere, where she receivednews of the rising in Paris, and, quitting the town by night, was drivento Joigny with three attendants. Soon after leaving that place it wasthought more prudent that the party should separate and proceed on foot, and the Duchess and M. De Foucigny, disguised as peasants, enteredVersailles arm-in-arm, to obtain tidings of the King. The Duchess foundhim at Rambouillet with her husband, the Dauphin, and the King met herwith a request for "pardon, " being fully conscious, too late, that hisunwise decrees and his headlong flight had destroyed the last hopes of hisfamily. The act of abdication followed, by which the prospect of royaltypassed from the Dauphin and his wife, as well as from Charles X. --Henri V. Being proclaimed King, and the Duc d'Orleans (who refused to take the boymonarch under his personal protection) lieutenant-general of the kingdom. 

Then began the Duchess's third expatriation. At Cherbourg the royalfamily, accompanied by the little King without a kingdom, embarked in the'Great Britain', which stood out to sea. The Duchess, remaining on deckfor a last look at the coast of France, noticed a brig which kept, shethought, suspiciously near them. 

"Who commands that vessel?" she inquired. 

"Captain Thibault. "

And what are his orders?"

"To fire into and sink the vessels in which we sail, should any attempt bemade to return to France. "

Such was the farewell of their subjects to the House of Bourbon. Thefugitives landed at Weymouth; the Duchesse d'Angouleme under the title ofComtesse de Marne, the Duchesse de Berri as Comtesse de Rosny, and herson, Henri de Bordeaux, as Comte de Chambord, the title he retained tillhis death, originally taken from the estate presented to him in infancy byhis enthusiastic people. Holyrood, with its royal and gloomyassociations, was their appointed dwelling. The Duc and Duchessed'Angouleme, and the daughter of the Duc de Berri, travelled thither byland, the King and the young Comte de Chambord by sea. "I prefer my routeto that of my sister, " observed the latter, "because I shall see the coastof France again, and she will not. "

The French Government soon complained that at Holyrood the exiles werestill too near their native land, and accordingly, in 1832, Charles X. , with his son and grandson, left Scotland for Hamburg, while the Duchessed'Angouleme and her niece repaired to Vienna. The family were reunited atPrague in 1833, where the birthday of the Comte de Chambord was celebratedwith some pomp and rejoicing, many Legitimists flocking thither tocongratulate him on attaining the age of thirteen, which the old law ofmonarchical France had fixed as the majority of her princes. Three yearslater the wanderings of the unfortunate family recommenced; the EmperorFrancis II. Was dead, and his successor, Ferdinand, must visit Prague tobe crowned, and Charles X. Feared that the presence of a discrownedmonarch might be embarrassing on such an occasion. Illness and sorrowattended the exiles on their new journey, and a few months after they wereestablished in the Chateau of Graffenburg at Goritz, Charles X. Died ofcholera, in his eightieth year. At Goritz, also, on the 31st May, 1844, the Duchesse d'Angouleme, who had sat beside so many death-beds, watchedover that of her husband. Theirs had not been a marriage of affection inyouth, but they respected each other's virtues, and to a great extentshared each other's tastes; banishment and suffering had united them veryclosely, and of late years they had been almost inseparable, --walking, riding, and reading together. When the Duchesse d'Angouleme had seen herhusband laid by his father's side in the vault of the Franciscan convent, she, accompanied by her nephew and niece, removed to Frohsdorf, where theyspent seven tranquil years. Here she was addressed as "Queen" by herhousehold for the first time in her life, but she herself alwaysrecognised Henri, Comte de Chambord, as her sovereign. The Duchess livedto see the overthrow of Louis Philippe, the usurper of the inheritance ofher family. Her last attempt to exert herself was a characteristic one. She tried to rise from a sick-bed in order to attend the memorial serviceheld for her mother, Marie Antoinette, on the 16th October, theanniversary of her execution. But her strength was not equal to the task;on the 19th she expired, with her hand in that of the Comte de Chambord, and on 28th October, 1851, Marie Therese Charlotte, Duchesse d'Angouleme, was buried in the Franciscan convent. 

The Ceremony of Expiation. 

"In the spring of 1814 a ceremony took place in Paris at which I waspresent because there was nothing in it that could be mortifying to aFrench heart. The death of Louis XVI. Had long been admitted to be one ofthe most serious misfortunes of the Revolution. The Emperor Napoleonnever spoke of that sovereign but in terms of the highest respect, andalways prefixed the epithet unfortunate to his name. The ceremony towhich I allude was proposed by the Emperor of Russia and the King ofPrussia. It consisted of a kind of expiation and purification of the spoton which Louis XVI. And his Queen were beheaded. I went to see theceremony, and I had a place at a window in the Hotel of Madame de Remusat, next to the Hotel de Crillon, and what was termed the Hotel de Courlande. 

"The expiation took place on the 10th of April. The weather was extremelyfine and warm for the season. The Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia, accompanied by Prince Schwartzenberg, took their station at the entranceof the Rue Royale; the King of Prussia being on the right of the EmperorAlexander, and Prince Schwartzenberg on his left. There was a longparade, during which the Russian, Prussian and Austrian military bandsvied with each other in playing the air, 'Vive Henri IV. !' The cavalrydefiled past, and then withdrew into the Champs Elysees; but the infantryranged themselves round an altar which was raised in the middle of thePlace, and which was elevated on a platform having twelve or fifteensteps. The Emperor of Russia alighted from his horse, and, followed bythe King of Prussia, the Grand Duke Constantine, Lord Cathcart, and PrinceSchwartzenberg, advanced to the altar. When the Emperor had nearlyreached the altar the "Te Deum" commenced. At the moment of thebenediction, the sovereigns and persons who accompanied them, as well asthe twenty-five thousand troops who covered the Place, all knelt down. The Greek priest presented the cross to the Emperor Alexander, who kissedit; his example was followed by the individuals who accompanied him, though they were not of the Greek faith. On rising, the Grand DukeConstantine took off his hat, and immediately salvoes of artillery wereheard. "

NOTE. 

The following titles have the signification given below during the periodcovered by this work:

MONSEIGNEUR. . . . . . . . . . . The Dauphin. 

MONSIEUR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . The eldest brother of the King, Comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII. 

MONSIEUR LE PRINCE. . . . The Prince de Conde, head of the House of Conde. 

MONSIEUR LE DUC. . . . . . . The Duc de Bourbon, the eldest son of the Prince deCondo (and the father of the Duc d'Enghien shot by Napoleon). 

MONSIEUR LE GRAND. . . . . The Grand Equerry under the ancien regime. 

MONSIEUR LE PREMIER. . . The First Equerry under the ancien regime. 

ENFANS DE FRANCE. . . . . . The royal children. 

MADAME & MESDAMES. . . . . Sisters or daughters of the King, or Princessesnear the Throne (sometimes used also for the wife of Monsieur, the eldestbrother of the King, the Princesses Adelaide, Victoire, Sophie, Louise, daughters of Louis XV. , and aunts of Louis XVI. )

MADAME ELISABETH. . . . . . The Princesse Elisabeth, sister of Louis XVI. 

MADAME ROYALE. . . . . . . . . The Princesse Marie Therese, daughter of LouisXVI. , afterwards Duchesse d'Angouleme. 

MADEMOISELLE. . . . . . . . . . The daughter of Monsieur, the brother of the King. 

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Allowed her candles and as much firewood as she wantedBetter to die than to implicate anybodyDuc d'Orleans, when called on to give his vote for death of KingFormed rather to endure calamity with patience than to contendHow can I have any regret when I partake your misfortunesLouis Philippe, the usurper of the inheritance of her familyMy father fortunately found a library which amused himNo one is more dangerous than a man clothed with recent authorityRabble, always ready to insult genius, virtue, and misfortuneSo many crimes perpetrated under that name (liberty)Subjecting the vanquished to be tried by the conquerors