The characters of some of the leading dignitaries of the time sufficiently explain their selfish and pernicious conduct; when churchmen trifle with the altar, be their motives what they may, they destroy the faith they possess, and give examples to the flock entrusted to their care, of which no foresight can measure the baleful consequences.  Who that is false to his God can be expected to remain faithful to his Sovereign?  When a man, as a Catholic Bishop, marries, and, under the mask of patriotism, becomes the declared tool of all work to every faction, and is the weathercock, shifting to any quarter according to the wind,—­such a man can be of no real service to any party:  and yet has a man of this kind been by turns the primum mobile of them all, even to the present times, and was one of those great Church fomenters of the troubles of which we speak, who disgraced the virtuous reign of Louis XVI.

SECTION X.

Amidst the perplexities of the Royal Family it was perfectly unavoidable that repeated proposals should have been made at various times for them to escape these dangers by flight.  The Queen had been frequently and most earnestly entreated to withdraw alone; and the King, the Princesse Elizabeth, the Princesse de Lamballe, the royal children, with their little hands uplifted, and all those attached to Marie Antoinette, after the horrid business at Versailles, united to supplicate her to quit France and shelter herself from the peril hanging over her existence.  Often and often have I heard the Princesse de Lamballe repeat the words in which Her Majesty uniformly rejected the proposition.  “I have no wish,” cried the Queen, “for myself.  My life or death must be encircled by the arms of my husband and my family.  With them, and with them only, will I live or die.”

It would have been impossible to have persuaded her to leave France without her children.  If any woman on earth could have been justified in so doing, it would have been Marie Antoinette.  But she was above such unnatural selfishness, though she had so many examples to encourage her; for, even amongst the members of her own family, self-preservation had been considered paramount to every other consideration.

I have heard the Princess say that Pope Pius VI. was the only one of all the Sovereigns who offered the slightest condolence or assistance to Louis XVI. and his family.  “The Pope’s letter,” added she, “when shown to me by the Queen, drew tears from my eyes.  It really was in a style of such Christian tenderness and princely feeling as could only be dictated by a pious and illuminated head of the Christian Church.  He implored not only all the family of Louis XVI., but even extended his entreaties to me [the Princesse de Lamballe] to leave Paris, and save themselves, by taking refuge in his dominions, from the horrors which so cruelly overwhelmed them.  The King’s aunts were the only ones who profited by the invitation.  Madame Elizabeth was to have been of the party, but could not be persuaded to leave the King and Queen.”