The storms were now so fearfully increasing that the King and Queen, the Duc de Penthievre, the Count Fersen, the Princesse Elizabeth, the Duchesse d’Orleans, and all the friends of the Princesse de Lamballe, once more united in anxious wishes for her to quit France.  Even the Pope himself endeavoured to prevail upon Her Highness to join the royal aunts at Rome.  To all these applications she replied, “I have nothing to reproach myself with.  If my inviolable duty and unalterable attachment to my Sovereigns, who are my relations and my friends; if love for my dear father and for my adopted country are crimes, in the face of God and the world I confess my guilt, and shall die happy if in such a cause!”

The Duc de Penthievre, who loved her as well as his own child, the Duchesse d’Orleans, was too good a man, and too conscientious a Prince, not to applaud the disinterested firmness of his beloved daughter-in-law; yet, foreseeing and dreading the fatal consequence which must result from so much virtue at a time when vice alone predominated, unknown to the Princesse de Lamballe, he interested the Court of France to write to the Court of Sardinia to entreat that the King, as head of her family, would use his good offices in persuading the Princess to leave the scenes of commotion, in which she was so much exposed, and return to her native country.  The King of Sardinia, her family, and her particular friend, the Princess of Piedmont, supplicated ineffectually.  The answer of Her Highness to the King, at Turin, was as follows: 

“Sire, and most august cousin,—­

“I do not recollect that any of our illustrious ancestors of the house of Savoy, before or since the great hero Charles Emmanuel, of immortal memory, ever dishonoured or tarnished their illustrious names with cowardice.  In leaving the Court of France at this awful crisis, I should be the first.  Can Your Majesty pardon my presumption in differing from your royal counsel?  The King, Queen, and every member of the Royal Family of France, both from the ties of blood and policy of States, demand our united efforts in their defence.  I cannot swerve from my determination of never quitting them, especially at a moment when they are abandoned by every one of their former attendants, except myself.  In happier days Your Majesty may command my obedience; but, in the present instance, and given up as is the Court of France to their most atrocious persecutors, I must humbly insist on being guided by my own decision.  During the most brilliant period of the reign of Marie Antoinette, I was distinguished by the royal favour and bounty.  To abandon her in adversity, Sire, would stain my character, and that of my illustrious family, for ages to come, with infamy and cowardice, much more to be dreaded than the most cruel death.”

Similar answers were returned to all those of her numerous friends and relatives, who were so eager to shelter her from the dangers threatening Her Highness and the Royal Family.