Marie Antoinette — Complete eBook

Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 574 pages of information about Marie Antoinette — Complete.

Marie Antoinette — Complete eBook

Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 574 pages of information about Marie Antoinette — Complete.
heart, which was a wonderful effort for a man at his time of life, as it contained four pages of writing.  On his arrival at Paris he wrote it down, and then presented it to the Queen, telling her that the heart of an old and faithful subject had given him courage to form and execute such a resolution.  The Queen received M. Peraque in her closet, and expressed her gratitude in an affecting manner most honourable to the worthy old man.  Her Majesty thought the young stranger who had apprised him of the state of Paris was Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was very devoted to her, and who left Paris at that time.

The Marquise de Tourzel replaced the Duchess de Polignac.  She was selected by the Queen as being the mother of a family and a woman of irreproachable conduct, who had superintended the education of her own daughters with the greatest success.

The King went to Paris on the 17th of July, accompanied by the Marechal de Beauvau, the Duc de Villeroi, and the Duc de Villequier; he also took the Comte d’Estaing, and the Marquis de Nesle, who were then very popular, in his carriage.  Twelve Body Guards, and the town guard of Versailles, escorted him to the Pont du Jour, near Sevres, where the Parisian guard was waiting for him.  His departure caused equal grief and alarm to his friends, notwithstanding the calmness he exhibited.  The Queen restrained her tears, and shut herself up in her private rooms with her family.  She sent for several persons belonging to her Court; their doors were locked.  Terror had driven them away.  The silence of death reigned throughout the palace; they hardly dared hope that the King would return?  The Queen had a robe prepared for her, and sent orders to her stables to have all her equipages ready.  She wrote an address of a few lines for the Assembly, determining to go there with her family, the officers of her palace, and her servants, if the King should be detained prisoner at Paris.  She got this address by heart; it began with these words:  “Gentlemen, I come to place in your hands the wife and family of your sovereign; do not suffer those who have been united in heaven to be put asunder on earth.”  While she was repeating this address she was often interrupted by tears, and sorrowfully exclaimed:  “They will not let him return!”

It was past four when the King, who had left Versailles at ten in the morning, entered the Hotel de Ville.  At length, at six in the evening, M. de Lastours, the King’s first page, arrived; he was not half an hour in coming from the Barriere de la Conference to Versailles.  Everybody knows that the moment of calm in Paris was that in which the unfortunate sovereign received the tricoloured cockade from M. Bailly, and placed it in his hat.  A shout of “Vive le Roi!” arose on all sides; it had not been once uttered before.  The King breathed again, and with tears in his eyes exclaimed that his heart stood in need of such greetings from the people.  One of his equerries (M. de Cubieres) told him the people loved him, and that he could never have doubted it.  The King replied in accents of profound sensibility: 

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Marie Antoinette — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.