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diff --git a/old/cm43b10.txt b/old/cm43b10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5675e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cm43b10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2398 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Louis XV./XVI, by Madame Hausset, v5 +#5 in our series by Hausset, Lamballe and an unknown English Girl +#43 in our series Historic Court Memoirs + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XV. AND XVI. + +Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset, Lady's Maid to Madame +de Pompadour, and of an unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe + + + +BOOK 5. + + +SECTION I. + + + [From the time that the Princesse de Lamballe saw the ties between + the Queen and her favourite De Polignac drawing closer she became + less assiduous in her attendance at Court, being reluctant to + importune the friends by her presence at an intimacy which she did + not approve. She could not, however, withhold her accustomed + attentions, as the period of Her Majesty's accouchement approached; + and she has thus noted the circumstance of the birth of the Duchesse + d'Angouleme, on the 19th of December, 1778.] + +"The moment for the accomplishment of the Queen's darling hope was now at +hand: she was about to become a mother. + +"It had been agreed between Her Majesty and myself, that I was to place +myself so near the accoucheur, Vermond, + + [Brother to the Abbe, whose pride was so great at this honour + conferred on his relative, that he never spoke of him without + denominating him Monsieur mon frere, d'accoucher de sa Majeste, + Vermond.] + +as to be the first to distinguish the sex of the new-born infant, and if +she should be delivered of a Dauphin to say, in Italian, 'Il figlio e +nato.' + +"Her Majesty was, however, foiled even in this the most blissful of her +desires. She was delivered of a daughter instead of a Dauphin. + +"From the immense crowd that burst into the apartment the instant Vermond +said, The Queen is happily delivered, Her Majesty was nearly suffocated. +I had hold of her hand, and as I said 'La regina e andato', mistaking +'andato' for 'nato', between the joy of giving birth to a son and the +pressure of the crowd, Her Majesty fainted. Overcome by the dangerous +situation in which I saw my royal mistress, I myself was carried out of +the room in a lifeless state. The situation of Her Majesty was for some +time very doubtful, till the people were dragged with violence from about +her, that she might have air. On her recovering, the King was the first +person who told her that she was the mother of a very fine Princess. + +"'Well, then,' said the Queen, 'I am like my mother, for at my birth she +also wished for a son instead of a daughter; and you have lost your +wager:' for the King had betted with Maria Theresa that it would be a +son. + +"The King answered her by repeating the lines Metastasio had written on +that occasion. + + "'Io perdei: l'augusta figlia + A pagar, m'a condemnato; + Ma s'e ver the a voi somiglia + Tutto il moudo ha guadagnato.'" + + + [The Princesse de Lamballe again ceased to be constantly about the + Queen. Her danger was over, she was a mother, and the attentions of + disinterested friendship were no longer indispensable. She herself + about this time met with a deep affliction. She lost both of her + own parents; and to her sorrows may, in a great degree, be ascribed + her silence upon the events which intervened between the birth of + Madame and that of the Dauphin. She was as assiduous as ever in her + attentions to Her Majesty on her second lying-in. The circumstances + of the death of Maria Theresa, the Queen's mother, in the interval + which divided the two accouchements, and Her Majesty's anguish, and + refusal to see any but De Lamballe and De Polignac, are too well + known to detain us longer from the notes of the Princess. It is + enough for the reader to know that the friendship of Her Majesty for + her superintendent seemed to be gradually reviving in all its early + enthusiasm, by her unremitting kindness during the confinements of + the Queen, till, at length, they became more attached than ever. + But, not to anticipate, let me return to the narrative.] + +"The public feeling had undergone a great change with respect to Her +Majesty from the time of her first accouchement. Still, she was not the +mother of a future King. The people looked upon her as belonging to them +more than she had done before, and faction was silenced by the general +delight. But she had not yet attained the climax of her felicity. A +second pregnancy gave a new excitement to the nation; and, at length, on +the 22nd October, 1781, dawned the day of hope. + +"In consequence of what happened on the first accouchement, measures were +taken to prevent similar disasters on the second. The number admitted +into the apartment was circumscribed. The silence observed left the +Queen in uncertainty of the sex to which she had given birth, till, with +tears of joy, the King said to her: 'Madame, the hopes of the nation, and +mine, are fulfilled. You are the mother of a Dauphin.' + +"The Princesse Elizabeth and myself were so overjoyed that we embraced +every one in the room. + +"At this time Their Majesties were adored. Marie Antoinette, with all +her beauty and amiableness, was a mere cipher in the eyes of France +previous to her becoming the mother of an heir to the Crown; but her +popularity now arose to a pitch of unequalled enthusiasm. + +"I have heard of but one expression to Her Majesty upon this occasion in +any way savouring of discontent. This came from the royal aunts. On +Marie Antoinette's expressing to them her joy in having brought a Dauphin +to the nation, they replied, 'We will only repeat our father's +observation on a similar subject. When one of our sisters complained to +his late Majesty that, as her Italian husband had copied the Dauphin's +whim, she could not, though long a bride, boast of being a wife, or hope +to become a mother--"a prudent Princess," replied Louis XV., "never wants +heirs!"' But the feeling of the royal aunts was an exception to the +general sentiment, which really seemed like madness. + +"I remember a proof of this which happened at the time. Chancing to +cross the King's path as he was going to Marly and I coming from +Rambouillet, my two postillions jumped from their horses, threw +themselves on the high road upon their knees, though it was very dirty, +and remained there, offering up their benedictions, till he was out of +sight. + +"The felicity of the Queen was too great not to be soon overcast. The +unbounded influence of the De Polignacs was now at its zenith. It could +not fail of being attacked. Every engine of malice, envy, and detraction +was let loose; and, in the vilest calumnies against the character of the +Duchess, her royal mistress was included. + +"It was, in truth, a most singular fatality, in the life of Marie +Antoinette that she could do nothing, however beneficial or +disinterested, for which she was not either criticised or censured. +She had a tenacity, of character which made her cling more closely to +attachments from which she saw others desirous of estranging her; and +this firmness, however excellent in principle, was, in her case, fatal in +its effects. The Abbe Vermond, Her Majesty's confessor and tutor, and, +unfortunately, in many respects, her ambitious guide, was really alarmed +at the rising favour of the Duchess; and, though he knew the very +obstacles thrown in her way only strengthened her resolution as to any +favourite object, yet he ventured to head an intrigue to destroy the +great influence of the De Polignacs, which, as he might have foreseen, +only served to hasten their aggrandisement. + +"At this crisis the dissipation of the Duc de Guemenee caused him to +become a bankrupt. I know not whether it can be said in principle, but +certainly it may in property, 'It is an ill wind that blows no one any +good.' The Princess, his wife, having been obliged to leave her +residence at Versailles, in consequence of the Duke's dismissal from the +King's service on account of the disordered state of his pecuniary +circumstances, the situation of governess to the royal children became +necessarily vacant, and was immediately transferred to the Duchesse de +Polignac. The Queen, to enable her friend to support her station with +all the eclat suitable to its dignity, took care to supply ample means +from her own private purse. A most magnificent suite of apartments was +ordered to be arranged, under the immediate inspection of the Queen's +maitre d'hotel, at Her Majesty's expense. + +"Is there anything on earth more natural than the lively interest which +inspires a mother towards those who have the care of her offspring? +What, then, must have been the feelings of a Queen of France who had been +deprived of that blessing for which connubial attachments are formed, and +which, vice versa, constitutes the only real happiness of every young +female, what must have been, I say, the ecstasy of Marie Antoinette when +she not only found herself a mother, but the dear pledges of all her +future bliss in the hands of one whose friendship allowed her the +unrestrained exercise of maternal affection,--a climax of felicity +combining not only the pleasures of an ordinary mother, but the +greatness, the dignity, and the flattering popularity of a Queen of +France. + +"Though the pension of the Duchesse de Polignac was no more than that +usually allotted to all former governesses of the royal children of +France, yet circumstances tempted her to a display not a little injurious +to her popularity as well as to that of her royal mistress. She gave too +many pretexts to imputations of extravagance. Yet she had neither +patronage, nor sinecures, nor immunities beyond the few inseparable from +the office she held, and which had been the same for centuries under the +Monarchy of France. But it must be remembered, as an excuse for the +splendour of her establishment, that she entered her office upon a +footing very different from that of any of her predecessors. Her mansion +was not the quiet, retired, simple household of the governess of the +royal children, as formerly: it had become the magnificent resort of the +first Queen in Europe; the daily haunt of Her Majesty. The Queen +certainly visited the former governess, as she had done the Duchesse de +Duras and many other frequenters of her Court parties; but she made the +Duchesse de Polignac's her Court; and all the courtiers of that Court, +and, I may say, the great personages of all France, as well as the +Ministers and all foreigners of distinction, held there their usual +rendezvous; consequently, there was nothing wanting but the guards in +attendance in the Queen's apartments to have made it a royal residence +suitable for the reception of the illustrious personages that were in the +constant habit of visiting these levees, assemblies, balls, routs, +picnics, dinner, supper, and card parties. + + [I have seen ladies at the Princesse de Lamballe's come from these + card parties with their laps so blackened by the quantities of gold + received in them, that they have been obliged to change their + dresses to go to supper. Many a chevalier d'industree and young + military spendthrift has made his harvest here. Thousands were won + and lost, and the ladies were generally the dupes of all those who + were the constant speculative attendants. The Princease de Lamballe + did not like play, but when it was necessary she did play, and won + or lost to a limited extent; but the prescribed sum once exhausted + or gained she left off. In set parties, such as those of whist, she + never played except when one was wanted, often excusing herself on + the score of its requiring more attention than it was in her power + to give to it and her reluctance to sacrifice her partner; though I + have heard Beau Dillon, the Duke of Dorset, Lord Edward Dillon, and + many others say that she understood and played the game much better + than many who had a higher opinion of their skill in it. Lord + Edward Fitzgerald was admitted to the parties at the Duchesse de + Polignac's on his first coming to Paris; but when his connection + with the Duc d'Orleans and Madame de Genlis became known he was + informed that his society would be dispensed with. The famous, or + rather the infamous, Beckford was also excluded.] + +"Much as some of the higher classes of the nobility felt aggrieved at the +preference given by the Queen to the Duchesse de Polignac, that which +raised against Her Majesty the most implacable resentment was her +frequenting the parties of her favourite more than those of any other of +the 'haut ton'. These assemblies, from the situation held by the +Duchess, could not always be the most select. Many of the guests who +chanced to get access to them from a mere glimpse of the Queen--whose +general good-humour, vivacity, and constant wish to please all around her +would often make her commit herself unconsciously and unintentionally-- +would fabricate anecdotes of things they had neither seen nor heard; and +which never had existence, except in their own wicked imaginations. The +scene of the inventions, circulated against Her Majesty through France, +was, in consequence, generally placed at the Duchess's; but they were +usually so distinctly and obviously false that no notice was taken of +them, nor was any attempt made to check their promulgation. + +"Exemplary as was the friendship between this enthusiastic pair, +how much more fortunate for both would it have been had it never +happened! I foresaw the results long, long before they took place; +but the Queen was not to be thwarted. Fearful she might attribute my +anxiety for her general safety to unworthy personal views, I was often +silent, even when duty bade me speak. I was, perhaps, too scrupulous +about seeming officious or jealous of the predilection shown to the +Duchess. Experience had taught me the inutility of representing +consequences, and I had no wish to quarrel with the Queen. Indeed, +there was a degree of coldness towards me on the part of Her Majesty for +having gone so far as I had done. It was not until after the birth of +the Duc de Normandie, her third child, in March, 1785, that her +friendship resumed its primitive warmth. + +"As the children grew, Her Majesty's attachment for their governess grew +with them. All that has been said of Tasso's Armida was nothing to this +luxurious temple of maternal affection. Never was female friendship more +strongly cemented, or less disturbed by the nauseous poison of envy, +malice, or mean jealousy. The Queen was in the plenitude of every +earthly enjoyment, from being able to see and contribute to the education +of the children she tenderly loved, unrestrained by the gothic etiquette +with which all former royal mothers had been fettered, but which the kind +indulgence of the Duchesse de Polignac broke through, as unnatural and +unworthy of the enlightened and affectionate. The Duchess was herself an +attentive, careful mother. She felt for the Queen, and encouraged her +maternal sympathies, so doubly endeared by the long, long disappointment +which had preceded their gratification. The sacrifice of all the cold +forms of state policy by the new governess, and the free access she gave +the royal mother to her children, so unprecedented in the Court of +France, rendered Marie Antoinette so grateful that it may justly be said +she divided her heart between the governess and the governed. Habit soon +made it necessary for her existence that she should dedicate the whole of +her time, not taken up in public ceremonies or parties, to the +cultivation of the minds of her children. Conscious of her own +deficiency in this respect, she determined to redeem this error in her +offspring. The love of the frivolous amusements of society, for which +the want of higher cultivation left room in her mind, was humoured by the +gaieties of the Duchesse de Polignac's assemblies; while her nobler +dispositions were encouraged by the privileges of the favourite's +station. Thus, all her inclinations harmonising with the habits and +position of her friend, Marie Antoinette literally passed the greatest +part of some years in company with the Duchesse de Polignac,--either +amidst the glare and bustle of public recreation, or in the private +apartment of the governess and her children, increasing as much as +possible the kindness of the one for the benefit and comfort of the +others. The attachment of the Duchess to the royal children was returned +by the Queen's affection for the offspring of the Duchess. So much was +Her Majesty interested in favour of the daughter of the Duchess, that, +before that young lady was fifteen years of age, she herself contrived +and accomplished her marriage with the Duc de Guiche, then 'maitre de +ceremonie' to Her Majesty, and whose interests were essentially, promoted +by this alliance. + + [The Duc de Guiche, since Duc de Grammont, has proved how much he + merited the distinction he received, in consequence of the + attachment between the Queen and his mother-in-law, by the + devotedness with which he followed the fallen fortunes of the + Bourbons till their restoration, since which he has not been + forgotten. The Duchess, his wife, who at her marriage was beaming + with all the beauties of her age, and adorned by art and nature with + every accomplishment, though she came into notice at a time when the + Court had scarcely recovered itself from the debauched morals by + which it had been so long degraded by a De Pompadour and a Du Barry, + has yet preserved her character, by the strictness of her conduct, + free from the censorious criticisms of an epoch in which some of the + purest could not escape unassailed. I saw her at Pyrmont in 1803; + and even then, though the mother of many children, she looked as + young and beautiful as ever. She was remarkably well educated and + accomplished, a profound musician on the harp and pianoforte, + graceful in her conversation, and a most charming dancer. She + seemed to bear the vicissitudes of fortune with a philosophical + courage and resignation not often to be met with in light-headed + French women. She was amiable in her manners, easy of access, + always lively and cheerful, and enthusiastically attached to the + country whence she was then excluded. She constantly accompanied + the wife of the late Louis XVIII. during her travels in Germany, as + her husband the Duke did His Majesty during his residence at Mittau, + in Courland, etc. I have had the honour of seeing the Duke twice + since the Revolution; once, on my coming from Russia, at General + Binkingdroff's, Governor of Mittau, and since, in Portland Place, at + the French Ambassador's, on his coming to England in the name of his + Sovereign, to congratulate the King of England on his accession to + the throne.] + +"The great cabals, which agitated the Court in consequence of the favour +shown to the De Polignacs, were not slow in declaring themselves. The +Comtesse de Noailles was one of the foremost among the discontented. Her +resignation, upon the appointment of a superintendent, was a sufficient +evidence of her real feeling; but when she now saw a place filled, to +which she conceived her family had a claim, her displeasure could not be +silent, and her dislike to the Queen began to express itself without +reserve. + +"Another source of dissatisfaction against the Queen was her extreme +partiality for the English. After the peace of Versailles, in 1783, the +English flocked into France, and I believe if a poodle dog had come from +England it would have met with a good reception from Her Majesty. This +was natural enough. The American war had been carried on entirely +against her wish; though, from the influence she was supposed to exercise +in the Cabinet, it was presumed to have been managed entirely by herself. +This odious opinion she wished personally to destroy; and it could only +be done by the distinction with which, after the peace, she treated the +whole English nation.' + + [The daughter of the Duchesse de Polignac (of my meeting with whom I + have already spoken in a note), entering with me upon the subject of + France and of old times, observed that had the Queen limited her + attachment to the person of her mother, she would not have given all + the annoyance which she did to the nobility. It was to these + partialities to the English, the Duchesse de Guiche Grammont + alluded. I do not know the lady's name distinctly, but I am certain + I have heard the beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury mentioned by the + Princesse de Lamballe as having received particular attention from + the Queen; for the Princess had heard much about this lady and "a + certain great personage" in England; but, on discovering her + acquaintance with the Duc de Lauzun, Her Majesty withdrew from the + intimacy, though not soon enough to prevent its having given food + for scandal. "You must remember," added the Duchesse de Guiche + Grammont, "how much the Queen was censured for her enthusiasm about + Lady Spencer." I replied that I did remember the much-ado about + nothing there was regarding some English lady, to whom the Queen + took a liking, whose name I could not exactly recall; but I knew + well she studied to please the English in general. Of this Lady + Spencer it is that the Princess speaks in one of the following pages + of this chapter.] + +"Several of the English nobility were on a familiar footing at the +parties of the Duchesse de Polignac. This was quite enough for the +slanderers. They were all ranked, and that publicly, as lovers of Her +Majesty. I recollect when there were no less than five different private +commissioners out, to suppress the libels that were in circulation over +all France, against the Queen and Lord Edward Dillon, the Duke of Dorset, +Lord George Conway, Arthur Dillon, as well as Count Fersen, the Duc de +Lauzun, and the Comte d'Artois, who were all not only constant +frequenters of Polignac's but visitors of Marie Antoinette. + +"By the false policy of Her Majesty's advisers, these enemies and +libellers, instead of being brought to the condign punishment their +infamy deserved, were privately hushed into silence, out of delicacy to +the Queen's feelings, by large sums of money and pensions, which +encouraged numbers to commit the same enormity in the hope of obtaining +the same recompense. + +"But these were mercenary wretches, from whom no better could have been +expected. A legitimate mode of robbery had been pressed upon their +notice by the Government itself, and they thought it only a matter of +fair speculation to make the best of it. There were some libellers, +however, of a higher order, in comparison with whose motives for slander, +those of the mere scandal-jobbers were white as the driven snow. Of +these, one of the worst was the Duc de Lauzun. + +"The first motive of the Queen's strong dislike to the Duc de Lauzun +sprang from Her Majesty's attachment to the Duchesse d'Orleans, whom she +really loved. She was greatly displeased at the injury inflicted upon +her valued friend by De Lauzun, in estranging the affection of the Duc +d'Orleans from his wife by introducing him to depraved society. Among +the associates to which this connection led the Duc d'Orleans were a +certain Madame Duthee and Madame Buffon. + +"When De Lauzun, after having been expelled from the drawing-room of the +Queen for his insolent presumption,--[The allusion here is to the affair +of the heron plume.]--meeting with coolness at the King's levee, sought +to cover his disgrace by appearing at the assemblies of the Duchesse de +Polignac, Her Grace was too sincerely the friend of her Sovereign and +benefactress not to perceive the drift of his conduct. She consequently +signified to the self-sufficient coxcomb that her assemblies were not +open to the public. Being thus shut out from Their Majesties, and, as a +natural result, excluded from the most brilliant societies of Paris, De +Lauzun, from a most diabolical spirit of revenge, joined the nefarious +party which had succeeded in poisoning the mind of the Duc d'Orleans, +and from the hordes of which, like the burning lava from Etna, issued +calumnies which swept the most virtuous and innocent victims that ever +breathed to their destruction! + +"Among the Queen's favourites, and those most in request at the De +Polignac parties, was the good Lady Spencer, with whom I became most +intimately acquainted when I first went to England; and from whom, as +well as from her two charming daughters, the Duchess of Devonshire and +Lady Duncannon, since Lady Besborough, I received the greatest marks of +cordial hospitality. In consequence, when her ladyship came to France, +I hastened to present her to the Queen. Her Majesty, taking a great +liking to the amiable Englishwoman, and wishing to profit by her private +conversations and society, gave orders that Lady Spencer should pass to +her private closet whenever she came to Versailles, without the formal +ceremony of waiting in the antechamber to be announced. + +"One day, Her Majesty, Lady Spencer, and myself were observing the +difficulty there was in acquiring a correct pronunciation of the English +language, when Lady Spencer remarked that it only required a little +attention. + +"'I beg your pardon,' said the Queen, 'that's not all, because there are +many things you do not call by their proper names, as they are in the +dictionary.' + +"'Pray what are they, please Your Majesty?' + +"'Well, I will give you an instance. For example, 'les culottes'--what +do you call them?' + +"'Small clothes,' replied her ladyship. + +"'Ma foi! how can they be called small clothes for one large man? Now I +do look in the dictionary, and I find, for the word culottes--breeches.' + +"'Oh, please Your Majesty, we never call them by that name in England.' + +"'Voila done, j'ai raison!' + +"'We say "inexpressibles"!' + +"'Ah, c'est mieux! Dat do please me ver much better. Il y a du bon sens +la dedans. C'est une autre chose!' + +"In the midst of this curious dialogue, in came the Duke of Dorset, Lord +Edward Dillon, Count Fersen, and several English gentlemen, who, as they +were going to the King's hunt, were all dressed in new buckskin breeches. + +"'I do not like,' exclaimed the Queen to them, dem yellow irresistibles!' + +"Lady Spencer nearly fainted. 'Vat make you so frightful, my dear lady?' +said the Queen to her ladyship, who was covering her face with her hands. +'I am terrified at Your Majesty's mistake'--'Comment? did you no tell me +just now, dat in England de lady call les culottes "irresistibles"?'-- +'Oh, mercy! I never could have made such a mistake, as to have applied +to that part of the male dress such a word. I said, please Your Majesty, +inexpressibles.' + +"On this the gentlemen all laughed most heartily. + +"'Vell, vell,' replied the Queen, 'do, my dear lady, discompose yourself. +I vill no more call de breeches irresistibles, but say small clothes, if +even elles sont upon a giant!' + +"At the repetition of the naughty word breeches, poor Lady Spencer's +English delicacy quite overcame her. Forgetting where she was, and also +the company she was in, she ran from the room with her cross stick in her +hand, ready to lay it on the shoulders of any one who should attempt to +obstruct her passage, flew into her carriage, and drove off full speed, +as if fearful of being contaminated,--all to the no small amusement of +the male guests. + +"Her Majesty and I laughed till the very tears ran down our cheeks. The +Duke of Dorset, to keep up the joke, said there really were some counties +in England where they called 'culottes irresistibles. + +"Now that I am upon the subject of England, and the peace of 1783, which +brought such throngs of English over to France, there occurs to me a +circumstance, relating to the treaty of commerce signed at that time, +which exhibits the Comte de Vergennes to some advantage; and with that +let me dismiss the topic. + +"The Comte de Vergennes, was one of the most distinguished Ministers of +France. I was intimately acquainted with him. His general character for +uprightness prompted his Sovereign to govern in a manner congenial to his +own goodness of heart, which was certainly most for the advantage of his +subjects. Vergennes cautioned Louis against the hypocritical adulations +of his privileged courtiers. The Count had been schooled in State policy +by the great Venetian senator, Francis Foscari, the subtlest politician +of his age, whom he consulted during his life on every important matter; +and he was not very easily to be deceived. + +"When the treaty of commerce took place, at the period I mention, the +experienced Vergennes foresaw--what afterwards really happened--that +France would be inundated with British manufactures; but Calonne +obstinately maintained the contrary, till he was severely reminded of the +consequence of his misguided policy, in the insults inflicted on him by +enraged mobs of thousands of French artificers, whenever he appeared in +public. But though the mania for British goods had literally caused an +entire stagnation of business in the French manufacturing towns, and +thrown throngs upon the 'pave' for want of employment, yet M. de Calonne +either did not see, or pretended not to see, the errors he had committed. +Being informed that the Comte de Vergennes had attributed the public +disorders to his fallacious policy, M. de Calonne sent a friend to the +Count demanding satisfaction for the charge of having caused the riots. +The Count calmly replied that he was too much of a man of honour to take +so great an advantage, as to avail himself of the opportunity offered, by +killing a man who had only one life to dispose of, when there were so +many with a prior claim, who were anxious to destroy him 'en societe'. +I Bid M. de Calonne,' continued the Count, 'first get out of that scrape, +as the English boxers do when their eyes are closed up after a pitched +battle. He has been playing at blind man's buff, but the poverty to +which he has reduced so many of our tradespeople has torn the English +bandage from his eyes!' For three or four days the Comte de Vergennes +visited publicly, and showed himself everywhere in and about Paris; but +M. de Calonne was so well convinced of the truth of the old fox's satire +that he pocketed his annoyance, and no more was said about fighting. +Indeed, the Comte de Vergennes gave hints of being able to show that M. +de Calonne had been bribed into the treaty." + + + [The Princesse de Lamballe has alluded in a former page to the + happiness which the Queen enjoyed during the visits of the foreign + Princes to the Court of France. Her papers contain a few passages + upon the opinions Her Majesty entertained of the royal travellers; + which, although in the order of time they should have been mentioned + before the peace with England, yet, not to disturb the chain of the + narrative, respecting the connection with the Princesse de Lamballe, + of the prevailing libels, and the partiality shown towards the + English, I have reserved them for the conclusion of the present + chapter. The timidity of the Queen in the presence of the + illustrious strangers, and her agitation when about to receive them, + have, I think, been already spoken of. Upon the subject of the + royal travellers themselves, and other personages, the Princess + expresses herself thus:] + +"The Queen had never been an admirer of Catharine II. Notwithstanding +her studied policy for the advancement of civilization in her internal +empire, the means which, aided by the Princess Dashkoff, she made use of +to seat herself on the imperial throne of her weak husband, Peter the +Third, had made her more understood than esteemed. Yet when her son, the +Grand Duke of the North,--[Afterwards the unhappy Emperor Paul.]-- +and the Grand Duchess, his wife, came to France, their description of +Catharine's real character so shocked the maternal sensibility of Marie +Antoinette that she could scarcely hear the name of the Empress without +shuddering. The Grand Duke spoke of Catharine without the least +disguise. He said he travelled merely for the security of his life from +his mother, who had surrounded him with creatures that were his sworn +enemies, her own spies and infamous favourites, to whose caprices they +were utterly subordinate. He was aware that the dangerous credulity of +the Empress might be every hour excited by these wretches to the +destruction of himself and his Duchess, and, therefore, he had in absence +sought the only refuge. He had no wish, he said, ever to return to his +native country, till Heaven should check his mother's doubts respecting +his dutiful filial affection towards her, or till God should be pleased +to take her into His sacred keeping. + +"The King was petrified at the Duke's description of his situation, and +the Queen could not refrain from tears when the Duchess, his wife, +confirmed all her husband had uttered on the subject. The Duchess said +she had been warned by the untimely fate of the Princess d'Armstadt, her +predecessor, the first wife of the Grand Duke, to elude similar jealousy +and suspicion on the part of her mother-in-law, by seclusion from the +Court, in a country residence with her husband; indeed, that she had made +it a point never to visit Petersburg, except on the express invitation of +the Empress, as if she had been a foreigner. + +"In this system the Grand Duchess persevered, even after her return from +her travels. When she became pregnant, and drew near her accouchement, +the Empress-mother permitted her to come to Petersburg for that purpose; +but, as soon as the ceremony required by the etiquette of the Imperial +Court on those occasions ended, the Duchess immediately returned to her +hermitage. + +"This Princess was remarkably well-educated; she possessed a great deal +of good, sound sense, and had profited by the instructions of some of the +best German tutors during her very early years. It was the policy of her +father, the Duke of Wirtemberg, who had a large family, to educate his +children as 'quietists' in matters of religion. He foresaw that the +natural charms and acquired abilities of his daughters would one day call +them to be the ornaments of the most distinguished Courts in Europe, and +he thought it prudent not to instil early prejudices in favour of +peculiar forms of religion which might afterwards present an obstacle to +their aggrandisement. + + [The first daughter of the Duke of Wirtemberg was the first wife of + the present Emperor of Austria. She embraced the Catholic faith and + died very young, two days before the Emperor Joseph the Second, at + Vienna. The present Empress Dowager, late wife to Paul, became a + proselyte to the Greek religion on her arrival at Petersburg. The + son of the Duke of Wirtemburg, who succeeded him in the Dukedom, was + a Protestant, it being his interest to profess that religion for the + security of his inheritance. Prince Ferdinand, who was in the + Austrian service, and a long time Governor of Vienna, was a + Catholic, as he could not otherwise have enjoyed that office. He + was of a very superior character to the Duke, his brother. Prince + Louis, who held a commission under the Prussian Monarch, followed + the religion of the country where he served, and the other Princes, + who were in the employment of Sweden and other countries, found no + difficulty in conforming themselves to the religion of the + Sovereigns under whom they served. None of them having any + established forms of worship, they naturally embraced that which + conduced most to their aggrandisement, emolument, or dignity.] + +"The notorious vices of the King of Denmark, and his total neglect both +of his young Queen, Carolina Matilda, and of the interest of his distant +dominions, while in Paris, created a feeling in the Queen's mind towards +that house which was not a little heightened by her disgust at the King +of Sweden, when he visited the Court of Versailles. This King, though +much more crafty than his brother-in-law, the King of Denmark, who +revelled openly in his depravities, was not less vicious. The deception +he made use of in usurping part of the rights of his people, combined +with the worthlessness and duplicity, of his private conduct, excited a +strong indignation in the mind of Marie Antoinette, of which she was +scarcely capable of withholding the expression in his presence. + +"It was during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of the North, that the +Cardinal de Rohan again appeared upon the scene. For eight or ten years +he had never been allowed to show himself at Court, and had been totally +shut out of every society where the Queen visited. On the arrival of the +illustrious, travellers at Versailles, the Queen, at her own expense, +gave them a grand fete at her private palace, in the gardens of Trianon, +similar to the one given by the Comte de Provence--[Afterwards Louis +XVIII.]--to Her Majesty, in the gardens of Brunoi. + +"On the eve of the fete, the Cardinal waited upon, me to know if he would +be permitted to appear there in the character he had the honour to hold +at Court, I replied that I had made it a rule never to interfere in the +private or public amusements of the Court, and that His Eminence must be +the best judge how far he, could obtrude himself upon the Queen's private +parties, to which only a select number had been invited, in consequence +of the confined spot where the fete was to be given. + +"The Cardinal left me, not much satisfied at his reception. Determined +to follow, as usual, his own misguided passion, he immediately went too +Trianon, disguised with a large cloak. He saw the porter, and bribed +him. He only wished, he said, to be placed in a situation whence he +might see the Duke and Duchess of the North without being seen; but no +sooner did he perceive the porter engaged at some distance than he left +his cloak at the lodge, and went forward in his Cardinal's dress, as if +he had been one of the invited guests, placing himself purposely in the +Queen's path to attract her attention as she rode by in the carriage with +the Duke and Duchess. + +"The Queen was shocked and thunderstruck at seeing him. But, great as +was her annoyance, knowing the Cardinal had not been invited and ought +not to have been there, she only discharged the porter who had been +seduced to let him in; and, though the King, on being made acquainted +with his treachery, would have banished His Eminence a hundred leagues +from the capital, yet the Queen, the royal aunts, the Princesse +Elizabeth, and myself, not to make the affair public, and thereby +disgrace the high order of his ecclesiastical dignity, prevented the King +from exercising his authority by commanding instant exile. + +"Indeed, the Queen could never get the better of her fears of being some +day, or in some way or other, betrayed by the Cardinal, for having made +him the confidant of the mortification she would have suffered if the +projected marriage of Louis XV. and her sister had been solemnized. On +this account she uniformly opposed whatever harshness the King at any +time intended against the Cardinal. + +"Thus was this wicked prelate left at leisure to premeditate the horrid +plot of the famous necklace, the ever memorable fraud, which so fatally +verified the presentiments of the Queen." + + + + +SECTION II. + + [The production of 'Le Mariage de Figaro', by Beaumarchais, upon the + stage at Paris, so replete with indecorous and slanderous allusions + to the Royal Family, had spread the prejudices against the Queen + through the whole kingdom and every rank of France, just in time to + prepare all minds for the deadly blow which Her Majesty received + from the infamous plot of the diamond necklace. From this year, + crimes and misfortunes trod closely on each others' heels in the + history of the ill-starred Queen; and one calamity only disappeared + to make way for a greater. + + The destruction of the papers which would have thoroughly explained + the transaction has still left all its essential particulars in some + degree of mystery; and the interest of the clergy, who supported one + of their own body, coupled with the arts and bribes of the high + houses connected with the plotting prelate, must, of course, have + discoloured greatly even what was well known. + + It will be recollected that before the accession of Louis XVI. the + Cardinal de Rohan was disgraced in consequence of his intrigues; + that all his ingenuity was afterwards unremittingly exerted to + obtain renewed favour; that he once obtruded himself upon the notice + of the Queen in the gardens of Trianon, and that his conduct in so + doing excited the indignation it deserved, but was left unpunished + owing to the entreaties of the best friends of the Queen, and her + own secret horror of a man who had already caused her so much + anguish. + + With the histories of the fraud every one is acquainted. That of + Madame Campan, as far as it goes, is sufficiently detailed and + correct to spare me the necessity of expatiating upon this theme of + villany. Yet, to assist the reader's memory, before returning to + the Journal of the Princesse de Lamballe, I shall recapitulate the + leading particulars. + + The Cardinal had become connected with a young, but artful and + necessitous, woman, of the name of Lamotte. It was known that the + darling ambition of the Cardinal was to regain the favour of the + Queen. + + The necklace, which has been already spoken of, and which was + originally destined by Louis XV. for Marie Antoinette--had her hand, + by divorce, been transferred to him--but which, though afterwards + intended by Louis XV. for his mistress, Du Barry, never came to her + in consequence of his death--this fatal necklace was still in + existence, and in the possession of the crown jewellers, Boehmer and + Bassange. It was valued at eighteen hundred thousand livres. The + jewellers had often pressed it upon the Queen, and even the King + himself had enforced its acceptance. But the Queen dreaded the + expense, especially at an epoch of pecuniary difficulty in the + State, much more than she coveted the jewels, and uniformly and + resolutely declined them, although they had been proposed to her on + very easy terms of payment, as she really did not like ornaments. + + It was made to appear at the parliamentary investigation that the + artful Lamotte had impelled the Cardinal to believe that she herself + was in communication with the Queen; that she had interested Her + Majesty in favour of the long slighted Cardinal; that she had + fabricated a correspondence, in which professions of penitence on + the part of De Rohan were answered by assurances of forgiveness from + the Queen. The result of this correspondence was represented to be + the engagement of the Cardinal to negotiate the purchase of the + necklace secretly, by a contract for periodical payments. To the + forgery of papers was added, it was declared, the substitution of + the Queen's person, by dressing up a girl of the Palais Royal to + represent Her Majesty, whom she in some degree resembled, in a + secret and rapid interview with Rohan in a dark grove of the gardens + of Versailles, where she was to give the Cardinal a rose, + in token of her royal approbation, and then hastily disappear. + The importunity of the jewellers, on the failure of the stipulated + payment, disclosed the plot. A direct appeal of theirs to the + Queen, to save them from ruin, was the immediate source of + detection. The Cardinal was arrested, and all the parties tried. + But the Cardinal was acquitted, and Lamotte and a subordinate agent + alone punished. The quack Cagliostro was also in the plot, but he, + too, escaped, like his confederate, the Cardinal, who was made to + appear as the dupe of Lamotte. + + The Queen never got over the effect of this affair. Her friends + well knew the danger of severe measures towards one capable of + collecting around him strong support against a power already so much + weakened by faction and discord. But the indignation of conscious + innocence insulted, prevailed, though to its ruin! + + But it is time to let the Princesse de Lamballe give her own + impressions upon this fatal subject, and in her own words.] + + +"How could Messieurs Boehmer and Bassange presume that the Queen would +have employed any third person to obtain an article of such value, +without enabling them to produce an unequivocal document signed by her +own hand and countersigned by mine, as had ever been the rule during my +superintendence of the household, whenever anything was ordered from the +jewellers by Her Majesty? Why did not Messieurs Boehmer and Bassange +wait on me, when they saw a document unauthorised by me, and so widely +departing from the established forms? I must still think, as I have +often said to the King, that Boehmer and Bassange wished to get rid of +this dead weight of diamonds in any way; and the Queen having +unfortunately been led by me to hush up many foul libels against her +reputation, as I then thought it prudent she should do, rather than +compromise her character with wretches capable of doing anything to +injure her, these jewellers, judging from this erroneous policy of the +past, imagined that in this instance, also, rather than hazard exposure, +Her Majesty would pay them for the necklace. This was a compromise which +I myself resisted, though so decidedly adverse to bringing the affair +before the nation by a public trial. Of such an explosion, I foresaw the +consequences, and I ardently entreated the King and Queen to take other +measures. But, though till now so hostile to severity with the Cardinal, +the Queen felt herself so insulted by the proceeding that she gave up +every other consideration to make manifest her innocence. + +"The wary Comte de Vergennes did all he could to prevent the affair from +getting before the public. Against the opinion of the King and the whole +council of Ministers, he opposed judicial proceedings. Not that he +conceived the Cardinal altogether guiltless; but he foresaw the fatal +consequences that must result to Her Majesty, from bringing to trial an +ecclesiastic of such rank; for he well knew that the host of the higher +orders of the nobility, to whom the prelate was allied, would naturally +strain every point to blacken the character of the King and Queen, as the +only means of exonerating their kinsman in the eyes of the world from the +criminal mystery attached to that most diabolical intrigue against the +fair fame of Marie Antoinette. The Count could not bear the idea of the +Queen's name being coupled with those of the vile wretches, Lamotte and +the mountebank Cagliostro, and therefore wished the King to chastise the +Cardinal by a partial exile, which might have been removed at pleasure. +But the Queen's party too fatally seconded her feelings, and prevailed. + +"I sat by Her Majesty's bedside the whole of the night, after I heard +what had been determined against the Cardinal by the council of +Ministers, to beg her to use all her interest with the King to persuade +him to revoke the order of the warrant for the prelate's arrest. To this +the Queen replied, 'Then the King, the Ministers, and the people, will +all deem me guilty.' + +"Her Majesty's remark stopped all farther argument upon the subject, and +I had the inconsolable grief to see my royal mistress rushing upon +dangers which I had no power of preventing her from bringing upon +herself. + +"The slanderers who had imputed such unbounded influence to the Queen +over the mind of Louis XVI. should have been consistent enough to +consider that, with but a twentieth part of the tithe of her imputed +power, uncontrolled as she then was by national authority, she might, +without any exposure to third persons, have at once sent one of her pages +to the garde-meuble and other royal depositaries, replete with hidden +treasures of precious stones which never saw the light, and thence have +supplied herself with more than enough to form ten necklaces, or to have +fully satisfied, in any way she liked, the most unbounded passion for +diamonds, for the use of which she would never have been called to +account. + +"But the truth is, the Queen had no love of ornaments. A proof occurred +very soon after I had the honour to be nominated Her Majesty's +superintendent. On the day of the great fete of the Cordon Bleu, when it +was the etiquette to wear diamonds and pearls, the Queen had omitted +putting them on. As there had been a greater affluence of visitors than +usual that morning, and Her Majesty's toilet was overthronged by Princes +and Princesses, I fancied in the bustle that the omission proceeded from +forgetfulness. Consequently, I sent the tirewoman, in the Queen's +hearing, to order the jewels to be brought in. Smilingly, Her Majesty +replied, 'No, no! I have not forgotten these gaudy things; but I do not +intend that the lustre of my eyes should be outshone by the one, or the +whiteness of my teeth by the other; however, as you wish art to eclipse +nature, I'll wear them to satisfy you, ma belle dame!' + +"The King was always so thoroughly indulgent to Her Majesty, with regard +both to her public and private conduct, that she never had any pretext +for those reserves which sometimes tempt Queens as well as the wives of +private individuals to commit themselves to third persons for articles of +high value, which their caprice indiscreetly impels them to procure +unknown to their natural guardians. Marie Antoinette had no reproach or +censure for plunging into excesses beyond her means to apprehend from her +royal husband. On the contrary, the King himself had spontaneously +offered to purchase the necklace from the jewellers, who had urged it on +him without limiting any time for payment. It was the intention of His +Majesty to have liquidated it out of his private purse. But Marie +Antoinette declined the gift. Twice in my presence was the refusal +repeated before Messieurs Boehmer and Bassange. Who, then, can for a +moment presume, after all these circumstances, that the Queen of France, +with a nation's wealth at her feet and thousands of individuals offering +her millions, which she never accepted, would have so far degraded +herself and the honour of the nation, of which she was born to be the +ornament, as to place herself gratuitously in the power of a knot of +wretches, headed by a man whose general bad character for years had +excluded him from Court and every respectable society, and had made the +Queen herself mark him as an object of the utmost aversion. + +"If these circumstances be not sufficient adequately to open the eyes of +those whom prejudice has blinded, and whose ears have been deafened +against truth, by the clamours of sinister conspirators against the +monarchy instead of the monarchs; if all these circumstances, I repeat, +do not completely acquit the Queen, argument, or even ocular +demonstration itself, would be thrown away. Posterity will judge +impartially, and with impartial judges the integrity of Marie Antoinette +needs no defender. + +"When the natural tendency of the character of De Rohan to romantic and +extraordinary intrigue is considered in connection with the associates he +had gathered around him, the plot of the necklace ceases to be a source +of wonder. At the time the Cardinal was most at a loss for means to meet +the necessities of his extravagance, and to obtain some means of access +to the Queen, the mountebank quack, Cagliostro, made his appearance in +France. His fame had soon flown from Strasburg to Paris, the magnet of +vices and the seat of criminals. The Prince-Cardinal, known of old as a +seeker after everything of notoriety, soon became the intimate of one who +flattered him with the accomplishment of all his dreams in the +realization of the philosopher's stone; converting puffs and French paste +into brilliants; Roman pearls into Oriental ones; and turning earth to +gold. The Cardinal, always in want of means to supply the insatiable +exigencies of his ungovernable vices, had been the dupe through life of +his own credulity--a drowning man catching at a straw! But instead of +making gold of base materials, Cagliostro's brass soon relieved his blind +adherent of all his sterling metal. As many needy persons enlisted under +the banners of this nostrum speculator, it is not to be wondered at that +the infamous name of the Comtesse de Lamotte, and others of the same +stamp, should have thus fallen into an association of the Prince-Cardinal +or that her libellous stories of the Queen of France should have found +eager promulgators, where the real diamonds of the famous necklace being +taken apart were divided piecemeal among a horde of the most depraved +sharpers that ever existed to make human nature blush at its own +degradation! + + [Cagliostro, when he came to Rome, for I know not whether there had + been any previous intimacy, got acquainted with a certain Marchese + Vivaldi, a Roman, whose wife had been for years the chere amie of + the last Venetian Ambassador, Peter Pesaro, a noble patrician, and + who has ever since his embassy at Rome been his constant companion + and now resides with him in England. No men in Europe are more + constant in their attachments than the Venetians. Pesaro is the + sole proprietor of one of the moat beautiful and magnificent palaces + on the Grand Canal at Venice, though he now lives in the outskirts + of London, in a small house, not so large as one of the offices of + his immense noble palace, where his agent transacts his business. + The husband of Pesaro's chere amie, the Marchese Vivaldi, when + Cagliostro was arrested and sent to the Castello Santo Angelo at + Rome, was obliged to fly his country, and went to Venice, where he + was kept secreted and maintained by the Marquis Solari, and it was + only through his means and those of the Cardinal Consalvi, then + known only as the musical Abbe Consalvi, from his great attachment + to the immortal Cimarosa, that Vivaldi was ever allowed to return to + his native country; but Consalvi, who was the friend of Vivaldi, + feeling with the Marquis Solari much interested for his situation, + they together contrived to convince Pius VI. that he was more to be + pitied than blamed, and thus obtained his recall. I have merely + given this note as a further warning to be drawn from the + connections of the Cardinal de Rohan, to deter hunters after novelty + from forming ties with innovators and impostors. Cagliostro was + ultimately condemned, by the Roman laws under Pope Pius VI., + for life, to the galleys, where he died. + + Proverbs ought to be respected; for it is said that no phrase + becomes a proverb until after a century's experience of its truth. + In England it is proverbial to judge of men by the company they + keep. Judge of the Cardinal de Rohan from his most intimate friend, + the galley-slave.] + +"Eight or ten years had elapsed from the time Her Majesty had last seen +the Cardinal to speak to him, with the exception of the casual glance as +she drove by when he furtively introduced himself into the garden at the +fete at Trianon, till he was brought to the King's cabinet when arrested, +and interrogated, and confronted with her face to face. The Prince +started when he saw her. The comparison of her features with those of +the guilty wretch who had dared to personate her in the garden at +Versailles completely destroyed his self-possession. Her Majesty's +person was become fuller, and her face was much longer than that of the +infamous D'Oliva. He could neither speak nor write an intelligible reply +to the questions put to him. All he could utter, and that only in broken +accents, was, 'I'll pay! I'll pay Messieurs Bassange.' + +"Had he not speedily recovered himself, all the mystery in which this +affair has been left, so injuriously to the Queen, might have been +prevented. His papers would have declared the history of every +particular, and distinctly established the extent of his crime and the +thorough innocence of Marie Antoinette of any connivance at the fraud, or +any knowledge of the necklace. But when the Cardinal was ordered by the +King's Council to be put under arrest, his self-possession returned. He +was given in charge to an officer totally unacquainted with the nature of +the accusation. Considering only the character of his prisoner as one of +the highest dignitaries of the Church, from ignorance and inexperience, +he left the Cardinal an opportunity to write a German note to his +factotum, the Abbe Georgel. In this note the trusty secretary was +ordered to destroy all the letters of Cagliostro, Madame de Lamotte, and +the other wretched associates of the infamous conspiracy; and the traitor +was scarcely in custody when every evidence of his treason had +disappeared. The note to Georgel saved his master from expiating his +offence at the Place de Grave. + +"The consequences of the affair would have been less injurious, however, +had it been managed, even as it stood, with better judgment and temper. +But it was improperly entrusted to the Baron de Breteuil and the Abbe +Vermond, both sworn enemies of the Cardinal. Their main object was the +ruin of him they hated, and they listened only to their resentments. +They never weighed the danger of publicly prosecuting an individual whose +condemnation would involve the first families in France, for he was +allied even to many of the Princes of the blood. They should have +considered that exalted personages, naturally feeling as if any crime +proved against their kinsman would be a stain upon themselves, would of +course resort to every artifice to exonerate the accused. To criminate +the Queen was the only and the obvious method. Few are those nearest the +Crown who are not most jealous of its wearers! Look at the long civil +wars of York and Lancaster, and the short reign of Richard. The downfall +of Kings meets less resistance than that of their inferiors. + +"Still, notwithstanding all the deplorable blunders committed in this +business of De Rohan, justice was not smothered without great difficulty. +His acquittal cost the families of De Rohan and De Conde more than a +million of livres, distributed among all ranks of the clergy; besides +immense sums sent to the Court of Rome to make it invalidate the judgment +of the civil authority of France upon so high a member of the Church, +and to induce it to order the Cardinal's being sent to Rome by way of +screening him from the prosecution, under the plausible pretext of more +rigid justice. + +"Considerable sums in money and jewels were also lavished on all the +female relatives of the peers of France, who were destined to sit on the +trial. The Abbe Georgel bribed the press, and extravagantly paid all the +literary pens in France to produce the most Jesuitical and sophisticated +arguments in his patron's justification. Though these writers dared not +accuse or in any way criminate the Queen, yet the respectful doubts, with +which their defence of her were seasoned, did indefinitely more mischief +than any direct attack, which could have been directly answered. + +"The long cherished, but till now smothered, resentment of the Comtesse +de Noailles, the scrupulous Madame Etiquette, burst forth on this +occasion. Openly joining the Cardinal's party against her former +mistress and Sovereign, she recruited and armed all in favour of her +protege; for it was by her intrigues De Rohan had been nominated +Ambassador to Vienna. Mesdames de Guemenee and Marsan, rival pretenders +to favours of His Eminence, were equally earnest to support him against +the Queen. In short, there was scarcely a family of distinction in +France that, from the libels which then inundated the kingdom, did not +consider the King as having infringed on their prerogatives and +privileges in accusing the Cardinal. + +"Shortly after the acquittal of this most artful, and, in the present +instance, certainly too fortunate prelate, the Princesse de Conde came to +congratulate me on the Queen's innocence, and her kinsman's liberation +from the Bastille. + +"Without the slightest observation, I produced to the Princess documents +in proof of the immense sums she alone had expended in bribing the judges +and other persons, to save her relation, the Cardinal, by criminating Her +Majesty. + +"The Princesse de Conde instantly fell into violent hysterics, and was +carried home apparently, lifeless. + +"I have often reproached myself for having given that sudden shock and +poignant anguish to Her Highness, but I could not have supposed that one +who came so barefacedly to impress me with the Cardinal's innocence, +could have been less firm in refuting her own guilt. + +"I never mentioned the circumstance to the Queen. Had I done so, Her +Highness would have been forever excluded from the Court and the royal +presence. This was no time to increase the enemies of Her Majesty, and, +the affair of the trial being ended, I thought it best to prevent any +further breach from a discord between the Court and the house of Conde. +However, from a coldness subsisting ever after between the Princess and +myself, I doubt not that the Queen had her suspicions that all was not as +it should be in that quarter. Indeed, though Her Majesty never confessed +it, I think she herself had discovered something at that very time not +altogether to the credit of the Princesse de Conde, for she ceased going, +from that period, to any of the fetes given at Chantilly. + +"These were but a small portion of the various instruments successfully +levelled by parties, even the least suspected, to blacken and destroy the +fair fame of Marie Antoinette. + +"The document which so justly alarmed the Princesse de Conde, when I +showed it to her came into my hands in the following manner: + +"Whenever a distressed family, or any particular individual, applied to +me for relief, or was otherwise recommended for charitable purposes, I +generally sent my little English protegee--whose veracity, well knowing +the goodness of her heart, I could rely--to ascertain whether their +claims were really well grounded. + + [Indeed, I never deceived the Princess on these occasions. She was + so generously charitable that I should have conceived it a crime. + When I could get no satisfactory information, I said I could not + trace anything undeserving her charity, and left Her Highness to + exercise her own discretion.] + +"One day I received an earnest memorial from a family, desiring to make +some private communications of peculiar delicacy. I sent my usual +ambassadress to inquire into its import. On making her mission known, +she found no difficulty in ascertaining the object of the application. +It proceeded from conscientious distress of mind. A relation of this +family had been the regular confessor of a convent. With the Lady Abbess +of this convent and her trusty nuns, the Princesse de Conde had deposited +considerable sums of money, to be bestowed in creating influence in +favour of the Cardinal de Rohan. The confessor, being a man of some +consideration among the clergy, was applied to, to use his influence with +the needier members of the Church more immediately about him, as well as +those of higher station, to whom he had access, in furthering the +purposes of the Princesse de Conde. The bribes were applied as intended. +But, at the near approach of death, the confessor was struck with +remorse. He begged his family, without mentioning his name, to send the +accounts and vouchers of the sums he had so distributed, to me, as a +proof of his contrition, that I might make what use of them I should +think proper. The papers were handed to my messenger, who pledged her +word of honour that I would certainly adhere to the dying man's last +injunctions. She desired they might be sealed up by the family, and by +them directed to me.--[To this day, I neither know the name of the +convent or the confessor.]--She then hastened back to our place of +rendezvous, where I waited for her, and where she consigned the packet +into my own hands. + +"That part of the papers which compromised only the Princesse de Conde +was shown by me to the Princess on the occasion I have mentioned. It was +natural enough that she should have been shocked at the detection of +having suborned the clergy and others with heavy bribes to avert the +deserved fate of the Cardinal. I kept this part of the packet secret +till the King's two aunts, who had also been warm advocates in favour of +the prelate, left Paris for Rome. Then, as Pius VI. had interested +himself as head of the Church for the honour of one of its members, I +gave them these very papers to deliver to His Holiness for his private +perusal. I was desirous of enabling this truly charitable and Christian +head of our sacred religion to judge how far his interference was +justified by facts. I am thoroughly convinced that, had he been sooner +furnished with these evidences, instead of blaming the royal proceeding, +he would have urged it on, nay, would himself have been the first to +advise that the foul conspiracy should be dragged into open day. + +"The Comte de Vergennes told me that the King displayed the greatest +impartiality throughout the whole investigation for the exculpation of +the Queen, and made good his title on this, as he did on every occasion +where his own unbiassed feelings and opinions were called into action, +to great esteem for much higher qualities than the world has usually +given him credit for. + +"I have been accused of having opened the prison doors of the culprit +Lamotte for her escape; but the charge is false. I interested myself, +as was my duty, to shield the Queen from public reproach by having +Lamotte sent to a place of penitence; but I never interfered, except to +lessen her punishment, after the judicial proceedings. The diamonds, in +the hands of her vile associates at Paris, procured her ample means to +escape. I should have been the Queen's greatest enemy had I been the +cause of giving liberty to one who acted, and might naturally have been +expected to act, as this depraved woman did. + +"Through the private correspondence which was carried on between this +country and England, after I had left it, I was informed that M. de +Calonne, whom the Queen never liked, and who was called to the +administration against her will--which he knew, and consequently became +one of her secret enemies in the affair of the necklace--was discovered +to have been actively employed against Her Majesty in the work published +in London by Lamotte. + +"Mr. Sheridan was the gentleman who first gave me this information. + +"I immediately sent a trusty person by the Queen's orders to London, to +buy up the whole work. It was too late. It had been already so widely +circulated that its consequences could no longer be prevented. I was +lucky enough, however, for a considerable sum, to get a copy from a +person intimate with the author, the margin of which, in the handwriting +of M. de Calonne, actually contained numerous additional circumstances +which were to have been published in a second edition! This publication +my agent, aided by some English gentlemen, arrived in time to suppress. + +"The copy I allude to was brought to Paris and shown to the Queen. She +instantly flew with it in her hands to the King's cabinet. + +"'Now, Sire,' exclaimed she, 'I hope you will be convinced that my +enemies are those whom I have long considered as the most pernicious of +Your Majesty's Councillors--your own Cabinet Ministers--your M. de +Calonne!--respecting whom I have often given you my opinion, which, +unfortunately, has always been attributed to mere female caprice, or as +having been biassed by the intrigues of Court favourites! This, I hope, +Your Majesty will now be able to contradict!' + +"The King all this time was looking over the different pages containing +M. de Calonne's additions on their margins. On recognising the hand- +writing, His Majesty was so affected by this discovered treachery of his +Minister and the agitation of his calumniated Queen that he could +scarcely articulate. + +"'Where,' said he, I did you procure this?' + +"'Through the means, Sire, of some of the worthy members of that nation +your treacherous Ministers made our enemy--from England! where your +unfortunate Queen, your injured wife, is compassionated!' + +"'Who got it for you?' + +"'My dearest, my real, and my only sincere friend, the Princesse de +Lamballe!' + +"The King requested I should be sent for. I came. As may be imagined, I +was received with the warmest sentiments of affection by both Their +Majesties. I then laid before the King the letter of Mr. Sheridan, which +was, in substance, as follows: + + "'MADAME, + + "'A work of mine, which I did not choose should be printed, was + published in Dublin and transmitted to be sold in London. As soon + as I was informed of it, and had procured a spurious copy, I went to + the bookseller to put a stop to its circulation. I there met with a + copy of the work of Madame de Lamotte, which has been corrected by + some one at Paris and sent back to the bookseller for a second + edition. Though not in time to suppress the first edition, owing to + its rapid circulation, I have had interest enough, through the means + of the bookseller of whom I speak, to remit you the copy which has + been sent as the basis of a new one. The corrections, I am told, + are by one of the King's Ministers. If true, I should imagine the + writer will be easily traced. + + "'I am happy that it has been in my power to make this discovery, + and I hope it will be the means of putting a stop to this most + scandalous publication. I feel myself honoured in having + contributed thus far to the wishes of Her Majesty, which I hope I + have fulfilled to the entire satisfaction of Your Highness. + + "'Should anything further transpire on this subject, I will give you + the earliest information. + + "'I remain, madame, with profound respect, Your Highness' most + devoted, + + "'very humble servant, + + "'RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.' + + + [Madame Campan mentions in her work that the Queen had informed her + of the treachery of the Minister, but did not enter into + particulars, nor explain the mode or source of its detection. + Notwithstanding the parties had bound themselves for the sums they + received not to reprint the work, a second edition appeared a short + time afterwards in London. This, which was again bought up by the + French Ambassador, was the same which was to have been burned by the + King's command at the china manufactory at Sevres.] + +"M. de Calonne immediately received the King's mandate to resign the +portfolio. The Minister desired that he might be allowed to give his +resignation to the King himself. His request was granted. The Queen was +present at the interview. The work in question was produced. On +beholding it, the Minister nearly fainted. The King got up and left the +room. The Queen, who remained, told M. de Calonne that His Majesty had +no further occasion for his services. He fell on his knees. He was not +allowed to speak, but was desired to leave Paris. + +"The dismissal and disgrace of M. de Calonne were scarcely known before +all Paris vociferated that they were owing to the intrigues of the +favourite De Polignac, in consequence of his having refused to administer +to her own superfluous extravagance and the Queen's repeated demands on +the Treasury to satisfy the numerous dependants of the Duchess. + +"This, however, was soon officially disproved by the exhibition of a +written proposition of Calonne's to the Queen, to supply an additional +hundred thousand francs that year to her annual revenue, which Her +Majesty refused. As for the Duchesse de Polignac, so far from having +caused the disgrace, she was not even aware of the circumstance from +which it arose; nor did the Minister himself ever know how, or by what +agency, his falsehood was so thoroughly unmasked." + + +NOTE: + + [The work which is here spoken of, the Queen kept, as a proof of the + treachery of Calonne towards her and his Sovereign, till the + storming of the Tuileries on the 10th of August, 1792, when, with + the rest of the papers and property plundered on that memorable + occasion, it fell into the hands of the ferocious mob. + + M. de Calonne soon after left France for Italy. There he lived for + some time in the palace of a particular friend of mine and the + Marquis, my husband, the Countess Francese Tressino, at Vicenza. + + In consequence of our going every season to take the mineral waters + and use the baths at Valdagno, we had often occasion to be in + company with M. de Calonne, both at Vicenza and Valdagno, where I + must do him the justice to say he conducted himself with the + greatest circumspection in speaking of the Revolution. + + Though he evidently avoided the topic which terminates this chapter, + yet one day, being closely pressed upon the subject, he said + forgeries were daily committed on Ministers, and were most + particularly so in France at the period in question; that he had + borne the blame of various imprudencies neither authorized nor + executed by him; that much had been done and supposed to have been + done with his sanction, of which he had not the slightest knowledge. + This he observed generally, without specifying any express instance. + + He was then asked whether he did not consider himself responsible + for the mischief he occasioned by declaring the nation in a state of + bankruptcy. He said, "No, not in the least. There was no other way + of preventing enormous sums from being daily lavished, as they then + were, on herds of worthless beings; that the Queen had sought to + cultivate a state of private domestic society, but that, in the + attempt, she only warmed in her bosom domestic vipers, who fed on + the vital spirit of her generosity." He mentioned no names. + + I then took the liberty of asking him his opinion of the Princesse + de Lamballe. + + "Oh, madame! had the rest of Her Majesty's numerous attendants + possessed the tenth part of that unfortunate Victim's virtues, Her + Majesty would never have been led into the errors which all France + must deplore! + + "I shall never forget her," continued he, "the day I went to take + leave of her. She was sitting on a sofa when I entered. On seeing + me, she rose immediately. Before I could utter a syllable, + 'Monsieur,' said the Princess, 'you are accused of being the Queen's + enemy. Acquit yourself of the foul deed imputed to you, and I shall + be happy to serve you as far as lies in my power. Till then, I must + decline holding any communication with an individual thus situated. + I am her friend, and cannot receive any one known to be otherwise.' + + "There was something," added he, "so sublime, so dignified, and + altogether so firm, though mild in her manner, that she appeared not + to belong to a race of earthly beings!" + + Seeing the tears fall from his eyes, while he was thus eulogising + her whose memory I shall ever venerate, I almost forgave him the + mischief of his imprudence, which led to her untimely end. I + therefore carefully avoided wounding his few gray hairs and latter + days, and left him still untold that it was by her, of whom he + thought so highly, that his uncontradicted treachery had been + discovered. + + + + +SECTION III. + +"Of the many instances in which the Queen's exertions to serve those whom +she conceived likely to benefit and relieve the nation, turned to the +injury, not only of herself, but those whom she patronised and the cause +she would strengthen, one of the most unpopular was that of the promotion +of Brienne, Archbishop of Sens, to the Ministry. Her interest in his +favour was entirely created by the Abbe Vermond, himself too superficial +to pronounce upon any qualities, and especially such as were requisite +for so high a station. By many, the partiality which prompted Vermond to +espouse the interests of the Archbishop was ascribed to the amiable +sentiment of gratitude for the recommendation of that dignitary, by which +Vermond himself first obtained his situation at Court; but there were +others, who have been deemed deeper in the secret, who impute it to the +less honourable source of self-interest, to the mere spirit of +ostentation, to the hope of its enabling him to bring about the +destruction of the De Polignacs. Be this as it may, the Abbe well knew +that a Minister indebted for his elevation solely to the Queen would be +supported by her to the last. + +"This, unluckily, proved the case. Marie Antoinette persisted in +upholding every act of Brienne, till his ignorance and unpardonable +blunders drew down the general indignation of the people against Her +Majesty and her protege, with whom she was identified. The King had +assented to the appointment with no other view than that of not being +utterly isolated and to show a respect for his consort's choice. But the +incapable Minister was presently compelled to retire not only from +office, but from Paris. Never was a Minister more detested while in +power, or a people more enthusiastically satisfied at his going out. His +effigy was burnt in every town of France, and the general illuminations +and bonfires in the capital were accompanied by hooting and hissing the +deposed statesman to the barriers. + +"The Queen, prompted by the Abbe Vermond, even after Brienne's +dismission, gave him tokens of her royal munificence. Her Majesty feared +that her acting otherwise to a Minister, who had been honoured by her +confidence, would operate as a check to prevent all men of celebrity from +exposing their fortunes to so ungracious a return for lending their best +services to the State, which now stood in need of the most skilful +pilots. Such were the motives assigned by Her Majesty herself to me, +when I took the liberty, of expostulating with her respecting the dangers +which threatened herself and family, from this continued devotedness to a +Minister against whom the nation had pronounced so strongly. I could not +but applaud the delicacy of the feeling upon which her conduct had been +grounded; nor could I blame her, in my heart, for the uprightness of her +principle, in showing that what she had once undertaken should not be +abandoned through female caprice. I told Her Majesty that the system +upon which she acted was praiseworthy; and that its application in the +present instance would have been so had the Archbishop possessed as much +talent as he lacked; but, that now it was quite requisite for her to stop +the public clamour by renouncing her protection of a man who had so +seriously endangered the public tranquillity and her own reputation. + +"As a proof how far my caution was well founded, there was an immense +riotous mob raised about this time against the Queen, in consequence of +her having, appointed the dismissed Minister's niece, Madame de Canisy, +to a place at Court, and having given her picture, set in diamonds, to +the Archbishop himself. + +"The Queen, in many cases, was by far too communicative to some of her +household, who immediately divulged all they gathered from her unreserve. +How could these circumstances have transpired to the people but from +those nearest the person of Her Majesty, who, knowing the public feeling +better than their royal mistress could be supposed to know it, did their +own feeling little credit by the mischievous exposure? The people were +exasperated beyond all conception. The Abbe Vermond placed before Her +Majesty the consequences of her communicativeness, and from this time +forward she never repeated the error. After the lesson she had received, +none of her female attendants, not even the Duchesse de Polignac, to whom +she would have confided her very existence, could, had they been ever so +much disposed, have drawn anything upon public matters from her. With +me, as her superintendent and entitled by my situation to interrogate and +give her counsel, she was not, of course, under the same restriction. +To his other representations of the consequences of the Queen's +indiscreet openness, the Abbe Vermond added that, being obliged to write +all the letters, private and public, he often found himself greatly +embarrassed by affairs having gone forth to the world beforehand. One +misfortune of putting this seal upon the lips of Her Majesty was that it +placed her more thoroughly in the Abbe's power. She was, of course, +obliged to rely implicitly upon him concerning many points, which, had +they undergone the discussion necessarily resulting from free +conversation, would have been shown to her under very different aspects. +A man with a better heart, less Jesuitical, and not so much interested as +Vermond was to keep his place, would have been a safer monitor. + +"Though the Archbishop of Sens was so much hated and despised, much may +be said in apology for his disasters. His unpopularity, and the Queen's +support of him against the people, was certainly a vital blow to the +monarchy. There is no doubt of his having been a poor substitute for the +great men who had so gloriously beaten the political paths of +administration, particularly the Comte de Vergennes and Necker. +But at that time, when France was threatened by its great convulsion, +where is the genius which might not have committed itself? And here is a +man coming to rule amidst revolutionary feelings, with no knowledge +whatever of revolutionary principles--a pilot steering into one harbour +by the chart of another. I am by no means a vindicator of the +Archbishop's obstinacy in offering himself a candidate for a situation +entirely foreign to the occupations, habits, and studies of his whole +life; but his intentions may have been good enough, and we must not +charge the physician with murder who has only mistaken the disease, and, +though wrong in his judgment, has been zealous and conscientious; nor +must we blame the comedians for the faults of the comedy. The errors +were not so much in the men who did not succeed as in the manners of the +times. + +"The part which the Queen was now openly compelled to bear, in the +management of public affairs, increased the public feeling against her +from dislike to hatred. Her Majesty was unhappy, not only from the +necessity which called her out of the sphere to which she thought her sex +ought to be confined, but from the divisions which existed in the Royal +Family upon points in which their common safety required a common scheme +of action. Her favourite brother-in-law, D'Artois, had espoused the side +of D'ORLEANS, and the popular party seemed to prevail against her, even +with the King. + +"The various parliamentary assemblies, which had swept on their course, +under various denominations, in rapid and stormy succession, were now +followed by one which, like Aaron's rod, was to swallow up the rest. +Its approach was regarded by the Queen with ominous reluctance. +At length, however, the moment for the meeting of the States General +at Versailles arrived. Necker was once more in favour, and a sort of +forlorn hope of better times dawned upon the perplexed monarch, in his +anticipations from this assembly. + +"The night before the procession of the instalment of the States General +was to take place, it being my duty to attend Her Majesty, I received an +anonymous letter, cautioning me not to be seen that day by her side. +I immediately went to the King's apartments and showed him the letter. +His Majesty humanely enjoined me to abide by its counsels. I told him +I hoped he would for once permit me to exercise my own discretion; for if +my royal Sovereign were in danger, it was then that her attendants should +be most eager to rally round her, in order to watch over her safety and +encourage her fortitude. + +"While we were thus occupied, the Queen and my sister-in-law, the +Duchesse d'Orleans, entered the King's apartment, to settle some part of +the etiquette respecting the procession. + +"'I wish,' exclaimed the Duchess, 'that this procession were over; or +that it were never to take place; or that none of us had to be there; or +else, being obliged, that we had all passed, and were comfortably at home +again.' + +"'Its taking place,' answered the Queen, 'never had my sanction, +especially at Versailles. M. Necker appears to be in its favour, and +answers for its success. I wish he may not be deceived; but I much fear +that he is guided more by the mistaken hope of maintaining his own +popularity by this impolitic meeting, than by any conscientious +confidence in its advantage to the King's authority.' + +"The King, having in his hand the letter which I had just brought him, +presented it to the Queen. + +"'This, my dear Duchess,' cried the Queen, I comes from the Palais Royal +manufactory, [Palais d' Orleans. D.W.] to poison the very first +sentiments of delight at the union expected between the King and his +subjects, by innuendoes of the danger which must result from my being +present at it. Look at the insidiousness of the thing! Under a pretext +of kindness, cautions against the effect of their attachment are given to +my most sincere and affectionate attendants, whose fidelity none dare +attack openly. I am, however, rejoiced that Lamballe has been +cautioned.' + +"'Against what?' replied I. + +"'Against appearing in the procession,' answered the Queen. + +"'It is only,' I exclaimed, 'by putting me in the grave they can ever +withdraw me from Your Majesty. While I have life and Your Majesty's +sanction, force only will prevent me from doing my duty. Fifty thousand +daggers, Madame, were they all raised against me, would have no power to +shake the firmness of my character or the earnestness of my attachment. +I pity the wretches who have so little penetration. Victim or no victim, +nothing shall ever induce me to quit Your Majesty.' + +"The Queen and Duchess, both in tears, embraced me. After the Duchess +had taken her leave, the King and Queen hinted their suspicions that she +had been apprised of the letter, and had made this visit expressly to +observe what effect it had produced, well knowing at the time that some +attempt was meditated by the hired mob and purchased deputies already +brought over to the D'ORLEANS faction. Not that the slightest suspicion +of collusion could ever be attached to the good Duchesse d'Orleans +against the Queen. The intentions of the Duchess were known to be as +virtuous and pure as those of her husband's party were criminal and +mischievous. But, no doubt, she had intimations of the result intended; +and, unable to avert the storm or prevent its cause, had been instigated +by her strong attachment to me, as well as the paternal affection her +father, the Duc de Penthievre, bore me, to attempt to lessen the +exasperation of the Palais Royal party and the Duke, her husband, against +me, by dissuading me from running any risk upon the occasion. + +"The next day, May 5, 1789, at the very moment when all the resources of +nature and art seemed exhausted to render the Queen a paragon of +loveliness beyond anything I had ever before witnessed, even in her; +when every impartial eye was eager to behold and feast on that form whose +beauty warmed every heart in her favour; at that moment a horde of +miscreants, just as she came within sight of the Assembly, thundered in +her ears, 'Orleans forever!' three or four times, while she and the King +were left to pass unheeded. Even the warning of the letter, from which +she had reason to expect some commotions, suggested to her imagination +nothing like this, and she was dreadfully shaken. I sprang forward to +support her. The King's party, prepared for the attack, shouted 'Vive le +roi! Vive la reine!' As I turned, I saw some of the members lividly +pale, as if fearing their machinations had been discovered; but, as they +passed, they said in the hearing of Her Majesty, 'Remember, you are the +daughter of Maria Theresa.'--'True,' answered the Queen. The Duc de +Biron, Orleans, La Fayette, Mirabeau, and the Mayor of Paris, seeing Her +Majesty's emotion, came up, and were going to stop the procession. All, +in apparent agitation, cried out 'Halt!' The Queen, sternly looking at +them, made a sign with her head to proceed, recovered herself, and moved +forward in the train, with all the dignity and self-possession for which +she was so eminently distinguished. + +"But this self-command in public proved nearly fatal to Her Majesty on +her return to her apartment. There her real feelings broke forth, and +their violence was so great as to cause the bracelets on her wrists and +the pearls in her necklace to burst from the threads and settings, before +her women and the ladies in attendance could have time to take them off. +She remained many hours in a most alarming state of strong convulsions. +Her clothes were obliged to be cut from her body, to give her ease; but +as soon as she was undressed, and tears came to her relief, she flew +alternately to the Princesse Elizabeth and to myself; but we were both +too much overwhelmed to give her the consolation of which she stood so +much in need. + +"Barnave that very evening came to my private apartment, and tendered his +services to the Queen. He told me he wished Her Majesty to be convinced +that he was a Frenchman; that he only desired his country might be +governed by salutary laws, and not by the caprice of weak sovereigns, +or a vitiated, corrupt Ministry; that the clergy and nobility ought to +contribute to the wants of the State equally with every other class of +the King's subjects; that when this was accomplished, and abuses were +removed, by such a national representation as would enable the Minister, +Necker, to accomplish his plans for the liquidation of the national debt, +I might assure Her Majesty that both the King and herself would find +themselves happier in a constitutional government than they had ever yet +been; for such a government would set them free from all dependence on +the caprice of Ministers, and lessen a responsibility of which they now +experienced the misery; that if the King sincerely entered into the +spirit of regenerating the French nation, he would find among the present +representatives many members of probity, loyal and honourable in their +intentions, who would never become the destroyers of a limited legitimate +monarchy, or the corrupt regicides of a rump Parliament, such as brought +the wayward Charles the First, of England, to the fatal block. + +"I attempted to relate the conversation to the Queen. She listened with +the greatest attention till I came to the part concerning the +constitutional King, when Her Majesty lost her patience, and prevented me +from proceeding. + + [This and other conversations, which will be found in subsequent + pages, will prove that Barnave's sentiments in favour of the Royal + Family long preceded the affair at Varennes, the beginning of which + Madame Campan assigns to it. Indeed it must by this time be evident + to the reader that Madame Campan, though very correct in relating + all she knew, with respect to the history of Marie Antoinette, was + not in possession of matters foreign to her occupation about the + person of the Queen, and, in particular, that she could communicate + little concerning those important intrigues carried on respecting + the different deputies of the first Assembly, till in the latter + days of the Revolution, when it became necessary, from the pressure + of events, that she should be made a sort of confidante, in order to + prevent her from compromising the persons of the Queen and the + Princesse de Lamballe: a trust, of her claim to which her undoubted + fidelity was an ample pledge. Still, however, she was often absent + from Court at moments of great importance, and was obliged to take + her information, upon much which she has recorded, from hearsay, + which has led her, as I have before stated, into frequent mistakes.] + +"The expense of the insulting scene, which had so overcome Her Majesty, +was five hundred thousand francs! This sum was paid by the agents of the +Palais Royal, and its execution entrusted principally to Mirabeau, +Bailly, the Mayor of Paris, and another individual, who was afterwards +brought over to the Court party. + +"The history of the Assembly itself on the day following, the 6th of May, +is too well known. The sudden perturbation of a guilty conscience, which +overcame the Duc d'Orleans, seemed like an awful warning. He had +scarcely commenced his inflammatory address to the Assembly, when some +one, who felt incommoded by the stifling heat of the hall, exclaimed, +'Throw open the windows!' The conspirator fancied he heard in this his +death sentence. He fainted, and was conducted home in the greatest +agitation. Madame de Bouffon was at the Palais Royal when the Duke was +taken thither. The Duchesse d'Orleans was at the palace of the Duc de +Penthievre, her father, while the Duke himself was at the Hotel Thoulouse +with me, where he was to dine, and where we were waiting for the Duchess +to come and join us, by appointment. But Madame de Bouffon was so +alarmed by the state in which she saw the Duc d'Orleans that she +instantly left the Palais Royal, and despatched his valet express to +bring her thither. My sister-in-law sent an excuse to me for not coming +to dinner, and an explanation to her father for so abruptly leaving his +palace, and hastened home to her husband. It was some days before he +recovered; and his father-in-law, his wife, and myself were not without +hopes that he would see in this an omen to prevent him from persisting +any longer in his opposition to the Royal Family. + +"The effects of the recall of the popular Minister, Necker, did not +satisfy the King. Necker soon became an object of suspicion to the Court +party, and especially to His Majesty and the Queen. He was known to have +maintained an understanding with D'ORLEANS. The miscarriage of many +plans and the misfortunes which succeeded were the result of this +connection, though it was openly disavowed. The first suspicion of the +coalition arose thus: + +"When the Duke had his bust carried about Paris, after his unworthy +schemes against the King had been discovered, it was thrown into the +mire. Necker passing, perhaps by mere accident, stopped his carriage, +and expressing himself with some resentment for such treatment to a +Prince of the blood and a friend of the people, ordered the bust to be +taken to the Palais Royal, where it was washed, crowned with laurel, and +thence, with Necker's own bust, carried to Versailles. The King's aunts, +coming from Bellevue as the procession was upon the road, ordered the +guards to send the men away who bore the busts, that the King and Queen +might not be insulted with the sight. This circumstance caused another +riot, which was attributed to Their Majesties. The dismission of the +Minister was the obvious result. It is certain, however, that, in +obeying the mandate of exile, Necker had no wish to exercise the +advantage he possessed from his great popularity. His retirement was +sudden and secret; and, although it was mentioned that very evening by +the Baroness de Stael to the Comte de Chinon, so little bustle was made +about his withdrawing from France, that it was even stated at the time to +have been utterly unknown, even to his daughter. + +"Necker himself ascribed his dismission to the influence of the De +Polignacs; but he was totally mistaken, for the Duchesse de Polignac was +the last person to have had any influence in matters of State, whatever +might have been the case with those who surrounded her. She was devoid +of ambition or capacity to give her weight; and the Queen was not so +pliant in points of high import as to allow herself to be governed or +overruled, unless her mind was thoroughly convinced. In that respect, +she was something like Catharine II., who always distinguished her +favourites from her Minister; but in the present case she had no choice, +and was under the necessity of yielding to the boisterous voice of a +faction. + +"From this epoch, I saw all the persons who had any wish to communicate +with the Queen on matters relative to the public business, and Her +Majesty was generally present when they came, and received them in my +apartments. The Duchesse de Polignac never, to my knowledge, entered +into any of these State questions; yet there was no promotion in the +civil, military, or ministerial department, which she has not been +charged with having influenced the Queen to make, though there were few +of them who were not nominated by the King and his Ministers, even +unknown to the Queen herself. + +"The prevailing dissatisfaction against Her Majesty and the favourite +De Polignac now began to take so many forms, and produce effects so +dreadful, as to wring her own feelings, as well as those of her royal +mistress, with the most intense anguish. Let me mention one gross and +barbarous instance in proof of what I say. + +"After the birth of the Queen's second son, the Duc de Normandie, who was +afterwards Dauphin, the Duke and Duchess of Harcourt, outrageously +jealous of the ascendency of the governess of the Dauphin, excited the +young Prince's hatred toward Madame de Polignac to such a pitch that he +would take nothing from her hands, but often, young as he was at the +time, order her out of the apartment, and treat her remonstrances with +the utmost contempt. The Duchess bitterly complained of the Harcourts to +the Queen; for she really sacrificed the whole of her time to the care +and attention required by this young Prince, and she did so from sincere +attachment, and that he might not be irritated in his declining state of +health. The Queen was deeply hurt at these dissensions between the +governor and governess. Her Majesty endeavoured to pacify the mind of +the young Prince, by literally making herself a slave to his childish +caprices, which in all probability would have created the confidence so +desired, when a most cruel, unnatural, I may say diabolical, report +prevailed to alienate the child's affections even from his mother, +in making him believe that, owing to his deformity and growing ugliness, +she had transferred all her tenderness to his younger brother, who +certainly was very superior in health and beauty to the puny Dauphin. +Making a pretext of this calumny, the governor of the heir-apparent was +malicious enough to prohibit him from eating or drinking anything but +what first passed through the hands of his physicians; and so strong was +the impression made by this interdict on the mind of the young Dauphin +that he never after saw the Queen but with the greatest terror. The +feelings of his disconsolate parent may be more readily conceived than +described. So may the mortification of his governess, the Duchesse de +Polignac, herself so tender, so affectionate a mother. Fortunately for +himself, and happily for his wretched parents, this royal youth, whose +life, though short, had been so full of suffering, died at Versailles on +the 4th of June, 1789, and, though only between seven and eight years of +age at the time of his decease, he had given proofs of intellectual +precocity, which would probably have made continued life, amidst the +scenes of wretchedness, which succeeded, anything to him but a blessing. + +"The cabals of the Duke of Harcourt, to which I have just adverted, +against the Duchesse de Polignac, were the mere result of foul malice +and ambition. Harcourt wished to get his wife, who was the sworn enemy +of De Polignac, created governess to the Dauphin, instead of the Queen's +favourite. Most of the criminal stories against the Duchesse de +Polignac, and which did equal injury to the Queen, were fabricated by the +Harcourts, for the purpose of excluding their rival from her situation. + +"Barnave, meanwhile, continued faithful to his liberal principles, but +equally faithful to his desire of bringing Their Majesties over to those +principles, and making them republican Sovereigns. He lost no +opportunity of availing himself of my permission for him to call whenever +he chose on public business; and he continued to urge the same points, +upon which he had before been so much in earnest, although with no better +effect. Both the King and the Queen looked with suspicion upon Barnave, +and with still more suspicion upon his politics. + +"The next time I received him, 'Madame,' exclaimed the deputy to me, +'since our last interview I have pondered well on the situation of the +King; and, as an honest Frenchman, attached to my lawful Sovereign, and +anxious for his future prosperous reign, I am decidedly of opinion that +his own safety, as well as the dignity of the crown of France, and the +happiness of his subjects, can only be secured by his giving his country +a Constitution, which will at once place his establishment beyond the +caprice and the tyranny of corrupt administrations, and secure hereafter +the first monarchy in Europe from the possibility of sinking under weak +Princes, by whom the royal splendour of France has too often been debased +into the mere tool of vicious and mercenary noblesse, and sycophantic +courtiers. A King, protected by a Constitution, can do no wrong. He is +unshackled with responsibility. He is empowered with the comfort of +exercising the executive authority for the benefit of the nation, while +all the harsher duties, and all the censures they create, devolve on +others. It is, therefore, madame, through your means, and the well-known +friendship you have ever evinced for the Royal Family, and the general +welfare of the French nation, that I wish to obtain a private audience of +Her Majesty, the Queen, in order to induce her to exert the never-failing +ascendency she has ever possessed over the mind of our good King, +in persuading him to the sacrifice of a small proportion of his power, +for the sake of preserving the monarchy to his heirs; and posterity will +record the virtues of a Prince who has been magnanimous enough, of his +own free will, to resign the unlawful part of his prerogatives, usurped +by his predecessors, for the blessing and pleasure of giving liberty to +a beloved people, among whom both the King and Queen will find many +Hampdens and Sidneys, but very few Cromwells. Besides, madame, we must +make a merit of necessity. The times are pregnant with events, and it is +more prudent to support the palladium of the ancient monarchy than risk +its total overthrow; and fall it must, if the diseased excrescences, +of which the people complain, and which threaten to carry death into +the very heart of the tree, be not lopped away in time by the Sovereign +himself.' + +"I heard the deputy with the greatest attention. I promised to fulfil +his commission. The better to execute my task, I retired the moment he +left me, and wrote down all I could recollect of his discourse, that it +might be thoroughly placed before the Queen the first opportunity. + +"When I communicated the conversation to Her Majesty, she listened with +the most gracious condescension, till I came to the part wherein Barnave +so forcibly impressed the necessity of adopting a constitutional +monarchy. Here, as she had done once before, when I repeated some former +observations of Barnave to her, Marie Antoinette somewhat lost her +equanimity. She rose from her seat, and exclaimed: + +"'What! is an absolute Prince, and the hereditary Sovereign of the +ancient monarchy of France, to become the tool of a plebeian faction, +who will, their point once gained, dethrone him for his imbecile +complaisance? Do they wish to imitate the English Revolution of 1648, +and reproduce the sanguinary times of the unfortunate and weak Charles +the First? To make France a commonwealth! Well! be it so! But before +I advise the King to such a step, or give my consent to it, they shall +bury me under the ruins of the monarchy.' + +"'But what answer,' said I, 'does Your Majesty wish me to return to the +deputy's request for a private audience?' + +"'What answer?' exclaimed the Queen. No answer at all is the best answer +to such a presumptuous proposition! I tremble for the consequences of +the impression their disloyal manoeuvres have made upon the minds of the +people, and I have no faith whatever in their proffered services to the +King. However, on reflection, it may be expedient to temporise. +Continue to see him. Learn, if possible, how far he may be trusted; +but do not fix any time, as yet, for the desired audience. I wish to +apprise the King, first, of his interview with you, Princess. This +conversation does not agree with what he and Mirabeau proposed about the +King's recovering his prerogatives. Are these the prerogatives with +which he flattered the King? Binding him hand and foot, and excluding +him from every privilege, and then casting him a helpless dependant on +the caprice of a volatile plebeian faction! The French nation is very +different from the English. The first rules of the established ancient +order of the government broken through, they will violate twenty others, +and the King will be sacrificed, before this frivolous people again +organise themselves with any sort of regular government.' + +"Agreeably to Her Majesty's commands, I continued to see Barnave. I +communicated with him by letter,' at his private lodgings at Passy, and +at Vitry; but it was long before the Queen could be brought to consent to +the audience he solicited. + + [Of these letters I was generally the bearer. I recollect that day + perfectly. I was copying some letters for the Princesse de + Lamballe, when the Prince de Conti came in. The Prince lived not + only to see, but to feel the errors of his system. He attained a + great age. He outlived the glory of his country. Like many others, + the first gleam of political regeneration led him into a system, + which drove him out of France, to implore the shelter of a foreign + asylum, that he might not fall a victim to his own credulity. I had + an opportunity of witnessing in his latter days his sincere + repentance; and to this it is fit that I should bear testimony. + There were no bounds to the execration with which he expressed + himself towards the murderers of those victims, whose death he + lamented with a bitterness in which some remorse was mingled, from + the impression that his own early errors in favour of the Revolution + had unintentionally accelerated their untimely end. This was a + source to him of deep and perpetual self-reproach. + + There was an eccentricity in the appearance, dress, and manners of + the Prince de Conti, which well deserves recording. + + He wore to the very last--and it was in Barcelona, so late as 1803, + that I last had the honour of conversing with him--a white rich + stuff dress frock coat, of the cut and fashion of Louis XIV., which, + being without any collar, had buttons and button-holes from the neck + to the bottom of the skirt, and was padded and stiffened with + buckram. The cuffs were very large, of a different colour, and + turned up to the elbows. The whole was lined with white satin, + which, from its being very much moth-eaten, appeared as if it had + been dotted on purpose to show the buckram between the satin lining. + His waistcoat was of rich green striped silk, bound with gold lace; + the buttons and buttonholes of gold; the flaps very large, and + completely covering his small clothes; which happened very apropos, + for they scarcely reached his knees, over which he wore large + striped silk stockings, that came half-way up his thighs. His shoes + had high heels, and reached half up his legs; the buckles were + small, and set round with paste. A very narrow stiff stock + decorated his neck. He carried a hat, with a white feather on the + inside, under his arm. His ruffles were of very handsome point + lace. His few gray hairs were gathered in a little round bag. The + wig alone was wanting to make him a thorough picture of the polished + age of the founder of Versailles and Marly. + + He had all that princely politeness of manner which so eminently + distinguished the old school of French nobility, previous to the + Revolution. He was the thorough gentleman, a character by no means + so readily to be met with in these days of refinement as one would + imagine. He never addressed the softer sex but with ease and + elegance, and admiration of their persons. + + Could Louis XIV. have believed, had it been told to him when he + placed this branch of the Bourbons on the throne of Iberia, that it + would one day refuse to give shelter at the Court of Madrid to one + of his family, for fear of offending a Corsican usurper!] + +"Indeed, Her Majesty had such an aversion to all who had declared +themselves for any innovation upon the existing power of the monarchy, +that she was very reluctant to give audience upon the subject to any +person, not even excepting the Princes of the blood. The Comte d'Artois +himself, leaning as he did to the popular side, had ceased to be welcome. +Expressions he had made use of, concerning the necessity for some change, +had occasioned the coolness, which was already of considerable standing. + +"One day the Prince de Conti came to me, to complain of the Queen's +refusing to receive him, because he had expressed himself to the same +effect as had the Comte d'Artois on the subject of the Tiers Etat. + +"'And does Your Highness,' replied I, 'imagine that the Queen is less +displeased with the conduct of the Comte d'Artois on that head than she +is with you, Prince? I can assure Your Highness, that at this moment +there subsists a very great degree of coolness between Her Majesty and +her royal brother-in-law, whom she loves as if he were her own brother. +Though she makes every allowance for his political inexperience, and well +knows the goodness of his heart and the rectitude of his intentions, yet +policy will not permit her to change her sentiments.' + +"'That may be,' said the Prince, 'but while Her Majesty continues to +honour with her royal presence the Duchesse de Polignac, whose friends, +as well as herself, are all enthusiastically mad in favour of the +constitutional system, she shows an undue partiality, by countenancing +one branch of the party and not the other; particularly so, as the great +and notorious leader of the opposition, which the Queen frowns upon, +is the sister-in-law of this very Duchesse de Polignac, and the avowed +favourite of the Comte d'Artois, by whom, and the councils of the Palais +Royal, he is supposed to be totally governed in his political career.' + +"'The Queen,' replied I, 'is certainly her own mistress. She sees, I +believe, many persons more from habit than any other motive; to which, +Your Highness is aware, many Princes often make sacrifices. Your +Highness cannot suppose I can have the temerity to control Her Majesty, +in the selection of her friends, or in her sentiments respecting them.' + +"'No,' exclaimed the Prince, 'I imagine not. But she might just as well +see any of us; for we are no more enemies of the Crown than the party she +is cherishing by constantly appearing among them; which, according to her +avowed maxims concerning the not sanctioning any but supporters of the +absolute monarchy, is in direct opposition to her own sentiments. + +"'Who,' continued His Highness, 'caused that infernal comedy, 'Le Mariage +de Figaro', to be brought out, but the party of the Duchesse de Polignac? + + [Note of the Princesse de Lamballe:--The Prince de Conti never could + speak of Beaumarchais but with the greatest contempt. There was + something personal in this exasperation. Beaumarchais had satirized + the Prince. 'The Spanish Barber' was founded on a circumstance + which happened at a country house between Conti and a young lady, + during the reign of Louis XV., when intrigues of every kind were + practised and almost sanctioned. The poet has exposed the Prince by + making him the Doctor Bartolo of his play. The affair which + supplied the story was hushed up at Court, and the Prince was + punished only by the loss of his mistress, who became the wife of + another.] + +The play is a critique on the whole Royal Family, from the drawing up of +the curtain to its fall. It burlesques the ways and manners of every +individual connected with the Court of Versailles. Not a scene but +touches some of their characters. Are not the Queen herself and the +Comte d'Artois lampooned and caricatured in the garden scenes, and the +most slanderous ridicule cast upon their innocent evening walks on the +terrace? Does not Beaumarchais plainly show in it, to every impartial +eye, the means which the Comtesse Diane has taken publicly to demonstrate +her jealousy of the Queen's ascendency over the Comte d'Artois? Is it +not from the same sentiment that she roused the jealousy of the Comtesse +d'Artois against Her Majesty?' + +"'All these circumstances,' observed I, 'the King prudently foresaw when +he read the manuscript, and caused it to be read to the Queen, to +convince her of the nature of its characters and the dangerous tendency +likely to arise from its performance. Of this Your Highness is aware. +It is not for me to apprise you that, to avert the excitement inevitable +from its being brought upon the stage, and under a thorough conviction of +the mischief it would produce in turning the minds of the people against +the Queen, His Majesty solemnly declared that the comedy should not be +performed in Paris; and that he would never sanction its being brought +before the public on any stage in France.' + +"'Bah! bah! madame!' exclaimed De Conti. The Queen has acted like a +child in this affair, as in many others. In defiance of His Majesty's +determination, did not the Queen herself, through the fatal influence of +her favourite, whose party wearied her out by continued importunities, +cause the King to revoke his express mandate? And what has been the +consequence of Her Majesty's ungovernable partiality for these De +Polignacs?' + +"'You know, Prince,' said I, 'better than I do.' + +"'The proofs of its bad consequences,' pursued His Highness, 'are more +strongly verified than ever by your own withdrawing from the Queen's +parties since her unreserved acknowledgment of her partiality (fatal +partiality!) for those who will be her ruin; for they are her worst +enemies.' + +"'Pardon me, Prince,' answered I, 'I have not withdrawn myself from the +Queen, but from the new parties, with whose politics I cannot identify +myself, besides some exceptions I have taken against those who frequent +them.' + +"'Bah! bah!' exclaimed De Conti, 'your sagacity has got the better of +your curiosity. All the wit and humour of that traitor Beaumarchais +never seduced you to cultivate his society, as all the rest of the +Queen's party have done.' + +"'I never knew him to be accused of treason.' + +"'Why, what do you call a fellow who sent arms to the Americans before +the war was declared, without his Sovereign's consent?' + +"'In that affair, I consider the Ministers as criminal as himself; for +the Queen, to this day, believes that Beaumarchais was sanctioned by them +and, you know, Her Majesty has ever since had an insuperable dislike to +both De Maurepas and De Vergennes. But I have nothing to do with these +things.' + +"'Yes, yes, I understand you, Princess. Let her romp and play with the +'compate vous',--[A kind of game of forfeits, introduced for the +diversion of the royal children and those of the Duchesse de Polignac.]-- +but who will 'compatire' (make allowance for) her folly? Bah! bah! bah! +She is inconsistent, Princess. Not that I mean by this to insinuate that +the Duchess is not the sincere friend and well-wisher of the Queen. Her +immediate existence, her interest, and that of her family, are all +dependent on the royal bounty. But can the Duchess answer for the same +sincerity towards the Queen, with respect to her innumerable guests? +No! Are not the sentiments of the Duchesses sister-in-law, the Comtesse +Diane, in direct opposition to the absolute monarchy? Has she not always +been an enthusiastic advocate for all those that have supported the +American war? Who was it that crowned, at a public assembly, the +democratical straight hairs of Dr. Franklin? Why the same Madame +Comtesse Diane! Who was 'capa turpa' in applauding the men who were +framing the American Constitution at Paris? Madame Comtesse Diane! Who +was it, in like manner, that opposed all the Queen's arguments against +the political conduct of France and Spain, relative to the war with +England, in favour of the American Independence? The Comtesse Diane! +Not for the love of that rising nation, or for the sacred cause of +liberty; but from a taste for notoriety, a spirit of envy and jealousy, +an apprehension lest the personal charms of the Queen might rob her of a +part of those affections, which she herself exclusively hoped to alienate +from that abortion, the Comtesse d'Artois, in whose service she is Maid +of Honour, and handmaid to the Count. My dear Princess, these are facts +proved. Beaumarchais has delineated them all. Why, then, refuse to see +me? Why withdraw her former confidence from the Comte d'Artois, when she +lives in the society which promulgates antimonarchical principles? These +are sad evidences of Her Majesty's inconsistency. She might as well see +the Duc d'Orleans' + +"Here my feelings overwhelmed me. I could contain myself no longer. The +tears gushed from my eyes. + +"'Oh, Prince!' exclaimed I, in a bitter agony of grief--'Oh, Prince! +touch not that fatal string. For how many years has he not caused these +briny tears of mine to flow from my burning eyes! The scalding drops +have nearly parched up the spring of life!'" + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Beaumarchais sent arms to the Americans +Educate his children as quietists in matters of religion +It is an ill wind that blows no one any good +Judge of men by the company they keep +Les culottes--what do you call them?' 'Small clothes' +My little English protegee +No phrase becomes a proverb until after a century's experience +We say "inexpressibles" +Wish art to eclipse nature + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Louis XV., and XVI., v5 +by Madame du Hausset, and an unknown English girl and Princess Lamballe + |