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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Adventure, by Elizabeth Morison
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: An Adventure
-
-Author: Elizabeth Morison
-        Frances Lamont
-
-Release Date: March 13, 2021 [eBook #64809]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
-             at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images
-             made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ADVENTURE ***
-
-
-
-
-                              AN ADVENTURE
-
-
-                       MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
-                      ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
-
-                                  1911
-
-
-
-
-                GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
-                    BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
-
-
-
-
-                                PREFACE
-
-
-It is a great venture to speak openly of a personal experience, and we
-only do so for the following reasons. First, we prefer that our story,
-which is known in part to some, should be wholly known as told by
-ourselves. Secondly, we have collected so much evidence on the subject,
-that it is possible now to consider it as a whole. Thirdly, conditions
-are changing at Versailles, and in a short time facts which were
-unknown, and circumstances which were unusual, may soon become
-commonplaces, and will lose their force as evidence that some curious
-psychological conditions must have been present, either in ourselves, or
-in the place.
-
-It is not our business to explain or to understand—nor do we pretend to
-understand—what happened to put us into communication with so many true
-facts, which, nine years ago, no one could have told us of in their
-entirety. But, in order that others may be able to judge fairly of all
-the circumstances, we have tried to record exactly what happened as
-simply and fully as possible.
-
-                                                      ELIZABETH MORISON.
-                                                      FRANCES LAMONT.
-
-
-                            PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
-
-The ladies whose Adventure is described in these pages have for various
-reasons preferred not to disclose their real names, but the signatures
-appended to the Preface are the only fictitious words in the book. The
-Publishers guarantee that the Authors have put down what happened to
-them as faithfully and accurately as was in their power.
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-
-
-             CHAPTER                                   PAGE
-                  I. THREE VISITS TO THE PETIT TRIANON    1
-
-                 II. RESULTS OF RESEARCH                 41
-
-                III. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS               100
-
-                 IV. A RÊVERIE                          121
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I
-                      VISITS TO THE PETIT TRIANON
-
-
-     Miss Morison’s Account of the First Visit to the Petit Trianon
-
-                              AUGUST, 1901
-
-After some days of sight-seeing in Paris, to which we were almost
-strangers, on an August afternoon, 1901, Miss Lamont and I went to
-Versailles. We had very hazy ideas as to where it was or what there was
-to be seen. Both of us thought it might prove to be a dull expedition.
-We went by train, and walked through the rooms and galleries of the
-Palace with interest, though we constantly regretted our inability
-through ignorance to feel properly the charm of the place. My knowledge
-of French history was limited to the very little I had learnt in the
-schoolroom, historical novels, and the first volume of Justin M’Carthy’s
-_French Revolution_. Over thirty years before my brother had written a
-prize poem on _Marie Antoinette_, for whom at the time I had felt much
-enthusiasm. But the German occupation was chiefly in our minds, and Miss
-Lamont and I thought and spoke of it several times.
-
-We sat down in the Salle des Glaces, where a very sweet air was blowing
-in at the open windows over the flower-beds below, and finding that
-there was time to spare, I suggested our going to the Petit Trianon. My
-sole knowledge of it was from a magazine article read as a girl, from
-which I received a general impression that it was a farmhouse where the
-Queen had amused herself.
-
-Looking in Baedeker’s map we saw the sort of direction and that there
-were two Trianons, and set off. By not asking the way we went an
-unnecessarily long way round,—by the great flights of steps from the
-fountains and down the central avenue as far as the head of the long
-pond. The weather had been very hot all the week, but on this day the
-sky was a little overcast and the sun shaded. There was a lively wind
-blowing, the woods were looking their best, and we both felt
-particularly vigorous. It was a most enjoyable walk.
-
-After reaching the beginning of the long water we struck away to the
-right down a woodland glade until we came obliquely to the other water
-close to the building, which we rightly concluded to be the Grand
-Trianon. We passed it on our left hand, and came up a broad green drive
-perfectly deserted. If we had followed it we should have come
-immediately to the Petit Trianon, but not knowing its position, we
-crossed the drive and went up a lane in front of us. I was surprised
-that Miss Lamont did not ask the way from a woman who was shaking a
-white cloth out of the window of a building at the corner of the lane,
-but followed, supposing that she knew where she was going to. Talking
-about England and mutual acquaintances there, we went up the lane, and
-then made a sharp turn to the right past some buildings. We looked in at
-an open doorway and saw the end of a carved staircase, but as no one was
-about we did not like to go in. There were three paths in front of us,
-and as we saw two men a little ahead on the centre one, we followed it,
-and asked them the way. Afterwards we spoke of them as gardeners,
-because we remembered a wheelbarrow of some kind close by and the look
-of a pointed spade, but they were really very dignified officials,
-dressed in long greyish-green coats with small three-cornered hats. They
-directed us straight on.
-
-We walked briskly forward, talking as before, but from the moment we
-left the lane an extraordinary depression had come over me, which, in
-spite of every effort to shake off, steadily deepened. There seemed to
-be absolutely no reason for it; I was not at all tired, and was becoming
-more interested in my surroundings. I was anxious that my companion
-should not discover the sudden gloom upon my spirits, which became quite
-overpowering on reaching the point where the path ended, being crossed
-by another, right and left.
-
-In front of us was a wood, within which, and overshadowed by trees, was
-a light garden kiosk, circular, and like a small bandstand, by which a
-man was sitting. There was no green sward, but the ground was covered
-with rough grass and dead leaves as in a wood. The place was so shut in
-that we could not see beyond it. Everything suddenly looked unnatural,
-therefore unpleasant; even the trees behind the building seemed to have
-become flat and lifeless, _like a wood worked in tapestry_. There were
-no effects of light and shade, and no wind stirred the trees. It was all
-intensely still.
-
-The man sitting close to the kiosk (who had on a cloak and a large shady
-hat) turned his head and looked at us. That was the culmination of my
-peculiar sensations, and I felt a moment of genuine alarm. The man’s
-face was most repulsive,—its expression odious. His complexion was very
-dark and rough. I said to Miss Lamont, “Which is our way?” but thought
-“nothing will induce me to go to the left.” It was a great relief at
-that moment to hear someone running up to us in breathless haste.
-Connecting the sound with the gardeners, I turned and ascertained that
-there was no one on the paths, either to the side or behind; but at
-almost the same moment I suddenly perceived another man quite close to
-us, behind and rather to the left hand, who had, apparently, just come
-either over or through the rock (or whatever it was) that shut out the
-view at the junction of the paths. The suddenness of his appearance was
-something of a shock.
-
-The second man was distinctly a gentleman; he was tall, with large dark
-eyes, and had crisp, curling black hair under the same large sombrero
-hat. He was handsome, and the effect of the hair was to make him look
-like an old picture. His face was glowing red as through great
-exertion,—as though he had come a long way. At first I thought he was
-sunburnt, but a second look satisfied me that the colour was from heat,
-not sunburning. He had on a dark cloak wrapped across him like a scarf,
-one end flying out in his prodigious hurry. He looked greatly excited as
-he called out to us, “Mesdames, Mesdames,” or (“Madame” pronounced more
-as the other), “il ne faut (pronounced _fout_) pas passer par là.” He
-then waved his arm, and said with great animation, “par ici ... cherchez
-la maison.”[1]
-
-I was so surprised at his eagerness that I looked up at him again, and
-to this he responded with a little backward movement and a most peculiar
-smile. Though I could not follow all he said, it was clear that he was
-determined that we should go to the right and not to the left. As this
-fell in with my own wish, I went instantly towards a little bridge on
-the right, and turning my head to join Miss Lamont in thanking him,
-found, to my surprise, that he was not there, but the running began
-again and from the sound it was close beside us.
-
-Silently we passed over the small rustic bridge which crossed a tiny
-ravine. So close to us when on the bridge that we could have touched it
-with our right hands, a thread-like cascade fell from a height down a
-green pretty bank, where ferns grew between stones. Where the little
-trickle of water went to I did not see, but it gave me the impression
-that we were near other water, though I saw none.
-
-Beyond the little bridge our pathway led under trees; it skirted a
-narrow meadow of long grass, bounded on the further side by trees, and
-very much overshadowed by trees growing in it. This gave the whole place
-a sombre look suggestive of dampness, and shut out the view of the house
-until we were close to it. The house was a square, solidly-built small
-country house;—quite different from what I expected. The long windows
-looking north into the English garden (where we were) were shuttered.
-There was a terrace round the north and west sides of the house, and on
-the rough grass which grew quite up to the terrace and with her back to
-it, a lady was sitting, holding out a paper as though to look at it at
-arm’s length. I supposed her to be sketching, and to have brought her
-own camp-stool. It seemed as though she must be making a study of trees,
-for they grew close in front of her, and there seemed to be nothing else
-to sketch. She saw us, and when we passed close by on her left hand, she
-turned and looked full at us. It was not a young face, and (though
-rather pretty) it did not attract me. She had on a shady white hat
-perched on a good deal of fair hair that fluffed round her forehead. Her
-light summer dress was arranged on her shoulders in handkerchief
-fashion, and there was a little line of either green or gold near the
-edge of the handkerchief, which showed me that it was _over_, not tucked
-into, her bodice, which was cut low. Her dress was long-waisted, with a
-good deal of fullness in the skirt, which seemed to be short. I thought
-she was a tourist, but that her dress was old-fashioned and rather
-unusual (though people were wearing fichu bodices that summer). I looked
-straight at her; but some indescribable feeling made me turn away
-annoyed at her being there.
-
-We went up the steps on to the terrace, my impression being that they
-led up direct from the English garden; but I was beginning to feel as
-though we were walking in a dream,—the stillness and oppressiveness were
-so unnatural. Again I saw the lady, this time from behind, and noticed
-that her fichu was pale green. It was rather a relief to me that Miss
-Lamont did not propose to ask her whether we could enter the house from
-that side.
-
-We crossed the terrace to the south-west corner and looked over into the
-cour d’honneur; and then turned back, and seeing that one of the long
-windows overlooking the French garden was unshuttered, we were going
-towards it when we were interrupted. The terrace was prolonged at right
-angles in front of what seemed to be a second house. The door of it
-suddenly opened, and a young man stepped out on to the terrace, banging
-the door behind him. He had the jaunty manner of a footman, but no
-livery, and called to us, saying that the way into the house was by the
-cour d’honneur, and offered to show us the way round. He looked
-inquisitively amused as he walked by us down the French garden till we
-came to an entrance into the front drive. We came out sufficiently near
-the first lane we had been in to make me wonder why the garden officials
-had not directed us back instead of telling us to go forward.
-
-When we were in the front entrance hall we were kept waiting for the
-arrival of a merry French wedding party. They walked arm in arm in a
-long procession round the rooms, and we were at the back,—too far off
-from the guide to hear much of his story. We were very much interested,
-and felt quite lively again. Coming out of the cour d’honneur we took a
-little carriage which was standing there, and drove back to the Hotel
-des Réservoirs in Versailles, where we had tea[2]; but we were neither
-of us inclined to talk, and did not mention any of the events of the
-afternoon. After tea we walked back to the station, looking on the way
-for the Tennis Court.
-
-
-On the way back to Paris the setting sun at last burst out from under
-the clouds, bathing the distant Versailles woods in glowing
-light,—Valerien standing out in front a mass of deep purple. Again and
-again the thought returned,—Was Marie Antoinette really much at Trianon,
-and did she see it for the last time long before the fatal drive to
-Paris accompanied by the mob?
-
-
-For a whole week we never alluded to that afternoon, nor did I think
-about it until I began writing a descriptive letter of our expeditions
-of the week before. As the scenes came back one by one, the same
-sensation of dreamy unnatural oppression came over me so strongly that I
-stopped writing, and said to Miss Lamont, “Do you think that the Petit
-Trianon is haunted?” Her answer was prompt, “Yes, I do.” I asked her
-where she felt it, and she said, “In the garden where we met the two
-men, but not only there.” She then described her feeling of depression
-and anxiety which began at the same point as it did with me, and how she
-tried not to let me know it. Talking it over we fully realised, for the
-first time, the theatrical appearance of the man who spoke to us, the
-inappropriateness of the wrapped cloak on a warm summer afternoon, the
-unaccountableness of his coming and going, the excited running which
-seemed to begin and end close to us, and yet always out of sight, and
-the extreme earnestness with which he desired us to go one way and not
-another. I said that the thought had crossed my mind that the two men
-were going to fight a duel, and that they were waiting until we were
-gone. Miss Lamont owned to having disliked the thought of passing the
-man of the kiosk.
-
-We did not speak again of the incident during my stay in Paris, though
-we visited the Conciergerie prisons, and the tombs of Louis XVI. and
-Marie Antoinette at Saint Denis, where all was clear and fresh and
-natural.
-
-Three months later Miss Lamont came to stay with me, and on Sunday,
-November 10th, 1901, we returned to the subject, and I said, “If we had
-known that a lady was sitting so near us sketching it would have made
-all the difference, for we should have asked the way.” She replied that
-she had seen no lady. I reminded her of the person sitting under the
-terrace; but Miss Lamont declared that there was no one there. I
-exclaimed that it was impossible that she should not have seen the
-individual; for we were walking side by side and went straight up to
-her, passed her and looked down upon her from the terrace. It was
-inconceivable to us both that she should not have seen the lady, but the
-fact was clear that Miss Lamont had not done so, though we had both been
-rather on the lookout for someone who would reassure us as to whether we
-were trespassing or not.
-
-Finding that we had a new element of mystery, and doubting how far we
-had seen any of the same things, we resolved to write down independent
-accounts of our expedition to Trianon, read up its history, and make
-every enquiry about the place. Miss Lamont returned to her school the
-same evening, and two days later I received from her a very interesting
-letter, giving the result of her first enquiries.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-
-  _November, 1901._
-
-
- Miss Lamont’s Account of her First Visit to the Petit Trianon in 1901
-
-                              AUGUST, 1901
-
-In the summer of 1900 I stayed in Paris for the first time, and in the
-course of that summer took a flat and furnished it, intending to place a
-French lady there in charge of my elder schoolgirls. Paris was quite new
-to me, and beyond seeing the picture galleries and one or two churches I
-made no expeditions except to shops, for the Exhibition of 1900 was
-going on, and all my free time was spent in seeing it with my French
-friends. The next summer, however, 1901, when, after several months at
-my school in England, I came back to Paris, it was to take the first
-opportunity possible of having a visitor to stay there: and I asked Miss
-Morison to come with me.
-
-Miss Morison suggested our seeing the historic part of Paris in
-something like chronological order, and I looked forward to seeing it
-practically for the first time with her. We decided to go to Versailles
-one day, though rather reluctantly, as we felt it was diverging from our
-plan to go there too soon. I did not know what to expect, as my
-ignorance of the place and its significance was extreme. So we looked up
-general directions in Baedeker, and trusted to finding our way at the
-time.
-
-After spending some time in the Palace, we went down by the terrace and
-struck to the right to find the Petit Trianon. We walked for some
-distance down a wooded alley, and then came upon the buildings of the
-Grand Trianon, before which we did not delay. We went on in the
-direction of the Petit Trianon, but just before reaching what we knew
-afterwards to be the main entrance I saw a gate leading to a path cut
-deep below the level of the ground above, and as the way was open and
-had the look of an entrance that was used, I said: “Shall we try this
-path? it must lead to the house,” and we followed it. To our right we
-saw some farm-buildings looking empty and deserted; implements (among
-others a plough) were lying about; we looked in, but saw no one. The
-impression was saddening, but it was not until we reached the crest of
-the rising ground where there was a garden that I began to feel as if we
-had lost our way, and as if something were wrong. There were two men
-there in official dress (greenish in colour), with something in their
-hands; it might have been a staff. A wheelbarrow and some other
-gardening tools were near them. They told us, in answer to my enquiry,
-to go straight on. I remember repeating my question, because they
-answered in a seemingly casual and mechanical way, but only got the same
-answer in the same manner. As we were standing there I saw to the right
-of us a detached solidly-built cottage, with stone steps at the door. A
-woman and a girl were standing at the doorway, and I particularly
-noticed their unusual dress; both wore white kerchiefs tucked into the
-bodice, and the girl’s dress, though she looked 13 or 14 only, was down
-to her ankles. The woman was passing a jug to the girl, who wore a close
-white cap.[3]
-
-Following the directions of the two men we walked on: but the path
-pointed out to us seemed to lead away from where we imagined the Petit
-Trianon to be; and there was a feeling of depression and loneliness
-about the place. I began to feel as if I were walking in my sleep; the
-heavy dreaminess was oppressive. At last we came upon a path crossing
-ours, and saw in front of us a building consisting of some columns
-roofed in, and set back in the trees. Seated on the steps was a man with
-a heavy black cloak round his shoulders, and wearing a slouch hat. At
-that moment the eerie feeling which had begun in the garden culminated
-in a definite impression of something uncanny and fear-inspiring. The
-man slowly turned his face, which was marked by smallpox: his complexion
-was very dark. The expression was very evil and yet unseeing, and though
-I did not feel that he was looking particularly at us, I felt a
-repugnance to going past him. But I did not wish to show the feeling,
-which I thought was meaningless, and we talked about the best way to
-turn, and decided to go to the right.
-
-Suddenly we heard a man running behind us: he shouted, “Mesdames,
-mesdames,” and when I turned he said in an accent that seemed to me
-unusual that our way lay in another direction. “Il ne faut (pronounced
-_fout_) pas passer par là.” He then made a gesture, adding “par ici ...
-cherchez la maison.” Though we were surprised to be addressed, we were
-glad of the direction, and I thanked him. The man ran off with a curious
-smile on his face: the running ceased as abruptly as it had begun, not
-far from where we stood. I remember that the man was young-looking, with
-a florid complexion and rather long dark hair. I do not remember the
-dress, except that the material was dark and heavy, and that the man
-wore buckled shoes.
-
-We walked on, crossing a small bridge that went across a green bank,
-high on our right hand and shelving down below as to a very small
-overshadowed pool of water glimmering some way off. A tiny stream
-descended from above us, so small as to seem to lose itself before
-reaching the little pool. We then followed a narrow path till almost
-immediately we came upon the English garden front of the Petit Trianon.
-The place was deserted; but as we approached the terrace I remember
-drawing my skirt away with a feeling as though someone were near and I
-had to make room, and then wondering why I did it. While we were on the
-terrace a boy came out of the door of a second building which opened on
-it, and I still have the sound in my ears of his slamming it behind him.
-He directed us to go round to the other entrance, and seeing us
-hesitate, with the peculiar smile of suppressed mockery, offered to show
-us the way. We passed through the French garden, part of which was
-walled in by trees. The feeling of dreariness was very strong there, and
-continued till we actually reached the front entrance to the Petit
-Trianon and looked round the room in the wake of a French wedding party.
-Afterwards we drove back to the Rue des Réservoirs.
-
-The impression returned to me at intervals during the week that
-followed, but I did not speak of it until Miss Morison asked me if I
-thought the Petit Trianon was haunted, and I said Yes. Then, too, the
-inconsistency of the dress and behaviour of the man with an August
-afternoon at Versailles struck me. We had only this one conversation
-about the two men. Nothing else passed between us in Paris.
-
-It was not till three months later, when I was staying with her, that
-Miss Morison casually mentioned the lady, and almost refused to believe
-that I had not seen her. How that happened was quite inexplicable to me,
-for I believed myself to be looking about on all sides, and it was not
-so much that I did not remember her as that I could have said no one was
-there. But as she said it I remembered my impression at the moment of
-there being more people than I could see, though I did not tell her
-this.
-
-The same evening, November 10th, 1901, I returned to my school near
-London. Curiously enough, the next morning I had to give one of a set of
-lessons on the French Revolution for the Higher Certificate, and it
-struck me for the first time with great interest that the 10th of August
-had a special significance in French history, and that we had been at
-Trianon on the anniversary of the day.
-
-That evening when I was preparing to write down my experiences, a French
-friend whose home was in Paris came into my room, and I asked her, just
-on the chance, if she knew any story about the haunting of the Petit
-Trianon. (I had not mentioned our story to her before, nor indeed to
-anyone.) She said directly that she remembered hearing from friends at
-Versailles that on a certain day in August Marie Antoinette is regularly
-seen sitting outside the garden front at the Petit Trianon, with a light
-flapping hat and a pink dress. More than this, that the place,
-especially the farm, the garden, and the path by the water, are peopled
-with those who used to be with her there; in fact that all the
-occupations and amusements reproduce themselves there for a day and a
-night. I then told her our story, and when I quoted the words that the
-man spoke to us, and imitated as well as I could his accent, she
-immediately said that it was the Austrian pronunciation of French. I had
-privately thought that he spoke old[4] French. Immediately afterwards I
-wrote and told this to Miss Morison.
-
-                                                                   F. L.
-
-  _November, 1901._
-
-On receiving Miss Lamont’s letter I turned to my diary to see on what
-Saturday in August it was that we had visited Versailles, and looked up
-the history to find out to what event she alluded. On August 10th, 1792,
-the Tuileries was sacked. The royal family escaped in the early morning
-to the Hall of the Assembly, where they were penned up for many hours
-hearing themselves deposed, and within sound of the massacre of their
-servants and of the Swiss guards at the Tuileries. From the Hall the
-King and Queen were taken to the Temple.
-
-We wondered whether we had inadvertently entered within an act of the
-Queen’s memory when alive, and whether this explained our curious
-sensation of being completely shut in and oppressed. What more likely,
-we thought, than that during those hours in the Hall of the Assembly, or
-in the Conciergerie, she had gone back in such vivid memory to other
-Augusts spent at Trianon that some impress of it was imparted to the
-place? Some pictures which were shown to me proved that the outdoor
-dress of the gentlemen at Court had been a large hat and cloak, and that
-the ladies wore long-waisted bodices, with full gathered short skirts,
-fichus, and hats.
-
-I told the story to my brother, and we heartily agreed that, as a rule,
-such stories made no impression at all upon us, because we always
-believed that, if only the persons involved would take the trouble to
-investigate them thoroughly and honestly for themselves, they could be
-quite naturally explained. We agreed that such a story as ours had very
-little value without more proof of reality than it had, but that as
-there were one or two interesting points in it, it would be best to sift
-the matter quietly, lest others should make more of them than they
-deserved. He suggested lightly and in fun that perhaps we had seen the
-Queen as she thought of herself, and that it would be interesting to
-know whether the dress described was the one she had on at the time of
-her rêverie, or whether it was one she recollected having worn at an
-earlier date. My brother also enquired whether we were quite sure that
-the last man we had seen (who came out of the side building), as well as
-the wedding party, were all real persons. I assured him with great
-amusement that we had not the smallest doubt as to the reality of them
-all.
-
-As Miss Lamont was going to Paris for the Christmas holidays, I wrote
-and asked her to take any opportunity she might have to see the place
-again, and to make a plan of the paths and the buildings; for the guide
-books spoke of the Temple de l’Amour and the Belvédère, and I thought
-one of them might prove to be our kiosk.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-
-
-     Miss Lamont’s Account of her Second Visit to the Petit Trianon
-
-                             JANUARY, 1902
-
-On January 2nd, 1902, I went for the second time to Versailles. It was a
-cold and wet day, but I was anxious not to be deterred by that, as it
-was likely to be my only possible day that winter. This time I drove
-straight to the Petit Trianon, passing the Grand Trianon. Here I could
-see the path up which we had walked in August. I went, however, to the
-regular entrance, thinking I would go at once to the Temple de l’Amour,
-even if I had time to go no further. To the right of the cour d’honneur
-was a door in the wall; it led to the Hameau de la Reine and to the
-gardens. I took this path and came to the Temple de l’Amour, which was
-_not_ the building we had passed in the summer. There was, so far, none
-of the eerie feeling we had experienced in August. But, on crossing a
-bridge to go to the Hameau, the old feeling returned in full force; it
-was as if I had crossed a line and was suddenly in a circle of
-influence. To the left I saw a tract of park-like ground, the trees bare
-and very scanty. I noticed a cart being filled with sticks by two
-labourers, and thought I could go to them for directions if I lost my
-way. The men wore tunics and capes with pointed hoods of bright colours,
-a sort of terra-cotta red and deep blue.[5] I turned aside for an
-instant—not more—to look at the Hameau, and when I looked back men and
-cart were completely out of sight, and this surprised me, as I could see
-a long way in every direction. And though I had seen the men in the act
-of loading the cart with sticks, I could not see any trace of them on
-the ground either at the time or afterwards. I did not, however, dwell
-upon any part of the incident, but went on to the Hameau. The houses
-were all built near a sheet of water, and the old oppressive feeling of
-the last year was noticeable, especially under the balcony of the Maison
-de la Reine, and near a window in what I afterwards found to be the
-Laiterie. I really felt a great reluctance to go near the window or look
-in, and when I did so I found it shuttered inside.
-
-Coming away from the Hameau I at last reached a building, which I knew
-from my plan to be the smaller Orangerie; then, meaning to go to the
-Belvédère, I turned back by mistake into the park and found myself in a
-wood, so thick that though I had turned towards the Hameau I could not
-see it. Before I entered I looked across an open space towards a belt of
-trees to the left of the Hameau some way off, and noticed a man, cloaked
-like those we had seen before, slip swiftly through the line of trees.
-The smoothness of his movement attracted my attention.
-
-I was puzzling my way among the maze of paths in the wood when I heard a
-rustling behind me which made me wonder why people in silk dresses came
-out on such a wet day; and I said to myself, “just like French people.”
-I turned sharply round to see who they were, but saw no one, and then,
-all in a moment, I had the same feeling as by the terrace in the summer,
-only in a much greater degree; it was as though I were closed in by a
-group of people who already filled the path, coming from behind and
-passing me. At one moment there seemed really no room for me. I heard
-some women’s voices talking French, and caught the words “Monsieur et
-Madame” said close to my ear. The crowd got scarce and drifted away, and
-then faint music as of a band, not far off, was audible. It was playing
-very light music with a good deal of repetition in it. Both voices and
-music were diminished in tone, as in a phonograph, unnaturally. The
-pitch of the band was lower than usual. The sounds were intermittent,
-and once more I felt the swish of a dress close by me.
-
-I looked at the map which I had with me, but whenever I settled which
-path to take I felt impelled to go by another. After turning backwards
-and forwards many times I at last found myself back at the Orangerie,
-and was overtaken by a gardener.[6] I asked him where I should find the
-Queen’s grotto, that had been mentioned in De Nolhac’s book which I had
-procured while in Paris. He told me to follow the path I was on, and, in
-answer to a question, said that I must pass the Belvédère, adding that
-it was quite impossible to find one’s way about the park unless one had
-been brought up in the place, and so used to it that “personne ne
-pourrait vous tromper.” The expression specially impressed me because of
-the experience I had just had in the wood. He pointed out the way and
-left me. The path led past the Belvédère, which I took for granted was
-the building we had seen in August, for coming upon it from behind, all
-the water was hidden from me. I made my way from there to the French
-garden without noticing the paths I took.
-
-On my return to Versailles I made careful enquiries as to whether the
-band had been playing there that day, but was told that though it was
-the usual day of the week, it had not played because it had played the
-day before, being New Year’s Day.
-
-I told my French friends of my walk, and they said that there was a
-tradition of Marie Antoinette having been seen making butter within the
-Laiterie, and for that reason it was shuttered. A second tradition they
-mentioned interested me very much. It was that on October 5th,
-1789—which was the last day on which Marie Antoinette went to
-Trianon—she was sitting there in her grotto, and saw a page running
-towards her, bringing the letter from the minister at the palace to say
-that the mob from Paris would be at the gates in an hour’s time. The
-story went on that she impulsively proposed walking straight back to the
-palace by the short cut through the trees. He would not allow it: but
-begged her to go to the “maison” to wait whilst he fetched the carriage
-by which she was generally conveyed back through the park, and that he
-ran off to order it.
-
-                                                                   F. L.
-
-  _January, 1902._
-
-
-                                1902–4.
-
-During the next two years very little occurred to throw light on the
-story. The person living in Versailles to whom we had been directed as
-having related the tradition of the Queen’s being at Trianon on October
-5th, 1789, was unable to remember anything at all about it. The
-photographs of the Belvédère made it clear that it was not identical
-with the kiosk. On the many occasions on which Miss Lamont went to the
-Trianon she could never again find the places,—not even the wood in
-which she had been. She assured me that the place was entirely
-different; the distances were much less than we had imagined; and the
-ground was so bare that the house and the Hameau were in full view of
-one another; and that there was nothing unnatural about the trees.
-
-Miss Lamont brought back from Paris _La Reine Marie Antoinette_, by M.
-de Nolhac, and _Le Petit Trianon_, by Desjardins. We noted that M. de
-Nolhac related the traditional story of the Queen’s visit, and that the
-Comte de Vaudreuil, who betrayed the Queen by inviting her to the fatal
-acting of the “Barbier de Séville” in her own theatre at Trianon, was a
-Creole and marked by smallpox (pages 61, 212). Turning over the pages of
-Desjardins I found Wertmüller’s portrait of the Queen, and exclaimed
-that it was the first of all the pictures I had seen which at all
-brought back the face of the lady. Some weeks later I found this
-passage: “Ce tableau fut assez mal accueilli des critiques contemporains
-qui le trouvèrent froid, sans majesté, sans grace. Pour la posterité, au
-contraire, il a le plus grand mérite; celui de la ressemblance. Au dire
-de Madame Campan, il n’existe de bon portrait de la reine que cette
-toile de Wertmüller et celle que Madame Lebrun peignit en 1787” (page
-282).
-
-In January, 1904, Miss Lamont went to the Comédie Française to see the
-“Barbier de Séville,” and noticed that the Alguazils standing round were
-dressed exactly like our garden officials, but had red stockings added.
-This was interesting, as the Comédie Française is the descendant of the
-Royal Private Theatre, and the old royal liveries worn by the
-subordinate actors (who were, in earlier times, the royal servants) are
-carefully reproduced at it. Also, she reported, that Almaviva was
-dressed in a dark cloak and a large Spanish hat, which was said to be
-the outdoor dress of French gentlemen of the period.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-
-On Monday, July 4th, 1904, Miss Lamont and I went to the Trianon, this
-being my second visit. We were accompanied by Mademoiselle ——, who had
-not heard our story. On the Saturday of the same week (July 9th) we went
-again unaccompanied.
-
-Both days were brilliant and hot. On both occasions the dust, glare,
-trams, and comers and goers, were entirely different from the quietness
-and solitude of our visit in 1901. We went up the lane as at the first
-time and turned to the right on reaching the building, which we had now
-learnt to call the _logement des corps de gardes_. From this point
-everything was changed. The old wall facing us had gates, but they were
-closed, and the one through which we had seen the drive passing through
-a grove of trees seemed to have been closed for a very long time. We
-came directly to the gardener’s house, which was quite different in
-appearance from the cottage described by Miss Lamont in 1901, in front
-of which she saw the woman and the girl. Beyond the gardener’s house was
-a parterre with flower-beds, and a smooth lawn of many years’ careful
-tendance. It did not seem to be the place where we had met the garden
-officials.
-
-We spent a long time looking for the old paths. Not only was there no
-trace of them, but the distances were contracted, and all was on a
-smaller scale than I recollected. The kiosk was gone; so was the ravine
-and the little cascade which had fallen from a height above our heads,
-and the little bridge over the ravine was, of course, gone too. The
-large bridge with the _rocher_ over it, crossing one side of the lake at
-the foot of the Belvédère, had no resemblance to it. The trees were
-quite natural, and seemed to have been a good deal cleared out, making
-that part of the garden much less wooded and picturesque.
-
-The English garden in front of the house was not shaded by many trees;
-and we could see the house and the hameau from almost every point.
-Instead of a much shaded rough meadow continuing up to the wall of the
-terrace, there is now a broad gravel sweep beneath it, and the trees on
-the grass are gone. Exactly where the lady was sitting we found a large
-spreading bush of, apparently, many years’ growth. We did not recognise
-the present staircase, which leads up to the north-west end of the
-terrace, nor the extension of wall round which one has now to go in
-order to reach the staircase. We thought that we went up to the terrace
-from some point nearer to the house from the English garden. The present
-exit from the French garden to the avenue was not so near the house as
-we expected, nor was it so broad as we remembered it.
-
-To add to the impossibility of recalling our first visit, in every
-corner we came across groups of noisy merry people walking or sitting in
-the shade. Garden seats placed everywhere, and stalls for fruit and
-lemonade took away from any idea of desolation. The common-place,
-unhistorical atmosphere was totally inconsistent with the air of silent
-mystery by which we had been so much oppressed. Though for several years
-Miss Lamont had assured me of the change, I had not expected such
-complete disillusionment.
-
-One thing struck me greatly—people went wherever they liked, and no one
-would think of interfering to show the way, or to prevent anyone from
-going in any direction. We searched the place at our pleasure.
-
-We went to the Hameau, following the path taken by Miss Lamont on
-January 2, 1902. We tried to find the thick wood in which she had lost
-her way, but there was nothing like it, and such paths as there are now
-are perfectly visible from one another, even in summer. We asked a
-gardener sweeping one of the paths whether that part of the grounds had
-ever been a thick wood. He said he believed that it had been, but could
-give us no date beyond the fact that it was before his time—more than
-twenty years ago.
-
-On our return to Versailles, we went into a bookseller’s shop and asked
-if he had any maps or views of the Petit Trianon as it had been in old
-days. He showed us a picture (which he would not part with) of the Jeu
-de Bague. We saw at once that the central building had some likeness to
-the kiosk, but the surrounding part was not like, and its position was
-unsuitable for our purpose. We enquired about the green uniforms of the
-garden officials, and he emphatically denied their existence. He said
-that “green was one of the colours of the royal liveries,” and when we
-answered that three years before persons in long green coats had
-directed us in the grounds, he spoke of it as “impossible, unless (he
-added) they were masqueraders.” One of the _gardiens_ of the Palace also
-told us that “green was a royal livery and that now only the President
-had the right to use it on certain occasions.”
-
-We asked how long the gardens had been thrown open to the public and
-people allowed to wander everywhere, and were told that “it had been so
-for _years_,” and this evidently implied a great many years.
-
-The result of this visit was to make us take a graver view of the two
-first visits, and we resolved to look into the matter as carefully as we
-could, and to be entirely silent about the change of scenery until we
-had explained it somewhat to ourselves. After some years, and in spite
-of various false leads, we have been able to put together some very
-interesting facts. The details of the search are recorded in a book
-which, to us, goes by the name of the Green Book. It contains the
-original papers written in 1901, the history of the gradual accumulation
-of information, correspondence with one another and also with others on
-the subject, the accounts written by one or two friends who have helped
-us at different times, also pictures, maps, and lists of books
-consulted, and the account of curious incidents which took place during
-the search.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-                                                                   F. L.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER II
-                     SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF RESEARCH
-
-
-                               The Plough
-
-The first incident in our expedition to Trianon in 1901 was that, after
-passing the _logement des corps de gardes_, a small hand plough was seen
-by Miss Lamont lying on the ground not far from some wide open gates in
-an old wall opposite to us, through which we could see the stems of a
-grove of trees, and a drive leading through it.
-
-In 1905 Miss Lamont was told by a gardener that no plough was kept at
-Trianon; there was no need of one, as the government only required the
-lawns, walks, water, trees, and flowers, to be kept up.
-
-In 1908 another gardener told us both that ploughs have entirely altered
-in character since the Revolution, and it was not likely that the old
-type would be seen anywhere in France now.
-
-It would seem that no plough was used ordinarily at Trianon even in old
-days, for amongst a list of tools bought for the gardeners from
-1780–1789, there is no mention of a plough.[7]
-
-We learned, in 1905, from Desjardins’ book, that throughout the reign of
-Louis XVI. an old plough used in his predecessor’s reign had been
-preserved at the Petit Trianon and sold with the king’s other properties
-during the Revolution.[8]
-
-A picture of this identical plough, procured in 1907, showed that it had
-handles like the one seen in 1901, but the cutting part was hidden in
-the ground and could not be compared.[9]
-
-In the old map of 1783 there is ploughed land where later the Hameau was
-built and the sheet of water placed: but there is none in the later
-maps, nor any now to be seen in the grounds.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-                               The Guards
-
-The second event was our meeting with two dignified, thoughtful-looking
-officials, dressed in long green coats and three-cornered hats, holding
-something in their hands which Miss Lamont wrote of in 1901 as possibly
-being staves. In response to our enquiry for the Petit Trianon they
-coldly directed us forward.
-
-There are no officials so dressed at Trianon now. At present they wear
-black, with tricolour rosettes in their hats; in summer they have white
-trousers.
-
-In 1904 we were told by fully-informed persons at Versailles that it was
-“impossible” that we should have seen such uniforms, “unless they were
-worn by masqueraders,” for green was a royal livery, and no one wore it
-now at Trianon.
-
-Supposing them to have been masqueraders, the dress may have been that
-of _gardes de la porte_. The ceremonial overdress of the _gardes de la
-porte_, as was that of part of the _gardes du corps_ (_gardes de la
-Manche_), was green, with gold and silver embroidery and red stockings:
-they carried halberds.[10] But the officers had galon instead of
-embroidery, and no red stockings: they carried an ebony cane with an
-ivory ball.[11]
-
-The livery of the Comte d’Artois, who was _colonel-général_ of the
-_gardes Suisses_ was green; and those of the _gardes du corps_ and
-_Suisses_ who were in his service had green uniforms.[12]
-
-There is evidence of a much quieter dress without even _galon_, called
-the “petite livrée,” which was probably green, as it was worn by the
-_Suisses_, _piqueurs_, _gardes de la porte_, and the _garçons
-jardiniers_.[13] The traditional dress of those royal servants who
-filled the minor parts in the Royal Theatre at Versailles is still to be
-seen at the acting of the _Barbier de Séville_ in the Comédie Française,
-which is the descendant of the Royal Theatre. This dress (except for the
-added red stockings) is the same as the one we saw in 1901.
-
-In 1908 we learned that the _porte du jardinier_ at the Petit Trianon
-was always guarded ‘dans le temps,’ and that on October 5th, 1789, the
-guards were two of the three Bersy brothers who, with Bréval, were
-generally on duty whenever the Queen was in residence at Trianon. From
-their writing and spelling they were evidently well educated.[14] In
-1910 we found that they had the title of _garçons jardiniers de la
-Chambre_, and they are said to have been stationed in “_la pepinière
-proche la maison_.” The most ancient pepinière was close to the
-gardener’s house.
-
-
-                        Cottage, Woman, and Girl
-
-Whilst speaking to the two men, Miss Lamont observed on her right hand a
-solidly-built cottage with stone steps, on which a woman in
-old-fashioned dress was standing, handing something to a girl of about
-13 or 14, who wore a white cap and skirts nearly reaching to her ankles.
-
-In 1904, Miss Lamont saw a picture resembling this cottage in its
-general appearance in the Album de Trianon at the Bibliothèque
-nationale. In 1908, she and a friend discovered such a cottage (more
-than one) within the gates which were not far from the place where she
-had seen the plough. These cottages were not in the right position for
-our experience in 1901, but the type was the same.
-
-In 1907 we discovered from the map of 1783 that there was a building,
-not now in existence, placed against the wall (outside) of the
-gardener’s yard between the _ruelle_ and the _porte du jardinier_; if
-our original route lay through this yard to the English garden, this
-building would be exactly in the right place for Miss Lamont’s cottage.
-
-In September, 1910, we saw from marks on this wall that a building might
-have stood here; for the cornice of the wall is broken into, and there
-seems to be a perpendicular line from it to the ground visible through
-the plaster. A photograph shows this.
-
-If the girl seen should be the “Marion” of Madame Julie Lavergne’s story
-(first read in 1906), she would have been 14 years old in 1789, and her
-mother was then alive. Her father’s house would have been near the
-reservoir and not within the locked gates of any enclosure, for she let
-herself out at night by an open window.[15] All this would suit the
-position of the building in the map.
-
-
-                               The Kiosk
-
-On our entrance into the English garden in 1901, we found our path
-crossed by another, beyond which, in front of us but rather to the left
-hand, stood a small circular building having pillars and a low
-surrounding wall. It was on rough uneven ground, and was overshadowed by
-trees.
-
-Repeated searches during seven years by ourselves and others have failed
-to discover this building.
-
-In September, 1908, Miss Lamont found in the archives a paper (without
-signature or date) giving the estimate for a “ruine” having seven Ionic
-columns, walls, and a dome roof. (A “ruine” seems only to mean a copy of
-an older building.) If the walls of this building were low it would
-correspond in appearance with our recollection of the kiosk. This
-“ruine” is said to have formed a “naissance de la rivière,” suggesting
-its position above the small lake which fed the principal river.[16] A
-piece of old water pipe is still to be seen on the north-western side of
-the small lake.
-
-If this “ruine” and two others of those alluded to in the archives were
-one and the same, there is additional reason for placing the columned
-building in this part of the garden. I. In 1788 it is stated that rocks
-were placed at intervals on a path leading from “la ruine” to the
-“2^{ième} source du ravin” beyond the wooden bridge.[17] Desjardins
-considers one of the “sources” to have been close to the theatre which
-was at our right hand; this might have been the second spring.[18] II.
-Mique states that in 1780 he placed a small architectural “ruine” above
-the grotto. A note in the archives, dated 1777, speaks of the “porte
-d’entrée au bout du grotte.”[19] If, as we believe, we had just passed
-out of the gardener’s yard by this “porte d’entrée” we should have been
-close to the earliest placed grotto.
-
-In 1909 two old maps were procured from Paris; in one, dated 1840(?),
-there is something which may indicate a small round building placed on
-the _rocher_ behind the Belvédère. The other map was reproduced from an
-old one of 1705, but added to until a railway appears in it. In this map
-below the name “pavillon de musique” (the Belvédère) is the name “Le
-Kiosque.” It does not seem likely that a second name for the Belvédère
-should be given, and it may therefore refer to something else which does
-not appear in this map. Therefore the mere chance name which from the
-first moment we gave to our building was justified by there having been
-something called by that name exactly in that part of the garden.
-
-In 1910 we looked out this name in the best etymological French
-dictionary and found that it was admitted to the French Academy in 1762,
-as “pavillon ouvert de tous côtés”: and defined by Thévenot
-(contemporary) as “kioch ou divan qui est maintenu de huit grosses
-colonnes.”
-
-
-                          The Man by the Kiosk
-
-On our first visit a dark-complexioned man, marked by smallpox, was
-sitting close to the kiosk; he wore a large dark cloak and a slouch hat.
-
-Though we were assured in 1908 by a very good authority, that no
-gentleman now living at Versailles would wear a large cloak either in
-winter or summer, there might be nothing surprising in what we saw if
-the kiosk could be found. But considering that it is gone, it is
-historically interesting that we discovered in 1904 that there is one
-man in the story of Trianon who exactly suits the description.
-
-Most of the intimate accounts of the period say that the Comte de
-Vaudreuil was a Creole and marked by smallpox.[20] He was at one time
-one of the Queen’s innermost circle of friends, but acted an enemy’s
-part in persuading her to gain the King’s permission for the acting of
-the politically dangerous play of _Le Mariage de Figaro_. The King had
-long refused to allow it, saying that it would cause the Bastille to be
-taken. The earlier version of the same play, _Le Barbier de
-Séville_,[21] was last acted at Trianon (August 19th, 1785), just at the
-beginning of the diamond necklace episode, when Vaudreuil took the part
-of Almaviva and was dressed for it in a large dark cloak and Spanish
-hat.
-
-In 1908 we found out from Madame Éloffe’s Journal (the Queen’s modiste)
-that in 1789 the broad-brimmed hat had entirely displaced the
-three-cornered hat, and was generally fashionable; also that swords were
-no longer generally worn.[22]
-
-Vaudreuil left the court of France amongst the first party of émigrés
-after the taking of the Bastille, July, 1789.
-
-
-                            The Running Man
-
-Though we were surprised when the second man, also dressed in a large
-cloak and hat, ran up to us and with extreme earnestness directed us to
-go to the right rather than to the left, yet we merely thought his
-manner very French; and as he said in the course of a rather long
-unintelligible sentence “cherchez la maison,” we imagined that he
-understood that we were looking for the house, and followed his
-direction. We noticed that he stood in front of a rock and seemed to
-come “either over, round, or through it.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The following year (1902), we learned that there was a tradition that on
-October 5th, 1789, a messenger was sent to Trianon to warn the Queen of
-the approach of the mob from Paris: that she wished to walk back to the
-Palace by the most direct route, but the messenger begged her to wait at
-the house whilst he fetched the carriage, as it was safer to drive back
-as usual by the broad roads of the park.
-
-A local tradition affirming this has been embodied by Madame Julie
-Lavergne in a volume entitled (unfortunately for historical purposes)
-_Légendes de Trianon_. This particular scene in the story, called “La
-Dernière Rose,” interested us greatly, for it seemed to come from an
-eye-witness and recalled many of the points of our vision. The Queen, it
-is said, had been walking with and talking to Marion (the daughter of an
-under-gardener) before going to her favourite grotto. After remaining
-there some time, and on growing alarmed at her own sad thoughts, the
-Queen called to Marion and was surprised to see, instead of the girl, a
-“garçon de la Chambre” suddenly appear, trembling in all his limbs.
-After reading the letter brought to her from the Minister at the Palace,
-the Queen desired him to order the carriage and to let Madame de Tourzel
-know. The messenger bowed (as our man had done), and once out of sight,
-ran off at full speed. The Queen followed him to the house.[23]
-
-Enquiries through the publisher, in 1907, as to Madame Lavergne’s
-sources of information, elicited the fact that her informant as to every
-detail of that scene had been Marion herself. This Marion, the
-_Légendes_ tell us, afterwards married M. Charpentier, an
-under-gardener, known in 1789 by the name of “Jean de l’Eau,” on account
-of his bringing water daily from Ville d’Avray for the Queen’s table. He
-afterwards became _jardinier en chef_, being appointed in 1805 by
-Napoleon in succession to Antoine Richard.[24]
-
-The name “Charpantier” appears in 1786 amongst the “ouvriers
-terrassiers,” who clear up sticks and leaves, plant flowers, and
-rake.[25]
-
-In 1783, “Mariamne” received wages for picking up leaves in the Trianon
-grounds;[26] this is quite possible, as children are said to have been
-used for that work, and the absence of surname suggests that she was the
-daughter of one of the gardeners.
-
-The marriage certificate of Alexandre Charpentier, in 1823, gives his
-father’s name as Louis Toussaint Charpentier, and his mother’s name as
-Marie Anne Lemaignan. The marriage certificate of these persons (from
-which we should have learnt their age) is said to have been
-destroyed.[27]
-
-In the wages book the names of two “Lemonguin” (elder and younger)
-appear; also “Magny,” but not, so far as has been discovered,
-Lemaignan.[28] If this Marie Anne Charpentier was 21 years old at her
-son’s birth (November, 1796), she would have been eight years old in
-1783, and 14 in 1789. This would suit the “Mariamne” of the Archives,
-Madame Lavergne’s story, and the girl seen by Miss Lamont.
-
-Two more points show the faithfulness of “Marion’s” account of that
-scene. Madame Lavergne (quoting her) says that “pale rays of autumn
-sunshine lighted up the faded flowers.” It must, therefore, have been
-fairly fine; and in the wages book it appears that on October 5th, 1789,
-all the gardeners were at work _in the grounds_, and it is stated that
-on wet days they worked under cover, sometimes clearing out the passages
-of the house.[29] Secondly, she says that the Queen sat at the entrance
-of her grotto, where fallen leaves choked the course of the “ruisseau.”
-From entries of payment it appears that the streams were cleared of dead
-leaves on October 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 1789, but not on the 4th or 5th, or
-ever again.[30] It is exactly a point which Marion would have noticed.
-
-Madame Lavergne lived at Versailles from 1838 till her marriage in 1844,
-at which time Marion would have been 69; and as we believe that
-Alexandre Charpentier was head gardener at the Petit Trianon for over
-fifty years, his mother would have been easily accessible to Madame
-Lavergne during her repeated visits to Trianon, even after her marriage.
-Her father, M. Georges Ozanneaux, was a personal friend of Louis
-Philippe, and was constantly about in the royal palaces.[31]
-
-
-It is necessary to speak of the grotto; for Madame Campan says that the
-Queen “était assise dans sa grotte ... lorsqu’elle reçut un mot
-d’écrit ... qui la suppliait de rentrer à Versailles.”[32] Madame
-Lavergne says “Marion se dirigea vers le parterre des rosiers, et la
-Reine alla s’asseoir à l’entrée de sa grotte favorite, auprès de la
-petite source. Les feuilles jaunies tombées des arbres couvraient la
-terre et obstruaient le cours du ruisseau.... Le murmure de la petite
-cascade qui arrose l’intérieur de la grotte, retentissait seul dans le
-bosquet.... Effrayée d’être seule, elle appela Marion; mais, au lieu de
-la jeune fille, un garçon de la Chambre ... parut, une lettre à la
-main.”[33] The Queen cannot, therefore, have been many steps away from
-the grotto, at one end or the other, when the messenger came to her.
-
-In 1908 we asked to be shown this grotto, and we were taken to one on
-the further side of the Belvédère, near the hill called l’Escargot,
-which was formed in 1781. We felt sure that this could not have been
-either of the two grottos spoken of in the archives.
-
-In 1777 the end of one grotto is mentioned as being near the _porte
-d’entrée_, “à la cloison de la porte d’entrée du jardin au bout du
-grotte trois pottereaux et deux traverses.”[34]
-
-In 1777 there was a “projet d’un pont et chutte en rocher, avec
-parapet.” This was probably a bridge (the Vergelay bridge?) over the
-principal river where it issued from the larger lake. The river was made
-at this time.[35]
-
-In June, 1780, a new “petite rivière” was planned to receive the water
-drained from the “ravin de la grotte,” and to conduct it into the larger
-lake. For this purpose a new grotto was made of a “forme ovale, ornée en
-glaçon,” through which the “petite rivière” was to run. A “ravin du
-petit pont” was also planned.[36]
-
-In August, 1780, masses of rock were procured, and the “petite rivière”
-was begun, and also a hill was thrown up “pour couvrir la grotte.”[37]
-
-In September, 1780, “Bourdin a passé la journée ... à poser le deuxième
-pont venant du coté de la grotte.”[38] This second bridge was probably
-the present Rocher bridge, being the second placed over the lakes.
-Neither of these two bridges would be the “pont de bois,”[39] and “la
-conduitte en bois,”[40] two descriptions of, and identical with, the one
-alluded to in the words “ravin du petit pont,” which was said to have
-been erected on high ground “au dessus du Rocher du Ravin.”[41]
-
-In December, 1780, the work was finished: “Conduitte de l’exécution de
-la grotte, petite rivière, et chutte d’eau retombante dans le grand lac,
-autre petits ravins dans la montagne près du grand lac à la fin de la
-petite rivière de la grotte.”[42]
-
-In 1781 a “montagne” was made “en face du jardin français—en face de la
-comédie.”[43]
-
-In March and April, 1781, a hill called “l’Escargot” was piled
-up[44]—beyond the Belvédère—and, presumably, a third and very small
-grotto was made. The creation of the Escargot hill would have made the
-“ravin” on the north side of the Belvédère, which is still visible, and
-leads to the greater lake.
-
-There are several reasons why we think that the Queen’s grotto (the
-second made) was on the theatre side of the Belvédère.
-
-1. D’Hezecques’ description of it in 1789 shows that, though a
-“ruisseau” passed through it, persons could go freely out at both
-ends;[45] whereas when water was passing down through the upper entrance
-of the “escargot” grotto, no one could have used it at the same time:
-there is only room for the water.
-
-2. He speaks of the “prairie” being visible from “une crevasse, qui
-s’ouvrait à la tête du lit”; this would have been possible from a grotto
-on the theatre side, but not on the other, as the “escargot” hill would
-have been in the way.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-3. D’Hezecques describes a staircase which “conduisait au sommet de la
-roche,” enabling persons to leave hurriedly. There is something like an
-ancient rock staircase attached to the back of the large rock, giving
-the name to the Rocher bridge.
-
-4. He says that the grotto was very dark on first entering, and
-L’Espinasse’s picture of the Belvédère in 1783 shows the opening to a
-cavern on its southern side close to the Rocher bridge,[46] which could
-be truly described as “venant du coté de la grotte.” Could the rock out
-of which the cavernous mouth was cut have been lifted over the long
-bridge at some later time? for in L’Espinasse’s picture there is no such
-rock over the bridge as there is now, and the cavern has disappeared.
-
-5. The map of 1783 represents (according to Desjardins) “le projet de
-Mique complètement exécuté.” In it the figure (5) (indicating the
-grotto) occurs both at the “escargot” and also on the theatre side of
-the Belvédère.
-
-In September, 1910, Miss Lamont was asked whether she had seen a map of
-the place recently placed in the front hall of the Petit Trianon, and
-she said No. On going there she found the map, which had not been there
-at any of her former visits, and saw that the grottos were put, as far
-as she could judge, just where we had long ago, through elaborate
-personal research, decided must be their real position. She could only
-make this out by standing on the table amongst the books and
-photographs, the map being hung too high to be easily seen.
-
-
-Several further points of interest have emerged in connection with the
-running man.
-
-1. In April, 1908, we learned that our being directed at all in the
-grounds was unusual, for since September, 1870, they have been thrown
-open until dark. The difficulty now experienced is to find a guide.
-
-2. He spoke of the “maison.” In 1907 we found out that the Queen was in
-the habit of calling the Petit Trianon “ma maison de Trianon,” to
-distinguish it from the Palace and the Chateau.[47] Louis XVI. had
-presented it to Marie Antoinette on his accession.
-
-3. The Queen is reported by Marion to have addressed the messenger as
-“Breton.”[48] This was not an uncommon name about the court and old
-Versailles. The court almanack for 1783 shows that then the Queen had a
-Page “de l’Écurie,” called “De Bretagne.” (The Pages de la Chambre
-sometimes became “de l’Écurie” before receiving a commission or some
-other office.[49]) He is not mentioned in the almanack of 1789, but (as
-we know from other instances) it does not follow necessarily that he had
-no office in the household. Madame Éloffe (the Queen’s modiste) mentions
-a Mademoiselle Breton amongst the Queen’s women, who does not appear in
-the almanack.[50]
-
-If “De Bretagne” was 16 years old in 1783, he would have been 22 in
-1789,—just in the fresh young vigour suitable to our running man.
-
-The name “Breton” may have referred to his nationality only, for in
-November, 1907, we discovered that the accent in which the man spoke to
-us resembled the Breton accent, in which the consonants are strengthened
-and the diphthongs broadened.
-
-In the autumn of 1909 we read the Baron de Frénilly’s _Souvenirs_, in
-which it is stated that wigs were universally worn by gentlemen in
-French society up till 1787. After that date powdered hair became the
-general usage; the first person (M. de Valence) who ventured to appear
-with unpowdered hair did so, apparently, in 1788, after which it became
-a mark of extreme fashion.[51]
-
-The same was the case with buckled shoes. Gold, silver, stones, and
-rosettes had been required for a gentleman’s dress ornaments; but after
-the commercial treaty with England in 1786, steel was used for
-everything. Buckled shoes are expressly mentioned as being very
-fashionable in 1789, and there was, at that time, a rage for steel
-ornaments.[52]
-
-
-                       Bridge over Little Cascade
-
-Following the man’s direction, we turned to the right and walked over a
-small rustic bridge which crossed a tiny waterfall coming from above us,
-on our right hand, and flowing in front of a little rocky cliff with
-ferns growing in the crevices. The water seemed to have formed a steep
-narrow little ravine, which shelved away below us to a little glimmering
-pool.
-
-Neither bridge, nor cascade, nor ravine can be found, or anything
-suggesting them. In 1905 the person in charge at the house assured Miss
-Lamont that there never had been more than one cascade, meaning the rush
-of water under the Rocher bridge. The Rocher bridge is certainly not the
-one we crossed, which was high above the level of the lakes.
-
-In 1907 we bought _Souvenirs d’un Page_ by the Comte D’Hezecques. He
-says: “En face du chateau, une pelouse ... se terminait par une roche
-ombragée de pins, de thuyas, de mélèzes, et _surmontée d’un pont
-rustique_, comme on en rencontre dans les montagnes de la Suisse et les
-précipices du Valais. Cette perspective agreste et sauvage rendait plus
-douce celle ... de la troisième façade du chateau.”[53]
-
-He also speaks of water passing through the moss-lined grotto, which,
-according to our idea, must have been below us, but close by on our
-right hand.[54] Madame Lavergne writes of the “petite cascade” and of
-the sound of it in the grotto.[55]
-
-In April, 1908, extracts from Mique’s accounts and plans for the Trianon
-grounds were procured from the archives, giving the history of the
-grottos. “Juin 4, 1780, fait un model en terre _du ravin du petit
-pont_.”[56] “1788, Pièce au dessus du _Rocher du Ravin_ et ... passage
-des voitures sur _le pont de bois_ ... Pièce à droite _en face du Rocher
-du Ravin_.”[57] “Au long du chemin de l’emplacement de la Ruine _sur la
-conduitte en bois à la deuxième source du Ravin_.”[58] The first source
-was probably close to the “Ruine” (our kiosk?). The second “source”
-might coincide with Desjardins’ “source,” which he places a few steps
-from the _poulaillers_,[59] and was probably meant to feed the “petite
-rivière,” which passed through the Queen’s grotto, carrying off the
-water from the stagnant pool between the grottos to the larger lake.[60]
-That would exactly agree with the position of our little cascade, small
-bridge, and glimmering pool.
-
-In April, 1908, an old MS. map was found amongst such archive papers as
-relate to the grottos, showing a small bridge in the right position
-relatively to the lakes, the Rocher bridge, and the place where we
-believe the Queen’s grotto to have been.
-
-
-                             Isolated Rock
-
-In 1908 we found a mass of rocks standing in the dry bed of the small
-lake. On one rock covered with ivy were two full-grown pine trees. It
-seems unlikely that the trees should have originally been in the small
-circular basin of water.
-
-D’Hezecques says that thuya and pine trees were planted high up over the
-grotto to give it the appearance of a Swiss mountain.[61] The grotto was
-destroyed about 1792, and it is possible that some of the rocks covering
-it were displaced and allowed to slip into the lake below, and that the
-present pine trees may have been seedlings at the time, for we are told
-that the life of a pine tree is from 100 to 200 years old.
-
-In 1908 we noticed that at one side of this ivy-covered rock were
-peculiar projections; one of these was broken off short, but the other
-was intact. We thought they might once have formed supports for a small
-bridge.
-
-Rocks are said to have been placed in 1788 at the “montagne des Pins à
-gauche et en montant au Rocher.” “Montagne des Pins à droite en montant
-au Rocher.”[62]
-
-In January, 1791, trees were torn up from the montagnes.
-
-In February, March, April, 1792, every few days occurs the entry:
-“Journée à arracher les Thuja sur les montagnes.”[63]
-
-According to the old picture by L’Espinasse (1783), there was nothing
-over the low long bridge between the two lakes, but there was by the
-side of it, just where the grotto would have ended, a cavern in a
-rock.[64] This is no longer there; but possibly the face of rock with
-the cavern-like opening may have been lifted over the bridge, and
-account for the very peculiar rock which is at present above the bridge,
-causing it to be called the Rocher bridge. A rough rock staircase which
-has no meaning is attached to this rock behind. D’Hezecques speaks of a
-staircase as having been within the grotto leading up to its entrance on
-the high ground on the montagnes—has it been moved to the lower end of
-the grotto?
-
-There is now no isolated rock standing up as we saw it behind the
-running man;—only mounds covered with shrubs and trees. But in the
-archives there is a note saying that in 1788 rocks were placed in
-various parts, and one is especially mentioned, “pièce donnant au bord
-du lac de l’ancien côté des rochers ... _au long du chemin de
-l’emplacement de la Ruine sur la conduitte en bois à la deuxième source
-du Ravin_.”[65] This would have been the path we were on in 1901.
-
-
-                                Pelouse
-
-It is easy to suppose that between the years 1901–4 trees were cleared
-away from the rough ground on the north side of the house, which in 1901
-had given it the look of an orchard. So much was this the case that the
-lady sitting under the north terrace was thought to be making a study of
-tree stems; for she was looking into trees, and she held a large paper
-in her hand, and, as we passed, held it out at arm’s length.
-
-At present there are trees on each side of the pelouse, and one growing
-near the site of the old Jeu de Bague, but none growing in front of the
-house, and it all looks drier, brighter, and less confined than in 1901.
-
-We have found two interesting mentions of this _pelouse_.
-
-Before the new theatre was built in 1779, the old _comédie_ stood on it
-for three years. When the _comédie_ was moved it gave place to a
-“pelouse parsemée d’arbres.”[66]
-
-
-                                The Lady
-
-Nothing unusual marked the lady sitting on a low seat on the grass
-immediately under the north terrace. I remember recognising that her
-light-coloured skirt, white fichu, and straw hat were in the present
-fashion, but they struck me as rather dowdy in the general effect. She
-was so near us that I looked full at her, and she bent slightly forward
-to do the same.
-
-I never doubted that we had both seen her, and three months after was
-astonished to hear that Miss Lamont had not done so. That sounds simple
-to others, to ourselves it is inexplicable. Miss Lamont had seen the
-plough, the cottage, the woman, and the girl, which I had not; but she
-is generally more observant than I, and there were other things to look
-at. At this moment there was nothing to see on the right, and merely a
-shady, damp-looking meadow on the left, and the lady was sitting in
-front of the house we had come to see, and were both eagerly studying.
-The lady was visible some way off; we walked side by side straight up to
-her, leaving her slightly on the left hand as we passed up the steps to
-the terrace, from whence I saw her again from behind, and noticed that
-her fichu had become a pale green.
-
-The fact that she had not been seen at a moment when we were both a
-little exercised by our meeting with the men,—one looking so unpleasant,
-and the other so unaccountably and infectiously excited,—made a deep
-impression.
-
-The legend that we heard the following winter of the Queen having been
-occasionally seen sitting in front of the house in the English garden,
-is of course incapable of proof; but three things were to us full of
-interest.
-
-I. In 1902 I saw Wertmüller’s picture of the Queen, which alone of all
-the many portraits shown me in any way brought back the face I had seen;
-for the face was more square and the nose shorter. A few weeks later we
-read that Madame Campan considered it almost the only picture of her
-that was really like, though other people thought that it did not do her
-justice.
-
-II. In April, 1908, we learned that there was only one time during the
-Queen’s tenure of the Petit Trianon when she could have seen strangers
-in her gardens, from which, in earlier days, the Court was entirely
-excluded, and to which even the King only came by invitation. For four
-months, after May, 1789, when the Court was carried off to Paris, the
-public streamed in as it liked. So many came to see the place that had
-been too much talked about, that the King and Queen had gone that summer
-to Marly for a little rest and quiet. That was the time when
-D’Hezecques, with one of the deputies, walked round and saw the grotto
-and the little bridge. At the time the Trianon officials must have
-learnt to treat strangers with cold politeness, but probably resenting
-the necessity. This exactly accounts for the manner of the guards at the
-_porte du jardinier_; they made no difficulty, and told us that we
-should find the house by going that way, but in quite an unusual manner
-for Frenchmen. It was mechanical and disengaged.
-
-III. In the summer of 1908 we read the Journal of Madame Éloffe (the
-Queen’s modiste). She says that during the year 1789 the Queen was
-extremely economical, and had very few dresses made. Madame Éloffe
-repaired several light, washing, short skirts, and made, in July and
-September, two green silk bodices, besides many large white fichus. This
-agrees exactly with the dress seen in 1901. The skirt was not of a fresh
-white, but was light coloured,—slightly yellowish. The white fichu in
-front seemed to have an edge of green or gold, just as it would have
-appeared if the white muslin, or gauze, was over green. The colour would
-have shown more clearly at the back, but in front, where the white folds
-accumulated, the green would have been less prominent. The straight edge
-in front and the frill behind had often puzzled me, but in Madame
-Éloffe’s illustrations of the fashions at that time there are instances
-of the same thing. There is in the book a coloured picture of the green
-silk bodice, with all the measurements to enable her to fit the Queen
-perfectly.[67]
-
-
-                              Jeu de Bague
-
-As we approached the terrace at the north-west corner of the house, we
-had some barrier on our right hand entirely blocking the view, so that
-we could see nothing but the meadow on our left hand, and the house with
-its terrace in front.
-
-At present the pathway which curves towards the house, and is very
-likely the old one, has a large bare space on the right hand with one
-beautiful old tree growing on the edge of it; and from some way off one
-can easily see across it to the chapel beyond the French garden. A long
-piece of wall extends westward from the terrace, round which one has to
-go into the French garden in order to find the staircase; whilst the
-whole length of wall, including part of the north terrace, is hidden by
-a large old spreading bush, completely covering the place where the lady
-sat.
-
-Originally, we could not see the steps whilst on the path, but after we
-had passed the barrier on our right hand we found them at once without
-going round any wall.
-
-The map of 1783 shows us that the Jeu de Bague (put up in 1776) once
-stood on what is now bare space. It was a circular building surrounded
-by a wooden gallery, masked by trees. This would have completely shut
-out the view, and the path was probably curved on its account.
-
-In 1907, we learnt that the Queen had a passage made under the terrace
-from the house to the Jeu de Bague; and in 1908 we discovered the old
-walled-up doorway leading into the English garden behind the bush. The
-ground seems to have been a good deal raised since it was used. Four
-feet to the right of this door, just at the point where the top of the
-present staircase is reached, is a change of masonry, the rest of the
-wall being plastered over.
-
-In 1910 we found that this extension of the wall was composed of rubble.
-Perhaps it had been added to the stone terrace in the time of Louis
-Philippe. If the present staircase is old, we could have reached it
-easily from the English garden in the absence of the wall, but if it is
-not old, and it is not indicated in Mique’s map, there may have been
-something quite different—even steps turned northward towards the
-English garden.
-
-In 1910 we also learned that the bush had been planted when the Duchesse
-d’Orleans occupied the house.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-                             The Chapel Man
-
-Whilst we were standing at the south-west end of the terrace above the
-French garden, the door of a building at right angles to the house
-suddenly opened, and a young man came out and slammed the door behind
-him. He came to us very quickly along a level. His manner was jaunty and
-imperious, and he told us that the only way to the house was by the
-_cour d’honneur_. It was difficult to hear what he said. We thought at
-once that we were trespassing and looked for some way down from the
-terrace, upon which he constituted himself our guide, and with an
-inquisitive, amused expression, went with us a little way down the
-French garden, and showed us out into the avenue by a broad road.
-
-There is much to say about this incident.
-
-I. The man evidently did not mean us to stand on the terrace so near to
-the house, and forced us to move away. He was the second person that
-afternoon who had excitedly insisted on our going one way rather than
-another; but now we know that since 1870 the gardens and terraces have
-been made public until dark, and people walk about freely. No one has
-ever stopped us since, nor can we hear of anyone else who has been
-guided as we were.
-
-II. In 1905 we found that the building out of which the man came was the
-old chapel, which is in a ruinous condition.
-
-In 1906, Miss Lamont had leave to go into the chapel, which she had to
-enter from the avenue, there being no entrance from the garden. When
-inside she saw that the door out of which he had come was one leading
-into the royal gallery. The gallery now stands isolated high up on the
-north wall of the chapel. Formerly, from inside, it was reached by a
-door on a landing at the top of a staircase. This staircase is
-completely broken down, and the floor of the landing is gone, so that
-there is now no access to the gallery. The terrace door of the gallery
-is bolted, barred, and cobwebbed over from age and disuse. The guide
-said that the door had not been opened in the memory of any man there:
-not since it was used by the Court.
-
-In April, 1907, Miss Lamont went again to the chapel, this time with two
-companions. Their guide then told them that the doors had not been
-opened to his knowledge for fifteen years, and the great door not since
-it was used by the court of Louis XVI. “Moi, je suis ici depuis quinze
-ans, et je sais que les portes ont été condamnées bien avant cela.” He
-added that having the sole charge of the keys, no one could have opened
-the doors without his knowledge, and smiled at the idea as he looked at
-the blocked-up old doors.
-
-[Illustration: 1783]
-
-[Illustration: 1904]
-
-In August, 1907, two other friends went to the chapel and entirely
-confirmed all that had been said about its ruined condition and the
-impossibility of the great door having been opened in 1901. Their guide
-told them that the big door had been Marie Antoinette’s private
-entrance. The gallery was still standing and had two chairs on it of
-gilt and old red velvet; but when they asked whether it was possible to
-enter it, the guide laughed and pointed to the staircase. There was no
-other entrance, he said, and the stairs had been in that condition for
-the last ten years. They thought from the look of the stairs that they
-had probably been so for much longer.
-
-In September, 1910, a fifth friend went to the chapel and bore witness
-to the impossibility of the doors having been used in 1901, and was told
-that the staircase had finally broken down fifteen years before.
-
-III. From Desjardins’ book we learned that the Queen’s concierge had
-been Bonnefoy du Plan. He had rooms between the chapel and the _cour
-d’honneur_ and kept his stores in a loft over the chapel, reached by the
-now broken-down old staircase. The window of this attic still looks over
-the French garden, and from it, in old days, he would have seen anyone
-approaching the house from that side. The name of the _suisse_ (the
-porter) in charge of the _porte du perron de la chapelle_ in 1789 was
-Lagrange. His rooms were immediately behind the chapel, looking into the
-avenue.[68] He could easily have been sent through the chapel to
-interview strangers on the terrace.
-
-IV. We did not lose sight of the man when he came to us. As it is now he
-must have gone quite out of sight, down one flight of steps outside the
-chapel door, and (after passing under a high wall) have reached the
-terrace (where we were standing) by a second set of steps. The present
-wall of the chapel courtyard is so high as to hide half the door, and a
-large chestnut tree in the courtyard hides it from the part of the
-terrace on which we were,—even in winter.
-
-In April, 1907, we discovered that a continuous ground-floor passage
-from the kitchens once passed the chapel door to the house. This set us
-wondering as to whether there had ever been a pathway above it. The same
-year we were told that the chapel courtyard round which the passage had
-gone had been enlarged.
-
-In August, 1907, two friends reported to us and photographed a mark on
-the outside of the courtyard wall, showing where it might at some time
-have been raised.
-
-In March, 1908, another mark on the chapel was discovered, revealing
-that there had once been an inner wall to the courtyard, which might
-have been removed when the courtyard was enlarged. We also found out
-that the levels were so different that the passage would have been
-partly underground on the side of the French garden, but in the rez de
-chaussée in the courtyard and where it flanked the cour d’honneur. We
-noticed from the photographs that the bastion at the south-west corner
-of the house in the cour d’honneur looked older than the top part of the
-wall adjoining it above the chapel courtyard.
-
-In September, 1910, permission was given to enter this courtyard; when
-within, it was definitely explained that above the kitchen passage there
-had been a covered way, by which the Queen could enter the chapel from
-the house in wet weather. The top of this covered way had been “de plain
-pied,” joining the bit of terrace outside the chapel door to the terrace
-by the house. This would have been the level way along which our man
-came to us.
-
-The marks of the passage and covered way (forming the intervening piece
-of terrace) were perfectly clear both on the inside of the present wall
-and on the ground in the courtyard. The present balustrade adjoining the
-bastion was probably placed when the old covered way was destroyed and
-the outside wall was raised. It was also noticed that the round windows
-in the bastion lighted the lower kitchen passage; but that those facing
-the French garden, being on a higher level, lighted the covered way.
-
-The guide stated that the tree in the centre of the chapel courtyard had
-certainly been planted after the days of the monarchy.
-
-V. The road from the garden to the avenue (through which the man ushered
-us) was not far from the chapel, and was broad enough to admit a coach.
-The present one is narrower and further to the west.
-
-In 1907, we read a note by M. de Nolhac in _Les Consignes de Marie
-Antoinette_ in which he says that the old _porte de la ménagerie_ which
-must have led from the avenue to the French garden is now lost, but that
-it must have been “tout auprès des bâtiments de la Conciergerie et des
-cuisines.”[69] We thought that perhaps it was the one we went by, and on
-looking at Mique’s map of 1783 found a broad road dividing the kitchen
-court into two parts. At present solid continuous buildings on the two
-sides of the kitchen court show no sign of an entrance, though in two
-places the roofs have a difference of level.
-
-In April, 1909, a Frenchman, who sold prints and seemed to be a
-specialist in maps, said that Mique’s map was the only authoritative
-one.
-
-In September, 1910, we learned from the first authority that Mique’s map
-was “exact”: that the road found in it had certainly existed, and its
-position relatively to the pond in the French garden was explained. A
-search for some sign of it was at once made, and successfully. On the
-garden side, not at all far from the chapel, the jamb of an old opening
-still projects from the building, covered with ivy; and the stones on
-the ground are laid, for a space of about twelve paces, the other way
-from the stones on either side, evidently to make a carriage road. A
-large rectangular stone was lying on the ground which might either have
-been a step, or part of the second jamb. On the avenue side marks of an
-opening of some sort can be traced through the plaster with which Louis
-Philippe finished the buildings after restoring and also altering them.
-The opening would have included two present windows not far from the
-_porte de la bouche_, as the signs of it are visible on both sides of
-the opening, and the space between is from twelve to twenty paces.
-
-Within the kitchen court the buildings have been so altered and
-plastered over that no traces of change could be found.
-
-All the points corresponded with the recollection of the roadway through
-which we had passed in 1901.
-
-
-                   Two Labourers with Cart and Horse
-
-On her second visit, January 2nd, 1902, Miss Lamont saw, in the field
-near the Hameau, two labourers, in brown tunics and bright-coloured
-short capes, loading a cart with sticks. The capes hardly came below
-their shoulders and had hoods: one was bright blue and the other red.
-
-In May, 1904, a search was made in the archives with the result that it
-was clear that carts and horses for the purpose of tidying the grounds
-were hired by the day in old times, and not kept in the farm for
-constant use. In January, 1789, two men, instead of the usual one (“plus
-un homme”), were hired “pour ramasser les loques des chenilles et les
-brûler.”[70]
-
-In 1906 we discovered that the tunic and short cape were worn by the
-bourgeoisie in the fourteenth century.
-
-In April, 1908, we had proof that the artisans were wearing them in the
-eighteenth century, and that some of the working men at Trianon in 1776
-had “hardes de couleur.”[71]
-
-The entry in the wages book showed that up to 1783, from time to time
-“une voiture à cheval, et un conducteur,” were hired for picking up
-branches and sticks in the parks: but on _October 4th, 1789_, a cart
-with two horses (almost certainly requiring two men) was hired _for
-three days_ for the purpose.[72]
-
-In August, 1908, a former gardener, who had been at Trianon long enough
-to remember both the Charpentiers, father and son, laughed at the idea
-of such a dress being worn now at Trianon, as it belonged to the “ancien
-régime.” He assured us that carts of the present day in France had
-scarcely altered at all in type, and that the two now in use at Trianon
-(which we found in a shed at the _ferme_) were of the old pattern.
-
-
-                                The Wood
-
-Miss Lamont then went from the Hameau towards the small Orangerie.
-Whilst on the ascending path she saw, on looking back, a man passing in
-front of, or in, a distant plantation on his way to the Hameau. He was
-dressed in the cloak and hat we had seen the previous summer.
-
-She then descended to the low ground in front of the Belvédère and
-crossed one of the bridges over the principal river (not the Rocher
-bridge, but possibly the Vergelay bridge). After going forward a little
-she turned, meaning to go back to the Hameau, and recrossed either the
-same bridge, or the next one which is very near the Vergelay. She
-immediately found herself in a wood of very tall trees, with such high,
-thick undergrowth that (even though it was winter) she could not see
-through it. Well-kept paths opened at intervals right and left at
-different angles, and they gave the impression of being so arranged as
-to lead round and round. She had the feeling of being in the midst of
-crowds passing and repassing her, and heard voices and sounds of
-dresses. On looking back she found the view as completely blocked as it
-was in front and to the sides. After vainly pursuing the confusing paths
-for some time, she found herself close to the hill leading to the
-Orangerie.
-
-In 1904 and in 1908 we tried to find this wood, without results. There
-are open plantations, but they have no undergrowths concealing paths
-from one another, even in summer. Several people have gone independently
-to look for the wood, but have not found it.
-
-In 1905 Miss Lamont was told by the chief authority that in this
-direction trees had been thinned and not replaced.
-
-The entries in the archives indicate that there must have been woods
-near by in which paths were cut for the Queen; it is also likely that
-the older woods, such as _Les Onze Arpents_, are not referred to; for
-when these plantations were made thousands of lower shrubs were bought
-to be placed under the trees, which were paid for by the King.[73] In
-the gardeners’ wages book, the gathering up and occasional burnings of
-undergrowths in a wood (apparently in this part of the garden) are
-alluded to.[74]
-
-In Mique’s map (1783) the wood with its diverging paths can be plainly
-seen. It is approached by the two bridges over the river, and stretches
-towards the hill on which the Orangerie stands.
-
-
-                               The Music
-
-Whilst in the wood Miss Lamont heard sounds of a band of violins
-drifting past her from the direction of the house. The sounds were very
-soft and intermittent, and were lower in pitch than bands of to-day. She
-could afterwards write down from memory about twelve bars, but without
-all the inner harmonies.
-
-She ascertained immediately afterwards that no band had been playing out
-of doors that afternoon at Versailles. It was a cold, wet winter’s
-afternoon.
-
-In March, 1907, the twelve bars were shown to a musical expert, who said
-(without having heard the story) that the bars could hardly belong to
-one another, but that the idiom dated from about 1780. He found a
-grammatical mistake in one bar. After hearing the story, he said that
-bands in the eighteenth century were lower in pitch than they are now.
-He suggested the name of Sacchini.
-
-In March, 1908, Miss Lamont and a friend were told in Versailles that no
-bands had been allowed to play in the park in winter until 1907. They
-also ascertained that no music played at Versailles, or in the park,
-could have been heard at Trianon.
-
-In the same month they searched through a great deal of unpublished
-music in the Conservatoire de Musique at Paris, and discovered that the
-twelve bars represented the chief motives of the light opera of the
-eighteenth century, excluding Rameau and his school, and that, as far as
-they could discover, nothing like them occurred in the opera of 1815
-onward. They were found in Sacchini, Philidor, Monsigny, Grétry, and
-Pergolesi. Grammatical mistakes were found in Monsigny and Grétry.
-
-  _Sacchini._
-
-      “Dardanus.” General likeness.
-
-          “Œdipe à Colone.” Number 6. Two bars intact in the key
-          answering to that heard in 1902, allowing for the rise of a
-          semi-tone, which had taken place since the eighteenth century.
-          This was proved by later editions of operatic music, in which
-          the songs were dropped a semi-tone to retain the original key.
-
-  _Philidor_ in a collection of single airs (Rigaudons, 1767)—the
-          cadence.
-
-      “Le Maréchal Ferrand”: repetition of single notes, the first bar
-          of the melody, and many other hints of likeness.
-
-  _Duni._ 1765. The same general characteristics, but no exact
-          resemblance.
-
-  _Monsigny._
-
-      “Le Roi et le Fermier.” Written for performance at the opening of
-          the new theatre at the Petit Trianon, August 1, 1780, when the
-          Queen first acted herself. Up to 1908 it had not been
-          republished. In it the figure of the first of the twelve bars
-          was found.
-
-      “Le Déserteur.” No published edition was found after 1830. In one
-          published before that date the last three bars of the music
-          were found, and the melody of the first bars was assigned to
-          the second violins, and very freely, in inversions and
-          variations, in other places. The character of the
-          accompaniment was reminding.
-
-          Thirds and sixths constantly occur in Monsigny’s music.
-
-  _Grétry._ The same phrases were used and the ascending passage was
-          found. Also, hidden consecutive fifths.
-
-  _Pergolesi._
-
-      “Largo and Andante in D.” Similar phrases were used.
-
-
-                           The Tall Gardener
-
-Miss Lamont then went along the upper path, and when between the
-Escargot hill and the Belvédère, she met a very tall gardener of
-apparently great strength, with long muscular arms. She thought that
-with his long hair and grizzled, untidy beard and general appearance, he
-had the look of an Englishman rather than a Frenchman.
-
-He was dressed in a rough knitted jersey, and a small dark blue round
-cap was set at the back of his head. She enquired where she should find
-the Queen’s grotto, and he walked a little way beside her to show her
-the way.
-
-Miss Lamont expected to have to turn back to the present grotto, and
-when she remarked that they were going past the Belvédère, he replied
-firmly that they _must_ go past the Belvédère, and said that it was
-necessary to have been born and bred in the place to know the way so
-that “personne ne pourrait vous tromper.”
-
-It appears that from 1870 onwards the gardeners at Trianon have been
-selected from the technical schools, and that it is now a matter of
-competition, no one being appointed simply because he was born and bred
-there. We do not know whether this is the case with the under-gardeners;
-nor whether the tall gardener was a chief official or not.
-
-In August, 1908, we were told by a former gardener that their dress now
-is the same as the traditional dress of the ancien régime, viz., a rough
-knitted jersey with a small _casquette_ on the head.
-
-In the old weekly wages book there appears, for several years, the name
-“l’Anglais”—probably a nickname.[75] He must not be confused with John
-Egleton, who remained at Trianon only a few months, and whose wages were
-settled on his departure by a bill which is still in existence, but is
-not in the wages book.[76]
-
-
-We owe our researches as to the position of the Queen’s grotto almost
-entirely to the tall gardener’s decided directions and guidance to the
-part of the English garden between the Belvédère and the _montagnes_
-close to the theatre.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-                                                                   F. L.
-
-  _September, 1910._
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III
-             ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WHICH WE HAVE BEEN ASKED
-
-
-1. One of us has to own to having powers of second sight, etc.,
-deliberately undeveloped, and there are psychical gifts in her family.
-She comes of a Huguenot stock. The other is one of a large and cheerful
-party, being the seventh daughter and of a seventh son; her mother and
-grandmother were entirely Scotch, and both possessed powers of
-premonition accompanied by vision. Her family has always been sensitive
-to ghost stories in general, but mercilessly critical of particular ones
-of a certain type.
-
-2. Both of us have inherited a horror of all forms of occultism. We lose
-no opportunity of preaching against them as unwholesome and misleading;
-because they mostly deal with conditions of physical excitement, and
-study of the abnormal and diseased, including problems of disintegrated
-personality which present such close analogy to those of insanity. We
-have the deepest distrust in, and distaste for, stories of abnormal
-appearances and conditions. We find narratives of _revenants_
-unconvincing, and studiously avoid (as utterly lowering) all
-spiritualistic methods of communication with the dead. We have never had
-the curiosity, or the desire, to help in the investigations of psychical
-phenomena.
-
-3. We belong to no new schools of thought: we are the daughters of
-English clergymen, and heartily hold and teach the faith of our fathers.
-
-4. We are quite certain that neither of us exerted any conscious
-influence over the other; for though we saw much in common, yet each had
-independent vision. We should think it wrong either to exercise, or to
-submit to, influence of that nature. We are independent people and
-accustomed to stand on our own feet.
-
-5. Our condition at the time was one of perfect health and enjoyment of
-a holiday in the midst of very hard work.
-
-6. We were entirely ignorant of the history and traditions of the place,
-and continued our conversation about other things after every
-interruption. We did not even know that we were in the grounds of the
-Petit Trianon until we saw the house.
-
-7. At the time Miss Lamont thought that there was something unusual
-about the place and was puzzled; the same idea returned to her
-occasionally during the following week. Miss Morison put her feeling of
-oppression down to some physical fatigue in herself, and so said
-nothing; for we did not know one another very well at that time, were in
-the relation of hostess and guest, and neither of us thought of
-enlarging on uncomfortable sensations. After some days, when Miss
-Morison was writing an account of the expedition, she thought it over
-with care, and realised that her sensations had not been caused by
-fatigue, but had produced fatigue. She became convinced that the
-oppression had been due to some unusual cause in the place itself, and
-instantly turned to Miss Lamont and said so. Miss Lamont agreed. We then
-discussed the man by the kiosk and the running man, but said that there
-was much besides which had caused dreamy depression. Miss Morison
-returned to her letter and wrote down: “We both think that the Petit
-Trianon is haunted.”
-
-When we met next (three months later) we talked it over again, and
-finding that Miss Lamont had not seen the lady, and that Miss Morison
-had not seen the plough, cottage, woman, or girl, we resolved to write
-separate accounts of our visit in order to find the discrepancies, but
-with no idea of making exhaustive histories. These papers are still in
-existence. Miss Lamont, in her story, used the words “uncanny” and
-“eerie” to describe her feelings, but they did not mean that she had the
-least idea at the time that any of the people encountered were unreal or
-ghostly; this was still more true of the scenery.
-
-8. During the next three years, Miss Lamont repeatedly took parties of
-girls over the Trianon, and she reported that the place was changed; but
-Miss Morison could not believe it, and even made maps to remind her what
-their old route had been. After Miss Morison had paid a second visit to
-Trianon in July, 1904, and had found out for herself that the place was
-entirely changed, it was resolved to undertake a personal research into
-the matter, and to say no more until we had discovered for ourselves
-whether our vivid recollections of the people and the place tallied with
-any ancient reality or not.
-
-Up to that time we had told the story freely, with the result that we
-have constantly traced it inaccurately reported in histories, sometimes
-purporting to have come from other sources, and even in newspapers and
-small periodicals. After research had begun to yield interesting
-results, we were obliged to be silent, finding that publicity prevented
-our getting at evidence.
-
-We are very busy people, and have refused to let the incident take a
-prominent place in our time, interests, or fancy, though from the first
-we agreed to lose no given opportunity of elucidation. The evidence has,
-therefore, come slowly; but the manner in which it has come has often
-been a source of surprise. If a helpful person came in our way, we
-showed the whole thing: if we were casually asked if certain reports
-were true, we confirmed them (when we could), but said nothing further.
-We were anxious to wait until we had exhausted every possible means of
-satisfying ourselves as to the exact amount of interest attaching to the
-story; and it was several years before we had to believe that we had
-seen the place as it had been a hundred years before, and as it had not
-been, in several important particulars, since 1835. The research had
-been undertaken with the idea of _disproving_ the suggestion that
-anything unusual had happened, for we were resolved not to deceive
-ourselves or anyone else, if personal industry could prevent it.
-
-9. In the course of the last four or five years, Miss Lamont has
-searched for evidence bearing on the story (either by word or picture)
-in the Archives nationales, in the library, museum, Mairie, and Archives
-departmentales at Versailles: also in the libraries Nationale, Hôtel de
-Ville, and in the Musée Carnavalet, and in the Conservatoire de Musique
-at Paris. She has poked about in French book and print shops, and must
-have seen a large number of the originals of the published plans,
-illustrations, and accounts of the place. We believe that there is not
-likely to be any striking documentary evidence other than we have dealt
-with.
-
-10. The historical interest of the story seems to depend on the truth of
-the tradition that the Queen went to Trianon on October 5th, 1789. We
-can find no negative evidence of this, but extremely little which is
-both affirmative and trustworthy. Madame Campan’s short statement
-remains the basis of other people’s longer and more detailed narratives.
-General La Fayette’s full account of the day was burned by his wife
-during the Terror. Count Fersen’s memoirs were also partly destroyed.
-The Abbé Bossuet had Madame de Tourzel’s careful history of that day
-burned; but in the published memoirs she says that she was in residence
-that day at Versailles, as _Gouvernante des enfants de France_; she does
-not mention having gone to Trianon, as implied by Marion’s story, but it
-is still possible. Most French historians now adopt Madame Campan’s
-statement, but (in the words of one of them) “with some doubts.” It is
-worth mentioning that many later historians insert the fact (though it
-is not recorded by Madame Campan) that “the Queen was accompanied by a
-single valet.” Is this a tradition?
-
-11. We do not believe in anniversaries in the usual sense. We have
-tested both our days (August 10th and January 2nd), going, as far as
-possible, under the same circumstances, without any result at the Petit
-Trianon. Yet it is possible that if we entered into an act of memory, it
-may well have been first made on the terrible 10th of August, 1792,
-though the memory itself was occupied (in the central place) with the
-events of October 5th, 1789. The dress of the messenger was more
-suitable for October than August. At the same time Vaudreuil left France
-the previous summer and cannot have sat in the Trianon woods after the
-taking of the Bastille, July 14th, 1789.
-
-There is an incoherence about both the large and small incidents which
-seems to require combination within a single mind, and the only mind to
-which they could all have been present would have been that of the
-Queen. Our theory of 1901, that we had entered within the working of the
-Queen’s memory when she was still alive, is now enlarged. We think that
-the two first visits to Trianon (August 10th, 1901, and January 2nd,
-1902) were part of one and the same experience; that quite mechanically
-we must have seen it as it appeared to her more than a hundred years
-ago, and have heard sounds familiar, and even something of words spoken,
-to her then.
-
-Having been for two most trying years confined to Paris, and (excepting
-for a visit to St. Cloud) through two hot summers, and being in the
-midst of the tumultuous horrors of the great tenth of August, she may,
-as the day wore on, and she grew more used to her miserable position in
-the Hall of the Assembly—where she sat for eighteen hours—have fancied
-(in memory) the grounds at Trianon more spacious than they really were;
-and have seen the trees, as one sees trees in recollection, like a
-picture without life, depth, or movement. In rêverie her mind may have
-wandered from the familiar sight of the two Bersys at the gate, to the
-little vision of two men gathering up garden rubbish into a cart (which
-we know happened on October 5th, 1789, as well as one day during the
-last winter she spent at Versailles), and which—without any reason—had
-remained in her mind. She may have thought of the place as it was during
-that year of the meeting of the States-General when the grounds were,
-for the first time, thrown completely open to the public, and intruding
-strangers could be seen there. Or she may have gone back to the earlier
-years and the pleasant afternoons when the band played on the _pelouse_
-in front of the house, and to the excitement of acting in the little
-theatre with her special friends, perhaps letting herself realise the
-unkindness of the pressure put upon her by Vaudreuil to have the acting
-of the _Mariage de Figaro_ authorised.
-
-How naturally the thought of him would have formed one picture in her
-mind with the memory of the last scene, when she was hurriedly summoned
-from Trianon, never to return! For she may very likely have supposed all
-that she was suffering to have been more exclusively the result of her
-own former mistakes than could have been just, and have been going over
-them in her mind.
-
-On our return to Paris on the day of the original visit to Trianon, when
-undoubtedly her image was uppermost in our thoughts, and the
-recollection of her terrible end was hardly to be endured, the recurring
-consolation to Miss Morison was, “She has forgiven it all now, and knows
-the true meaning of the French Revolution on both its good and bad
-sides, and also the exact proportion of her own part in it.” But the act
-of memory which had so strangely and mechanically clung to the place,
-with which we had, perhaps, been associated in the grounds, was
-incoherent and pictorial. It was oppressive to us because it represented
-a more limited view of those times than after a hundred years we have
-learnt to take of them, and was far more limited than any thought the
-Queen can have about them now.
-
-12. Our answer to the suggestion that we were in a state of suspended
-consciousness is that our conversation and sense of the quiet continuity
-of things remained unbroken, and, in spite of oppression, believed
-ourselves to be particularly wide awake and on the alert. When we were
-first asked whether the man from the side building was real or not, we
-laughed at the idea of any unreality; all was so quietly natural that we
-are still uncertain whether the tall gardener belonged to another
-century or not. It has taken us nine years to work out all the details
-which bear witness to the strangeness of what we saw and did, and to
-justify us in our present conviction, that from the moment of our
-leaving the lane until we emerged into the avenue we were on enchanted
-ground.
-
-13. The theory of coincidences would have to be considerably strained to
-cover more than twenty points quickly succeeding one another.
-
-14. In the municipal records kept in the Library at Versailles there is
-a list of fêtes in the grounds. Miss Lamont has examined it carefully.
-There had been one for which people had been dressed in Louis XVI.
-costume in June, 1901, but there is a note to say that it had been
-confined to the Hameau. There was none in August, 1901. We know that
-since 1901 there have been fêtes in the grounds with scenes in
-character, so that other people may have come across them; an
-examination of the records as to dates would probably reveal such
-possibilities.
-
-In the same catalogue notices are made of photographs taken of
-historical groups at fêtes; there had been some in connection with the
-June fête, and “Otto” was mentioned by name. On enquiry Otto wrote that
-he had not taken “l’ensemble de la fête, c’était des groupes de jeunes
-filles, et des dames séparément.” “Dufayel” took pains to look the
-matter up, and Miss Lamont and one of his employées went all through his
-lists and books of specimen photographs, and found that he had not taken
-any photographs at Trianon between 1900 and 1906. He recommended
-enquiries at Pierre Petit’s, as Petit would have Lafayette’s as well as
-other photographers’ pictures. No photographs of the scenes we wanted
-were to be heard of there, and Pierre Petit wrote afterwards that his
-only photographs at Trianon had been taken in 1900 for the Exhibition.
-
-It has been suggested to us that our story can be explained by people
-posing for a cinematograph in order to register the scene of the
-messenger running to the Queen, whilst something further has been said
-of a girl sweeping up leaves as forming part of the group. Naturally,
-from the first, we had thought of some such explanation, but had
-rejected it as insufficient. We did not see the man running; we only
-heard him; then he suddenly appeared, standing close to us, and
-addressed us personally, earnestly, and with excitement. As a scene it
-would have been nothing; we saw no Queen, and no girl sweeping up
-leaves. He remained by us until we turned away from him. The
-cinematograph theory does not explain how it was that he came over and
-stood with his back against rocks of considerable size piled on one
-another, when rocks have not been there for nearly a hundred years,
-though we find that they had been placed in that part of the garden in
-1788. Nor does it explain how it was that both before and during the
-man’s coming we were both gazing at a kiosk which is not now in
-existence, though both rocks and kiosk we found out years after to have
-made part of the original scenery in 1789. Not a word is hinted about
-the little bridge over the ravine, and the little cascade close by, all
-being essentials both to our, and, we believe, to the original story. We
-suspect the explanation to be simply that we had not talked about them
-at first, not knowing their significance till later, and so they have
-not got into any widely-spread story. We know from the archives that the
-streams were not cleared from leaves after October 4th, 1789, and that
-“Mariamne” is only mentioned as having been paid for work in the grounds
-in _1783_, as one of several children so occupied.
-
-If masqueraders were posing as guards at the _porte du jardinier_, the
-cinematograph idea does not explain the reappearance of the old cottage
-close by, in its former position as placed in Mique’s map of 1783. If
-the part of the Queen was being acted, what of the orchard of trees we
-saw her looking into, not now in existence; also, what is the account of
-the barrier at our right hand screening off the present view and exactly
-answering to the old enclosure of the Jeu de Bague?
-
-The cinematograph does not explain the man who opened the great door of
-the chapel, easily banging it behind him as he came out; for in 1907 the
-people living in the place believed that it had not been opened since
-the days of Louis XVI., and the keeper of the key knew that even the
-door of the landing had not been opened for fifteen years. How was the
-wall lowered, which now largely hides the great door from the terrace,
-and makes it necessary to go down one flight of steps and up another,
-whereas we saw the man coming along a level, in full view, from the
-moment of his opening the door until he reached us standing on the
-terrace outside the window of the _antichambre_?[77]
-
-A cinematograph would not explain the reappearance of the old wood in
-all its denseness; nor the rapid disappearance of the cart and horse in
-an open field; nor the music, which, six years later, was found to be a
-piecing together of eighteenth century operas.
-
-No amount of masqueraders explains to us the ease with which we
-dismissed from sight and hearing the usual August crowds in the middle
-of a fine afternoon, and the impossibility of harmonising our
-recollections of the scenery with anything but the old maps and records.
-Certainly none of the persons we met were being photographed at the
-moment, or we must have seen it; and had scenery been erected for the
-purpose, we must have observed such large artificial arrangements; there
-would probably have been sightseers; and, presumably, the fact of
-anything so considerable would have been in the catalogue.
-
-Even should it be proved that a cinematograph had been taken that very
-day, it would not be a possible explanation to us. The groups we saw
-were small and isolated from one another. There was the deepest silence
-everywhere, and no sunshine; whilst the light was the worst possible for
-a picture, for the sky was overcast. And though whilst we stood there an
-indefinable air of strangeness dropped over everything, including the
-tall forest trees, it was not of a kind that could be accounted for by
-fictitious scenery. The people moved and spoke as usual, but their words
-were extraordinarily difficult to catch.
-
-In September, 1910, the question of such representation was settled by
-an enquiry of the authorities. No leave to take cinematographs had been
-granted in August, 1901. The fête had been on June 27th, and the
-photographs of it had been taken sufficiently near the time to be
-published in the July number of _Versailles Illustré_. Not one of the
-pictures in this number is in the least like what, we saw either in the
-matter of subjects, costumes, or places. The inaccuracy is so great,
-that in an article in the same magazine the scene of the messenger
-coming to the Queen is transferred from the grotto to the Hameau, though
-the sole authority for the tradition places it at the grotto.
-
-15. During the last five or six years much research into topographical
-and archæological details has been made by the newly-formed “Société des
-amis de Versailles,” probably from the same archives examined by Miss
-Lamont, so that many points of likeness to what we saw may soon
-reappear. Old music with old-fashioned instruments is now frequently
-introduced at summer fêtes at Trianon. Even the water arrangements in
-our part of the garden seem likely to be altered, and the little cascade
-may yet be seen again. At the beginning of 1910 Miss Lamont saw
-engineers searching for the first and second _sources_, and in the
-following autumn she found iron grids placed on the ground near the
-positions we had allotted for them; but nothing had been altered up to
-September, 1910. We are most curious to know whether the restorations
-will be exactly according to our recollections of the scenery or not.
-
-16. Stories retailing just so much of our own as we had first talked
-about are constantly being repeated to us; some with the little
-additions we can recognise as our own early surmises; generally with the
-omission of points we did not know to be interesting until later; and
-often with all the muddles arising from the attempt to shorten a long
-story, with a few unauthorised additions and explanations thrown in.
-These stories are told to us as being the property of persons we have
-never heard of. We have constantly enquired on what authority they rest,
-and, if there is any at all, we have not infrequently been able to
-discover the track they have followed from us back to us again.
-
-17. We do not think that deception explains it. If we were deceived in
-one, two, or three points, could we have been in all? For out of them we
-have been able to reconstruct the story of Trianon in many tiny details,
-the truth of which we have had to discover for ourselves.
-
-18. We are constantly asked why we, of all people, should have had such
-an adventure? We are equally puzzled; and have come to think that it may
-not be so unusual as it seems. We can imagine that people, even if they
-suspected anything unusual (which they might easily not do), may have
-thought it best not to follow it up. The peculiarity in our case may
-simply have been that two persons were equally able to consider the
-circumstances, and did do so: that we found there was available
-evidence, and that we had the opportunity for obtaining it.
-
-19. Certain unusual conditions were present.
-
-(1) Two people in broad daylight, good health, and normal conditions,
-were equally able to bear witness to the facts, yet not in the manner of
-thought transference between each other, for they did not see alike in
-every point.
-
-(2) Some of the facts were so small that no historical knowledge,
-however dim, could have suggested them.
-
-(3) They concerned such well known historical personages that much
-documentary proof as to the reality of the incidents is accessible; yet,
-in some particulars, they are of such a nature as to be incapable of
-reproduction by any tricks of scenic effects; and some of the evidence
-found in the archives had, to all appearance, not been disturbed since
-its collection by the National Assembly until Miss Lamont in 1904 undid
-the old fastenings that had stuck together through age and disuse: for
-instance—much of the evidence about the gardeners taken from the wages
-book.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-                                                                   F. L.
-
-  _September, 1910._
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IV
-                               A RÊVERIE
-
-
-                       A Possible Historical Clue
-
-To find the causes of the universal movement, which for convenience we
-call the French Revolution, one should be a trained historian,
-philosopher, and theologian, and be able to pass in review and justly
-estimate the aspirations for political consolidation, greater individual
-responsibility, and the revolt against Papal tyranny over consciences,
-as they had been working in all European countries for many centuries.
-To find the causes for the particular form which this universal
-development took in France, it would be necessary to weigh the moral,
-social, and political (including the fiscal) tendencies of earlier
-generations. This would be manifestly impossible in a paper dealing with
-the revolution in France as it may have appeared to a single mind, on
-one special day, at a time of great mental excitement. There can be no
-doubt that Marie Antoinette was the innocent victim of a world-wide
-upheaval in the moments when men were first consciously developing it,
-and we can well believe that to herself the reasons for such reversals
-of older thoughts seemed inscrutable; whilst she would have vainly
-sought, in reflecting over her own mistakes, for grounds sufficient to
-justify the enormous misfortunes which overwhelmed her personally.
-
-The tenth of August, 1792, was a marked day in the history of the French
-Revolution. The tide of French democratic reaction against the
-ever-increasing selfishness of privilege, and the inability of the
-rulers to sympathise with the growing desire for greater freedom and
-less personal government, had been gathering force with constantly
-increasing momentum; and on this day Louis XVI. virtually relinquished
-all independence as Head of the State by surrendering himself, for the
-sake of the safety of his family and to save France from the crime of
-massacring its King, into the doubtful care of the Legislative Assembly.
-
-That Assembly grew out of the States-General which had been convened by
-the King, May 5th, 1789, at one of the critical moments when the
-dissatisfaction of the nation with its financial conditions produced
-keen anxiety to the Court; and it had (on another epoch-making day of
-that unrestful period) refused, on June 23rd, 1789, to be dissolved by
-mandate of the King. From that moment the National Assembly had become
-the centre of the reforming party in France. Louis XVI., as King, did
-not seem to stand in the way of the wishes of the nation as expressed by
-the Assembly. He appeared to be willing to forego more of his
-prerogatives than was compatible with the existence of monarchy as
-understood in France; but, it was believed, the Queen was of a different
-opinion and desirous of upholding the ancient monarchical idea as a
-practical force, which at that time, in spite of the King’s amiability
-and absence of policy, could not be otherwise than hostile to the still
-vague, but unbounded, aspirations of the democratic party. “Madame Veto”
-had that influence over the King due to a strong personality and her
-position as a much loved wife; upon her, therefore, fell the wrath of
-the nation. It was instinctively recognised that as a wife and mother
-she had every reason to desire the continuance of things as they were,
-and the people quickly interpreted every act of vacillation on the
-King’s part to the Queen’s active enmity to the rising forces of
-democracy.
-
-It was on August 10th, 1792, that the Legislative Assembly was made to
-realise another function belonging to it beyond that of fighting the
-prerogatives of the King and of the aristocracy. In such a restless age,
-and in such a country as France, it was impossible to suppose that the
-outspoken longings of philosophers, poets, and statesmen for freedom,
-should not stir up the hope of freedom from all authority and restraint
-whatever in the lowest stratum of society. The lengths to which the mob
-in Paris could go had, during the last three years, shown itself on
-isolated occasions, but with increasing frequency and savagery. Both mob
-and Assembly were animated by the same desire, viz. to make monarchy in
-France absolutely helpless to withstand their will. The Assembly was
-trying to bring it about with some appearance of constitutional decency,
-without apparently perceiving that unless the King was allowed to banish
-himself, a discrowned monarch without any _raison d’être_ whatever in
-the country inevitably meant his ultimate, and perhaps speedy,
-disappearance by death. The mob saw its policy more clearly, and was
-ready to get rid of him and the Queen by instant murder.
-
-Thus, on the morning of August 10th, the Legislative Assembly had the
-double part to play of continuing its assault on privilege whilst
-protecting the royal family from destruction.
-
-When, at some moment between 7 and 9 a.m., Louis XVI. and Marie
-Antoinette entered the Manège in which the Council met, there was, at
-first, some attempt at restrained courtesy showing itself in the grave
-assurance of protection in reply to the King’s request, and also in half
-an hour’s doubt as to where he should sit down. But the Assembly was
-entirely aware of its victory in this act of unconditional surrender on
-the part of the King, and would allow no royal guards of any description
-to enter. There was a short alarm lest it should have to defend itself
-against the cannon of the insurgents, the sound of firing approaching
-nearer to the building than the nerves of some of the deputies could
-sustain with calmness.[78] But the mob had not yet realised that it had
-the upper hand, and was content to believe that the protected King was
-the imprisoned King, and only continued to howl ferocious threats
-outside the _grilles_.
-
-If the Assembly did not immediately see its way to the definite
-imprisonment of the Sovereign, neither did it choose that the royal
-party should sit on its own benches, so it ordained that they should be
-placed in the _logographie_—the reporter’s room—a sort of den not far
-from the President’s chair, open to the Manège and within sight and
-hearing of all that passed, but without dignity or decent comfort.[79]
-Here, without apparently any opportunity for resting or meals, the King,
-Queen, Princess Elizabeth, Madame Royale, and the Dauphin remained,
-until (at least) 10 p.m.[80] A few faithful attendants, such as the
-Princesse de Lamballe, Madame de Tourzel, the Prince de Poix, and the
-Duc de la Rochefoucauld, were with them, and at first other royalists
-were allowed to bring them news and to pass in and out, but this was
-stopped in the course of the day.
-
-From Dufour’s account it would seem that no one was busying themselves
-to supply their wants until he undertook to do so the next day.[81] A
-draught of water brought to them in their cells at night to quench their
-raging thirst is all that he speaks of. If the story of the King eagerly
-devouring food in public is true (and it is impossible to believe that
-the children had nothing), yet it is doubtful whether the Queen, who had
-had no rest the night before, had any food during the day.
-
-What a tumult of disgust, fears, indignation, and overwhelming regrets
-must have occupied the Queen’s mind! It was difficult enough to maintain
-an outwardly calm, queenly demeanour; her thoughts must have been
-confused, half formed, reflecting the agitation of despair and anxiety.
-She knew only too well that she was looked upon as the political enemy
-of the crowd for reasons that were not altogether untrue. She had had a
-policy inconsistent with republicanism and, though worsted in it, the
-events of the last three years probably justified it in her own mind.
-
-She inherited a belief in a strong rule, beneficent as her own kindly
-nature required, but one that could fight its battles and make full use
-of such opportunities as hereditary kingship possessed. Again and again
-she had felt that the King’s action was worse than nothing. Marie
-Antoinette would have sternly punished the crime of killing the King’s
-officials;[82] she would have upheld the sovereign office as long as
-there were those who prized it. The country could never have reached the
-present point of rebellion if the taking of the Bastille, for instance,
-had not been condoned and the murders and outrages connected with it had
-not been allowed to pass without adequate punishment. Why were the
-troops dismissed so soon after, and the nobles allowed to emigrate? It
-may have been right for the monarch to urge upon some of them the danger
-in which they stood by remaining, but where was their courage and
-loyalty in leaving the country?[83]
-
-The sensation of loneliness was terrible. Where were the illustrious
-families and statesmen who had not left France, who, had the Queen only
-known it, were to go during the next year in one long procession to the
-scaffold? They were, she knew, paralysed by the King’s inaction and
-weakness. Surely they would have rallied had he called upon them with
-decision to defend their rights and had placed himself at their head,
-even though many of those princely families who had surrounded her
-during the first years of her reign had been alienated and in opposition
-to herself before the disaffection became general. Where were the
-faithful Swiss guards who only that morning had escorted them in safety
-to the Manège, and would have fought bravely and perhaps been the
-rallying point for all who were not declared democrats? Alas, alas, the
-sounds of screams and fiendish massacre were in her ears at the moment;
-cannon, musketry, and cold-blooded carnage were then and there
-destroying the last stronghold! The tiny _loge_, only 10 feet square, so
-painfully hot and full of comers and goers, seemed to the despairing
-Queen empty of all who should have been there to represent the
-monarchical principle. The presence of the Prince de Poix and the Duc de
-la Rochefoucauld and a few others, who were endangering their lives by
-being with them, only emphasised the forlornness of the royal condition.
-
-Looking from her dismal corner in the _loge_ at the King, who sat with
-impassive mien facing the assembly, what waves of painful emotion must
-have swept across her brain! The King could not see things from her
-point of view, but he had loved and spoilt her. He had been faithful to
-her, as no French monarch for many generations had been loyal to his
-wife. He was devoted to her and to their children; had paid her debts
-again and again;[84] had ennobled and enriched her friends; his patience
-and magnanimity were saintly; but how often had she raged against his
-theory that the King’s duty was to set an example of lofty forbearance
-and forgiveness of every injury even when done to him as representing
-the law, justice, and power of the whole French peoples. She had
-instinctively felt that had she been in the King’s place she would have
-found her way through the past crises without either descending from her
-throne or doing wrong to the most Christian charity. She knew that she
-was kind-hearted, and had always loved to be the benefactress of others:
-yes, she too could forgive royally when forgiveness was due from her in
-her own person, but not when it required injustice to others.
-
-But Marie Antoinette was too clear-sighted to impute all the blame of
-this downfall to the King’s mistakes. No doubt his feeble idea had been
-to behave as though the democrats only were the nation, forgetting the
-contrary view of those who had either banished themselves or who were
-perforce silent unless he could lead the way. To obey every behest of
-the Legislative Assembly and of the mob showed a lamentable lack of
-wisdom, but even such a poor policy had brought him an undoubted though
-fleeting popularity. He had appeared to take the side of the opponents
-of monarchy; he had divested himself of prerogatives; had sworn to a
-Constitution beyond his power to carry out, and had submitted to the
-indignity of placing the red bonnet on his head; but had she not helped
-to make all this short-sighted weakness even more unavailing than it
-need have been? What was the use of humbling the aristocracy along with
-himself, and of acting against his own convictions, if at the same time
-he consented to plans for escaping, and was known to be so far
-untrustworthy to his own professions that at every crisis he listened to
-her incessant urgings to the more spirited policy, by which he could
-instantly rally the royal forces?
-
-Bitterly she knew that she had never prevailed to overcome his fatal
-belief that the King was never to shed the blood of a Frenchman, even if
-he were a disturber of the public peace; but she had ever to bear the
-blame of every mistake. She thought of that terrible message sent only
-two hours ago at the bidding of the Assembly that their guards were not
-to defend themselves, but to disarm.[85] Only this morning there were
-600 Swiss and 200 gentlemen, and even companies of the national guard
-whom they could trust, but whispered reports had reached even the _loge_
-that their noble supporters had died unsoldierly and cold-blooded
-deaths. There was no longer any nucleus in the country of loyalty to the
-consecrated ruler.
-
-There was nothing now to prevent the passing of the formal decree by
-which she heard the King finally deprived of the crown and of every
-vestige of authority. Though Louis XVI. appeared unheeding and
-expressionless, could _she_ bear this indignity, this wrong to her son?
-Could they not escape from this wicked durance? But she had consented to
-this surrender to their enemies in the hope of saving her son’s life. It
-had been the only chance. As long as they were in some shelter from the
-howling savages outside who were screaming for their blood, the life of
-her son was secure. She had long accustomed herself to the thought of
-being assassinated, but there was no fear of a judicial murder; no
-government of France would sink to such a point of wickedness and
-unwisdom in the face of a united Europe.[86] They would be condemned to
-more years of miserable bondage, but they would be together; friends
-would rally; circumstances would clear themselves. The Queen had it in
-her still to do and dare everything if there were any hope of
-surmounting the present crisis.
-
-If she might only act! But no, the Queen’s heart sank again as the
-numbing sense of helplessness came over her, remembering that she would
-not be allowed to act. It was always the King who had the last word. She
-might plan, but he, with all his love and confidence in her, invariably
-thwarted every attempt requiring some spirit of defiance. He had ruined
-the Varennes scheme by letting himself be recognised at critical
-moments. Why did he review the guards that morning, and make it
-unavailing by omitting to speak words of courage and confidence? Why did
-he seek the protection of his enemies rather than fire on the mob, which
-an hour later fled away at the volleys fired by the Swiss?[87] No, there
-was no hope of contending against the difficulties imposed on their
-party by the inertia of the King. And now things had gone so far,
-perhaps he had no choice but to advise obedience when the Assembly
-decreed that the few friends outside their household who had pressed
-into the _loge_ should no longer hold communication with them, but
-should retire. More than once during those sad hours they had to see
-faithful servants bleeding and with torn clothes judged at the bar of
-the Assembly for having defended them.[88] The handkerchief that was
-handed to the Queen in the place of her own, which was soaked with
-tears, in order that she might wipe the drops of sweat off the brow of
-the young Dauphin, was tinged with blood.[89]
-
-Exhausted by horror and disappointment, what strength remained to the
-Queen must have spent itself in thoughts for her little son, who with
-touching obedience was trying to be “bien sage avec ces vilains
-hommes.”[90] If she was personally helpless to save his crown, surely
-the Kings of Europe would see to it. Again hope revived at the thought
-of a successful war already beginning. The false moves of the last years
-perhaps only meant at the worst, that though she and the King had to die
-at the hands of an enraged but defeated France, the boy would escape.
-With victorious armies surrounding Paris, there would be those within
-who would then be roused to get the lad into the protection of friends.
-Surely God would help him then!
-
-But what if everything should fail? Fatality had overtaken every
-reasonable hope since this terrible revolution had begun. There were
-forces of mysterious and terrific magnitude, which seemed to her to be
-bearing away everything that had been stable hitherto. Her ignorance of
-what constituted these forces increased their terror for her. During the
-two hours when the deputies separately repeated the words of the oath to
-maintain liberty, equality, or die, the Queen in utter weariness tried
-to penetrate the mystery of that fatality which seemed to overtake
-royalty in France, and herself in particular. Perhaps for a moment she
-realised that had she seriously studied history some light might have
-come as to the meaning of this crushing movement. The volumes of Hume’s
-_History of England_, which in early days had been carelessly listened
-to, conveyed little to her inattentive mind.[91] She did not know even
-the history of France intelligently enough to be able to guess whether
-the enveloping force owed its strength to anything which could have been
-foreseen. Was there anyone who could have foreseen this trend of events,
-when it was only last year that the Constitution had been applauded to
-the skies as the consummation of political wisdom?[92]
-
-Was the penury of the country and the starving condition of the poor at
-the bottom of this earthquake? But why visit them upon the Court? People
-must know that she and the King were most kindly and anxious and
-troubled for all. They had reduced every possible expense in their
-household. Had she not nine years ago refused the diamond necklace on
-account of its expense? She had not gambled in old days more than
-others; neither had she enriched her friends more than sovereigns were
-in the habit of doing. The Pompadours and Dubarrys had rolled in wealth.
-What was the cost of Trianon compared to the millions of money spent in
-building the Palace at Versailles?[93] It was unjust to make her and her
-children bear the punishment of the sins of former generations.
-
-Were such writers as Voltaire and Rousseau responsible in any degree for
-the gathering forces that were crashing all law and order as they had
-been hitherto understood? The Queen knew something of their views, but
-their invectives against kings as tyrants seemed unjust and exaggerated,
-and had repelled her. To her mind, her mother, husband, and brothers
-were not selfish oppressors; they meant to be useful to their subjects,
-and would have been unwise to have rejected the wisdom of former times
-embodied in traditions and old customs. Moreover, any truths uttered by
-Voltaire were vitiated to the Queen by his declared hostility to
-religion as she knew it. Such overwhelming forces as were destroying
-France could not be the outcome of such feeble views; there must be
-stronger reasons than such writings could account for.
-
-But here there was some tangle of ideas which could not be unravelled.
-The Queen’s mind was not one to dwell on abstractions; it was wholly
-untrained and incapable of thinking out points of philosophical or
-religious argument. She could not disentangle the various points of view
-which distracted her mind.
-
-
-As the long hours went on, her sorrows which admitted of no comfort: the
-strange impassiveness of the king: the sight of her weeping companions:
-the efforts of the children not to give trouble: and the physical
-suffering entailed on all alike, boxed up in this stifling hole on a hot
-August afternoon, filled her with maddening oppression. Whilst the cold
-and insolent words of the hostile Assembly, the unspeakable insults
-incessantly hurled at her by the cruel voices outside, the noise, the
-heat, the smells, the want of room, added to the effects of sleepless
-nights and absence of nourishment, must have filled her with an
-uncontrollable longing to get away. As the afternoon wore on with no
-hope of relief, black, helpless despair closed in on the mind of the
-tired Queen. She must have felt that, if she was not to go mad, it was
-necessary to extricate herself from her present surroundings by at least
-a semi-unconsciousness of them. Her brain was on fire. Could she not
-force her imagination to take some rest? Even in happy times some
-natural impatience in the Queen’s nature made it imperative to her to
-run away and be alone sometimes. It was at the Petit Trianon that she
-had found relief from tiresome restrictions, importunities of etiquette,
-and obsequious crowds. There at least she could have her own way and her
-love of simple pleasures and country freedom had been satisfied. If only
-she could fly to that beloved spot away from this horrible smell of
-blood, what happiness it would be to her jaded spirits! Only to think of
-it afforded her a dim pleasure overcoming the inevitable bitterness of
-the recollection.
-
-Yes; it was the Petit Trianon which of all places in France she loved
-best. The bare memory of its trees and grass and cool shadows brought a
-little refreshment. It was there that she had always found a reprieve
-from the stately formalities of Versailles and that she had been able to
-unqueen herself and be on an equality with her friends. But was there no
-pang as she realised with fresh point that the King had just been
-deposed, and that she, by the voice of the only authority at present
-recognised in the country, was no longer Queen of France? That favourite
-pastime of pretending to be no queen in the privacy of Trianon had been
-a dangerous game! Marie Antoinette had not attempted to be on an
-equality with the old _haute noblesse_ whose absence at this moment was
-so deplorable. Such familiarity would have lowered them in their own
-eyes; for their rank and consideration rested on their service to the
-sovereigns, and only by etiquettes rigorously kept could the princes and
-old nobility find their own _raison d’être_. With keen pain the truth
-flashed upon her that a thoughtless Queen had done her best to undermine
-Cardinal Richelieu’s policy in bringing the great feudal princes to
-squabble in small rivalries about positions at Court rather than leave
-them to combine into factions and fight each other in wars dangerous to
-the State. Etiquettes had been laughed at, and the nobles superseded in
-her favour by persons without claim to the titles and fortunes lavished
-upon them. But was it possible that such small considerations had really
-alienated the most powerful class in France? The Queen had only to
-recollect the restrained indignation of the Comtesse de Noailles: those
-dismal years when no one attended her balls at Versailles[94]: the
-immense offence given to the distinguished families of Soubise, Condé,
-Rohan, Guemenée, and all who were connected with them, by her furious
-and undignified anger with Cardinal Rohan[95]: besides the murmurs of
-all who considered themselves wronged by their exclusion from her
-friendship at Trianon to realise bitterly what had alienated the
-aristocracy from her, beyond, apparently, hope of recall.
-
-
-Too worn and sad to pursue such painful thoughts, it was a relief to let
-the vision of her favourite home float before her mind’s eye and to
-remember the loyalty of her Trianon servants, such as Antoine Richard,
-_jardinier en chef_, who had succeeded to the post so long held by his
-father Claude Richard.[96] How loyally they had carried out her wishes,
-and, under the direction of her architect Mique,[97] had altered their
-much loved nursery gardens into a fashionable “jardin anglais”! It had
-been delightful planning that garden and altering the arrangements and
-decorations of the house and grounds with her own rare good taste, until
-scarcely any part was left bringing to mind the sojourn there of Madame
-de Pompadour, but the house itself,[98] and the little ménagerie with
-its vacherie, bergerie, and poulaillers,[99] or of Madame du Barry, but
-the formal French garden,[100] the chapel,[101] with the kitchens
-beyond.
-
-In the stuffy dirty _loge_ the royal family had resigned itself to a
-melancholy silence, the Dauphin was sleeping across her knee, and the
-Queen surrendered herself to a trance-like condition in which she saw
-again with extreme vividness and longing the place of former enjoyment.
-She was again free, opening all the gates with her own _passe-partout_,
-and wandering into all the corners of the grounds.[102] The beautiful
-trees planted by the two Richards in rich variety were, she recollected,
-in full summer foliage, and she would fain have felt some breath of the
-cool evening air, which she knew well must be blowing at that moment,
-though not for her. Or she was again in the mazy wood beyond the
-Vergelay bridge following in thought the sound of the light operatic
-music, so often played on bright afternoons, which drifted past her as
-she made her way along the wood paths. Well-known bars of Monsigny’s
-music mingled with reminiscences of Sacchini’s and Grétry’s operas. Was
-it not on an August day, twelve years ago, that she first acted herself
-in the charming little newly-built theatre?[103] It was in a play of
-Sedaine (_Le Roi et le Fermier_) for which Monsigny had written music,
-especially for the Trianon; and with pain it was remembered that the
-plot of the play was the favourite one at Trianon, viz. the superiority
-of the farmer’s condition over that of the King. Vaudreuil had acted the
-part of the farmer lover to her Jenny. The Queen’s thoughts flew to
-another, and the last, acting,[104] so immediately followed by the
-frightful episode of the diamond necklace when outrage first touched her
-and personal popularity was finally lost.[105] Under pressure from the
-Comte de Vaudreuil she had prevailed with the King, against his better
-judgment, to allow the _Mariage de Figaro_ to be acted in Paris.[106] In
-the following year, the older version of the same play had been
-performed at Trianon;[107] she had acted Rosina, the Comte d’Artois had
-taken the part of Figaro, and Vaudreuil that of Almaviva. Four years
-later the King’s prophecy had come true, and the destruction of the
-Bastille had been the signal for Vaudreuil’s hurried flight from the
-country.[108]
-
-Well she remembered that false friend,[109] whom she had willingly
-received into her most intimate circle, though latterly he had often
-wearied her with his violent temper and importunities for more lucrative
-posts.[110]
-
-There was one day in that last summer at Trianon, shortly before
-Vaudreuil’s final departure in July, which stood out, every detail being
-imprinted on her memory. She had wandered up the lane past the _logement
-des corps de gardes_, and had noticed on the ground near the lodge gates
-the old plough,—a reminiscence of Louis XVI.’s boyhood.[111] Coming
-towards the _porte du jardinier_, she had seen Rodolphe and Fidel
-Bersy[112] in the long green coats of the _petite livrée_ of the
-_gardes_.[113] They were directing some strangers. These guards were
-special friends of hers. Had she not paid all expenses out of her own
-purse when Rodolphe’s children had been ill with smallpox?[114] Whilst
-passing them she had noticed Marie Anne Lemaignan[115] standing near her
-mother[116] on the steps of their cottage outside the enclosure.[117]
-The Queen calculated that the girl, who had then been fourteen years
-old,[118] must now be a young woman of seventeen, and with her promise
-of beauty[119] would soon marry: probably, she thought, to young
-Charpentier,[120] who was already, she knew, attached to the girl. The
-Queen’s intimacy with her servants at Trianon had been a never-failing
-happiness, and she thought with infinite tenderness of the troubles
-their loyal sympathy for her must be causing them now.
-
-Passing through the gardeners’ enclosure and the _porte d’entrée_ she
-had come into the English garden. Advancing a few steps, she had
-suddenly caught sight of Vaudreuil sitting by the small circular
-“ruine,”[121] dressed, she remembered, in the slouch hat and large cloak
-which had become fashionable since he had acted in such as
-Almaviva.[122] He turned and looked at her, but did not rise or make the
-smallest gesture of recognition. It was by her own orders that at
-Trianon her ladies and gentlemen did not rise or put away their
-occupations when the Queen entered a room; but she had lately become
-sensitive, and on this occasion she had felt his rudeness.[123] After
-all, she was the Queen; he was there as her honoured guest, where the
-highest in the land desired to be, and ordinary good manners required
-him to do more than sit still and look at her without seeming to notice
-her. The Queen remembered her sensation of displeasure. And now her
-extraordinarily excited memory which was enabling her to see Trianon
-again down to the smallest details of the scenery, also revealed to her
-her short-sighted folly in undermining the first principles of that
-mutual courtesy which constitutes best Court life, at a time when France
-was on the verge of an immense political whirlpool.
-
-Yes; it was on that very same spot that the messenger came to her, a few
-months later, to announce the crowd of disaffected women from Paris _en
-route_ for Versailles. She could never forget that October morning, for
-from that time her life had entirely altered in character and the Queen
-had endured a weary round of perpetual and open insult. Throughout the
-preceding summer the grounds at the Petit Trianon, which had formerly
-been so jealously guarded even from the Court, had been thrown open to
-the public,[124] and in order to take the chance of walking there in any
-privacy the Queen had lately been in the habit of driving over during
-the morning. That fifth of October had been fairly fine during the early
-hours, and she remembered having seen the gardeners at work in the
-different parts of the gardens;[125] and on her way from the Temple de
-l’Amour to the Hameau, she had passed the _prairie_, and had seen two
-labourers in their picturesque brown tunics and coloured _chaperons
-rouges_[126] filling a hired cart with sticks.[127]
-
-Crossing the Vergelay bridge she had approached the cavernous mouth of
-her favourite grotto,[128] over which ivy fell in graceful wreaths.[129]
-For the first time in her experience she had noticed that the little
-stream issuing from the grotto had not been cleared, but was choked with
-dead autumn leaves.[130] This unusual and forlorn sight had remained in
-her mind. Here she had sat for a time looking at the place now deserted
-by all who had formerly been with her there, and, as was inevitable at
-that time of political anxiety, became engrossed in mournful
-anticipations of further troubles.[131] They had pressed more than she
-could bear, and feeling a sudden desire to speak to someone she had
-entered the moss-lined grotto.[132] Passing the point on her left hand
-where the little cascade entered from above,[133] she climbed the rock
-staircase[134] leading to the upper opening[135] near the _porte
-d’entrée_. Coming out upon the elevated rocks, she called to Marie Anne
-Lemaignan, whose father’s cottage was not far off. Fancying that she
-heard the girl running to her, the Queen had turned and was surprised to
-see, instead of the girl, a _garçon de la Chambre_, who, in a state of
-great agitation, handed her a letter from M. de Saint Priest, a minister
-at the Palace.[136] Her memory recalled the look of that man, also in
-the fashionable Spanish hat and cloak, flying over one of the upright
-rocks placed near the path by her orders.[137] He had been so anxious
-that she should wait at the house whilst he fetched the carriage that
-she relinquished her first thought of hurrying back by the woods, and
-she turned instead to go to the little bridge which crossed the tiny
-waterfall. How fond she was of that little rustic bridge, which she had
-had placed high up on rocks, hiding the Theatre and surrounded by thujas
-and pine trees![138] It had been one of the most charming of her
-inventions, and in fancy the Queen again saw every step of the way, and
-the trickling stream pouring over the rocks at her right hand, amidst
-ferns and moss, on its way into the grotto below the bridge.
-
-Sitting under the north terrace near the door leading from the house to
-the Jeu de Bague, she had re-opened and re-read the minister’s letter
-whilst waiting for the carriage. Womanlike, the Queen remembered that
-the dress she had been wearing that morning was one of the light skirts
-repaired during that summer, the green silk bodice made in July, a large
-white fichu, and a straw hat.[139]
-
-At that moment two of the many strangers who now came in as they liked
-passed her by and even went up on to the terrace behind her by the
-staircase at her left hand.[140] The Queen knew that her concierge
-(Bonnefoy Du Plan)[141] was informed that she was there, and would
-certainly, on seeing them from his attic window over the chapel, send
-someone to ask them to go further from the house. It might not have been
-wise, but her old servants had done all they dared to protect her
-privacy. She had before now, when wandering about alone, heard the
-coldness and unconcern with which the Bersy brothers had directed
-strangers in the grounds. Just as she had expected, a moment later, the
-Queen had heard the slam of the chapel door[142] and had thought that
-Lagrange[143] would probably conduct them into the avenue by the passage
-of the _porte de la ménagerie_, that being the nearest way out of the
-gardens.[144]
-
-The carriage was ready, and the moment had come for rallying her force
-to act the part of a true queen in whatever circumstances were before
-her. The vivid dream was over, and in proportion as her retrospect was
-concerned with more important matters, the details stood out less
-clearly in her mind.
-
-
-There was no refreshment in going over the events of the rest of that
-day; though some of them came back to her in rapid succession. The
-hurried return of the King from hunting at Meudon; the councils; the
-variations of policy; the presence of a rough and alarming-looking crowd
-on the Place d’Armes; the free fights; the deputation of women escorted
-by Mounier on the part of the Assembly: then the final ordering of the
-carriages too late for escape; the heavy depressing rain from 4 p.m.
-onwards which at last helped to clear away the crowd; the arrival at
-midnight of Lafayette and his national guard. All had been confusing and
-miserable. But agitating as the 5th had been, there was no comparison
-between it and the tension of October 6th.
-
-The Queen remembered that she had only gone to bed that morning at 2
-a.m. in order that her ladies might have some rest, but for herself
-there was none. Both on October 6th, 1789, and now on August 10th, 1792,
-outside disturbances had begun at 5 a.m. amidst the glories of a perfect
-summer dawn. But on the former occasion it had been first realised in
-one of her own suite of rooms. She had heard the sounds of actual
-fighting close to her bedroom, and the hasty shout of the guards,
-“Sauvez la Reine!” informed her of their deadly peril. The escape to the
-King’s room and the gathering of the family together was quickly
-effected; but the comfort of the reunion had been followed by terrible
-hours when Lafayette had done his utmost to quell the fury of the mob.
-There had been amongst it a company of, as it seemed, veritable fiends,
-come from no one knew where, whose faces were terrible to look at.[145]
-It was they who enacted the horrid scene of beheading the two murdered
-guards (Varicourt and Deshuttes) under the royal windows in the Cour de
-Marbre; and until they marched off to Paris carrying with them the two
-decapitated heads on spikes, it was impossible to come to any terms with
-the mob. But after their departure, by Lafayette’s wish (which at that
-time amounted to command), first the King and then the Queen had
-ventured on to the balcony, and had been greeted with some warmth.
-
-
-And now, three years later, they had not the protecting influence of
-Lafayette to depend on, nor even the doubtful friendship of Mirabeau.
-The mob had gained the upper hand, and seemed to be altogether composed
-of wild beasts thirsting for blood. Who would save them from the
-horrible crowd pressing against the _grille_? It had not been without
-relief that Marie Antoinette had just heard the decree passed to keep
-them in the building where they were for the night. But what afterwards?
-Clearly they were not to go back to the Tuileries. The mention of the
-Luxembourg palace was interesting; still more so, the arguments of the
-opposition that it contained dangerous subterranean passages and
-opportunities for escape. The Queen’s brain was eagerly at work again,
-and intensely conscious of the present.
-
-
-But Madame Royale and the Dauphin had borne all they could, and at 7
-p.m. Madame de Tourzel was allowed to see the accommodation being
-prepared for the party in the cells of the ancient _couvent des
-Feuillants_. It was not till 10 p.m. that they were escorted thither by
-representatives of the Assembly; but for the elders it was neither to
-rest nor to sleep, for they were still within sound of the fierce mob
-outside as well as of the distant hum of the all-powerful Assembly about
-to decree their final destiny.
-
-Three more weary days and nights spent in much the same manner were
-forced upon the unhappy family before they were conducted to the Temple,
-and into what proved to be for the majority of them the valley of the
-shadow of death.
-
-                                                                   E. M.
-
-  _November, 1908._
-
------
-
-Footnote 1:
-
-  The man said a great deal more which we could not catch.
-
-Footnote 2:
-
-  I remember that on account of the wind I put on my coat.
-
-Footnote 3:
-
-  The woman was standing on the steps, bending slightly forward, holding
-  a jug in her hand. The girl was looking up at her from below with her
-  hands raised, but nothing in them. She might have been just going to
-  take the jug or have just given it up. Her light-brown hair escaped
-  from under her cap. I remember that both seemed to pause for an
-  instant, as in a _tableau vivant_; but we passed on, and I did not see
-  the end.
-
-Footnote 4:
-
-  By old I mean old or unusual forms, perhaps surviving in provincial
-  French.
-
-Footnote 5:
-
-  One man wore red, the other blue; the colours were not mixed.
-
-Footnote 6:
-
-  I thought this gardener did not look like a Frenchman; he had more the
-  air of an Englishman. He had hair on his face, a grizzled beard, was
-  large and loosely made. His height was very uncommon, and he seemed to
-  be of immense strength. His arms were long and very muscular. I
-  noticed that even through the sleeves of his jersey.
-
-Footnote 7:
-
-  _Archives Nationales_ O^I, 1878.
-
-Footnote 8:
-
-  Desjardins, p. 15; Rocheterie’s _Histoire de Marie Antoinette_, pp.
-  289, 290, vol. i.
-
-Footnote 9:
-
-  In the Bibliothèque Nationale.
-
-Footnote 10:
-
-  Picture of a Garde de la Porte du Roi Louis XV., dite de la Manche,
-  d’après une gravure de Chevilet. R. Jacquemin.
-
-Footnote 11:
-
-  _Souvenirs d’un Page, le comte D’Hezecques_, pp. 130–134. (He says
-  that their underdress was blue.)
-
-Footnote 12:
-
-  _Ibid._, p. 137.
-
-Footnote 13:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1883.
-
-Footnote 14:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1878 and 1880.
-
-Footnote 15:
-
-  _Légendes de Trianon_, Madame Julie Lavergne, pp. 89, 96.
-
-Footnote 16:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1878.
-
-Footnote 17:
-
-  _Ibid._ O^I, 1882.
-
-Footnote 18:
-
-  Desjardins, p. 90.
-
-Footnote 19:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1875.
-
-Footnote 20:
-
-  _La Reine Marie Antoinette_, De Nolhac, pp. 61, 212.
-
-Footnote 21:
-
-  _Le Barbier de Séville_, by Beaumarchais, was first played in 1775; it
-  was rewritten and made politically scandalous as _Le Mariage de
-  Figaro_ in 1781. This version was played in Vaudreuil’s private
-  theatre at Gennevilliers and at the Odéon, 1783, and for the first
-  time in Paris, by permission, April 27th, 1784.
-
-Footnote 22:
-
-  _Modes et Usages_, De Reiset, p. 479, vol. i.
-
-Footnote 23:
-
-  _Légendes de Trianon_, p. 75.
-
-Footnote 24:
-
-  _La Belle Jardinière_, Lavergne, pp. 91, 97.
-
-Footnote 25:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1878.
-
-Footnote 26:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1877.
-
-Footnote 27:
-
-  Letter enclosing marriage certificate (copy from the Archives
-  Municipales, Versailles).
-
-Footnote 28:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1876, 1877.
-
-Footnote 29:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1879.
-
-Footnote 30:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1879.
-
-Footnote 31:
-
-  _La vie de Madame Lavergne._
-
-Footnote 32:
-
-  Quoted in _Les Palais de Trianon_, M. de Lescure, p. 148.
-
-Footnote 33:
-
-  _Légendes de Trianon_, Madame Julie Lavergne, p. 75.
-
-Footnote 34:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1875.
-
-Footnote 35:
-
-  _Ib._
-
-Footnote 36:
-
-  _Ib._
-
-Footnote 37:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1875.
-
-Footnote 38:
-
-  _Ib._
-
-Footnote 39:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1882. (There was also a “pont de bois à la porte verte” on
-  the east side of the house, _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1881 and 1882.)
-
-Footnote 40:
-
-  _Ib._
-
-Footnote 41:
-
-  _Ib._ (_Souvenirs d’un Page_, D’Hezecques, p. 242).
-
-Footnote 42:
-
-  _Ib._ 1877.
-
-Footnote 43:
-
-  _Ib._
-
-Footnote 44:
-
-  _Ib._
-
-Footnote 45:
-
-  _Souvenirs d’un Page_, p. 244.
-
-Footnote 46:
-
-  Desjardins, picture, p. 196.
-
-Footnote 47:
-
-  Desjardins, pp. 103, 73.
-
-Footnote 48:
-
-  _Légendes de Trianon_, p. 75.
-
-Footnote 49:
-
-  _Souvenirs d’un Page_, pp. 112, 118.
-
-Footnote 50:
-
-  _Modes et Usages_, De Reiset, vol. i. p. 445.
-
-Footnote 51:
-
-  _Souvenirs du Baron de Frénilly_, p. 80.
-
-Footnote 52:
-
-  _Ib._ p. 80.
-
-Footnote 53:
-
-  _Souvenirs d’un Page_, p. 242.
-
-Footnote 54:
-
-  _Souvenirs d’un Page_, p. 243.
-
-Footnote 55:
-
-  _La Dernière Rose_, p. 75.
-
-Footnote 56:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1875.
-
-Footnote 57:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1882.
-
-Footnote 58:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1882.
-
-Footnote 59:
-
-  _Le Petit Trianon_, p. 90.
-
-Footnote 60:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1875.
-
-Footnote 61:
-
-  _Souvenirs d’un Page_, p. 242.
-
-Footnote 62:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1882.
-
-Footnote 63:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1879.
-
-Footnote 64:
-
-  Desjardins, p. 196.
-
-Footnote 65:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1882.
-
-Footnote 66:
-
-  Desjardins, pp. 107, 120; _Arch. Nat._ O^1, 1875, 1877; Terrade, _Le
-  Théâtre de la Reine_, p. 23.
-
-Footnote 67:
-
-  _Modes et Usages_, De Reiset, vol. i. pp. 479, 404, 423, 365, 369.
-
-Footnote 68:
-
-  Desjardins’, _Le Petit Trianon_, pp. 188, 189.
-
-Footnote 69:
-
-  Page 7.
-
-Footnote 70:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1879.
-
-Footnote 71:
-
-  _Ibid._ O^I, 1877.
-
-Footnote 72:
-
-  _Ibid._ O^I, 1879.
-
-Footnote 73:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^1, 1876.
-
-Footnote 74:
-
-  _Ibid._ O^1, 1877.
-
-Footnote 75:
-
-  _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1877.
-
-Footnote 76:
-
-  _Ib._ O^I, 1880.
-
-Footnote 77:
-
-  We heard in 1910 that this was the window out of which Marie
-  Antoinette used to pass when she went into the garden.
-
-Footnote 78:
-
-  _Marie Antoinette_, Lenotre, p. 3.
-
-Footnote 79:
-
-  _Mémoires de Madame de Tourzel_, p. 216.
-
-Footnote 80:
-
-  Rocheterie says 18 hours; Dufour, 13 hours.
-
-Footnote 81:
-
-  _Marie Antoinette_, Lenotre, p. 13.
-
-Footnote 82:
-
- De Launay; governor of the Bastille, Flescelles; prévôt  July 14, 1789.
-   des marchands,
- Foulon; ministre, Berthier; intendant de l’Ile de         July 4, 1789.
-   France,
-
-Footnote 83:
-
-  Comte d’Artois, Les Condés, Les Polignacs, Baron de Breteuil, le
-  marechal de Broglie, le prince de Lambesc, le comte de Vaudreuil,
-  ministres Bareuton, Villedeuil, Vauguyon, l’abbé de Vermond.
-
-Footnote 84:
-
-  In 1783 the Queen’s wardrobe cost 199,000 livres; in 1784 it cost
-  217,000 livres; in 1785 it cost 252,000. One dress only worn once cost
-  6000 livres, not counting the material. _La Reine Marie Antoinette_,
-  De Nolhac, pp. 36, 63.
-
-  In 1777 the Queen’s personal debts amounted to 487,000 livres, which
-  the King paid out of his own purse. All this was changed after the
-  birth of her first child, and the Queen, from that time, cut down
-  every possible expense.
-
-Footnote 85:
-
-  _Mémoires de Madame de Tourzel_, p. 220.
-
-Footnote 86:
-
-  Even in the Conciergerie the Queen seems to have disbelieved in the
-  likelihood of a formal condemnation to death. _Marie Antoinette_,
-  Lenotre, pp. 247, 270.
-
-Footnote 87:
-
-  _Histoire de Marie Antoinette_, La Rocheterie, p. 435.
-
-Footnote 88:
-
-  Vicomte de Maillé, sent to L’Abbaye prison, murdered in the September
-  massacres. M. de la Porte, _intendant de la liste civile_, also
-  imprisoned and murdered in September. _Mémoires de M. de Tourzel_, p.
-  226.
-
-Footnote 89:
-
-  La Rocheterie, p. 438.
-
-Footnote 90:
-
-  La Rocheterie, p. 438.
-
-Footnote 91:
-
-  _La Reine Marie Antoinette_, De Nolhac, p. 184.
-
-Footnote 92:
-
-  _Almanack Historique de la Revolution Française pour l’année_, 1792,
-  par M. J. P. Rabaut (contemporain).
-
-Footnote 93:
-
-  The exterior masonry of the Palace cost 1,350,000 livres, apart from
-  all the magnificent interiors, the grounds, and the outside buildings.
-  La Grande Écurie cost 844,784 livres (_Versailles_, Peraté, p. 14).
-  Expenses at Trianon under Louis XV., 340,000 livres; under Louis XVI.,
-  1,649,529 livres (Desjardins, pp. 2, 407).
-
-Footnote 94:
-
-  1777–1779.
-
-Footnote 95:
-
-  1786.
-
-Footnote 96:
-
-  Claude Richard was appointed _jardinier en chef_ at Trianon in 1750.
-  He was the intimate friend of Linnæus, who called him “the cleverest
-  gardener in Europe.” He was the son of François Richard who followed
-  James II. from Windsor to St. Germains. The son, Antoine Richard,
-  became _jardinier-botaniste-adjoint_ at Trianon, 1765, _jardinier en
-  chef_, 1784–1805, and died 1807.
-
-Footnote 97:
-
-  Guillotined 1794.
-
-Footnote 98:
-
-  Built 1762.
-
-Footnote 99:
-
-  _Le Petit Trianon_, Desjardins, p. 27.
-
-Footnote 100:
-
-  1759–1761.
-
-Footnote 101:
-
-  Built 1773 for Madame du Barry.
-
-Footnote 102:
-
-  “Avoir netoyer le passe-partout que la Reine avait perdue avoir gravée
-  de nom de la Reine dessus qui ouvrait les portes du Chateau et jardin
-  de Trianon.” Locksmith’s account, 1785 (_Archives Nat._ O^1, 1882).
-
-Footnote 103:
-
-  August 1st, 1780.
-
-Footnote 104:
-
-  August 19th, 1785.
-
-Footnote 105:
-
-  Cardinal Rohan had been arrested four days before, on August 15th,
-  1785.
-
-Footnote 106:
-
-  Beaumarchais’ play of _Le Mariage de Figaro_ had been rewritten with
-  political intention from the old play of _Le Barbier de Séville_ in
-  1783.
-
-Footnote 107:
-
-  Twice played at Trianon, September 13th, 1784, and August 19th, 1785.
-
-Footnote 108:
-
-  July 14th, 1789.
-
-Footnote 109:
-
-  _La Reine Marie Antoinette_, De Nolhac, pages 161–212, 223, 224.
-
-Footnote 110:
-
-  _Le Petit Trianon_, Desjardins, pages 180, 178, 342.
-
-Footnote 111:
-
-  _Histoire de Marie Antoinette_, Rocheterie, pages 289, 290. Vol. i.
-
-Footnote 112:
-
-  The brothers Bersy with Bréval were generally selected for guarding
-  the _porte du jardinier_ whenever the Queen was at Trianon, _Arch.
-  Nat._ O^I, 1880. They had the title of _garçons jardiniers de la
-  Chambre_, O^I, 1878.
-
-Footnote 113:
-
-  Probably green, as it was worn by the Suisses, piqueurs, gardes des
-  portes, garçons jardiniers, and such royal servants as filled the
-  minor parts at the royal theatre at Versailles, _Arch. Nat._ O^I,
-  1883. The traditional dress is still to be seen at the Comédie
-  Française, which is the descendant of the old Royal Theatre. The Comte
-  d’Artois was captain of the guards (including the gardes des portes)
-  in 1789, and his livery was green.
-
-Footnote 114:
-
-  In 1785, _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1883.
-
-Footnote 115:
-
-  The names “Lemonguin” and “Magny” are to be found in the old lists of
-  under-gardeners at Trianon, _Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1876, 1877. “Mariamne”
-  is mentioned among the children paid for picking up dead leaves in the
-  grounds, 1783, _Arch. Nat._ O^1, 1877.
-
-Footnote 116:
-
-  Marion’s mother died shortly before 1793, _Légendes de Trianon_,
-  Lavergne.
-
-Footnote 117:
-
-  In Mique’s map of 1783 there is a building outside the wall between
-  the _ruelle_ and the _porte de jardinier_.
-
-Footnote 118:
-
-  If Marianne was 21 at her son’s birth in 1796 she would have been 8 in
-  1783, and 14 in 1789.
-
-Footnote 119:
-
-  In 1793 “Marion” (daughter of an under-gardener) was chosen by the
-  Versailles Republican Club to personate the local Goddess of Reason.
-  Horrified at the prospect, the night before the installation on the
-  altar of the Versailles Notre Dame, she so completely disfigured her
-  face with scratches from a thorn branch that she never completely lost
-  the marks (_Légendes de Trianon_, M^{dme} Julie Lavergne, pp. 91–97).
-
-Footnote 120:
-
-  In 1786 “Charpentier” is mentioned as an _ouvrier terrassier_, having
-  to clear up sticks and leaves, plant flowers, and rake (_Arch. Nat._
-  O^1, 1878).
-
-  Charpentier seems to have been the “Jean de l’eau,” so called from his
-  daily duty of fetching water from Ville d’Avray for the Queen’s table.
-  He even tried to get it to her when she was in the Conciergerie,
-  August, 1792. He was afterwards wounded at Marengo and became a
-  captain, and in 1805 was appointed by Napoleon _jardinier en chef_ at
-  the Petit Trianon, and married Marion (_Légendes de Trianon_, p. 97).
-
-  The marriage certificate of Alexandre Charpentier, in 1823 (at that
-  time _chef d’atelier aux Pepinières Royales_ de Trianon, and, later,
-  for many years _jardinier en chef_ at Trianon), shows that he was the
-  son of Louis Toussaint Charpentier, _pensionnaire_, and Marie Anne
-  Lemaignan (Mairie de Versailles).
-
-Footnote 121:
-
-  “Dec. 5, 1780. Commencé par ordre de M. Mique le model de la partie de
-  la grotte ... du coté des montagnes ... là dessus une petite ruine
-  d’architecture, l’avoir penté, planté, et gazonné.”
-
-  “Detail estimatif d’une ruine formant la naissance d’une rivière,
-  savoir—Fouille de terre—maçonnerie ... le massif et le rigolle des
-  fondations ... pierre dure ... colonnes avec les murs au derrière ...
-  7 colonnes ... 7 chapiteaux ... partie de la voute ... le parement des
-  murs ... le fossite pour l’architecture ... Recapitulation ... 7
-  chapiteaux Ioniques, antique ... 5 membres ... 5 rosaces ... 9358
-  livres” (_Arch. Nat._ O^I, 1878).
-
-  The Temple de l’Amour is more than once called a “ruine,” which did
-  not seem to mean more than the reproduction of an older building. One
-  “ruine” mentioned had six Corinthian pillars, and was near the “onze
-  arpents.”
-
-Footnote 122:
-
-  “Le chapeau ronds a larges bords, que l’on appelait à la jockey,
-  remplaçait déjà le chapeau à trois cornes nommé à l’Androsmane.” On
-  avait quitté le rabat, la bourse, les manchettes et l’épée (_Modes et
-  Usages_, De Reiset, vol. i. p. 469).
-
-Footnote 123:
-
-  “J’ai beaucoup vu le comte de Vaudreuil à Londres, sans avoir jamais
-  découvert la distinction dont ses contemporains lui out fait honneur.
-  Il avait été le coryphée de cette école d’exaggération qui régnait
-  avant la Revolution, se passionnant pour toutes les petites choses, et
-  restant froide devant les grandes ... Il ... gardait ses grands airs
-  pour le salon de Madame de Polignac; et son ingratitude pour la Reine,
-  dont je l’ai entender parler avec la dernière inconvenance” (_Memoirs
-  de la Comtesse de Boigne_, p. 144).
-
-Footnote 124:
-
-  _Le Petit Trianon_, Desjardins, p. 345.
-
-Footnote 125:
-
-  The wages book shows that all the gardeners were at work out of doors
-  on Oct. 5th, 1789, whereas on wet days they worked under cover,
-  sometimes clearing out the passages of the house, _Arch. Nat._ O^1,
-  1879.
-
-Footnote 126:
-
-  This was the dress of the bourgeoisie in the 14th century. See
-  illustration of 14th century play _Pathelin_. Artisans wore it in the
-  17th century. See _Les Foires des Rues de Paris_. Musée Carnavalet. It
-  was probably worn by field labourers up to the Revolution.
-
-Footnote 127:
-
-  There is no mention of a cart and horse as part of the regular
-  expenses at the Ferme, but from time to time “une voiture à un cheval,
-  et un conducteur” were hired for picking up sticks in the Park. Jan.,
-  1789, there is an entry for paying “plus un homme” for that purpose;
-  and on Oct. 4th, 1789, we read of the hiring of “trois journées de
-  voiture et deux chevaux” (almost necessarily requiring two men) (O^1,
-  1843).
-
-Footnote 128:
-
-  See old picture by L’Espinasse, 1783. In Mique’s map (1783) two
-  grottos are indicated, one close to the rocher bridge, on the left of
-  it coming from the Hameau, and one near the Escargot hill, still to be
-  seen to-day.
-
-Footnote 129:
-
-  May 28th, 1781.... Out attachés le lierre de la grotte (O^1, 1875).
-
-Footnote 130:
-
-  The streams were cleared of dead leaves on Oct. 1, 2, 3, but not on
-  the 4th or 5th or after that date (O^1, 1877).
-
-Footnote 131:
-
-  _Memoirs of Marie Antoinette_, by Madame Campan, p. 201. _Légendes de
-  Trianon_, by Madame Julie Lavergne, p. 75.
-
-Footnote 132:
-
-  In the time of Marie Antoinette there were at least three grottos at
-  Trianon, of which only one remains intact, and that possibly the last
-  created; it may have been formed along with the Escargot hill, raised
-  in 1781 (_Arch. Nat._ O^1, 1877).
-
-  The oldest grotto is mentioned in 1777 as ending at the _porte
-  d’entrée_ (O^1, 1875). Issuing from the side of this first grotto was
-  a “naissance de rivière,” which fed (perhaps by pipes) the small
-  circular lake, whose waters passed under the Rocher bridge, through
-  the great lake to the stream which meandered through the grounds. A
-  small “ruine” having seven columns, a dome roof, and walls, stood
-  above the spring “formant la naissance de la rivière” (O^1, 1878,
-  Desjardins, p. 90).
-
-  Such waters as drained naturally through the first grotto seem to have
-  collected in a little pool at the lower end. In June, 1780, a new
-  “petite rivière,” intended to carry these stagnant waters away direct
-  to the great lake, was made; a grotto of “oval form” was dug round it,
-  and a montagne raised to cover it in (O^1, 1875). This second grotto
-  was probably the one described by D’Hezecques: it must have turned at
-  an angle from the first grotto and ended near the Rocher bridge, the
-  tiny ruisseau passing through and beyond it into the great lake (O^1,
-  1875).
-
-Footnote 133:
-
-  A small ravine between the first and second grottos may have been
-  spanned by the “pont rustique” of D’Hezecques, passing over the
-  miniature waterfall issuing from “la 2^{ième} source du Ravin” (nearer
-  the Theatre than the first spring) (O^1, 1882). This would have given
-  the name “ravin du petit pont” (O^1, 1875). The waterfall probably
-  fell into the little pool, whose waters were carried by a “ruisseau”
-  through the second (the Queen’s) grotto to the great lake. A rough
-  sketch in the _Arch. Nat._ shows a small bridge in this position.
-
-  The cavern-like mouth at the lower end of the Queen’s grotto, close to
-  the Rocher bridge, is shown in L’Espinasse’s picture of 1783. It is to
-  be observed that in this picture no large rock (such as there is now)
-  was over the long bridge which stood upon low rocks between the two
-  lakes. The picture suggests that the rock opening of the grotto has
-  been lifted away from its original place to its present position over
-  the long Rocher bridge.
-
-Footnote 134:
-
-  D’Hezecques describes the grotto as dark on first entering, lined with
-  moss, and as having a staircase within it leading to the summit of the
-  rocks. This staircase may be identical with the rock staircase now
-  attached by modern masonry to the back of the great rock over the
-  bridge, without any apparent reason.
-
-Footnote 135:
-
-  A view of the prairie (also a condition of the Queen’s grotto
-  described by D’Hezecques) is obtainable from the high ground in this
-  part of the English garden.
-
-Footnote 136:
-
-  _Légendes de Trianon_, Madame Julie Lavergne, p. 76.
-
-Footnote 137:
-
-  (Rocks placed) “Pièce donnant au bord du lac de l’ancien jardin cote
-  des rochers ... au long du chemin de l’emplacement de la Ruine sur la
-  conduitte en bois à la 2^{ième} Source du Ravin” (O^I, 1882).
-
-  In 1788 “Pièce au dessus du Rocher du Ravin et ... passage des voiture
-  sur le pont de bois.... Pièce à droite en face du Rocher du Ravin.”
-
-Footnote 138:
-
-  “En face du chateau ... une pelouse ... se terminait par une roche
-  ombragée de pins, de thujas, de mélèzes, et surmontait d’un pont
-  rustique, comme on en rencontre dans les montagnes de la Suisse et les
-  précipices du Valais ...” (_Souvenirs d’un Page_, p. 242).
-
-  (Rocks placed), “1788 ... sur les montagnes des Pins à gauche et en
-  montant au Rocher.... Montagne des Pins à droite en montante au
-  Rocher” (_Arch. Nat._ O^1, 1882). In 1791, every few days during
-  January, February, March of that year, trees were torn up from the
-  montagnes. In April, 1792, “Journée à arracher les Thujas sur les
-  montagnes” (O^1, 1879).
-
-Footnote 139:
-
-  _Livre-Journal de Madame Éloffe_, pp. 404, 423, 365, 369.
-
-Footnote 140:
-
-  After May, 1789, the grounds were thrown open (Desjardins, p. 345).
-
-Footnote 141:
-
-  _Le Petit Trianon_, Desjardins, pp. 188, 189.
-
-Footnote 142:
-
-  The great door of the chapel, which led into the royal gallery, opened
-  upon a terrace then joined to the western terrace of the house.
-
-Footnote 143:
-
-  The name of the Suisse (in 1789) in charge of the _porte du perron de
-  la Chapelle_ was Lagrange. His rooms were behind the chapel
-  (Desjardins, p. 189).
-
-Footnote 144:
-
-  According to M. de Nolhac (see note to _Consignes de Marie
-  Antoinette_, p. 7) the _porte de la ménagerie_ should be placed near
-  the buildings of the kitchens and conciergerie. In Mique’s map (1783)
-  a broad passage led through these buildings from the French garden to
-  the avenue.
-
-Footnote 145:
-
-  “Parmi eux se trouvoient des hommes de figure étrange, ce qui
-  sembloient y avoir été appelés; car le peuple de Paris a sa
-  physionomie, et ceux qui le connoissent savent bien distinguer les
-  étrangers qui s’y confondent. Ces bandes farouches avoient précédé la
-  garde nationale, dont il faut bien la distinguer; elles causèrent tout
-  le désordre du lendemain.... Au dehors, les brigands s’étoient emparés
-  de deux gardes du corps; ils leur coupèrent la tête, malgré les
-  efforts de ceux des gardes nationaux qui arrivoient.... Enfin cette
-  bande de scélérats reprit la route de Paris, emportant en signe de
-  victoire les deux têtes des gardes des corps. Avec eux disparut toute
-  l’horreur des scènes sanglantes du matin. Alors le caractère national
-  se montra dans toute sa candeur. Les soldats parisiens et les gardes
-  du roi s’embrassent.”—_Almanach Historique de la Revolution
-  Française_, M. J. P. Rabaut, pp. 151–153.
-
-  This was written in 1791, and Rabaut was guillotined later “comme
-  Girondin.”
-
-  GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.
-                                  LTD.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
-
-
- 1. P. 131, changed “No double his feeble idea” to “No doubt his feeble
-      idea”.
- 2. Archives Nationales O^I and Archives Nationales O^1 are used
-      interchangeably. Did not alter.
- 3. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- 4. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
- 5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
- 6. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript
-      character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
-      curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.
-
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