Book: The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 7
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What should I have felt, had I been aware, when this man came up, that I
was accosted by the villain Danton! The person who was with me knew him,
but dared not speak, and watched a chance of escaping in the crowd for
fear of being discovered. When I looked round and found myself alone, I
said I had lost my brother in the confusion, which added to my grief.
"Oh, never mind," said Danton; "take hold of my arm; no one shall molest
you. We will look for your brother, and try to recover your things;" and
on we went together: I, weeping, I may truly say, for my life, stopped at
every step, while he related my doleful story to all whose curiosity was
excited by my grief.
On my appearing arm in arm with Danton before the windows of the Queen's
apartments, we were observed by Her Majesty and the Princesses. Their
consternation and perplexity, as well as alarm for my safety, may readily
be conceived. A signal from the window instantly apprised me that I
might enter the palace, to which my return had been for some time
impatiently expected.
Finding it could no longer be of any service to carry on the farce of
seeking my pretended brother, I begged to be escorted out of the mob to
the apartments of the Princesse de Lamballe.
"Oh," said Danton, "certainly! and if you had only told the people that
you were going to that good Princess, I am sure your things would not
have been taken from you. But," added he, "are you perfectly certain
they were not for that detestable Marie Antoinette?"
"Oh!" I replied, "quite, quite certain!" All this while the mob was at
my heels.
"Then," said he, "I will not leave you till you are safe in the
apartments of the Princesse de Lamballe, and I will myself make known to
her your loss: she is so good," continued he, "that I am convinced she
will make you just compensation."
I then told him how much I should be obliged by his doing so, as I had
been commissioned to deliver the things, and if I was made to pay for
them, the loss would be more serious than I could bear.
"Bah! bah!" exclaimed he. "Laissez moi faire! Laissez moi faire!"
When he came to the inner door, which I pretended to know nothing about,
he told the gentleman of the chamber his name, and said he wished to see
his mistress.
Her Highness came in a few minutes, and from her looks and visible
agitation at the sight of Danton, I feared she would have betrayed both
herself and me. However, while he was making a long preamble, I made
signs, from which she inferred that all was safe.
When Danton had finished telling her the story, she calmly said to me,
"Do you recollect, child, the things you have been robbed of?"
I replied that, if I had pen and ink, I could even set down the prices.
"Oh, well, then, child, come in," said Her Highness, "and we will see
what is to be done!"
"There!" exclaimed Danton; "Did I not tell you this before?" Then,
giving me a hearty squeeze of the hand, he departed, and thus terminated
the millinery speculation, which, I have no doubt, cost Her Highness a
tolerable sum.
As soon as he was gone, the Princess said, "For Heaven's sake, tell me
the whole of this affair candidly; for the Queen has been in the greatest
agitation at the bare idea of your knowing Danton, ever since we first
saw you walking with him! He is one of our moat inveterate enemies."
I said that if they had but witnessed one half of the scenes that I saw,
I was sure their feelings would have been shocked beyond description. "We
did not see all, but we heard too much for the ears of our sex."
I then related the particulars of our meeting to Her Highness, who
observed, "This accident, however unpleasant, may still turn out to our
advantage. This fellow believes you to be a marchande de modes, and the
circumstance of his having accompanied you to my apartment will enable
you, in future, to pass to and from the Pavilion unmolested by the
national guard."
With tears of joy in her eyes for my safety, she could not, however, help
laughing when I told her the farce I kept up respecting the loss of my
brother, and my bandbox with the millinery, for which I was also soon
congratulated most graciously by Her Majesty, who much applauded my
spirit and presence of mind, and condescended, immediately, to entrust me
with letters of the greatest importance, for some of the most
distinguished members of the Assembly, with which I left the palace in
triumph, but taking care to be ready with a proper story of my losses.
When I passed the guard-room, I was pitied by the very wretches, who,
perhaps, had already shared in the spoils; and who would have butchered
me, no doubt, into the bargain, could they have penetrated the real
object of my mission. They asked me if I had been paid for the loss I
sustained. I told them I had not, but I was promised that it should be
settled.
"Settled!" said one of the wretches. "Get the money as soon as you can.
Do not trust to promises of its being settled. They will all be settled
themselves soon!"
The next day, on going to the palace, I found the Princesse de Lamballe
in the greatest agitation, from the accounts the Court had just received
of the murder of a man belonging to Arthur Dillon, and of the massacres
at Nantes.
"The horrid prints, pamphlets, and caricatures," cried she, "daily
exhibited under the very windows of the Tuileries, against His Majesty,
the Queen, the Austrian party, and the Coblentz party, the constant
thwarting of every plan, and these last horrors at Nantes, have so
overwhelmed the King that he is nearly become a mere automaton. Daily
and nightly execrations are howled in his ears. Look at our boasted
deliverers! The poor Queen, her children, and all of us belonging to the
palace, are in danger of our lives at merely being seen; while they by
whom we have been so long buoyed up with hope are quarrelling amongst
themselves for the honour and etiquette of precedency, leaving us to the
fury of a race of cannibals, who know no mercy, and will have destroyed
us long before their disputes of etiquette can be settled."
The utterance of Her Highness while saying this was rendered almost
inarticulate by her tears.
"What support against internal disorganization," continued she, "is to be
expected from so disorganized a body as the present army of different
nations, having all different interests?"
I said there was no doubt that the Prussian army was on its march, and
would soon be joined by that of the Princes and of Austria.
"You speak as you wish, mia cara Inglesina, but it is all to no purpose.
Would to God they had never been applied to, never been called upon to
interfere. Oh, that Her Majesty could have been persuaded to listen to
Dumourier and some other of the members, instead of relying on succours
which, I fear, will never enter Paris in our lifetime! No army can
subdue a nation; especially a nation frenzied by the recent recovery of
its freedom and independence from the shackles of a corrupt and weak
administration. The King is too good; the Queen has no equal as to
heart; but they have both been most grossly betrayed. The royalists on
one side, the constitutionalists on the other, will be the victims of the
Jacobins, for they are the most powerful, they are the most united, they
possess the most talent, and they act in a body, and not merely for the
time being. Believe me, my dear, their plans are too well grounded to be
defeated, as every one framed by the fallacious constitutionalists and
mad-headed royalists has been; and so they will ever be while they
continue to form two separate interests. From the very first moment when
these two bodies were worked upon separately, I told the Queen that, till
they were united for the same object, the monarchy would be unsafe, and
at the mercy of the Jacobins, who, from hatred to both parties, would
overthrow it themselves to rule despotically over those whom they no
longer respected or feared, but whom they hated, as considering them both
equally their former oppressors.
"May the All-seeing Power," continued Her Highness, "grant, for the good
of this shattered State, that I may be mistaken, and that my predictions
may prove different in the result; but of this I see no hope, unless in
the strength of our own internal resources. God knows how powerful they
might prove could they be united at this moment! But from the anarchy
and division kept up between them, I see no prospect of their being
brought to bear, except in a general overthrow of this, as you have
justly observed, organized system of disorders, from which at some future
period we may obtain a solid, systematic order of government. Would
Charles the Second ever have reigned after the murder of his father had
England been torn to pieces by different factions? No! It was the union
of the body of the nation for its internal tranquillity, the amalgamation
of parties against domestic faction, which gave vigour to the arm of
power, and enabled the nation to check foreign interference abroad, while
it annihilated anarchy at home. By that means the Protector himself laid
the first stone of the Restoration. The division of a nation is the
surest harbinger of success to its invaders, the death-blow to its
Sovereign's authority, and the total destruction of that innate energy by
which alone a country can obtain the dignity of its own independence."
SECTION XVII.
While Her Highness was thus pondering on the dreadful situation of
France, strengthening her arguments by those historical illustrations,
which, from the past, enabled her to look into the future, a message came
to her from Her Majesty. She left me, and, in a few minutes, returned to
her apartment, accompanied by the Queen and Her Royal Highness the
Princesse Elizabeth. I was greatly surprised at seeing these two
illustrious and august personages bathed in tears. Of course, I could
not be aware of any new motive to create any new or extraordinary
emotion; yet there was in the countenances of all of the party an
appearance different from anything I had ever witnessed in them, or any
other person before; a something which seemed to say, they no longer had
any affinity with the rest of earthly beings.
They had all been just writing to their distant friends and relations. A
fatal presentiment, alas! too soon verified, told them it was for the
last time.
Her Highness the Princesse de Lamballe now approached me.
"Her Majesty," observed the Princess, "wishes to give you a mark of her
esteem, in delivering to you, with her own hands, letters to her family,
which it is her intention to entrust to your especial care.
"On this step Her Majesty has resolved, as much to send you out of the
way of danger, as from the conviction occasioned by the firm reliance
your conduct has created in us, that you will faithfully obey the orders
you may receive, and execute our intentions with that peculiar
intelligence which the emergency of the case requires.
"But even the desirable opportunity which offers, through you, for the
accomplishment of her mission, might not have prevailed with Her Majesty
to hasten your departure, had not the wretch Danton twice inquired at the
palace for the 'little milliner,' whom he rescued and conducted safe to
the apartments of the Pavilion of Flora. This, probably, may be a matter
of no real consequence whatever; but it is our duty to avoid danger, and
it has been decided that you should, at least for a time, absent Paris.
"Per cio, mia cara Inglesina, speak now, freely and candidly: is it your
wish to return to England, or go elsewhere? For though we are all sorry
to lose you, yet it would be a source of still greater sorrow to us,
prizing your services and fidelity as we do, should any plans and
purposes of ours lead you into difficulty or embarrassment."
"Oh, mon Dieu! c'est vrai!" interrupted Her Majesty, her eyes at the
same time filled with tears.
"I should never forgive myself," continued the Princess, "if I should
prove the cause of any misfortune to you."
"Nor I!" most graciously subjoined the Queen.
"Therefore," pursued the Princess, "speak your mind without reserve."
Here my own feelings, and the sobs of the illustrious party, completely
overcame me, and I could not proceed. The Princesse de Lamballe clasped
me in her arms. "Not only letters," exclaimed she, "but my life I would
trust to the fidelity of my vera, verissima, cara Inglesina! And now,"
continued Her Highness, turning round to the Queen, "will it please Your
Majesty to give Inglesina your commands."
"Here, then," said the Queen, "is a letter for my dear sister, the Queen
of Naples, which you must deliver into her own hands. Here is another
for my sister, the Duchess of Parma. If she should not be at Parma, you
will find her at Colorno. This is for my brother, the Archduke of Milan;
this for my sister-in-law, the Princesse Clotilde Piedmont, at Turin; and
here are four others. You will take off the envelope when you get to
Turin, and then put them into the post yourself. Do not give them to, or
send them by, any person whatsoever.
"Tell my sisters the state of Paris. Inform them of our cruel situation.
Describe the riots and convulsions you have seen. Above all, assure them
how dear they are to me, and how much I love them."
At the word love, Her Majesty threw herself on a sofa and wept bitterly.
The Princesse Elizabeth gave me a letter for her sister, and two for her
aunts, to be delivered to them, if at Rome; but if not, to be put under
cover and sent through the post at Rome to whatever place they might have
made their residence.
I had also a packet of letters to deliver for the Princesse de Lamballe
at Turin; and another for the Duc de Serbelloni at Milan.
Her Majesty and the Princesse Elizabeth not only allowed me the honour to
kiss their hands, but they, both gave me their blessing, and good wishes
for my safe return, and then left me with the Princesse de Lamballe.
Her Majesty had scarcely left the apartment of the Princess, when I
recollected she had forgotten to give me the cipher and the key for the
letters. The Princess immediately went to the Queen's apartment, and
returned with them shortly after.
"Now that we are alone," said Her Highness, "I will tell you what Her
Majesty has graciously commanded me to signify to you in her royal name.
The Queen commands me to say that you are provided for for life; and
that, on the first vacancy which may occur, she intends fixing you at
Court.
"Therefore mia cara Inglesina, take especial care what you are about, and
obey Her Majesty's wishes when you are absent, as implicitly as you have
hitherto done all her commands during your abode near her. You are not
to write to any one. No one is to be made acquainted with your route.
You are not to leave Paris in your own carriage. It will be sent after
you by your man servant, who is to join you at Chalon sur Saone.
"I have further to inform you that Her Majesty the Queen, on sending you
the cipher, has at the same time graciously condescended to add these
presents as further marks of her esteem."
Her Highness then showed me a most beautiful gold watch, chain and seals.
"These," said she, placing them with her own hands, "Her Majesty desired
me to put round your neck in testimony of her regard."
At the same time Her Highness presented me, on her own part, with a
beautiful pocketbook, the covers of which were of gold enamelled, with
the word "SOUVENIR" in diamonds on one side, and a large cipher of her
own initials on the other. The first page contained the names of the
Queen and Her Royal Highness the Princesse Elizabeth, in their own
handwriting. There was a cheque in it on a Swiss banker, at Milan, of
the name of Bonny.
Having given me these invaluable tokens, Her Highness proceeded with her
instructions.
"At Chalon," continued she, "mia cara, your man servant will perhaps
bring you other letters. Take two places in the stage for yourself and
your femme de chambre, in her name, and give me the memorandum, that our
old friend, the driver, may procure the passports. You must not be seen;
for there is no doubt that Danton has given the police a full description
of your person. Now go and prepare: we shall see each other again before
your departure."
Only a few minutes afterwards my man servant came to me to say that it
would be some hours before the stage would set off, and that there was a
lady in her carriage waiting for me in the Bois de Boulogne. I hastened
thither. What was my surprise on finding it was the Princess. I now saw
her for the last time!
Let me pass lightly over this sad moment. I must not, however, dismiss
the subject, without noticing the visible changes which had taken place
in the short space of a month, in the appearance of all these illustrious
Princesses. Their very complexions were no longer the same, as if grief
had changed the whole mass of their blood. The Queen, in particular,
from the month of July to the 2d of August, looked ten years older. The
other two Princesses were really worn out with fatigue, anxiety, and the
want of rest, as, during the whole month of July, they scarcely ever
slept, for fear of being murdered in their beds, and only threw
themselves on them, now and then, without undressing. The King, three or
four times in the night, would go round to their different apartments,
fearful they might be destroyed in their sleep, and ask, "Etes vous la?"
when they would answer him from within, "Nous sommes encore ici." Indeed,
if, when nature was exhausted, sleep by chance came to the relief of
their worn-out and languid frames, it was only to awaken them to fresh
horrors, which constantly threatened the convulsion by which they were
finally annihilated.
It would be uncandid in me to be silent concerning the marked difference
I found in the feelings of the two royal sisters of Her Majesty.
I had never had the honour before to execute any commissions for her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Parma, and, of course, took that city in my
way to Naples.
I did not reach Parma till after the horrors which had taken place at the
Tuileries on the 10th of August, 1792. The whole of the unfortunate
Royal Family of France were then lodged in the Temple. There was not a
feeling heart in Europe unmoved at their afflicting situation.
I arrived at Colorno, the country residence of the Duchess of Parma, just
as Her Royal Highness was going out on horseback.
I ordered my servant to inform one of the pages that I came by express
from Paris, and requested the honour to know when it would be convenient
for Her Royal Highness to allow me a private audience, as I was going,
post-haste, to Rome and Naples. Of course, I did not choose to tell my
business either to my own or Her Royal Highness's servant, being in
honour and duty bound to deliver the letter and the verbal message of her
then truly unfortunate sister in person and in privacy.
The mention of Paris I saw somewhat startled and confused her. Meantime,
she came near enough to my carriage for me to say to her in German, in
order that none of the servants, French or Italian, might understand,
that I had a letter to deliver into her own hands, without saying from
whom.
She then desired I would alight, and she soon followed me; and, after
having very graciously ordered me some refreshments, asked me from whom I
had been sent.
I delivered Her Majesty's letter. Before she opened it, she exclaimed,
"'O Dio! tutto e perduto e troppo tardi'! Oh, God! all is lost, it is
too late!" I then gave her the cipher and the key. In a few minutes I
enabled her to decipher the letter. On getting through it, she again
exclaimed, "'E tutto inutile'! it is entirely useless! I am afraid they
are all lost. I am sorry you are so situated as not to allow of your
remaining here to rest from your fatigue. Whenever you come to Parma, I
shall be glad to see you."
She then took out her pocket handkerchief, shed a few tears, and said
that, as circumstances were now so totally changed, to answer the letter
might only commit her, her sister, and myself; but that if affairs took
the turn she wished, no doubt, her sister would write again. She then
mounted her horse, and wished me a good journey; and I took leave, and
set off for Rome.
I must confess that the conduct of the Duchess of Parma appeared to me
rather cold, if not unfeeling. Perhaps she was afraid of showing too
much emotion, and wished to encourage the idea that Princesses ought not
to give way to sensibility, like common mortals.
But how different was the conduct of the Queen of Naples! She kissed the
letter: she bathed it with her tears! Scarcely could she allow herself
time to decipher it. At every sentence she exclaimed, "Oh, my dear, oh,
my adored sister! What will become of her! My brothers are now both no
more! Surely, she will soon be liberated!" Then, turning suddenly to
me, she asked with eagerness, "Do you not think she will? Oh, Marie,
Marie! why did she not fly to Vienna? Why did she not come to me
instead of writing? Tell me, for God's sake, all you know!"
I said I knew nothing further of what had taken place at Paris, having
travelled night and day, except what I had heard from the different
couriers, which I had met and stopped on my route; but I hoped to be
better informed by Sir William Hamilton, as all my letters were to be
sent from France to Turin, and thence on to Sir William at Naples; and if
I found no letters with him, I should immediately set off and return to
Turin or Milan, to be as near France as possible for my speedy return if
necessary. I ventured to add that it was my earnest prayer that all the
European Sovereigns would feel the necessity of interesting themselves
for the Royal Family of France, with whose fate the fate of monarchy
throughout Europe might be interwoven.
"Oh, God of Heaven!" cried the Queen, "all that dear family may ere now
have been murdered! Perhaps they are already numbered among the dead!
Oh, my poor, dear, beloved Marie! Oh, I shall go frantic! I must send
for General Acton."
Wringing her hands, she pulled the bell, and in a few minutes the general
came. On his entering the apartment, she flew to him like one deprived
of reason.
"There!" exclaimed she. "There! Behold the fatal consequences!" showing
him the letter. "Louis XVI. is in the state of Charles the First of
England, and my sister will certainly be murdered."
"No, no, no!" exclaimed the general. "Something will be done. Calm
yourself, madame." Then turning to me, "When," said he, "did you leave
Paris?"
"When all was lost!" interrupted the Queen.
"Nay," cried the general; "pray let me speak. All is not lost, you will
find; have but a little patience."
"Patience!" said the Queen. "For two years I have heard of nothing else.
Nothing has been done for these unfortunate beings." She then threw
herself into a chair. "Tell him!" cried she to me, "tell him! tell
him!"
I then informed the general that I had left Paris on the 2d of August,
but did not believe at the time, though the daily riots were horrible,
that such a catastrophe could have occurred so soon as eight days after.
The Queen was now quite exhausted, and General Acton rang the bell for
the lady-in-waiting, who entered accompanied by the Duchesse Curigliano
Marini, and they assisted Her Majesty to bed.
When she had retired, "Do not," said the general to me, "do not go to Sir
William's to-night. He is at Caserte. You seem too much fatigued."
"More from grief," replied I, "and reflection on the fatal consequences
that might result to the great personages I have so lately left, than
from the journey."
"Take my advice," resumed he. "You had much better go to bed and rest
yourself. You look very ill."
I did as he recommended, and went to the nearest hotel I could find. I
felt no fatigue of mind or body till I had got into bed, where I was
confined for several days with a most violent fever. During my illness I
received every attention both from the Court, and our Ambassador and Lady
Hamilton, who kindly visited me every day. The Queen of Naples I never
again saw till my return in 1793, after the murder of the Queen of
France; and I am glad I did not, for her agony would have acted anew upon
my disordered frame, and might have proved fatal.
I was certainly somewhat prepared for a difference of feeling between the
two Princesses, as the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, in the letters to
the Queen of Naples, always wrote, "To my much beloved sister, the Queen
of the two Sicilies, etc.," and to the other, merely, "To the Duchess of
Parma, etc." But I could never have dreamt of a difference so little
flattering, under such circumstances, to the Duchess of Parma.
SECTION XVIII.
From the moment of my departure from Paris on the 2d of August, 1792, the
tragedy hastened to its denouement. On the night of the 9th, the tocsin
was sounded, and the King and the Royal Family looked upon their fate as
sealed. Notwithstanding the personal firmness of His Majesty, he was a
coward for others. He dreaded the responsibility of ordering blood to be
shed, even in defence of his nearest and dearest interests. Petion,
however, had given the order to repel force by force to De Mandat, who
was murdered upon the steps of the Hotel de Ville. It has been generally
supposed that Petion had received a bribe for not ordering the cannon
against the Tuileries on the night of the 9th, and that De Mandat was
massacred by the agents of Petion for the purpose of extinguishing all
proof that he was only acting under the instructions of the Mayor.