The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Charles Duke Yonge [e book reader android txt] 📗

les rues, on se parlait sans se connaitre."-- Madame de Campan, ch. ix.

[6] L'Oeil de Boeuf.

[7] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.; "Marie Antoinette, Louis XII., et la Famille Royale," p. 238.

[8] "Un soleil d'ete"--Weber, i., p. 53.

[9] La Muette derived its name from _les mues_ of the deer who were reared there. It had been enlarged by the Regent d'Orleans, who gave it to his daughter, the Duchess de Berri; and it, was the frequent scene of the orgies of that infamous father and daughter, while more recently it had been known as the Parc aux Cerfs, under which title it had acquired a still more infamous reputation.

[10] "Apres le diner il y eut appartement jeu, et la fete fut terminee par un feu d'artifice."--Weber, i., p. 57, from whom the greater part of those details are taken. For the etiquette of the "jeu," see Madame de Campan, ch. ix., p. 17, and 2 ed. 1858.


CHAPTER XVII.

[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 18th, 1780, Arneth iii., p. 440.

[2] Le tabouret. See St. Simon.

[3] See _infra_, the queen's letter to Madame de Tourzel, date July 25th, 1789.

[4] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mademoiselle de Tourzel, p. 20.

[5] "Filia dolorosa."--Chateaubriand.

[6] Napoleon, in 1814, called her the only man of her family.

[7] Madame de Campan, ch. x.

[8] Memoires de Madame d'Oberkirch, i., p. 279

[9] The Marshal Prince de Soubise, whose incapacity and cowardice caused the disgraceful rout of Rosbach, was the head of this family; his sister, Madame Marsan, as governess of the "children of France", had brought up Louis XVI.

[10] "Il [Rohan] a meme menace, si on ne veut pas prendre le bon chemin qui lui indique, que ma fille s'en ressentira."--_Marie-Therese a Mercy_, August 28th, 1774, Arneth, ii., p. 226.

[11] "Ils paraissent si excedes du grand monde et des fetes, qu'avec d'autres petites difficultes qui se sont elevees, nous avons decide qu'il n'y aurait rien a Marly."--_Marie Antoinette to Mercy; Marie Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II_., p. 27.

[12] "No fewer than five actions were fought in 1782, and the spring of 1783, by those unwearied foes. De Suffrein's force was materially the stronger of the two; it consisted of ten sail of the line, one fifty-gun ship, and four frigates; while Sir E. Hughes had but eight sail of the line, a fifty-gun ship, and one frigate," See the author's "History of the British Navy," i., p. 400.

[13] Weber, i., p. 77. For the importance at this time attached to a reception at court, see Chateaubriand, "Memoires d'Outre-tombe," i., p. 221.


CHAPTER XVIII.

[1] Joseph to Marie Antoinette, date September 9th, 1783.--_Marie Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II._, p.30, which, to save such a lengthened reference, will hereafter be referred to as "Arneth."

[2] She was again expecting a confinement; but, as had happened between the birth of Madame Royale and that of the dauphin, an accident disappointed her hope, and her third child was not born till 1785.

[3] Date September 29th, 1783, Arneth, p. 35.

[4] Ministre de la maison du roi.

[5] Arneth, p. 38.


CHAPTER XIX.

[1] "Le roi signa une lettre de cachet qui defendait cette representation."--Madame de Campan, ch. xi.; see the whole chapter. Madame de Campan's account of the queen's inclinations on the subject differs from that given by M. de Lomenie, in his "Beaumarchais et son Temps," but seems more to be relied on, as she had certainly better means of information.

[2] See M. Gaillard's report to the lieutenant of police.--_Beaumarchais et son Temps_, ii., p. 313.

[3] "Il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits ecrits."-- _Act v., scene_ 3.

[4] "Avec _Goddam_ en, Angleterre on ne manque de rien nulle part. Voulez- vous tater un bon poulet gras ... _Goddam_ ... Aimez-vous a boire un coup d'excellent Bourgogne ou de clairet? rien que celui-ci _Goddam_. Les Anglais a la verite ajoutent par-ci par-la autres mots en conversant, mais il est bien aise de voir que _Goddam_ est le fond de la langue."--_Act_ iii., _scene_ 5.

[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," ii., p.22

[6] _Ibid_., p. 35.


CHAPTER XX.

[1] "De par la reine."

[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xi.

[3] "'La legerete a tout croire et a tout dire des souverains,' ecrit tres justement M. Nisard (_Moniteur_ du 22 Janvier, 1886), 'est un des travers de notre pays, et comme le defaut de notre qualite de nation monarchique. C'est ce travers qui a tue Marie Antoinette par la main des furieux qui eurent peut-etre des honnetes gens pour complices. Sa mort devait rendre a jamais impossible en France la calomnie politique.'"--Chambrier, i., p. 494.

[4] "Memoires de la Reine de France," par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42.

[5] See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor, December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, _et seq._

[6] "J'ai ete reellement touchee, de la raison et de la fermete que le roi a mises dans cette rude seance."--_Marie Antoinette to Joseph II._, August 22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.

[7] "La calomnie s'est attachee a poursuivre la reine, meme avant cette epoque ou l'esprit de parti a fait disparaitre la verite de la terre."-- Madame de Stael, _Proces de la Reine_, p. 2

[8] Madame de Campan, "Eclaircissements Historiques," p. 461; "Marie Antoinette et le Proces du Collier," par M. Emile Campardon, p. 144, _seq._

[9] "Permet au Cardinal de Rohan et au dit de Cagliostro de faire imprimer et afficher le present arret partout ou bon leur semblera."--Campardon, p. 152.

[10] "Sans doute le cardinal avait les mains pures de toute fraude; sans doute il n'etait pour rien dans l'escroquerie commise par les epoux de La Mothe."--Campardon, p. 155.

[11] Campardon, p. 153, quoting Madame de Campan.

[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation. "L'impression qui en resulte pour nous est l'impossibilite que la reine ait ete coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigees contre elle etaient vraisemblables, plus la creance accordee a ces imputations etait caracteristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'etait l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles."--_Histoire de France_, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.

[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.

[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 162. Some of the critics of M.F. de Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose; while his statement really was that Oliva, personating the queen, had dropped a rose at his feet. A forger would have made the letter Correspond with the evidence and the fact. The queen, in her agitation, might easily make a mistake.

[15] "Il se retira dans son eveche de l'autre cote du Rhin. La sa noble conduite fit oublier les torts de sa vie passee," etc.--Campardon, p. 156.

[16] Campardon, p. 156.

[17] It was from Ettenheim that the Duke d'Enghien was carried off in March, 1804. The cardinal died in February, 1803.


CHAPTER XXI.

[1] "Le duc declarait de son cote a Mr. Elliott que ... si la reine l'eut mieux traite il eut peut-etre mieux fait."--Chambrier, i., p.519

[2] Sophie Helene Beatrix, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th, 1787, F. de Conches, i. p. 195.

[3] See her letter to her brother, February, 1788, Arneth, p. 112.

[4] "C'est un vrai enfant de paysan, grand frais et gros."--Arneth, pp. 113.

[5] Feuillet de Conches, i, p. 195.

[6] Apparently she means the Notables and the Parliament.

[7] The Duc de Guines.

[8] See _ante_, ch. xviii.

[9] "'Il faut,' dit-il, avec un mouvement d'impatience qui lui fit honneur, 'que, du moins, l'archeveque de Paris croie en Dieu.'"-- _Souvenirs par le Duc de Levis_, p. 102.

[10] The continuer of Sismondi's history, A. Renee, however, attributes the archbishop's appointment to the influence of the Baron de Breteuil.

[11] "Son grand art consistait a parler a chacun des choses qu'il croyait qu'on ignorait."--De Levis, p. 100.

[12] The loan he proposed in June was eighty millions (of francs); in October, that which he demanded was four hundred and forty millions.

[13] It is worth noticing that the French people in general did not regard the power of arbitrary imprisonment exercised by their kings as a grievance. In their eyes it was one of his most natural prerogatives. A year or two before the time of which we are speaking, Dr. Moore, the author of "Zeluco," and father of Sir John Moore, who fell at Corunna, was traveling in France, and was present at a party of French merchants and others of the same rank, who asked him many questions about the English Constitution, When he said that the King of England could not impose a tax by his own authority, "they said, with some degree of satisfaction, 'Cependant c'est assez beau cela.'"... But when he informed them "that the king himself had not the power to encroach upon the liberty of the meanest of his subjects, and that if he or the minister did so, damages were recoverable in a court of law, a loud and prolonged 'Diable!' issued from every mouth. They forgot their own situation, and turned to their natural bias of sympathy with the king, who, they all seemed to think, must be the most oppressed and injured of manhood. One of them at last, addressing himself to the English politician, said, 'Tout ce que je puis vous dire, monsieur, c'est que votre pauvre roi est bien a plaindre.'"--_A View of the Society and Manners in France_, etc., by Dr. John Moore, vol. i., p. 47, ed. 1788.


CHAPTER XXII.

[1] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 205.

[2] M. Foulon was about this time made paymaster of the army and navy, and was generally credited with ability as a financier; but he was unpopular, as a man of ardent and cruel temper, and was brutally murdered by the mob in one of the first riots of the Revolution.

[3] The king.

[4] Necker.

[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 214.

[6] _Ibid_., p. 217.

[7] On one occasion when the Marquis de Bouille pointed out to him the danger of some of his plans as placing the higher class at the mercy of the mob, "dirige par les deux passions les plus actives du coeur humain, l'interet et l'amour propre, ... il me repondit froidement, en levant les yeux au ciel, qu'il fallait bien compter sur les vertus morales des hommes."--_Memoires de M. de Bouille_, p. 70; and Madame de Stael admits of her father that he was "se fiant trop, il faut l'avouer, a l'empire de la raison," and adds that he "etudia constamment l'esprit public, comme la boussole a laquelle les decisions du roi devaient se conformer."-- _Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise_, i., pp. 171, 172.

[8] Her exact words are "si ... il fasse reculer l'autorite du roi" (if he causes the king's authority to retreat before the populace or the Parliament).

[9] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. Montjoye, p. 202.

[10] Madame de Campan, p. 412.

[11] This edict was registered in the