ted by the operations of the German armies, which were about to
receive the powerful assistance of England. Prussia had gained decided
advantages on the Rhine. An Austrian army, under the Archduke Charles, was
making formidable progress in the Netherlands. Rumors, also, which soon
proved to be well founded, of an approaching insurrection in the western
departments of France, reached the capital. The vigilance with which the
royal prisoners were watched was increased. Information, too, though of no
precise character, that they had obtained means of communicating with
their partisans who were at liberty, was conveyed to the magistrates. And
at last Jarjayes and Toulan were forced to abandon the idea of effecting
the escape of the whole family, though they were still confident that they
could accomplish that of the queen, which they regarded as the most
important, since it was plain that it was she who was in the most
immediate danger. Elizabeth, as disinterested as herself, besought her to
embrace their offers, and to let her and the children, as being less
obnoxious to the Jacobins, take their chance of some subsequent means of
escape, or perhaps even mercy.

But such a flight was forbidden alike by Marie Antoinette's sense of duty
and by her sense of honor, if indeed the two were ever separated in her
mind. Honor forbade her to desert her companions in misery, whose danger
might even be increased by the rage of her jailers, exasperated at her
escape. Duty to her boy forbade it still more emphatically. As his
guardian, she ought not to leave him; as his mother, she could not. And
her renunciation of the whole design was conveyed to M. Jarjayes in a
letter which did honor alike to both by the noble gratitude which it
expressed, and which was long cherished by his heirs as one of their most
precious possessions, till it was destroyed, with many another valuable
record, when Paris a second time fell under the rule of wretches scarcely
less detestable than the Jacobins whom they imitated.[4] It was written by
stealth, with a pencil; but no difficulties or hurry, as no acuteness of
disappointment or depth of distress, could rob Marie Antoinette of her
desire to confer pleasure on others, or of her inimitable gracefulness of
expression. Thus she wrote:

"We have had a pleasant dream, that is all. I have gained much by still
finding, on this occasion, a new proof of your entire devotion to me. My
confidence in you is boundless.