And on all occasions you will always find
strength of mind and courage in me. But the interest of my son is my sole
guide; and, whatever happiness I might find in being out of this place, I
can not consent to separate myself from him. In what remains, I thoroughly
recognize your attachment to me in all that you said to me yesterday. Rely
upon it that I feel the kindness and the force of your arguments as far as
my own interest is concerned, and that I feel that the opportunity can not
recur. But I could enjoy nothing if I were to leave my children; and this
idea prevents me from even regretting my decision.[5]"

And to Toulan she said that "her sole desire was to be reunited to her
husband whenever Heaven should decide that her life was no longer
necessary to her children." He was greatly afflicted, but he could no
longer be of use to her. Her last commission to him was to convey to her
eldest brother-in-law, the Count de Provence, her husband's ring and seal,
that they might be in safer custody than her own, and that she or her son
might reclaim them, if either should ever be at liberty. She gave Toulan
also, as a memorial of her gratitude, a small gold box, one of the few
trinkets which she still possessed, and which, unhappily, proved a fatal
present. In the summer of the next year it was found in his possession,
its history was ascertained, and he was sent to the scaffold for the sole
offense of having and valuing a relic of his murdered sovereign.

Nor was this the only plan formed for the queen's rescue. The Baron de
Batz was a noble of the purest blood in France, seneschal of the Duchy of
Albret, and bound by ancient ties of hereditary friendship to the king, as
the heir of Henry IV., whose most intimate confidence had been enjoyed by
his ancestor. He was still animated by all the antique feelings of
chivalrous loyalty, and from the first breaking-out of the troubles of the
Revolution he had brought to the service of his sovereign the most
absolute devotion, which was rendered doubly useful by an inexhaustible
fertility of resource, and a presence of mind that nothing could daunt or
perplex. On the fatal 21st of January, he had even formed a project of
rescuing Louis on his way to the scaffold, which failed, partly from the
timidity of some on whose co-operation he had reckoned, and partly, it is
said, from the reluctance of Louis himself to countenance an enterprise
which, whatever might be its result, must tend