FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2397   2398   2399   2400   2401   2402   2403   2404   2405   2406   2407   2408   2409   2410   2411   2412   2413   2414   2415   2416   2417   2418   2419   2420   2421  
2422   2423   2424   2425   2426   2427   2428   2429   2430   2431   2432   2433   2434   2435   2436   2437   2438   2439   2440   2441   2442   2443   2444   2445   2446   >>   >|  
not get these foolish ideas out of her mind, and spoke to the King on the subject. From the description given of this room by the deputies to the keepers of Trianon, the King concluded that they were looking for the scene enriched with paste ornaments, made in the reign of Louis XV. for the theatre of Fontainebleau. The King supposed that his Body Guards, on their return to the country, after their quarterly duty at Court, related what they had seen, and that their exaggerated accounts, being repeated, became at last totally perverted. This idea of the King, after the search for the diamond chamber, suggested to the Queen that the report of the King's propensity for drinking also sprang from the guards who accompanied his carriage when he hunted at Rambouillet. The King, who disliked sleeping out of his usual bed, was accustomed to leave that hunting-seat after supper; he generally slept soundly in his carriage, and awoke only on his arrival at the courtyard of his palace; he used to get down from his carriage in the midst of his Body Guards, staggering, as a man half awake will do, which was mistaken for intoxication. The majority of the deputies who came imbued with prejudices produced by error or malevolence, went to lodge with the most humble private individuals of Versailles, whose inconsiderate conversation contributed not a little to nourish such mistakes. Everything, in short, tended to render the deputies subservient to the schemes of the leaders of the rebellion. Shortly after the opening of the States General the first Dauphin died. That young Prince suffered from the rickets, which in a few months curved his spine, and rendered his legs so weak that he could not walk without being supported like a feeble old man. [Louis, Dauphin of France, who died at Versailles on the 4th of June, 1789, gave promise of intellectual precocity. The following particulars, which convey some idea of his disposition, and of the assiduous attention bestowed upon him by the Duchesse de Polignac, will be found in a work of that time: "At two years old the Dauphin was very pretty; he articulated well, and answered questions put to him intelligently. While he was at the Chateau de La Muette everybody was at liberty to see him. The Dauphin was dressed plainly, like a sailor; there was nothing to distinguish him from other children in external appearance but the cross of Saint Louis, the blue ribbon, and the Order of the Fleece, decorations that are the distin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2397   2398   2399   2400   2401   2402   2403   2404   2405   2406   2407   2408   2409   2410   2411   2412   2413   2414   2415   2416   2417   2418   2419   2420   2421  
2422   2423   2424   2425   2426   2427   2428   2429   2430   2431   2432   2433   2434   2435   2436   2437   2438   2439   2440   2441   2442   2443   2444   2445   2446   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Dauphin

 

carriage

 
deputies
 

Guards

 

Versailles

 

curved

 

rendered

 

months

 

rickets

 

Prince


suffered

 

France

 

feeble

 

ribbon

 

supported

 

tended

 
render
 

subservient

 

Everything

 

mistakes


contributed

 

nourish

 

schemes

 

leaders

 
distin
 

decorations

 

General

 
rebellion
 

Shortly

 
opening

States
 
Fleece
 

articulated

 

answered

 

questions

 

pretty

 

distinguish

 
intelligently
 
Chateau
 

Muette


liberty

 
sailor
 
plainly
 

dressed

 

external

 

particulars

 
convey
 

precocity

 

appearance

 

promise