FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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  
2447   2448   2449   2450   2451   2452   2453   2454   2455   2456   2457   2458   2459   2460   2461   2462   2463   2464   2465   2466   2467   2468   2469   2470   2471   >>   >|  
l Guard, which had taken possession of the apartments, to allow us to remove everything that we should deem necessary for the Queen's accommodation. I saw her Majesty alone in her private apartments a moment before her departure for Paris; she could hardly speak; tears bedewed her face, to which all the blood in her body seemed to have rushed; she condescended to embrace me, gave her hand to M. Campan to kiss, and said to us, "Come immediately and settle at Paris; I will lodge you at the Tuileries; come, and do not leave me henceforward; faithful servants at moments like these become useful friends; we are lost, dragged away, perhaps to death; when kings become prisoners they are very near it." I had frequent opportunities during the course of our misfortunes of observing that the people never entirely give their allegiance to factious leaders, but easily escape their control when some cause reminds them of their duty. As soon as the most violent Jacobins had an opportunity of seeing the Queen near at hand, of speaking to her, and of hearing her voice, they became her most zealous partisans; and even when she was in the prison of the Temple several of those who had contributed to place her there perished for having attempted to get her out again. On the morning of the 7th of October the same women who the day before surrounded the carriage of the august prisoners, riding on cannons and uttering the most abusive language, assembled under the Queen's windows, upon the terrace of the Chateau, and desired to see her. Her Majesty appeared. There are always among mobs of this description orators, that is to say, beings who have more assurance than the rest; a woman of this description told the Queen that she must now remove far from her all such courtiers as ruin kings, and that she must love the inhabitants of her good city. The Queen answered that she had loved them at Versailles, and would likewise love them at Paris. "Yes, yes," said another; "but on the 14th of July you wanted to besiege the city and have it bombarded; and on the 6th of October you wanted to fly to the frontiers." The Queen replied, affably, that they had been told so, and had believed it; that there lay the cause of the unhappiness of the people and of the best of kings. A third addressed a few words to her in German: the Queen told her she did not understand it; that she had become so entirely French as even to have forgotten her mother tongue. This declaration was answered with
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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  
2447   2448   2449   2450   2451   2452   2453   2454   2455   2456   2457   2458   2459   2460   2461   2462   2463   2464   2465   2466   2467   2468   2469   2470   2471   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

prisoners

 
description
 

wanted

 

answered

 

remove

 

October

 

Majesty

 

people

 

apartments

 

assurance


beings

 

orators

 

august

 

carriage

 

riding

 

cannons

 

surrounded

 

morning

 

uttering

 

abusive


desired

 

Chateau

 

appeared

 

terrace

 

language

 

assembled

 

windows

 

addressed

 
unhappiness
 

replied


affably

 

believed

 
tongue
 

declaration

 

mother

 

forgotten

 

German

 

understand

 

French

 

frontiers


courtiers

 

inhabitants

 
Versailles
 

besiege

 

bombarded

 
likewise
 

prison

 

henceforward

 

faithful

 
Tuileries