out her. The Princesses Elizabeth and
de Lamballe fell at her feet, implored Her Majesty to obey the King, and
assured her there was no alternative between instant death and refuge
from it in the Assembly. "Well," said the Queen, "if our lot be death,
let us away to receive it with the national sanction."
I need not expatiate on the succession of horrors which now overwhelmed
the royal sufferers. Their confinement at the Feuillans, and their
subsequent transfer to the Temple, are all topics sufficiently enlarged
upon by many who were actors in the scenes to which they led. The
Princesse de Lamballe was, while it was permitted, the companion of their
captivity. But the consolation of her society was considered too great
to be continued. Her fate had no doubt been predetermined; and,
unwilling to await the slow proceedings of a trial, which it was thought
politic should precede the murder of her royal mistress, it was found
necessary to detach her from the wretched inmates of the Temple, in order
to have her more completely within the control of the miscreants, who
hated her for her virtues. The expedient was resorted to of casting
suspicion upon the correspondence which Her Highness kept up with the
exterior of the prison, for the purpose of obtaining such necessaries as
were required, in consequence of the utter destitution in which the Royal
Family retired from the Tuileries. Two men, of the names of Devine and
Priquet, were bribed to create a suspicion, by their informations against
the Queen's female attendant. The first declared that on the 18th of
August, while he was on duty near the cell of the King, he saw a woman
about eleven o'clock in the day come from a room in the centre, holding
in one hand three letters, and with the other cautiously opening the door
of the right-hand chamber, whence she presently came back without the
letters and returned into the centre chamber. He further asserted that
twice, when this woman opened the door, he distinctly saw a letter
half-written, and every evidence of an eagerness to hide it from
observation. The second informant, Priquet, swore that, while on duty as
morning sentinel on the gallery between the two towers, he saw, through
the window of the central chamber, a woman writing with great earnestness
and alarm during the whole time he was on guard.
All the ladies were immediately summoned before the authorities. The
hour of the separation between the Princess
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