X, 4
 
 THIS EDITION, PRINTED ON JAPANESE VELLUM PAPER 
 
 IS LIMITED TO 
 ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED COPIES 
 
 779 
 
 NO.J
 
 j^lrmotrs 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE 
 
 VOLUME I
 
 
 /S-JOSF.i -H-A-.-l 1'IER-FRANCOIS 
 LOUIS XVII, KL\G OF FRANCE 
 
 From a painting in the Pi tit Trianon, by Vigcc Lebnm
 
 Courts of 
 
 THE ROYAL 
 
 FAMILY OF FRANCE 
 
 DURING THE REVOLUTION 
 FROM THE JOURNAL AND LETTERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRINCESS LAMBALLE 
 VOL. I 
 
 JFUustratelr 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 GEORGE BARRIE & SON PUBLISHERS
 
 CONTENTS TO VOL. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PACK 
 
 Journal commenced Empress Maria Theresa, mother of 
 Maria Antoinette Her political views in all the 
 marriages of her daughters Fate of the Arch-duchess 
 Josepha On the death of Josepha, the Arch-duchess 
 Carolina weds the King of Naples Maria Theresa's 
 remonstrance with the Court of Naples on her daughter's 
 treatment The daughter remonstrates more promptly 
 and effectually Maria Antoinette destined for France 
 Madame Pompadour French hatred to Austria 
 Vermond recommended by Brienne as Maria 
 Antoinette's tutor He becomes a tool of Austria 
 Limited education of Maria Antoinette Her fondness 
 for balls and private plays Metastasio Du Barry 
 Observations of the Editor on Maria Theresa's sacrifice 
 of her daughters to her policy ...... 26 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Editor's remarks on erroneous statements of Madame 
 Campan Journal resumed Dauphin on his wedding- 
 night and the next morning Court intrigues begin 
 Daughters of Louis XV. Their influence on the 
 Dauphin, and dislike of his young bride Maria 
 Antoinette's distaste for etiquette, and love of 
 simplicity Court taste for hoop-dresses accounted for 
 Madame de Noailles Her horror at not having 
 been summoned on an occasion of delicacy Duke de
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vauguyon takes a dislike to Maria Antoinette Cabal 
 between Vermond and Madame Marsan Du Barry 
 jealous of the Dauphiness Richelieu Three ladies 
 leave the supper-table of Louis XV. from Du Barry 
 being there Remonstrance of the Dauphiness to her 
 mother on being made to sup with Du Barry 
 Answer Count d'Artois and Monsieur return from 
 travelling Are charmed with Maria Antoinette 
 Scandal respecting d'Artois and the Dauphiness 
 Changes wrought by Court marriages Remonstrance 
 of Maria Theresa to the French Court Duchess de 
 Grammont Louis XV. intrigues to divorce the Dauphin 
 and marry the Dauphiness Diamond necklace first 
 ordered by Louis XV. as a present to his hoped-for 
 bride Dauphin complains of the distance of his 
 apartment from that of his wife All parties intrigue 
 to get Maria Antoinette sent back to Austria . . .42 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Journal continued Maria Theresa Cardinal de Rohan 
 Empress induced by him to send spies to France Maria 
 Antoinette dislikes meddling with politics Deep game 
 of De Rohan Spies sent to France, unknown to the 
 Cardinal, to discover how far his representations are to 
 be trusted She finds he has deceived her, and resents 
 it He falls in love with Maria Antoinette Betrays 
 her to her mother Indignation of Maria Antoinette 
 on the occasion He suggests the marriage of Maria 
 Antoinette's sister with Louis XV. His double intrigues 
 with the two Courts of France and Austria Louis XV. 
 dies Rohan disgraced . 74 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Journal continued Accession of Louis XVI. and Maria 
 Antoinette Happy beginning Public joy The new
 
 CONTENTS IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 King more affectionate to his Queen Du Barry and 
 party no longer received at Court Unsuccessful attempt 
 of the Queen to restore Choiseul to the ministry 
 Insinuations against the Queen Vermond and the 
 King The Queen's modesty respecting her toilette 
 Mademoiselle Bertin, the milliner, introduced Anecdote 
 of the royal hairdresser False charge of extravagance 
 against the Queen Remarks of the Editor . , . 94 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Notes of the Editor Family of the Princess Lamballe 
 Journal resumed Her own account of herself Duke 
 and Duchess de Penthievre Mademoiselle de Pen- 
 thievre and Prince Lamballe King of Sardinia 
 Ingenious and romantic anecdotes of the Princess 
 Lamballe's marriage The Duke de Chartres, afterwards 
 Orleans, marries Mademoiselle de Penthievre De 
 Chartres makes approaches to the Princess Lamballe 
 Being scorned, corrupts her husband Prince Lamballe 
 dies Sledge parties The Princess becomes acquainted 
 with the Queen Is made Her Majesty's superintendent 1 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Observations of the Editor on the various parties against 
 Lamballe in consequence of her appointment Its injury 
 to the Queen Particulars of Lamballe, the duties of 
 her office, and her conduct in it The Polignacs 
 Character of the Countess Diana Journal resumed, 
 Account of the first introduction to the Queen of the 
 Duchess Julia de Polignac The Queen's sudden and 
 violent attachment to her Calumnies resulting from 
 it Remark on female friendships Lamballe recedes 
 from the Queen's intimacy At the Duke's (her father- 
 in-law) is near falling a victim to poison Alarm of the 
 Queen, who goes to her, and forces her back to Court
 
 X CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Her Majesty annoyed at Lamballe's not visiting the 
 Polignacs Her reasons The Abb6 Vermond retires, 
 and returns 133 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Journal continued Slanders against the Empress Maria 
 Theresa, on account of Metastasio, give the Queen a 
 distaste for patronising literature Private plays and 
 acting Censoriousness of those who were excluded 
 from them The Queen's love of music Gluck invited 
 from Germany Anecdotes of Gluck and his Armida 
 Garat Viotti Madame St. Huberti Vestris. . . 158 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Journal continued Emperor Joseph comes to France- 
 Injurious reports of immense sums of money given him 
 from the treasury Princess Lamballe presented to him 
 Anecdotes told by him of his family The King 
 annoyed by his freedoms Circumstances that occurred 
 while he was seeking information among the common 
 people Note of the Editor on certain mistakes of 
 Madame Campan 168 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Journal continued Pleasure of hearing of the birth of 
 children The Queen's exultation at finding herself 
 pregnant Favourable change in the public sentiment 
 The King's aunts annoyed at the Queen's Jprosperity 
 Her pregnancy ascribed by Du Barry to d'Artois 
 Lamballe interferes to prevent a private meeting between 
 the Queen and Baron Besenval Coolness in conse- 
 quence The interview granted, and the result as feared 
 The Queen sensible of her error The Polignacs 
 Night promenades on the Terrace at Versailles and at 
 Trianon Queen's remark on hearing of Du Barry's
 
 CONTENTS XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 intrigue against her Princess Lamballe declines going 
 to the evening promenades Vermond strengthens 
 Maria Antoinette's hatred of etiquette Her goodness 
 of heart Droll anecdote of the Chevalier d'Eon . . 184 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Observations of the Editor Journal continued Birth of 
 the Duchess d'Angouleme Maria Antoinette delivered 
 of a Dauphin Increasing influence of the Duchess de 
 Polignac The Abb6 Vermond heads an intrigue against 
 it Polignac made governess of the royal children 
 Her splendour and increasing unpopularity Envy 
 and resentment of the nobility Birth of the Duke of 
 Normandy The Queen accomplishes the marriage of 
 the Duchess de Polignac's daughter with the Duke de 
 Guiche Cabals of the Court Maria Antoinette's 
 partiality for the English Libels on the Queen 
 Private commissions to suppress them Motives of the 
 Duke de Lauzun for joining the calumniators Droll 
 conversation between Maria Antoinette, Lady Spencer, 
 the Duke of Dorset, &c., at Versailles Interesting 
 visit of the Grand Duke of the North (afterwards the 
 Emperor Paul) and his Duchess Maria Antoinette's 
 disgust at the King of Sweden Audacity of the 
 Cardinal de Rohan ........ 203 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Editor's observations, and recapitulation of the leading 
 particulars of the diamond necklace plot Journal 
 resumed Princess Lamballe's remarks on that dark 
 transaction Vergennes opposes judicial investigation- 
 The Queen's party prevail in bringing the affair before 
 the council Groundlessness of the charge against 
 Maria Antoinette Confusion of Rohan when confronted 
 with the Queen He procures the destruction of all the
 
 xii CONTENTS 
 
 PACK 
 
 letters of the other conspirators Means resorted to by 
 Rohan's friends to obtain his acquittal The Princess 
 Cond6 expends large sums for that purpose Her con- 
 fusion when the proofs of her bribery are exhibited 
 The King's impartiality Mr. Sheridan discovers the 
 treachery of M. de Calonne Calonne's abject behaviour, 
 dismissal, and disgrace Note of the Editor . . . 238 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Journal continued Archbishop of Sens made minister, 
 dismissed, and his effigy burned The Queen impru- 
 dently patronises his relations Mobs Dangerous un- 
 reserve of the Queen Apology for the Archbishop of 
 S ens The Queen forced to take a part in the govern- 
 ment Meeting of the States General Anonymous 
 letter to the Princess Lamballe Significant visit of the 
 Duchess of Orleans Disastrous procession Barnave 
 gives his opinion of public affairs to the Princess 
 Lamballe, who communicates with the Queen Briberies 
 by Orleans on the day of the procession He faints in 
 the Assembly Neckar suspected of an understanding 
 with him Is dismissed No communication on public 
 business with the Queen but through the Princess 
 Lamballe Political influence falsely ascribed to the 
 Duchess de Polignac Her unpopularity Duke of 
 Harcourt and the First Dauphin Death of the First 
 Dauphin Cause of Harcourt's harsh treatment of 
 Polignac Second interview of Barnave with the 
 Princess Lamballe He solicits an audience of the 
 Queen, which is refused Dialogue between Lamballe 
 and the Prince de Conti Remarks on the Polignacs 
 Marriage of Figaro, a political satire . 270
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 1 SHOULD consider it great presumption to 
 intrude upon the public anything respecting my- 
 self, were there any other way of establishing the 
 authenticity of the facts and papers I am about 
 to present. To the history of my own peculiar 
 situation, amid the great events I record, which 
 made me the depositary of information and docu- 
 ments so important, I proceed, therefore, though 
 reluctantly, without further preamble. 
 
 In the title-page of this work I have stated that 
 I was for many years in the confidential service of 
 the Princess Lamballe, and that the most important 
 materials, which form my history, have been derived 
 
 VOL. I
 
 2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 not only from the conversations, but the private 
 papers of my lamented patroness. It remains for 
 me to show how I became acquainted with Her 
 Highness, and by what means the papers I allude 
 to came into my possession. 
 
 Though, from my birth, and the rank of those 
 who were the cause ot it (had it not been from 
 political motives kept from my knowledge), in point 
 of interest I ought to have been very independent, 
 I was indebted for my resources in early life to His 
 Grace the late Duke of Norfolk and Lady Mary 
 Duncan. By them 1 was placed for education in 
 the Irish Convent, Rue du Bacq, Fauxbourg St. 
 Germain, at Paris, where the immortal Sacchini, 
 the instructor of the Queen, gave me lessons in 
 music Pleased with my progress, the celebrated 
 composer, when one day teaching Maria Antoi- 
 nette, so highly over-rated to that illustrious lady 
 my infant natural talents and acquired science in 
 his art, in the presence of her very shadow, the 
 Princess Lamballe, as to excite in Her Majesty 
 an eager desire for the opportunity of hearing me, 
 which the Princess volunteered to obtain by going 
 herself to the convent next morning with Sacchini.
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 It was enjoined upon the composer, as I afterwards 
 learned, that he was neither to apprise me who 
 Her Highness was, nor to what motive I was in- 
 debted for her visit. To this Sacchini readily 
 agreed, adding, after disclosing to them my con- 
 nections and situation, " Your Majesty will be, 
 perhaps, still more surprised, when I, as an 
 Italian, and her German master, who is a German, 
 declare that she speaks both these languages like 
 a native, though born in England ; and is as well 
 disposed to the Catholic faith, and as well versed 
 in it, as if she had been a member of that Church 
 all her life. 
 
 This last observation decided my future good 
 fortune : there was no interest in the minds of the 
 Queen and Princess paramount to that ot making 
 proselytes to their creed. 
 
 The Princess, faithful to her promise, accom- 
 panied Sacchini. Whether it was chance, ability, 
 or good fortune, let me not attempt to conjecture ; 
 but from that moment, I became the protege of this 
 ever-regretted angel. Political circumstances pre- 
 sently facilitated her introduction of me to the 
 Queen. My combining a readiness in the Italian 
 and German languages, with my knowledge of
 
 4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 English and French, greatly promoted my power 
 of being useful at that crisis, which, with some 
 claims to their confidence of a higher order, made 
 this august, lamented, injured pair, more like 
 mothers to me than mistresses, till we were parted 
 by their murder. 
 
 The circumstances I have just mentioned show 
 that to mere curiosity, the characteristic passion of 
 our sex and so often its ruin, I am to ascribe 
 the introduction, which was only prevented by 
 events unparalleled in history from proving the 
 most fortunate in my life as it is the most 
 cherished in my recollection. 
 
 It will be seen in the course of the following 
 pages, how often I was employed on confidential 
 missions, frequently by myself, and, in some 
 instances, as the attendant of the Princess. The 
 nature of my situation, the trust reposed in me, 
 the commissions with which I was honoured, 
 and the affecting charges of which I was the 
 bearer, flattered my pride and determined me to 
 make myself an exception to the rule that " no 
 woman can keep a secret." Few ever knew 
 exactly where I was, what I was doing, and
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 much less the importance of my occupation. 
 I had passed from England to France, made 
 two journeys to Italy and Germany, three to the 
 Arch-Duchess Maria Christiana, Governess of the 
 Low Countries, and returned back to France, 
 before any of my friends in England were aware 
 of my retreat, or of my ever having accompanied 
 the Princess. Though my letters were written 
 and dated at Paris, they were all forwarded to 
 England by way of Holland or Germany, that 
 no clue should be given for annoyances from 
 idle curiosity. It is to this discreetness, to this 
 inviolable secrecy, firmness, and fidelity, which I 
 so early in life displayed to the august personages 
 who stood in need of such a person, that I owe 
 the unlimited confidence of my illustrious bene- 
 factress, through which I was furnished with the 
 valuable materials I am now submitting to the 
 public. 
 
 I was repeatedly a witness, by the side of 
 the Princess Lamballe, of the appalling scenes 
 of the bonnet range, of murders a la lantcrne, and 
 of numberless criminal insults to the unfortunate 
 royal family of Louis XVI., when the Queen was
 
 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 generally selected as the most marked victim of 
 malicious indignity. Having had the honour of so 
 often beholding this much-injured Queen, and never 
 without remarking how amiable in her manners, 
 how condescendingly kind in her deportment to- 
 wards everyone about her, how charitably generous, 
 and withal, how beautiful she was ; I looked upon 
 her as a model of perfection. But when I found 
 the public feeling so much at variance with my 
 own, the difference became utterly unaccountable. 
 I longed for some explanation of the mystery. 
 One day I was insulted in the Tuileries, because 
 I had alighted from my horse to walk there with- 
 out wearing the national ribbon. On this I met 
 the Princess : the conversation which grew out of 
 my adventure emboldened me to question her on 
 a theme to me inexplicable. 
 
 " What," asked I, " can it be, which makes the 
 people so outrageous against the Queen ? " 
 
 Her Highness condescended to reply in the 
 complimentary terms which I am about to relate, 
 but without answering my question. 
 
 " My dear friend 1 " exclaimed she, " for from 
 this moment I beg you will consider me in that
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 light, never having been blessed with children of 
 my own, I feel there is no way of acquitting myself 
 of the obligations you have heaped upon me, by 
 the fidelity with which you have executed the 
 various commissions entrusted to your charge, but 
 by adopting you as one of my own family. I am 
 satisfied with you, yes, highly satisfied with you, 
 on the score of your religious principles 1 ; and as 
 soon as the troubles subside, and we have a little 
 calm after them, my father-in-law and myself will 
 be present at the ceremony of your confirmation." 
 
 The goodness of my benefactress silenced me : 
 gratitude would not allow me to persevere for the 
 moment. But from what I had already seen of 
 Her Majesty the Queen, I was too much interested 
 to lose sight of my object, not, let me be believed, 
 from idle womanish curiosity, but from that real, 
 strong, personal interest which I, in common with 
 all who ever had the honour of being 1 in her 
 presence, felt for that much-injured, most engaging 
 sovereign. 
 
 i I was at that time, by her orders, under examination 
 by Monsieur de Brienne, for being confirmed to receive 
 the sacrament.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 A propitious circumstance unexpectedly oc- 
 curred, which gave me an opportunity, without 
 any appearance of officious earnestness, to renew 
 the attempt to gain the end I had in view. 
 
 I was riding in the carriage with the Princess 
 Lamballe, when a lady drove by, who saluted my 
 benefactress with marked attention and respect. 
 There was something in the manner of the Princess, 
 after receiving the salute, which impelled me, spite 
 of myself, to ask who the lady was. 
 
 " Madame de Genlis," exclaimed Her Highness, 
 with a shudder of disgust, " that lamb's face with 
 a wolf's heart, and a fox's cunning." Or, to quote 
 her own Italian phrase which I have here trans- 
 lated, " colla faccia d'agnello, il cuore cCun lupo, e 
 la dritura della volpe." 
 
 In the course of these pages the cause of 
 this strong feeling against Madame de Genlis will 
 be explained. To dwell on it now would only 
 turn me aside from my narrative. To pursue my 
 story, therefore : 
 
 When we arrived at my lodgings (which were 
 then, for private reasons, at the Irish Convent, 
 where Sacchini and other masters attended to
 
 INTRODUCTION g 
 
 further me in the accomplishments of the fine arts), 
 " Sing me something," said the Princess, " Cantate 
 miqualche cosa, for I never see that woman" (meaning 
 Madame de Genlis) " but I feel ill and out of 
 humour. I wish it may not be the foreboding 
 of some great evil ! " 
 
 I sang a little rondo, in which Her Highness 
 and the Queen always delighted, and which they 
 would never set me free without making me sing, 
 though I had given them twenty before it. 1 Her 
 Highness honoured me with even more than usual 
 praise. I kissed the hand which had so generously 
 applauded my infant talents, and said, " Now, my 
 dearest Princess, as you are so kind and good- 
 humoured, tell me something about the Queen I " 
 
 She looked at me with her eyes full of tears. 
 For an instant they stood in their sockets as if 
 petrified : and then, after a pause, " I cannot," 
 answered she in Italian, as she usually did, " I 
 cannot refuse you anything. Non posso negarti 
 niente. It would take me an age to tell you the 
 
 i The rondo I allude to was written by Sarti for the 
 celebrated Marches!, Lungi da te ben mio, and is the same 
 in which he was so successful in England, when he intro- 
 duced it in London in the opera of Giulo Sabino.
 
 10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 many causes which have conspired against this 
 much-injured Queen ! I fear none who are near 
 her person will escape the threatening storm that 
 hovers over our heads. The leading causes of the 
 clamour against her have been, if you must know, 
 Nature ; her beauty ; her power of pleasing ; her 
 birth ; her rank ; her marriage ; the King himself ; 
 her mother ; her imperfect education ; and, above 
 all, her unfortunate partialities for the Abbe" 
 Vermond ; for the Duchess de Polignac ; for 
 myself, perhaps ; and last, but not least, the 
 thorough unsuspecting goodness of her heart ! 
 
 ' But, since you seem to be so much con- 
 cerned for her exalted, persecuted Majesty, you 
 shall have a Journal I myself began on my first 
 coming to France and which I have continued 
 ever since I have been honoured with the con- 
 fidence of Her Majesty, in graciously giving me 
 that unlooked-for situation at the head of her 
 household, which honour and justice prevent my 
 renouncing under any difficulties, and which I 
 never will quit bat with my life ! '' 
 
 She wept as she spoke, and her last words 
 were almost choked with sobs.
 
 INTRODUCTION II 
 
 Seeing her so much affected, I humbly begged 
 pardon for having unintentionally caused her tears, 
 and begged permission to accompany her to the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 " No," said she, " you have hitherto conducted 
 yourself with a profound prudence, which has 
 insured you my confidence. Do not let your 
 curiosity change your system. You shall have the 
 Journal. But be careful. Read it only by your- 
 self, and do not show it to anyone. On these 
 conditions you shall have it." 
 
 I was in the act of promising, when Her 
 Highness stopped me. 
 
 " I want no particular promises. I have 
 sufficient proofs of your adherence to truth. Only 
 answer me simply in the affirmative." 
 
 I said I would certainly obey her injunctions 
 most religiously. 
 
 She then left me, and directed that I should 
 walk in a particular part of the private alleys of 
 the Tuileries, between three and four o'clock in 
 the afternoon. I did so; and from her own hand 
 I there received her private Journal. 
 
 In the following September of this same 
 year (1792) she was murdered 1
 
 12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Journalising copiously, for the purpose of amas- 
 sing authentic materials for the future historian, 
 was always a favourite practice of the French, and 
 seems to have been particularly in vogue in the 
 age I mention. The press has sent forth whole 
 libraries of these records since the Revolution, and 
 it is notorious that Louis XV. left Secret Memoirs, 
 written by his own hand, of what passed before 
 this convulsion ; and had not the papers of the 
 Tuileries shared in the wreck of royalty, it would 
 have been seen that Louis XVI. had made some 
 progress in the memoirs of his time ; and even his 
 beautiful and unfortunate Queen had herself made 
 extensive notes and collections for the record of her 
 own disastrous career. Hence it must be obvious 
 how one so nearly connected in situation and suffer- 
 ing with her much-injured mistress, as the Princess 
 Lamballe, would naturally fall into a similar habit 
 had she even no stronger temptation than fashion 
 and example. But self-communion, by means of 
 the pen, is invariably the consolation of strong, 
 feeling, and reflecting minds under great calamities, 
 especially when their intercourse with the world has 
 been checked or poisoned by its malice.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 The editor of these pages herself fell into the 
 habit of which she speaks ; and it being usual with 
 her benefactress to converse with all the unreserve 
 which every honest mind shows when it feels it can 
 confide, her humble attendant, not to lose facts of 
 such importance, commonly made notes of what she 
 heard. In any other person's hands the Journal of 
 the Princess would have been incomplete; especially 
 as it was written in a rambling manner, and was 
 never intended for publication. But connected by 
 her confidential conversations with me, and the 
 recital of the events to which I personally bear 
 testimony, I trust it will be found the basis of a 
 satisfactory record, which I pledge myself to be 
 a true one. 
 
 I do not know, however, that, at my time of 
 life, and after a lapse of thirty years, I should have 
 been roused to the arrangement of the papers which 
 I have combined to form this narrative, had 'I not 
 met with the work of Madame Campan upon the 
 same subject. 
 
 This lady has said much that is true respecting 
 the Queen ; but she has omitted much, and much 
 she has misrepresented : not, I dare say, purposely;
 
 14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 out from ignorance, and being wrongly informed. 
 She was often absent from the service, and on such 
 occasions must have been compelled to obtain her 
 knowledge at second-hand. She herself told me, in 
 1803, at Ecouen, that at a very important epoch 
 the peril of her life forced her from the seat of action. 
 With the Princess Lamballe, who was so much about 
 the Queen, she never had any particular connexion. 
 The Princess certainly esteemed her for her devoted- 
 ness to the Queen : but there was a natural reserve 
 in the Princess's character, and a mistrust resulting 
 from circumstances of all those who saw much 
 company as Madame Campan did. Hence no 
 intimacy was encouraged. Madame Campan never 
 came to the Princess without being sent for. 
 
 An attempt has been made since the Revolution 
 utterly to destroy faith in the alleged attachment 
 of Madame Campan to the Queen, by the fact of 
 her having received the daughters of many of the 
 regicides for education into her establishment at 
 Ecouen. Far be it from me to sanction so unjust 
 a censure. Although what I mention hurt her 
 character very much in the estimation of her former 
 friends, and constituted one of the grounds of the
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 dissolution of her establishment at Ecouen, on the 
 restoration of the Bourbons, and may possibly in 
 some degree have deprived her of such aids from 
 their adherents, as might have made her work 
 unquestionable, yet what else, let me ask, could 
 have been done by one dependent upon her exertions 
 for support, and in the power of Napoleon's family 
 and his emissaries ? On the contrary, I would give 
 my public testimony in favour of the fidelity of 
 her feelings, though in many instances I must 
 withhold it from the fidelity of her narrative. Her 
 being utterly isolated from the illustrious individual 
 nearest to the Queen must necessarily leave 
 much to be desired in her record. During the 
 whole term of the Princess Lamballe's superin- 
 tendence of the Queen's household, Madame 
 Campan never had any special communication 
 with my benefactress, excepting once, about the 
 things which were to go to Brussels, before the 
 journey to Varennes ; and once again, relative to 
 a person of the Queen's household, who had 
 received the visits of Petion, the Mayor of Paris, 
 at her private lodgings. This last communication 
 I myself particularly remember, because on that
 
 l6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 occasion the Princess, addressing me in her own 
 native language, Madame Campan, observing it, 
 considered me as an Italian, till, by a circumstance 
 I shall presently relate, she was undeceived. 
 
 I should anticipate the order of events, and 
 incur the necessity of speaking twice of the same 
 things, were I here to specify the express errors in 
 the work of Madame Campan. Suffice it now that 
 I observe generally her want of knowledge of the 
 Princess Lamballe ; her omission of many of the 
 most interesting circumstances of the Revolution ; 
 her silence upon important anecdotes of the King, 
 the Queen, and several members ot the first 
 assembly; her mistakes concerning the Princess 
 Lamballe's relations with the Duchess de Polignac, 
 Count de Fersan, Mirabeau, the Cardinal de Rohan, 
 and others; her great miscalculation of the time 
 when the Queen's confidence in Barnave began, 
 and when that of the Empress-mother in Rohan 
 ended ; her misrepresentation of particulars re- 
 lating to Joseph II.; and her blunders concerning 
 the affair of the necklace, and regarding the libel 
 Madame Lamotte published in England with the 
 connivance of Calonne : all these will be con-
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 sidered, with numberless other statements equally 
 requiring correction in their turn. What she has 
 omitted I trust I shall supply ; and where she has 
 gone astray I hope to set her right; that, between 
 the two, the future biographer of my august bene- 
 factresses may be in no want of authentic materials 
 to do full justice to their honoured memories. 
 
 I said in a preceding paragraph that I should 
 relate a circumstance about Madame Campan, 
 which happened after she had taken me for an 
 Italian and before she was aware of my being in 
 the service of the Princess. 
 
 Madame Campan, though she had seen me 
 not only at the time I mention but before and 
 after, had always passed me without notice. One 
 Sunday, when in the gallery of the Tuileries with 
 Madame de Stael, the Queen, with her usual suite, 
 of which Madame Campan formed one, was going 
 according to custom to hear mass, her Majesty 
 perceived me and most graciously addressed me in 
 German. Madame Campan appeared greatly sur- 
 prised at this, but walked on and said nothing. 
 Ever afterwards, however, she treated me whenever 
 we met with marked civility. 
 
 VOL. I
 
 l8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Another edition of Boswell to those who got 
 a nod from Dr. Johnson ! 
 
 The reader will find in the course of this 
 work that on the 2nd of August, 1792, from the 
 kindness and humanity of my august benefactresses, 
 I was compelled to accept a mission to Italy, de- 
 vised merely to send me from the sanguinary 
 scenes of which they foresaw they and theirs must 
 presently become victims. Early in the following 
 month the Princess Lamballe was murdered. As 
 my history extends beyond the period l have 
 mentioned, it is fitting I should explain the in- 
 disputable authorities whence I derived such par- 
 ticulars as i did not see. 
 
 A person, high in the confidence of the 
 Princess, through the means of the honest coach- 
 man of whom I shall have occasion to speak, 
 supplied me with regulai details of whatever took 
 place, till she herself with the rest of the ladies 
 and other attendants, being separated from the 
 Royal Family, was immured in the prison of 
 La Force. When 1 returned to Paris after thir 
 dire tempest, Madame Clery and her friend 
 Madame de Beaumont, a natural daughter of
 
 INTRODUCTION ig 
 
 Louis XV., with Monsieur Chambon of Rheims, 
 who never left Paris during the time, confirmed 
 the correctness of my papers. The Madame Clery 
 I mention is the same who assisted her husband in 
 his faithful attendance upon the royal family in the 
 Temple ; and this exemplary man added his testi- 
 mony to the rest, in presence of the Duchess de 
 Guiche Grammont, at Pyrmont in Germany, when 
 I there met him in the suite of the late sovereign 
 ot France, Louis XVIII., at a concert. After 
 the loth of August, I had also a continued corre- 
 spondence with many persons at Paris, who sup- 
 plied me with thorough accounts of the succeed- 
 ing horrors, in letters directed to Sir William 
 Hamilton, at Naples, and by him forwarded to 
 me. And in addition to all these high sources, 
 many particular circumstances have been disclosed 
 to me by individuals, whose authority, when I have 
 used it, I have generally affixed to the facts they 
 have enabled me to communicate. 
 
 It now only remains for me to mention that 
 I have endeavoured to arrange everything, derived 
 either from the papers of the Princess Lamballe, 
 
 or from her remarks, my own observation, or the 
 
 2 2
 
 20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 intelligence of others, in chronological order. It 
 will readily be seen by the reader where the 
 Princess herself speaks, as I have invariably set 
 apart my own recollections and remarks in para- 
 graphs and notes, which are not only indicated 
 by the heading of each chapter, but by the context 
 of the passages themselves. I have also begun 
 and ended what the Princess says with inverted 
 commas. All the earlier part of the work preceding 
 her personal introduction proceeds principally from 
 her pen or her lips : I have done little more than 
 changed it from Italian into English, and embodied 
 thoughts and sentiments that were often disjointed 
 and detached. And throughout, whether she or 
 others speak, I may safely say this work will be 
 found the most circumstantial, and assuredly the 
 most authentic, upon the subject of which it treats, 
 of any that has yet been presented to the public 
 of Great Britain. The press has been prolific in 
 fabulous 'writings upon these times, which have 
 been devoured with avidity. I hope John Bull is 
 not so devoted to gilded foreign fictions as to 
 spurn the unadorned truth from one ot his down- 
 right countrywomen : and let me advise him en
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 passant, not to treat us beauties of native growth 
 with indifference at home ; for we readily find 
 compensation in the regard, patronage, and 
 admiration of every nation in Europe. 1 I am old 
 now, and may speak freely. 
 
 i I wish it were in my power to include a certain lady 
 in these kingdoms, who has recently written upon Italy, in 
 my contrast between British accuracy and foreign fable. 
 This lady seems quite unencumbered by the fetters of truth. 
 She has either been deceived, or would herself be the 
 deceiver, respecting the replacing of the famous horses at 
 Venice. I was present at that ceremony, and when I cast 
 my eyes over the fiction of Lady Morgan upon the subject, it 
 made me grieve to see the account of a country so very 
 interesting and to me endeared by a residence of nearly 
 thirty years, among real friends of humanity and general 
 good faith, drawn by a hand so unhesitatingly inaccurate. 
 As for her account of the Emperor of Austria and Maria 
 Louisa Maria Louisa had never been at Venice at the 
 time she mentions. When she did come there it was merely 
 to condole with her imperial father for the loss of her cousin 
 and mother-in-law, the Empress Lodovica, daughter of the 
 Arch-duke of Milan, the third wife of the Emperor. This 
 happened a considerable time after the restoration of the 
 Golden Steeds of Lysippus. Besides, it was the Holy Week, 
 Settimnotue Santa, when there are never theatrical perform- 
 ances in any part of Italy. The Court, too, from the event 
 I have stated, was in deep mourning. Sometimes I myself 
 may be misled, and papers which have been thirty years 
 undisturbed, may retain inaccuracies. Still, whenever I 
 assert from hearsay I have been careful at least, I have
 
 22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 I have no interest whatever in the work I 
 submit but that of endeavouring to redeem the 
 character of so many injured victims. Would to 
 Heaven my memory were less acute, and that I 
 could obliterate from the knowledge of the world 
 and posterity the names of their infamous de- 
 stroyers I mean not the executioners who ter- 
 minated their mortal existence for in their 
 miserable situation that early martyrdom was an 
 act of grace but I mean some, perhaps still 
 living, who with foul cowardice, stabbing like 
 assassins in the dark, undermined their fair fame 
 and morally murdered them, long before their 
 deaths, by daily traducing virtues the slanderers 
 never possessed from mere jealousy of the glory 
 they knew themselves incapable of deserving. 
 
 endeavoured so to do to save my credit under the shield, 
 beneath which all writers have it in their power to take 
 shelter, the never failing salvo, con dotta, the on dit. But 
 neither the Count nor the Countess Cicognara, whatever 
 their private reasons may be to be dissatisfied with the 
 conduct of the Austrian Government relative to themselves, 
 could ever have asserted such flagrant falsehoods to Lady 
 Morgan ; the circumstances being too notorious even to the 
 Ciceroni of the Piazza, whose ignorance has spoiled the 
 books of so many of her ladyship's predecessors.
 
 INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 Montesquieu says, " If there be a God, He must 
 be just!" That divine justice, after centuries, has 
 been fully established on the descendants of the 
 cruel, sanguinary conquerors of South America and 
 its butchered harmless Emperor Montezuma and his 
 innocent offspring, who are now teaching Spain a 
 moral lesson in freeing themselves from its insatiable 
 thirst for blood and wealth, while God Himself has 
 refused that blessing to the Spaniards which they 
 denied to the Americans 1 ! Oh, France! what hast 
 thou not already suffered, and what hast thou not 
 yet to suffer, when to thee, like Spain, it shall visit 
 their descendants even unto the fourth generation ? 
 
 To my insignificant losses in so mighty a ruin 
 perhaps I ought not to allude. I should not pre- 
 sume even to mention that the fatal convulsion 
 
 i The constitutional members, who were gloriously fight- 
 ing in the field of liberty to rescue a rising generation from 
 tyranny and superstitious bigotry (an operation commenced 
 on the foundation of the law of the land, delegated to the 
 nation by its chosen representatives and sacredly guaranteed 
 through the sanction of a constitutional king, who now, with 
 the rest of the Spanish nation, is in jeopardy, a prisoner, and 
 dependent on a foreign sovereign), now expiate in turn the 
 bloody crimes of their ancestors on the nations so long held by 
 them in savage and unnatural bondage !
 
 24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 which shook all Europe and has since left the 
 nations in that state of agitated undulation which 
 succeeds a tempest upon the ocean, were it not for 
 the opportunity it gives me to declare the bounty 
 of my benefactresses. All my own property went 
 down in the wreck ; and the mariner who escapes 
 only with his life can never recur to the scene of 
 his escape without a shudder. Many persons are 
 still living, of the first respectability, who well 
 remember my quitting this country, though very 
 young, on the budding of a brilliant career. Had 
 those prospects been followed up they would have 
 placed me beyond the caprice of fickle fortune. 
 But the dazzling lustre of crown favours and 
 princely patronage outweighed the slow, though 
 more solid hopes of self-achieved independence. 
 I certainly was then almost a child, and my 
 vanity, perhaps, of the honour of being useful to 
 two such illustrious personages got the better ot 
 every other sentiment. But now when I reflect, 
 I look back with consternation on the many 
 risks I ran, on the many times I stared death 
 in the face with no fear but that of being 
 obstructed in my efforts to serve, even with my
 
 INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 life, the interests dearest to my heart that of 
 implicit obedience to these truly benevolent and 
 generous Princesses, who only wanted the means 
 to render me as happy and independent as their 
 cruel destiny has since made me wretched and 
 miserable ! Had not death deprived me of their 
 patronage I should have had no reason to have 
 regretted any sacrifice I could have made for 
 them, for through the Princess, Her Majesty, 
 unasked, had done me the honour to promise 
 me the reversion of a most lucrative as well as 
 highly respectable post in her employ. In these 
 august personages I lost my best friends; I lost 
 everything except the tears, which bathe the 
 paper as I write tears ol gratitude, which will 
 never cease to flow to the memory of their 
 martyrdom,
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 JOURNAL COMMENCED EMPRESS MARIA THERESA, MOTHER 
 OF MARIA ANTOINETTE HER POLITICAL VIEWS IN ALL 
 THE MARRIAGES OF HER DAUGHTERS FATE OF THE 
 ARCH-DUCHESS JOSEPHA ON THE DEATH OF JOSEPHA, 
 THE ARCH-DUCHESS CAROLINA WEDS THE KING OF 
 NAPLES MARIA THERESA'S REMONSTRANCE WITH THE 
 
 COURT OF NAPLES, ON HER DAUGHTER'S TREATMENT 
 
 THE DAUGHTER REMONSTRATES MORE PROMPTLY AND 
 
 EFFECTUALLY MARIA ANTOINETTE DESTINED FOR 
 
 FRANCE MADAME POMPADOUR FRENCH HATRED TO 
 AUSTRIA VERMOND RECOMMENDED BY BRIENNE AS 
 MARIA ANTOINETTE'S TUTOR HE BECOMES A TOOL OF 
 AUSTRIA LIMITED EDUCATION OF MARIA ANTOINETTE 
 HER FONDNESS FOR BALLS AND PRIVATE PLAYS 
 
 METASTASIO DU BARRY OBSERVATIONS OK THE 
 
 EDITOR ON MARIA THERESA'S SACRIFICE OF HER 
 DAUGHTERS TO HER POLICY 
 
 "THE character of Maria Theresa, the Empress- 
 mother of Maria Antoinette, is sufficiently known. 
 The same spirit of ambition and enterprise which 
 had already animated her contentions with France 
 in the latter part of her career impelled her to wish 
 for its alliance. In addition to other hopes, she
 
 CHAPTER I 27 
 
 had been encouraged to imagine that Louis XV. 
 might one day aid her in recovering the provinces 
 which the King of Prussia had violently wrested 
 from her ancient dominions. She felt the many 
 advantages to be derived from an union with her 
 ancient enemy, and she looked for its accomplish- 
 ment by the marriage of her daughter. 
 
 " Policy, in sovereigns, is paramount to every 
 other consideration. They regard beauty as a 
 source of profit, like managers of theatres, who, 
 when a female candidate is offered, ask whether 
 she is young and handsome ? not whether she has 
 talent. Maria Theresa believed that her daughter's 
 beauty would have proved more powerful over 
 France than her own armies. Like Catharine II., 
 her envied contemporary, she consulted no ties of 
 nature in the disposal of her children ; a system 
 more in character where the knout is the logician 
 than among nations boasting higher civilization : 
 indeed her rivalry with Catharine even made her 
 grossly neglect their education. Jealous of the 
 rising power of the North, she saw that it was 
 the purpose of Russia to counteract her views 
 in Poland and Turkey through France, and so
 
 28 CHAPTER I 
 
 totally forgot her domestic duties in the desire to 
 thwart the ascendency of Catharine that she often 
 suffered eight or ten days to go by without even 
 seeing her children, allowing even the essential 
 sources of instruction to remain unprovided. Her 
 very caresses were scarcely given but for display, 
 when the children were admitted to be shown 
 to some great personage; and if they were over- 
 whelmed with kindness, it was merely to excite 
 a belief that they were the constant care and 
 companions of her leisure hours. When they 
 grew up they became the mere instruments of 
 her ambition. The fate of one of them will 
 show how their mother's worldliness was re- 
 warded. 1 
 
 " A leading object of Maria Theresa's policy 
 was the attainment of influence over Italy. For 
 this purpose she first married one of the arch- 
 duchesses to the imbecile Duke of Parma. Her 
 second manoeuvre was to contrive that Charles III. 
 should seek the Arch -duchess Josepha for his 
 
 I The Princess, could she have looked into the book of 
 Fate, might have said the fate of two; but the most per- 
 secuted victim was not at that time sacrificed.
 
 CHAPTER I 29 
 
 younger son, the King of Naples. When every- 
 thing had been settled, and the ceremony by 
 proxy had taken place, it was thought proper 
 to sound the Princess as to how far she felt 
 inclined to aid her mother's designs in the 
 Court of Naples. * Scripture says,' was her reply 
 ' that when a woman is married she belongs to 
 the country of her husband.' 
 
 ' ' But the policy of State ? ' exclaimed Maria 
 Theresa. 
 
 " ' Is that above religion ? ' cried the Princess. 
 
 " This unexpected answer of the Arch-duchess 
 was so totally opposite to the views of the 
 Empress that she was for a considerable time 
 undecided whether she would allow her daughter 
 to depart, till, worn out by perplexities, she at 
 last consented, but bade the Arch-duchess, previous 
 to sett : ng off for this much-desired country of her 
 new husband, to go down to the tombs, and in 
 the vaults of her ancestors offer up to Heaven a 
 fervent prayer for the departed souls of those she 
 was about to leave. 
 
 " Only a few days before that, a Princess had 
 been buried in the vaults I think Joseph the
 
 30 CHAPTER I 
 
 Second's second wife, who had died of the small- 
 pox. 
 
 " The Arch-duchess Josepha obeyed her im- 
 perial mother's cruel commands, took leave of all 
 her friends and relatives, as if conscious of the 
 result, caught the same disease, and in a few 
 days died ! 
 
 " The Arch-duchess Carolina was now tutored 
 to become her sister's substitute, and when deemed 
 adequately qualified was sent to Naples, where 
 she certainly never forgot she was an Austrian 
 nor the interest of the Court of Vienna. One 
 circumstance concerning her and her mother fully 
 illustrates the character of both. On the marriage, 
 the Arch-duchess found that Spanish etiquette did 
 not allow the Queen to have the honour of dining 
 at the same table as the King. She apprised her 
 mother. Maria Theresa instantly wrote to the 
 Marchese Tenucei, then Prime Minister at the 
 Court of Naples, to say, that if her daughter, now 
 Queen of Naples, was to be considered less than 
 the King her husband, she would send an army 
 to fetch her back to Vienna, and the King might 
 purchase a Georgian slave, for an Austrian Princess
 
 CHAPTER I 31 
 
 should not be thus humbled. Maria Theresa need 
 not have given herself all this trouble, for before 
 the letter arrived the Queen of Naples had dis- 
 missed all the ministry, upset the cabinet of Naples, 
 and turned out even the King himself from her bed- 
 chamber ! So much for the overthrow of Spanish 
 etiquette by Austrian policy. The King of Spain be- 
 came outrageous at the influence of Maria Theresa, 
 but there was no alternative. 
 
 " The other daughter of the Empress was mar- 
 ried, as I have observed already, to the Duke of 
 Parma for the purpose of promoting the Austrian 
 strength in Italy against that of France, to which 
 the Court of Parma, as well as that of Modena, 
 had been long attached. 
 
 " The fourth Arch-duchess, Maria Antoinette, 
 being the youngest and most beautiful of the 
 family, was destined for France. There were 
 three older than Maria Antoinette ; but she, 
 being much lovelier than her sisters, was selected 
 on account of her charms. Her husband was 
 never considered by the contrivers of the scheme : 
 he was known to have no sway whatever, not 
 even in the choice of his own wife 1 But the
 
 32 CHAPTER I 
 
 character of Louis XV. was recollected, and cal- 
 culations drawn from it, upon the probable power 
 which youth and beauty might obtain over such 
 a King and Court. 
 
 " It was during the time when Madame 
 Pompadour directed, not only the King, but all 
 France with most despotic sway, that the union 
 of the Arch-duchess Maria Antoinette with the 
 grandson ol Louis XV. was proposed. The plan 
 received the warmest support ot Choiseul, then 
 Minister, and the ardent co-operation of Pompadour. 
 Indeed it was to her, the Duke de Choiseul, and 
 the Count de Mercy, the whole affair may be 
 ascribed. So highly was she flattered by the 
 attention with which Maria Theresa distinguished 
 her, in consequence of her zeal, by presents and 
 by the title ' dear cousin,' which she used in 
 writing to her, that she left no stone unturned 
 till the proxy of the Dauphin was sent to Vienna, 
 to marry Maria Antoinette in his name. 
 
 " All the interest by which this union was 
 supported could not, however, subdue a prejudice 
 against it, not only among many of the Court, the 
 cabinet, and the nation, but in the royal family
 
 CHAPTER I 33 
 
 itself. France has never looked with complacency 
 upon alliances with the House of Austria : enemies 
 to this one avowed themselves as soon as it was 
 declared. The daughters of Louis XV. openly 
 expressed their aversion ; but the stronger influence 
 prevailed, and Maria Antoinette became the 
 Dauphiness. 
 
 " Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, and after- 
 wards of Sens, suggested the appointment of the 
 Librarian of the College des Quatre Nations, the 
 Abb6 Vermond, as instructor to the Dauphiness 
 in French. The Abbe Vermond was accordingly 
 dispatched by Louis XV. to Vienna. The conse- 
 quences of this appointment will be seen in the 
 sequel. Perhaps not the least fatal of them arose 
 from his gratitude to the Archbishop, who recom- 
 mended him. In some years afterwards, influencing 
 his pupil, when Queen, to help Brienne to the 
 ministry, he did her and her kingdom more injury 
 than their worst foes. Of the Abbe"s power over 
 Maria Antoinette there are various opinions ; of 
 his capacity there is but one he was superficial 
 and cunning. On his arrival at Vienna he became 
 
 the tool of Maria Theresa. While there, he re- 
 VOL. i 3
 
 34 CHAPTER I 
 
 ccived a salary as the daughter's tutor, and when 
 he returned to France, a much larger one as the 
 mother's spy. He was more ambitious to be 
 thought a great man, in his power over his pupil, 
 than a rich one. He was too Jesuitical to wish to 
 be deemed rich. He knew that superfluous emolu- 
 ments would soon have overthrown the authority 
 he derived from conferring, rather than receiving 
 favours ; and hence he never soared to any higher 
 post. He was generally considered to be dis- 
 interested. How far his private fortunes benefited 
 by his station has never appeared ; nor is it known, 
 whether by the elevation of his friend and patron 
 to the ministry in the time of Louis XVI., he 
 gained anything beyond the gratification of vanity, 
 from having been the cause: it is probable he did 
 not, for if he had, from the general odium against 
 that promotion, no doubt it would have been 
 exposed, unless the influence of the Queen was his 
 protection, as it proved in so many cases where 
 he grossly erred. From the first he was an evil 
 to Maria Antoinette ; and ultimately habit rendered 
 him a necessary evil. 1 
 
 i Upon these points more will be said hereafter.
 
 CHAPTER I 35 
 
 " The education of the Dauphiness was circum- 
 scribed ; though very free in her manners, she was 
 very deficient in other respects ; and hence it was 
 she so much avoided all society ol females who 
 were better informed than herself, courting in 
 preference the lively tittle-tattle of the other sex, 
 who were in turn, better pleased with the gaieties 
 of youth and beauty than the more substantial 
 logical witticisms of antiquated Court-dowagers. 
 To this may be ascribed her ungovernable passion 
 for great societies, balls, masquerades, and all 
 kinds of public and private amusements, as well 
 as her subsequent attachment to the Duchess de 
 Polignac, who so much encouraged them for the 
 pastime of her friend and sovereign. Though 
 naturally averse to everything requiring study or 
 application, Maria Antoinette was very assiduous 
 in preparing herself for the parts she performed 
 in the various comedies, farces, and cantatas 
 given at her private theatre ; and their acquire- 
 ment seemed to cost her no trouble. These 
 innocent diversions became a source ot calumny 
 against her; yet they formed almost the only part 
 
 ot her German education, about which Maria 
 
 32
 
 36 CHAPTER I 
 
 Theresa had been particular: the Empress-mother 
 deemed them so valuable to her children that 
 she ordered the celebrated Metastasio to write 
 some of his most sublime cantatas for the 
 evening recreations of her sisters and herself. 
 And what can more conduce to elegant literary 
 knowledge, or be less dangerous to the morals 
 of the young, than domestic recitation of the 
 finest flights of the intellect ? Certain it is that 
 Maria Antoinette never forgot her idolatry of 
 her master Metastasio ; and it would have been 
 well for her had all concerned in her education 
 done her equal justice. The Abbe Vermond 
 encouraged these studies ; and the King himself 
 afterwards sanctioned the translation of the works 
 of his Queen's revered instructor, and their publi- 
 cation at her own expense, in a superb edition, 
 that she might gratify her fondness the more 
 conveniently by reciting them in French. 1 When 
 
 i Happy, thrice happy, had it been for Maria Antoinette, 
 happy for France, happy, perhaps, for all Europe, had this 
 taste never been thwarted. The mind, once firmly occupied 
 in any particular pursuit, is guarded against the danger 
 arising from volatility and ennui. The mind, in want of 
 an object of occupation congenial to its youth and tendencies,
 
 CHAPTER I 37 
 
 Maria Antoinette herself became a mother, and 
 oppressed from the change of circumstances, she 
 regretted much that she had not in early life 
 cultivated her mind more extensively. ' What a 
 resoi r je,' would she exclaim, ' is a mind well 
 stored against human casualties ! ' She deter- 
 mined to avoid in her own offspring the error, of 
 which she felt herself the victim, committed by 
 her Imperial mother, for whose fault, though 
 she suffered, she would invent excuses. ' The 
 Empress,' she would say, 'was left a young widow 
 with ten or twelve children; she had been accus- 
 tomed, even during the Emperor's life, to head 
 her vast empire, and she thought it would be un- 
 just to sacrifice to her own children the welfare 
 of the numerous family which afterwards devolved 
 upon her exclusive government and protection.' 
 
 " Most unfortunately for Maria Antoinette, 1 
 her great supporter, Madame de Pompadour, 
 died before the Arch - duchess came to France. 
 The pilot who was to steer the young mariner 
 
 often rushes unconsciously into errors, fatal to its peace, its 
 reputation, and its existence. 
 
 i And perhaps for all Europe, if we may judge from 
 the result.
 
 38 CHAPTER I 
 
 safe into port, was no more, when she arrived 
 at it. The Austrian interest had sunk with its 
 patroness. The intriguers of the Court no sooner 
 saw the King without an avowed favourite than 
 they sought to give him one who should further 
 their own views and crush the Choiseul party, which 
 had been sustained by Pompadour. The licentious 
 Duke de Richelieu was the pander on this occasion. 
 The low, vulgar Du Barry was by him introduced 
 to the King, and Richelieu had the honour of 
 enthroning a successor to Pompadour, and supply- 
 ing Louis XV. with the last of his mistresses. 
 Madame de Grammont, who had been the royal 
 confidante during the interregnum, gave up to the 
 rising star. The effect of a new power was pre- 
 sently seen in new events. All the ministers known 
 to be attached to the Austrian interest were dis- 
 missed ; and the time for the arrival of the young 
 bride, the Arch-duchess of Austria, who was about 
 to be installed Dauphiness of France, was at hand, 
 and she came to meet scarcely a friend, and many 
 foes : of which even her beauty, her gentleness, 
 and her simplicity, were doomed to swell the 
 phalanx."
 
 CHAPTER I 39 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The preceding pages of the Princess Lamballe 
 excite reflections, which, as editor, I cannot suffer to 
 pass without a commentary of my own. My reflections 
 are grounded upon what I know to have been in some 
 degree the apprehensions of Her Highness ; but she 
 did not live to see the fearful prophecies accomplished. 
 I have often heard her utter many of the following 
 sentiments, of which I may be deemed in part, there- 
 fore, only the transcriber ; and the awful result has 
 been a thorough illustration of the precision with which 
 she judged. Some of my observations, it will be 
 apparent, she could not have uttered ; but I have every 
 reason to believe that she foresaw, as distinctly as 
 mortal vision can look into futurity, those parts of 
 what I am about to state, which, though her thoughts 
 dwelt upon, her discretion would not let her name. 
 It is this which gives to her unwavering devotedness 
 to the Queen, amid a consciousness of the inevitable 
 denouement, all the grace of martyrdom. 
 
 Maria Theresa' was greatly deceived in the specula- 
 tions she had formed in her private cabinet at Vienna 
 upon her daughter's marriage, and the influence she 
 hoped to gain from that event over the cabinet of
 
 4 o 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 France. To imagine for a moment that she acted 
 from any view to her daughter's happiness or aggran- 
 disement would be absurd. Her real views were built 
 on error. The hostile feeling against Austria was too 
 strong in France to be overcome by State policy, and 
 she was only preparing a scaffold for her child where 
 she meditated a triumph for herself. She sacrificed 
 everything to her ambition, and in her ambition she 
 was punished. Had Maria Theresa been less cruel 
 after the battle of Prague perhaps the French nation 
 would have been kinder to her child. There may be 
 no rule without an exception ; but there is one incul- 
 cated by the mystery of religion, instituted by the 
 word of the Supreme Himself, by that primitive food 
 wherewith our intellects are nourished, by that school 
 and guide of our infancy, by that conductor of our 
 youth, by that pilot which steers us with rectitude 
 into the harbour of maturity that Holy Book declares 
 without reserve, Do as you would be done by, or you shall 
 be visited to the third and fourth generation ! How scrupu- 
 lously just, then, ought the head of a family to be in 
 dealing with others ! Not but I conceive it the duty 
 of every individual to act righteously ; but of parents 
 it is a special duty. And if more awful the responsibiltiy 
 upon parents, how tremendous must it be upon rulers ! 
 Look at the example Maria Theresa set her children ! 
 What lessons has she given them as a mother ? What 
 as a monarch ? The violent usurpation of Mantua from
 
 CHAPTER I 41 
 
 the princely family of the Gonzagas and the partition 
 of Poland form the answer. But there is a madness 
 in power which prevails even over nature, and often 
 over interest itself, when it seeks the attainment of 
 any specific end. Silesia, in the consideration of Maria 
 Theresa, outweighed all others. Of the same stamp 
 was the headlong pertinacity of Louis XIV. He waged 
 war against almost all Europe to destroy the Austrian 
 influence in Spain, and with his own to place Philip V. 
 his grandson on the throne of Iberia. From State 
 policy he as readily agreed to subsidise Great Britain, 
 in order to tear asunder the very crown, which he 
 himself had cemented with the blood and treasures of 
 his subjects ; and tried his utmost to hurl from the 
 throne a prince seated on it, at the risk of losing his 
 own ! It was for political intrigue Maria Antoinette 
 was sent to France or rather, a family compact, under 
 which title the true purpose is disguised in royal mar- 
 riages, and by political intrigue she fell into snares 
 fatal to her peace.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EDITOR'S REMARKS ON ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS OF 
 MADAME CAMPAN JOURNAL RESUMED DAUPHIN ON HIS 
 
 WEDDING-NIGHT AND THE NEXT MORNING COURT 
 
 INTRIGUES BEGIN DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. THEIR 
 INFLUENCE ON THE DAUPHIN AND DISLIKE OF HIS 
 
 YOUNG BRIDE MARIA ANTOINETTE'S DISTASTE FOR 
 
 ETIQUETTE AND LOVE OF SIMPLICITY COURT TASTE 
 
 FOR HOOP-DRESSES ACCOUNTED FOR MADAME DE 
 
 NOAILLES HER HORROR AT NOT HAVING BEEN SUM- 
 MONED ON AN OCCASION OF DELICACY DUKE DE 
 
 VAUGUYON TAKES A DISLIKE TO MARIA ANTOINETTE 
 
 CABAL BETWEEN VERMOND AND MADAME MARSAN DU 
 
 BARRY JEALOUS OF THE DAUPHINESS RICHELIEU 
 
 THREE LADIES LEAVE THE SUPPER-TABLE OF LOUIS XV. 
 
 FROM DU BARRY BEING THERE REMONSTRANCE OF 
 
 THE DAUPHINESS TO HER MOTHER ON BEING MADE 
 
 TO SUP WITH DU BARRY ANSWER COUNT D'ARTOIS 
 
 AND MONSIEUR RETURN FROM TRAVELLING ARE 
 
 CHARMED WITH MARIA ANTOINETTE SCANDAL RE- 
 SPECTING D'ARTOIS AND THE DAUPHINESS CHANGES 
 
 WROUGHT BY COURT MARRIAGES REMONSTRANCE OF 
 MARIA THERESA TO THE FRENCH COURT DUCHESS DE 
 
 GRAMMONT LOUIS XV. INTRIGUES TO DIVORCE THE 
 
 DAUPHIN AND MARRY THE DAUPHINESS DIAMOND 
 
 NECKLACE FIRST ORDERED BY LOUIS XV. AS A PRESENT 
 
 TO HIS HOPED-FOR BRIDE DAUPHIN COMPLAINS OF 
 
 THE DISTANCE OF HIS APARTMENT FROM THAT OF HIS 
 
 WIFE ALL PARTIES INTRIGUE TO GET MARIA 
 
 ANTOINETTE SENT BACK TO AUSTRIA 
 
 BEFORE I return to the Journal of the 
 Princess Lamballe, as it falls into the regular
 
 CHAPTER II 43 
 
 chronological arrangement, let me give a passing 
 moment to the more recent biographer of Maria 
 Antoinette, Madame Campan. Her description of 
 the first appearance of Her Majesty at Kehl, where 
 the change took place from the Austrian wardrobe 
 to the French, according to the prescribed etiquette 
 on those occasions, is so strikingly characteristic of 
 that unfortunate Princess that I cannot avoid 
 referring to it, though I much doubt the authen- 
 ticity of some of its details. The reader, however, 
 will see a glimmer of the bewitching simplicity of 
 its subject through all the errors of the narrative ; 
 whence it will be evident how inestimable a gem 
 this Princess would have proved had she been left 
 in her rough German artlessness. 
 
 In page 45, chapter 3, Madame Campan 
 says : " When the Dauphiness had been entirely 
 undressed, even to her body linen and stockings, in 
 order that she might retain nothing belonging to a, 
 foreign Court, the doors were opened": mark, in a 
 state no less than that of the Lady Godiva, (t the 
 young Princess came forward," not even en chemise 
 as the horse jockeys do at Newmarket, I suppose, 
 in order to be weighed before they mount the
 
 44 CHAPTER il 
 
 steed ! But let us go on, " came forward," 
 coolly, she should have said, "looking round for the 
 Countess de Noailles." 
 
 Now among Hottentots, or some of those 
 Egyptian females 1 who conceive the face to be the 
 most sacred part of the human frame, and who, 
 when surprised drawing water at the well or foun- 
 tain to fill their jars do, in order to prevent the 
 men from seeing them, actually throw up their 
 clothing, even to the body-linen, to hide their 
 faces ! Among these I say such an exhibition 
 might be possible ; but that an Austrian Princess 
 should, like a maniac, have been thus exposed to 
 the contemplation of some forty or fifty idle 
 gazers ! can such a thing be credited ? 
 
 "Then," continues Madame Campan "rush- 
 ing into her arms," which I daresay she did, if 
 
 I General Menou, when Governor of Venice, told me 
 among other circumstances that the great hatred of the 
 Egyptians against the French arose from their having 
 violated many Egyptian females on the exhibition of what 
 other nations generally conceal, and several innocent and 
 respectable persons were thus sacrificed to the brutality of 
 the soldiers. He said he could not pronounce whether the 
 custom was universal, but in some villages he had witnessed 
 it himself.
 
 CHAPTER II 45 
 
 it was cold, "she implored her" "implored!" a 
 word that is very seldom in the mouth of princesses, 
 and much less in that of the high-mettled race of 
 an Austrian arch-duchess like Maria Antoinette. 
 But once more to the text : "implored her, with 
 tears in her eyes, and with a heartfelt sincerity, to 
 direct her, to advise her, and to be, in every respect, 
 her future guide and support I " 
 
 Upon this, Madame Campan observes, "It 
 was impossible to refrain from admiring her aerial 
 deportment; her smile was sufficient to win the heart; 
 and in this enchanting being the splendour of French 
 gaiety shone forth!" 
 
 I have often heard splendour and dignity 
 coupled together, but I do not remember the 
 union of gaiety and splendour. No doubt it is 
 correct, however, as a French woman, who has 
 been the instructress of princesses, has written it. 
 
 To proceed with Madame Campan: "An 
 indescribable but august serenity, perhaps also the some- 
 what protid position of her head and shoulders, betrayed 
 the daughter of the Cczsars" 
 
 However, the word "betrayed" is here mis- 
 applied (and I myself should have used Pourtraycd,
 
 46 CHAPTER II 
 
 unfolded, or demonstrated, which I think, with all 
 due submission to the compiler or composer of 
 Madame Campan's work, would have been more 
 appropriate than the word "betrayed"), the re- 
 mark is thoroughly correct. Such were indeed the 
 head and shoulders of Maria Antoinette. Their 
 beauty was the envy of the one sex, and the 
 source of much abominable detraction in those 
 who might not approach it of the other. 
 
 There are no doubt many inconveniences in- 
 separable from the etiquette of royal marriages, 
 and many more which spring from chance. I have 
 read somewhere of a proxy, who came so near 
 the bride as to prick her with his spur; which 
 certainly was not the intention of the royal spouse. 
 But I am much disposed to believe, comparing the 
 forms on the marriage of Maria Antoinette with 
 those observed with others of her husband's family 
 at the same period, as well as with her own ex- 
 cessive modesty, that in this instance, as in many 
 others, she has been misrepresented. I should 
 rather conceive the etiquette to have been similar 
 to that adopted when the Princess Clotilda the 
 sister of Louis XVI. was consigned over to the
 
 CHAPTER II 47 
 
 Piedmontese ladies of the Court of Turin. A large 
 wardrobe of different dresses of every kind met her 
 at the last frontier town of France. There she put 
 on the clothes provided for the purpose, returning 
 those she brought to the persons who saw her 
 out of France. No public dressing or undressing 
 was thought of; and she was by far too fat to run, 
 in puris naturalibus, into the arms of any lady of 
 honour who might not be of the most uncourtly 
 dimensions. Such, also, was the mode pursued 
 when Madame and her sister the Countess 
 D'Artois, both Princesses of Piedmont, were 
 married to the two brothers of Louis XVI. No 
 indelicate display like that which Madame 
 Campan describes as having taken place under 
 the Countess de Noailles was exacted from 
 either of the brides. And why should such an 
 exception have been made in the case of the 
 young Austrian ? Indeed (and I speak here from 
 the authority of my papers), so scrupulous was 
 Maria Antoinette in her observance of modesty 
 and decorum, that she was laughed at by the 
 young princes and nobles, for withdrawing with 
 her tirewoman to have her hair arranged in
 
 48 CHAPTER II 
 
 private ; because her toilette being the usual 
 morning rendezvous of all belonging to the Court, 
 she could not reconcile it to her feelings, to follow 
 the precedent of all former dauphinesses and 
 queens, by allowing even this slight ceremony 
 to be performed about her person, pro bono 
 publico. Is it at all likely, then, that she could 
 have consented under any circumstances to the 
 exposure Madame Campan has described ? But 
 enough of this : I resume my editorial functions, 
 and return to the more agreeable narrative of the 
 Princess of Lamballe. 
 
 " On the marriage night, Louis XV. said gaily 
 to the Dauphin who was supping with his usual 
 heartiness, ' Don't overcharge your stomach 
 to-night.' 
 
 " ' Why, I always sleep best after a hearty 
 supper,' replied the Dauphin, with the greatest 
 coolness. 
 
 " The supper being ended, he accompanied 
 his Dauphiness to her chamber, and at the door, 
 with the greatest politeness, wished her a good
 
 CHAPTER II 49 
 
 night. Next morning, upon his saying, .when 
 he met her at breakfast, that he hoped she had 
 slept well, Maria Antoinette replied, ' Excellently 
 well, for I had no one to disturb me ! ' 
 
 " The Princess de Guemenee, who was then 
 at the head of the household, on hearing the 
 Dauphiness moving very early in her apartment, 
 ventured to enter it, and not seeing the Dauphin, 
 exclaimed, ' Bless me ! he is risen as usual ! ' 
 ' Whom do you mean ? ' asked Maria Antoinette. 
 The Princess misconstruing the interrogation, 
 was going to retire, when the Dauphiness said, 
 ' I have heard a great deal of French politeness, 
 but I think I am married to the most polite of the 
 nation ! ' ' What, then, he is risen ? ' ' No, no, 
 no ! ' exclaimed the Dauphiness, ' there has been 
 no rising; he has never lain down here. He 
 left me at the door of my apartment with his 
 hat in his hand, and hastened from me as if 
 embarrassed with my person 1 ' 
 
 "After Maria Antoinette became a mother 
 she would often laugh and tell Louis XVI. of his 
 bridal politeness, and ask him if in the interim 
 
 between that and the consummation he had 
 VOL. i 4
 
 50 CHAPTER II 
 
 studied his maiden aunts or his tutor on the sub- 
 ject. On this he would laugh most excessively. 
 
 " Scarcely was Maria Antoinette seated in her 
 new country before the virulence of Court intrigue 
 against her became active. She was beset on all 
 sides by enemies open and concealed, who never 
 slackened their persecutions. All the family of 
 Louis XV. consisting of those maiden aunts of the 
 Dauphin just adverted to (among whom Madame 
 Adelaide was specially implacable) were incensed 
 at the marriage, not only from their hatred to 
 Austria, but because it had accomplished the 
 ambition of an obnoxious favourite to give a wife 
 to the Dauphin of their kingdom. On the credu- 
 lous and timid mind of the Prince, then in the 
 leading strings of this pious sisterhood, they im- 
 pressed the misfortunes to his country and to the 
 interest of the Bourbon family, which must spring 
 from the Austrian influence through the medium 
 of his bride. No means were left unessayed to 
 steel him against her sway. I remember once to 
 have heard her Majesty remark to Louis XVI. in 
 answer to some particular observations he made, 
 'These, sire, are the sentiments of our aunts, I
 
 CHAPTER II 51 
 
 am sure.' And indeed great must have been their 
 ascendancy over him in youth, for up to a late 
 date he entertained a very high respect for their 
 capacity and judgment. Great indeed must it have 
 been to have prevailed against all the seducing 
 allurements of a beautiful and fascinating young 
 bride, whose amiableness, vivacity, and wit be- 
 came the universal admiration, and whose grace- 
 ful manner of address few ever equalled and 
 none ever surpassed; nay, even so to have 
 prevailed as to form one of the great sources of 
 his aversion to consummate the marriage ! Since 
 the death of the late Queen, their mother, these 
 four Princesses (who, it was said, if old maids, 
 were not so from choice) had received and per- 
 formed the exclusive honours of the Court. It 
 could not have diminished their dislike for the 
 young and lovely new-comer to see themselves 
 under the necessity of abandoning their dignities 
 and giving up their station. So eager were they 
 to contrive themes of complaint against her, that 
 when she visited them in the simple attire in which 
 she so much delighted, sans ceremonie, unaccom- 
 panied by a troop of horse and a squadron of foot- 
 
 42
 
 52 CHAPTER II 
 
 guards, they complained to their father, who hinted 
 to Maria Antoinette that such a relaxation of the 
 royal dignity would be attended with considerable 
 injury to French manufactures, to trade, and to 
 the respect due to her rank. * My State and Court 
 dresses,' replied she, * shall not be less brilliant 
 than those of any former Dauphiness or Queen of 
 France, if such be the pleasure of the King, but 
 to my grand-papa I appeal for some indulgence 
 with respect to my undress private costume of the 
 morning. 1 ' 
 
 " It was dangerous for one in whose conduct 
 so many prying eyes were seeking for sources of 
 accusation to gratify herself even by the overthrow 
 of an absurdity, when that overthrow might incur 
 the stigma of innovation. The Court of Versailles 
 was jealous of its Spanish inquisitorial etiquette. 
 It had been strictly wedded to its pageantries since 
 the time of the great Anne of Austria. The saga- 
 cious and prudent provisions of this illustrious 
 contriver were deemed the ne plus ultra, of royal 
 
 i Trifling, however, as Maria Antoinette deemed these 
 cavils about dress and etiquette, they contained the elements 
 of her future fall.
 
 CHAPTER II 53 
 
 female policy. A cargo of whalebone was yearly 
 obtained by her to construct such stays for the 
 maids of honour as might adequately conceal the 
 Court accidents which generally poor ladies! 
 befell them in rotation every nine months. 
 
 " But Maria Antoinette could not sacrifice 
 her predilection for a simplicity quite English, 
 to prudential considerations. Indeed she was too 
 young to conceive it even desirable. So much 
 did she delight in being unshackled by finery 
 that she would hurry from Court to fling off 
 her royal robes and ornaments, exclaiming, when 
 freed from them, 'Thank Heaven, I am out of 
 harness ! ' 
 
 " But she had natural advantages, which gave 
 her enemies a pretext for ascribing this antipathy 
 to the established fashion to mere vanity. It is 
 not impossible that she might have derived some 
 pleasure from displaying a figure so beautiful, 
 with no adornment except its native gracefulness; 
 but how great must have been the chagrin ot 
 the Princesses, of many of the Court ladies, 
 indeed of all in any way ungainly or deformed, 
 when called to exhibit themselves by the side of
 
 54 CHAPTER II 
 
 a bewitching person like hers, unaided by the 
 whalebone and horse-hair paddings with which 
 they had hitherto been made up, and which placed 
 the best form on a level with the worst ? The 
 prudes who practised illicitly, and felt the con- 
 venience of a guise which so well concealed the 
 effect of their frailties, were neither the least 
 formidable nor the least numerous of the enemies 
 created by this revolution of costume ; and the 
 Dauphiness was voted by common consent for 
 what greater crime could there be in France ? 
 the heretic Martin Luther of female fashions ! 
 The four Princesses, her aunts, were as bitter 
 against the disrespect with which the Dauphiness 
 treated the armour, which they called dress, as 
 if they themselves had benefited by the im- 
 munities it could confer. 
 
 " Indeed, most of the old Court ladies em- 
 battled themselves against Maria Antoinette's en- 
 croachments upon their habits. The leader of 
 them was a real medallion, whose costume, char- 
 acter and notions, spoke a genealogy perfectly 
 antediluvian; who even to the latter days of 
 Louis XV., amid a Court so irregular, persisted
 
 CHAPTER II 55 
 
 in her precision. So systematic a supporter of the 
 antique could be no other than the declared foe of 
 any change, and, of course, deemed the desertion 
 of large sack gowns, monstrous Court hoops, and 
 the old notions of appendages attached to them, 
 for tight waists and short petticoats, an awful 
 demonstration of the depravity of the time 1 1 
 
 "This lady had been first lady to the sole 
 Queen of Louis XV. She was retained in the 
 same station for Maria Antoinette. Her motions 
 were regulated like clock-work. So methodical 
 was she in all her operations of mind and body, 
 that, from the beginning of the year to its end, 
 she never deviated a moment. Every hour had 
 its peculiar occupation. Her element was etiquette, 
 but the etiquette of ages before the flood. She 
 had her rules even for the width of petticoats that 
 the Queens and Princesses might have no tempta- 
 tion to straddle over a rivulet, or crossing, of un- 
 royal size. 
 
 " The Queen of Louis XV. having been totally 
 subservient in her movements night and day to 
 
 i The editor needs scarcely add, that the allusion of the 
 princess is to Madame de Noailles.
 
 56 CHAPTER II 
 
 the wishes of the Countess de Noailles, it will be 
 readily conceived, how great a shock this lady 
 must have sustained on being informed one morn- 
 ing, that the Dauphiness had actually risen in the 
 night, and her ladyship not by to witness a 
 ceremony from which most ladies would have 
 felt no little pleasure in being spared, but which, 
 on this occasion, admitted of no delay ! Notwith- 
 standing the Dauphiness excused herself by the 
 assurance of the urgency allowing no time to call 
 the Countess, she nearly fainted at not having been 
 present at that, which others sometimes faint at, 
 if too near ! This unaccustomed watchfulness so 
 annoyed Maria Antoinette, that, determined to 
 laugh her out of it, she ordered an immense bottle 
 of hartshorn to be placed upon her toilette. Being 
 asked what use was to be made of the hartshorn, 
 she said it was to prevent her first lady of honour 
 from falling into hysterics when the calls of nature 
 were uncivil enough to exclude her from being of 
 the party. This, as may be presumed, had its 
 desired effect, and Maria Antoinette was ever 
 afterwards allowed free access at least to one of 
 her apartments, and leave to perform that in
 
 CHAPTER n 57 
 
 private which few individuals except Princesses do 
 with parade and publicity. 
 
 "These things, however, planted the seeds of 
 rancour against Maria Antoinette, which Madame 
 de Noailles carried with her to the grave. It will 
 be seen that she declared against her at a crisis 
 of great importance. The laughable title of 
 Madame Etiquette, which the Dauphiness gave 
 her, clung to her through life ; and, though con- 
 ferred only in merriment, it never was forgiven. 
 
 " The Dauphiness seemed to be under a sort 
 of fatality with regard to all those who had any 
 power of doing her mischief either with her hus- 
 band or the Court. The Duke de Vauguyon, the 
 Dauphin's tutor, who both from principle and 
 interest hated everything Austrian and anything 
 whatever which threatened to lessen his despotic 
 influence so long exercised over the mind of his 
 pupil, which he foresaw would be endangered were 
 the Prince once out of his leading-strings and 
 swayed by a young wife, made use of all the 
 influence which old courtiers can command over 
 the minds they have formed (more generally for 
 their own ends than those of uprightness) to
 
 53 
 
 poison that of the young Prince against his bricle. 
 " Never were there more intrigues among the 
 female slaves in the Seraglio of Constantinople 
 for the Grand Signior's handkerchief than were 
 continually harassing one party against the other 
 at the Court of Versailles. The Dauphiness was 
 even attacked through her own tutor, the Abb6 
 Vermond. A cabal was got up between the 
 Abbe and Madame Marsan, instructress of the 
 sisters of Louis XVI. (the Princesses Clotilda and 
 Elizabeth) upon the subject of education. Nothing 
 grew out of this affair excepting a new stimulus to 
 the party spirit against the Austrian influence, or, 
 in other words, the Austrian Princess ; and such 
 was probably itc purpose. Of course every trifle 
 becomes Court tattle. This was made a mighty 
 business of, for want of a worse. The royal aunts 
 naturally took the part of Madame Marsan. They 
 maintained that their royal nieces, the French 
 Princesses, were much better educated than the 
 German Arch-duchesses had been by the Austrian 
 Empress. They attempted to found their assertion 
 upon the embonpoint of the French Princesses. 
 They said that their nieces, by the exercise of
 
 CHAPTER II 59 
 
 religious principles, obtained the advantage of solid 
 flesh, while the Austrian Arch-duchesses, by wasting 
 themselves in idleness and profane pursuits, grew 
 thin and meagre, and were equally exhausted in their 
 minds and bodies! At this the Abbe" Vermond, 
 as the tutor of Maria Antoinette, felt himself 
 highly offended, and called on Count de Mercy, 
 then the Imperial Ambassador, to apprize him 
 of the insult the Empire had received over the 
 shoulders of the Dauphiness's tutor. The Ambas- 
 sador gravely replied that he should certainly send 
 off a courier immediately to Vienna to inform the 
 Empress that the only fault the French Court 
 could find with Maria Antoinette was her being 
 not so unwieldy as their own Princesses, and 
 bringing charms with her to a bridegroom, on 
 whom even charms so transcendent could make 
 no impression ! Thus the matter was laughed off, 
 but it left, ridiculous as it was, new bitter 
 enemies to the cause 01 the illustrious stranger. 
 " The new favourite, Madame du Barry, 
 whose sway was now supreme, was of course 
 joined by the whole vitiated intriguing Court of 
 Versailles. The King's favourite is always that
 
 60 CHAPTER II 
 
 of his parasites, however degraded. The politics 
 of the Pompadour party were still feared, though 
 Pompadour herself was no more, for Choiseul had 
 friends who were still active in his behalf. The 
 power which had been raised to crush the power 
 that was still struggling, formed a rallying point 
 for those who hated Austria, which the deposed 
 ministry had supported ; and even the King's 
 daughters, much as they abhorred the vulgarity of 
 Du Barry, were led, by dislike for the Dauphiness, 
 to pay their devotions to their father's mistress. 
 The influence of the rising sun, Maria Antoinette, 
 whose beauteous rays of blooming youth warmed 
 every heart in her favour, was feared by the new 
 favourite as well as by the old maidens. Louis XV. 
 had already expressed a sufficient interest for the 
 friendless royal stranger to awaken the jealousy of 
 Du Barry, and she was as little disposed to share 
 the King's affections with another, as his daughters 
 were to welcome a future Queen from Austria in 
 their palace. Mortified at the attachment the King 
 daily evinced, she strained every nerve to raise a 
 party to destroy his predilections. She called to 
 her aid the strength of ridicule, than which no
 
 CHAPTER II 6l 
 
 weapon is more false or deadly. She laughed at 
 qualities she could not comprehend, and under- 
 rated what she could not imitate. The Duke de 
 Richelieu, who had been instrumental to her good 
 fortune, and for whom (remembering the old adage : 
 when one hand washes the other both are made clean), 
 she procured the command of the army this duke, 
 the triumphant general of Mahon and one of the 
 most distinguished noblemen of France, did not 
 blush to become the secret agent of a depraved 
 meretrix in the conspiracy to blacken the character 
 of her victim ! The Princesses, of course, joined the 
 jealous Phryne against their niece, the daughter of 
 the Caesars, whose only faults were those of nature, 
 for at that time she could have no other excepting 
 those personal perfections which were the main 
 source of all their malice. By one considered as 
 an usurper, by the others as an intruder, botl. were 
 in consequence industrious in the quiet work of 
 ruin by whispers and detraction. 
 
 "To an impolitic act of the Dauphiness her- 
 self may be in 'part ascribed the unwonted virulence 
 of the jealousy and resentment of Du Barry. The 
 old dotard, Louis XV., was so indelicate as to have
 
 62 CHAPTER II 
 
 her present at the first supper of the Dauphiness 
 at Versailles. Madame la Mareschale de Beaumond, 
 the Duchess de Choiseul, and the Duchess de 
 Grammont were there also ; but upon the favourite 
 taking her seat at table they expressed themselves 
 very freely to Louis XV. respecting the insult 
 they conceived offered to the young Dauphiness, 
 left the royal party, and never appeared again at 
 Court till after the King's death. In consequence 
 of this scene, Maria Antoinette, at the instigation 
 of the Abbe" Vermond, wrote to her mother, the 
 Empress, complaining of the slight put upon her 
 rank, birth, and dignity, and requesting the Empress 
 would signify her displeasure to the Court of France 
 as she had done to that of Spain on a similar 
 occasion in favour of her sister the Queen of 
 Naples. 
 
 "This letter, which was intercepted, got to 
 the knowledge of the Court and excited some 
 clamour. To say the worst, it could only be looked 
 upon as an ebullition of the folly of youth. But 
 insignificant as such matters were in fact, malignity 
 converted them into the locust, which destroyed 
 the fruit she was sent to cultivate.
 
 CHAPTER II 63 
 
 " Maria Theresa, like the old fox, too true to 
 her system to retract the policy, which formerly 
 laid her open to the criticism of all the civilised 
 Courts of Europe for opening the correspondence 
 with Pompadour, to whose influence she owed her 
 daughter's footing in France a correspondence 
 whereby she degraded the dignity of her sex and 
 the honour of her crown and at the same time 
 suspecting that it was not her daughter, but Ver- 
 mond, from private motives, who complained, wrote 
 the following laconic reply to the remonstrance: 
 
 "'Where the sovereign himself presides, no 
 guest can be exceptionable." 
 
 " Such sentiments are very much in contra- 
 diction with the character of Maria Theresa. She 
 was always solicitous to impress the world with 
 her high notion of moral rectitude. Certainly, 
 such advice, however politic, ought not to have 
 proceeded from a mother so religious as Maria 
 Theresa wished herself to be thought ; especially 
 to a young Princess who, though enthusiastically 
 fond of admiration, at least had discretion to see 
 and feel the impropriety of her being degraded to 
 the level of a female like Du Barry, and, withal,
 
 64 CHAPTER II 
 
 courage to avow it. This, of itself, was quite 
 enough to shake the virtue of Maria Antoinette ; 
 or, at least, Maria Theresa's letter was of a cast 
 to make her callous to the observance of all its 
 scruples. And in that vitiated, depraved Court, 
 she too soon, unfortunately, took the hint of her 
 maternal counsellor in not only tolerating, but 
 imitating, the object she despised. Being one day 
 told that Du Barry was the person who most 
 contributed to amuse Louis XV. * Then,' said 
 she, innocently, ' I declare myself her rival ; for 
 I will try who can best amuse my grandpapa 
 for the future. I will exert all my powers to 
 please and divert him, and then we shall see who 
 can best succeed.' 
 
 " Du Barry was by when this was said, and 
 she never forgave it. To this, and to the letter, 
 her rancour may principally be ascribed. To all 
 those of the Court party who owed their places 
 and preferments to her exclusive influence and 
 who held them subject to her caprice, she, of 
 course, communicated the venom. 
 
 " Meanwhile, the Dauphin saw Maria Antoinette 
 mimicking the monkey tricks with which this low
 
 CHAPTER II 65 
 
 Sultana amused her dotard, without being aware 
 of the cause. He was not pleased ; and this 
 circumstance, coupled with his natural coolness 
 and indifference for an union he had been taught 
 to deem impolitic and dangerous to the interests of 
 France, created in his virtuous mind that sort 
 of disgust which remained so long an enigma to 
 the Court and all the kingdom, excepting his 
 royal aunts, who did the best they could to con- 
 firm it into so decided an aversion as might 
 induce him to impel his grandfather to annul 
 the marriage and send the Dauphiness back 
 to Vienna." 
 
 The execution of this diabolical scheme, with 
 many others of a similar nature, was only pre- 
 vented by the death of Louis XV. They are not 
 treated by the Princess here, but will be found 
 explained by her in their proper place. She 
 seems to feel as if she had already outrun her 
 story, and therefore returns a little upon her steps. 
 The manuscript continues thus : 
 
 "After the Dauphin's marriage, the Count 
 VOL. i 5
 
 66 CHAPTER II 
 
 d'Artois and his brother Monsieur 1 returned from 
 their travels to Versailles. The former was 
 delighted with the young Dauphiness, and, seeing 
 her so decidedly neglected by her husband, endea- 
 voured to console her by a marked attention, 
 but for which she would have been totally 
 isolated, for, excepting the old King, who became 
 more and more enraptured with the grace, beauty, 
 and vivacity of his young grand - daughter, not 
 another individual in the royal family was really 
 interested in her favour. The kindness of a 
 personage so important was of too much weight 
 not to awaken calumny. It was, of course, 
 endeavoured to be turned against her. Possi- 
 bilities, and even probabilities, conspired to give 
 a pretext for the scandal which already began 
 to be whispered about the Dauphiness and 
 d'Artois. It would have been no wonder had a 
 reciprocal attachment arisen between a virgin wife, 
 so long neglected by her husband, and one whose 
 congeniality of character pointed him out as a 
 more desirable partner than the Dauphin. But 
 
 i Afterwards Louis XVIII., and the former the present 
 Charles X.
 
 CHAPTER II 67 
 
 there is abundant evidence of the perfect innocence 
 of their intercourse. Du Barry was most earnest 
 in endeavouring, from first to last, to establish its 
 impurity, because the Dauphiness induced the gay 
 young Prince to join in all her girlish schemes to 
 tease and circumvent the favourite. But when 
 this young Prince and his brother were married 
 to the two Princesses of Piedmont, the intimacy 
 between their brides and the Dauphiness proved 
 there could have been no doubt that Du Barry 
 had invented a calumny, and that no feeling 
 existed but one altogether sisterly. The three 
 stranger Princesses were indeed inseparable ; and 
 these marriages, with that of the French Princess, 
 Clotilda, to the Prince of Piedmont, created con- 
 siderable changes in the coteries of Court. 
 
 " The machinations against Maria Antoinette 
 could not be concealed from the Empress-mother. 
 An extraordinary ambassador was consequently 
 sent from Vienna to complain of them to the 
 Court of Versailles, with directions that the 
 remonstrance should be supported and backed by 
 the Count de Mercy, then Austrian ambassador at 
 
 the Court of France. Louis XV. was the only 
 
 5-2
 
 68 CHAPTER II 
 
 person to whom the communication was news. 
 This old dilettanti of the sex was so much engaged 
 between his seraglio of the Pare aux cerfs and 
 Du Barry, that he knew less of what was passing 
 in his palace than those at Constantinople. On 
 being informed by the Austrian ambassador, he 
 sent an ambassador of his own to Vienna to assure 
 the Empress that he was perfectly satisfied of 
 the innocent conduct of his newly acquired grand- 
 daughter. 
 
 "Among the intrigues within intrigues of the 
 time I mention, there was one which shows that 
 perhaps Du Barry's distrust of the constancy of 
 her paramour, and apprehension from the effect 
 on him of the charms of the Dauphiness, in whom 
 he became daily more interested, were not utterly 
 without foundation. In this instance even her 
 friend the Duke de Richelieu, that notorious 
 seducer, by lending himself to the secret purposes 
 of the King, became a traitor to the cause of the 
 King's favourite, to which he had sworn allegiance, 
 and which he had supported by defaming her whom 
 he now became anxious to make his Queen. 
 
 " It has already been said, that the famous
 
 CHAPTER II 69 
 
 Duchess de Grammont was one of the confidential 
 friends of Louis XV. before he took Du Barry 
 under his especial protection. Oi course, there 
 can be no difficulty in conceiving how likely a 
 person she would be, to aid any purpose of the 
 King, which should displace the favourite, by whom 
 she herself had been obliged to retire, by ties of 
 a higher order, to which she might prove instru- 
 mental. 
 
 " Louis XV. actually flattered himself with the 
 hope of obtaining advantages from the Dauphin's 
 coolness towards the Dauphiness. He encouraged 
 it, and even threw many obstacles in the way of 
 the consummation of the marriage. The apart- 
 ments of the young couple were placed at opposite 
 ends of the palace, so that the Dauphin could not 
 approach that of his Dauphiness without a pub- 
 licity, which his bashfulness could not brook. 
 
 "Louis XV now began to act upon his secret 
 passion to supplant his grandson, and make the 
 Dauphiness his own Queen, by endeavouring to 
 secure her affections to himself. His attentions 
 were backed by gifts of diamonds, pearls, and other 
 valuables, and it was at this period that Boehmer,
 
 70 CHAPTER II 
 
 the jeweller, first received the order for that famous 
 necklace, which subsequently produced such dread- 
 ful consequences, and which was originally meant 
 as a kingly present to the intended Queen ; though 
 afterwards destined for Du Barry, had not the King 
 died before the completion of the bargain for it. 
 
 " The Queen herself one day told me, ' Heaven 
 knows if ever I should have had the blessing of 
 being a mother, had I not one evening surprised 
 the Dauphin, when the subject was adverted to, 
 in the expression of a sort of regret at our being 
 placed so far asunder from each other. Indeed 
 he never honoured me with any proof of his 
 affection so explicit as that you have just witnessed ' 
 for the King had that moment kissed her, as 
 he left the apartment 'from the time of our 
 marriage till the consummation. The most I 
 ever received from him was a squeeze of the 
 hand in secret. His extreme modesty, and 
 perhaps his utter ignorance of the intercourse 
 with woman, dreaded the exposure of crossing 
 the palace to my bed-chamber; and no doubt the 
 accomplishment would have occurred sooner, could 
 it have been effectuated in privacy. The hint he
 
 CHAPTER II 71 
 
 gave emboldened me with courage, when he next 
 left me, as usual, at the door of my apartment, 
 to mention it to the Duchess of Grammont, then 
 the confidential friend of Louis XV., who laughed 
 me almost out of countenance ; saying, in her gay 
 manner of expressing herself, '// I were as young 
 and as beautiful a wife as you are I should cer- 
 tainly not trouble myself to remove the obstacle by 
 going to him while there were others of superior 
 rank ready to supply his place.' Before she 
 quitted me, however, she said : ' Well, child, 
 make yourself easy : you shall no longer be 
 separated from the object of your wishes : I will 
 mention it to the King, your grandpapa, and he 
 will soon order your husband's apartment to be 
 changed for one nearer your own.' And the 
 change shortly afterwards took place. 1 
 
 i The Dauphiness could not understand the first allusion 
 of the Duchess ; but it is evident that the vile intriguer took 
 this opportunity of sounding her upon what she was com- 
 missioned to carry on in favour of Louis XV. and it is 
 equally apparent that when she heard Maria Antoinette 
 express herself decidedly in favour of her young husband, 
 and distinctly saw how utterly groundless were the hopes 
 of his secret rival, she was led thereby to abandon her 
 wicked project ; and perhaps the change of apartments was 
 the best mask that could have been devised to hide the 
 villainy.
 
 72 CHAPTER II 
 
 " ' Here,' continued the Queen, ' I accuse 
 myself of a want of that courage which every 
 virtuous wife ought to exercise in not having 
 complained of the visible neglect shown me long, 
 long before I did ; for this, perhaps, would have 
 spared both of us the many bitter pangs originating 
 in the seeming coldness, whence have arisen all 
 the scandalous stories against my character which 
 have often interrupted the full enjoyment I should 
 have felt, had they not made me tremble for the 
 security of that attachment, of which I had so many 
 proofs, and which formed my only consolation amid 
 all the malice, that for years has been endeavouring 
 to deprive me of it ! So far as regards my hus- 
 band's estimation, thank fate, I have defied their 
 wickedness ! Would to Heaven I could have been 
 equally secure in the estimation of my people 
 the object nearest to my heart, after the King and 
 my dear children ! ' 
 
 " The present period appears to have been 
 one of the happiest of the life of Maria Antoinette. 
 Her intimate society consisted of the King's 
 brothers, and their Princesses, with the King's 
 saint-like sister Elizabeth ; and they lived entirely
 
 CHAPTER II 73 
 
 together, excepting when the Dauphiness dined in 
 public. These ties seemed to be drawn daily 
 closer for some time, till the subsequent intimacy 
 with the Polignacs. Even when the Countess 
 d'Artois lay-in, the Dauphiness, then become 
 Queen, transferred her parties to the apartments 
 of that Princess, rather than lose the gratification 
 of her society. 
 
 " During all this time, however, Du Barry, 
 the Duke d'Aiguillon, and the aunts-Princesses, 
 took special care to keep themselves between her 
 and any tenderness on the part of the husband 
 Dauphin, and, from different motives uniting in 
 one end, tried every means to get the object of 
 their hatred sent back to Vienna."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 JOURNAL CONTINUED MARIA THERESA CARDINAL DE 
 
 ROHAN EMPRESS INDUCED BY HIM TO SEND SPIES 
 TO FRANCE MARIA ANTOINETTE DISLIKES MEDDLING 
 
 WITH POLITICS DEEP GAME OF DE ROHAN SPIES 
 
 SENT TO FRANCE, UNKNOWN TO THE CARDINAL, TO 
 DISCOVER HOW FAR HIS REPRESENTATIONS ARE TO BE 
 TRUSTED SHE FINDS HE HAS DECEIVED HER, AND 
 
 RESENTS IT HE FALLS IN LOVE WITH MARIA 
 
 ANTOINETTE BETRAYS HER TO HER MOTHER INDIG- 
 NATION OF MARIA ANTOINETTE ON THE OCCASION 
 HE SUGGESTS THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA ANTOINETTE'S 
 
 SISTER WITH LOUIS XV. HIS DOUBLE INTRIGUES 
 
 WITH THE TWO COURTS OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA 
 LOUIS XV. DIES ROHAN DISGRACED 
 
 "THE Empress-mother was thoroughly aware 
 of all that was going on. Her anxiety, not only 
 about her daughter, but her State policy, which it 
 may be apprehended was in her mind the stronger 
 motive of the two, encouraged the machinations 
 of an individual who must now appear upon the 
 stage of action, and to whose arts may be ascribed 
 the worst of the sufferings of Maria Antoinette.
 
 CHAPTER III 75 
 
 " I allude to the Cardinal Prince de Rohan. 
 
 
 
 " At this time he was Ambassador at the 
 Court of Vienna. The reliance the Empress placed 
 on him 1 favoured his criminal machinations against 
 her daughter's reputation. He was the cause of 
 her sending spies to watch the conduct of the 
 Dauphiness, besides a list of persons proper for 
 her to cultivate, as well as of those it was deemed 
 desirable for her to exclude from her confidence. 
 
 " As the Empress knew all those who, though 
 high in office in Versailles, secretly received pen- 
 sions from Vienna, she could, of course, tell without 
 much expense of sagacity, who were in the Austrian 
 interest. The Dauphiness was warned that she 
 was surrounded by persons who were not her 
 friends. 
 
 " The conduct of Maria Theresa towards her 
 daughter the Queen of Naples 2 will sufficiently 
 explain how much the Empress must have been 
 
 1 Madame Campan (vol. i. page 42) is very much in the 
 dark on this subject and totally misinformed. The Cardinal 
 de Rohan did not become obnoxious to Maria Theresa till 
 it was discovered that he had abused her confidence and 
 betrayed that of her ministers. Ed. 
 
 2 See page 28.
 
 76 CHAPTER III 
 
 chagrined at the absolute indifference of Maria 
 Antoinette to the State policy, which was in- 
 tended to have been served in sending her to 
 France. A less fitting instrument for the purpose 
 could not have been selected by the mother. 
 Maria Antoinette had much less of the politician 
 about her than either of her surviving sisters ; 
 and so much was she addicted to amusement, 
 that she never even thought of entering into State 
 affairs till forced by the King's neglect of his 
 most essential prerogatives and called upon by the 
 ministers themselves to screen them from responsi- 
 bility. Indeed, the latter cause prevailed upon her 
 to take her seat in the cabinet council (though 
 she took it with great reluctance) long before she 
 was impelled thither by events and her conscious- 
 ness of its necessity. She would often exclaim to 
 me : ' How happy I was during the lifetime of 
 Louis XV. ! No cares to disturb my peaceful 
 slumbers ! No responsibility to agitate my mind ! 
 No fears of erring, of partiality, of injustice to 
 break in upon my enjoyments ! All, all happiness, 
 my dear Princess, vanishes from the bosom of a 
 female if she once deviate from the prescribed
 
 CHAPTER III 77 
 
 domestic character of her sex ! Nothing was ever 
 framed more wise than the Salique Laws, which 
 in France and many parts of Germany exclude 
 females from reigning, for few of us have that 
 masculine capacity so necessary to conduct with 
 impartiality and justice the affairs of State ! ' 
 
 " To this feeling of the impropriety of feminine 
 interference in masculine duties, coupled with her 
 attachment to France, both from principle and 
 feeling, may be ascribed the neglect of her German 
 connexions, which led to the many mortifying re- 
 proaches, and the still more galling espionage to 
 which she was subjected in her own palace by her 
 mother. These are, however, so many proofs of 
 the falsehood of the allegations by which she 
 suffered so deeply afterwards, of having sacrificed 
 the interests of her husband's kingdom to her 
 predilection for her mother's empire. 
 
 " The subtile Rohan designed to turn the 
 anxiety of Maria Theresa about the Dauphiness 
 to account, and he was also aware that the 
 ambition of the Empress was paramount in Maria 
 Theresa's bosom to the love for her child. He 
 was about to play a deep and more than double
 
 78 CHAPTER III 
 
 game. By increasing the mother's jealousy of the 
 daughter, and at the same time enhancing the 
 importance of the advantages afforded by her 
 situation, to forward the interests of the mother, 
 he, no doubt, hoped to get both within his power: 
 for who can tell what wild expectation might not 
 have animated such a mind as Rohan's, at the 
 prospect of governing not only the Court of 
 France but that of Austria ? the Court of France, 
 through a secret influence of his own dictation 
 thrown around the Dauphiness by the mother's 
 alarm ; and that of Austria, through a way he 
 pointed out, in which the object, that was most 
 longed for by the mother's ambition, seemed 
 most likely to be achieved ! While he endeavoured 
 to make Maria Theresa beset her daughter with 
 the spies I have mentioned, and which were 
 generally of his own selection, he at the same 
 time endeavoured to strengthen her impression of 
 how important it was to her schemes to insure 
 the daughter's co-operation. Conscious of the 
 eagerness of Maria Theresa for the recovery of the 
 rich province which Frederick the Great of Prussia 
 had wrested from her ancient dominions, he pressed
 
 CHAPTER III 79 
 
 upon her credulity the assurance, that the in- 
 fluence, of which the Dauphiness was capable, over 
 Louis XV. by the youthful beauty's charms acting 
 upon the dotard's admiration, would readily induce 
 that monarch to give such aid to Austria as must 
 insure the restoration of what it lost. Silesia, it 
 has been before observed, was always a topic by 
 means of which the weak side of Maria Theresa 
 could be attacked with success. There is generally 
 some peculiar frailty in the ambitious, through 
 which the artful can throw them off their guard. 
 The weak and tyrannical Philip II. whenever the 
 recovery of Holland and the Low Countries was 
 proposed to him was always ready to rush head- 
 long into any scheme for its accomplishment ; the 
 bloody Queen Mary, his wife, declared that at her 
 death the loss of Calais would be found engraven 
 on her heart ; and to Maria Theresa, Silesia was 
 the Holland and the Calais for which her wounded 
 pride was thirsting. 1 
 
 i No doubt if ever Ferdinand of Spain can be made 
 to believe he has lost Spanish America, he may exclaim 
 with equal truth, " I feel it in my head, in every fibre of 
 my racked frame it gnaws my unrelenting heart 1 " How- 
 ever ridiculous, it is certainly true, that whenever sovereigns,
 
 8o CHAPTER III 
 
 " But Maria Theresa was wary, even in the 
 midst of the credulity of her ambition. The Baron 
 de Neni was sent by her privately to Versailles to 
 examine, personally, whether there was anything in 
 Maria Antoinette's conduct requiring the extreme 
 vigilance which had been represented as indispens- 
 
 from their folly, ignorance, oppression, or misrule, lose a 
 part of their States their reason generally follows, at least 
 upon that one theme. Such is the principle which at this 
 moment actuates the Turks for the recovery of Greece ! 
 If the Greeks are not Spaniards, and English valour do 
 not degenerate to French poltroonry, the fatalism by which 
 they are guided will soon convince the Turks that they are 
 playing a losing game. The woeful experience of some 
 of the greatest of the European politicians might afford 
 them a useful lesson. How impolitic is the neutrality of 
 my own country upon this interesting subject ! Why is it 
 thus reluctant to assist in tearing off the yoke of an intelli- 
 gent people's barbarous oppressors, who are as uncivilised 
 at this moment as they were centuries ago, when they first 
 took possession of Byzantium ? Ought we not to rejoice 
 in the triumph of those whom God himself commands to 
 propagate human emancipation ? For liberty, like religion, 
 must have its martyrs. Its blood is the stamina of its 
 existence. Its opposers may exile, imprison, burn in effigy, 
 and, in fact, hang and shoot ; but all these violences only 
 strengthen the creed of the survivors, and must end in 
 the ruin of the unholy cause they would fain strengthen. 
 Nations must be free to be prosperous, and Princes liberal 
 to be happy. Liberty is the phoenix that- revives from its 
 ashes ! ED.
 
 CHAPTER III 8l 
 
 able. The report of the Baron de Neni to his 
 royal mistress was such as to convince her she had 
 been misled and her daughter misrepresented by 
 Rohan. The Empress instantly forbade him her 
 presence. 
 
 "The Cardinal upon this, unknown to the 
 Court of Vienna, and indeed, to everyone, except 
 his factotum, principal agent, and secretary, the 
 Abbe" Georgel, left the Austrian capital, and came 
 to Versailles, covering his disgrace by pretended 
 leave of absence. On seeing Maria Antoinette he 
 fell enthusiastically in love with her. To gain her 
 confidence he disclosed the conduct which had 
 been observed towards her by the Empress, and, in 
 confirmation of the correctness of his disclosure, 
 admitted that he had himself chosen the spies, 
 which had been set on her. Indignant at such 
 meanness in her mother, and despising the prelate, 
 who could be base enough to commit a deed equally 
 corrupt and uncalled for, and even thus wantonly 
 betrayed when committed, the Dauphiness suddenly 
 withdrew from his presence, and gave orders that 
 he should never be admitted to any of her parties. 
 
 " But his imagination was too much heated 
 VOL. i 6
 
 82 CHAPTER III 
 
 by a guilty passion of the blackest hue to recede ; 
 and his nature too presumptuous and fertile in 
 expedients to be disconcerted. He soon found 
 means to conciliate both mother and daughter; 
 and both by pretending to manage with the one 
 the self-same plot, which, with the other, he was 
 recommending himself by pretending to overthrow. 
 To elude detection he interrupted the regular 
 correspondence between the Empress and the 
 Dauphiness, and created a coolness by preventing 
 the communications which would have unmasked 
 him, that gave additional security to the success 
 of his deception. 
 
 " By the most diabolical arts he obtained an 
 interview with the Dauphiness, in which he re- 
 gained her confidence. He made her believe that 
 he had been commissioned by her mother, as she 
 had shown so little interest for the house of 
 Austria, to settle a marriage for her sister, the 
 Arch-duchess Elizabeth, with Louis XV. The 
 Dauphiness was deeply affected at the statement. 
 She could not conceal her agitation. She in- 
 voluntarily confessed how much she should deplore 
 such an alliance. The Cardinal instantly perceived
 
 CHAPTER III 83 
 
 his advantage, and was too subtle to let it pass. 
 He declared that as it was to him the negotiation 
 had been confided, if the Dauphiness would keep 
 her own counsel, never communicate their con- 
 versation to the Empress, but leave the whole 
 matter to his management and only assure him 
 that he was forgiven, he would pledge himself to 
 arrange things to her satisfaction. The Dau- 
 phiness, not wishing to see another raised to the 
 throne over her head and to her scorn, under the 
 assurance that no one knew of the intention or 
 could prevent it but the Cardinal, promised him 
 her faith and favour ; and thus rashly fell into 
 the springe of this wily intriguer. 
 
 "Exulting to find Maria Antoinette in his 
 power, the Cardinal left Versailles as privately as 
 he arrived there, for Vienna. His next object was 
 to ensnare the Empress, as he had done her 
 daughter ; and by a singular caprice fortune, during 
 his absence, had been preparing for him the means. 
 
 " The Abb6 Georgel, his secretary, by under- 
 hand manoeuvres, to which he was accustomed, 
 had obtained access to all the secret State corres- 
 pondence, in which the Empress had expressed 
 
 62
 
 84 CHAPTER III 
 
 herself fully to the Count de Mercy relative to the 
 views of Russia and Prussia upon Poland, whereby 
 her own plans were much thwarted. The acquire- 
 ment of copies of these documents naturally gave 
 the Cardinal free access to the Court and a ready 
 introduction once more to the Empress. She was 
 too much committed by his possession of such 
 weapons, not to be most happy to make her 
 peace with him ; and he was too sagacious not to 
 make the best use of his opportunity. To regain 
 her confidence, he betrayed some of the subaltern 
 agents, through whose treachery he had procured 
 his evidences, and, in farther confirmation of his 
 resources, showed the Empress several dispatches 
 from her own ministers to the Courts of Russia 
 and Prussia. He had long, he said, been in 
 possession of similar views of aggrandisement, 
 upon which these Courts were about to act; and 
 had, for a while, even incurred Her Imperial 
 Majesty's displeasure, merely because he was not 
 in a situation fully to explain; but that he had 
 now thought of the means to crush their schemes 
 before they could be put in practice. He apprised 
 her of his being aware that Her Imperial Majesty's
 
 CHAPTER III 85 
 
 ministers were actively carrying on a correspond- 
 ence with Russia, with a view o ioining her in 
 checking the French co-operation with the Grand 
 Signior; and warned her that it this design were 
 secretly pursued, it would defeat the very views 
 she had in sharing in the spoliation of Poland ; 
 and if openly, it would be deemed an avowal of 
 hostilities against the Court of France, whose 
 political system would certainly impel it to resist 
 any attack upon the divan of Constantinople, that 
 the balance of power in Europe might be main- 
 tained against the formidable ambition of Catherine, 
 whose gigantic hopes had been already too much 
 realised. 
 
 " Maria Theresa was no less astonished at 
 these disclosures of the Cardinal than the Dau- 
 phiness had been at his communication concerning 
 her. She plainly saw that all her plans were 
 known, and might be defeated from their detection. 
 
 " The Cardinal, having succeeded in alarming 
 the Empress, took from his pocket a fabulous 
 correspondence, hatched by his secretary, the Abbe 
 Georgel. ' There, madam,' said he, ' this will 
 convince your majesty that the warm interest
 
 86 CHAPTER III 
 
 I have taken in your Imperial house has carried 
 me farther than I was justified in having gone; 
 but seeing the sterility of the Dauphiness, or, as 
 it is reported by some of the Court, the total 
 disgust the Dauphin has to consummate the 
 marriage, the coldness of your daughter towards 
 the interest of your Court, and the prospect of a 
 race from the Countess d'Artois, for the conse- 
 quences of which there is no answering, I have, 
 unknown to your Imperial Majesty, taken upon 
 myself to propose to Louis XV. a marriage with 
 the Arch-duchess Elizabeth, who, on becoming 
 Queen of France, will immediately have it in her 
 power to forward the Austrian interest ; for 
 Louis XV., as the first proof of his affection to his 
 young bride, will at once secure to your Empire 
 the aid you stand so much in need of against the 
 ambition of these two rising states. The recovery 
 of your Imperial Majesty's ancient dominions 
 may then be looked upon as accomplished from 
 the influence of the French cabinet. 
 
 " The bait was swallowed. Maria Theresa 
 was so overjoyed at this scheme that she totally 
 forgot all former animosity against the Cardinal.
 
 CHAPTER III 87 
 
 She was encouraged to ascribe the silence of 
 Maria Antoinette (whose letters had been inter- 
 cepted by the Cardinal himself) to her resentment 
 of this project concerning her sister; and the de- 
 luded Empress, availing herself of the pretended 
 zeal of the Cardinal for the interest of her family, 
 gave him full powers to return to France and 
 secretly negociate the alliance for her daughter 
 Elizabeth, which was by no means to be disclosed 
 to the Dauphiness till the King's proxy should be 
 appointed to perform the ceremony at Vienna. 
 This was all the Cardinal wished for. 
 
 '* Meanwhile, in order to obtain a still greater 
 ascendancy over the Court of France, he had 
 expended immense sums to bribe secretaries 
 and ministers ; and couriers were even stopped 
 to have copies taken of all the correspondence to 
 and from Austria At the same crisis the Empress 
 was informed by Prince Kaunitz that the Cardinal 
 and his suite at the palace of the French 
 ambassador carried on such an immense and 
 barefaced traffic of French manufactures of every 
 description that Maria Theresa thought proper, 
 in order to prevent future abuse, to abolish the
 
 88 CHAPTER III 
 
 privilege which gave to ministers and ambas- 
 sadors an opportunity of defrauding the revenue. 
 Though this law was levelled exclusively at the 
 Cardinal, it was thought convenient under the 
 circumstances to avoid irritating him, and it was 
 consequently made general. But, the Count de 
 Mercy now obtaining some clue to his duplicity, 
 an intimation was given to the Court at Ver- 
 sailles, to which the King replied, ' If the 
 Empress be dissatisfied with the French ambas- 
 sador, he shall be recalled.' But though com- 
 pletely unmasked none dared publicly to accuse 
 him, each party fearing a discovery of its own 
 intrigue. His official recall did not in consequence 
 take place for some time; and the Cardinal, nol 
 thinking it prudent to go back till Louis XV. 
 should be no more, lest some unforseen discovery 
 of his project for supplying her royal paramour 
 with a queen should rouse Du Barry to get his 
 Cardinalship sent to the Bastille for life, remained 
 fixed in his post, waiting for events. 
 
 " At length Louis XV. expired, and the 
 Cardinal returned to Versailles. He contrived 
 to obtain a private audience of the young
 
 CHAPTER III 89 
 
 Queen. He presumed upon her former facility 
 in listening to him, and was about to betray 
 the last confidence of Maria Theresa ; but the 
 Queen, shocked at the knowledge which she had 
 obtained ol his having been equally treacherous 
 to her with her mother, in disgust and alarm 
 left the room without receiving a letter he 
 had brought her from Maria Theresa, and with- 
 out deigning to address a single word to him. 
 In the heat of her passion and resentment, she 
 was nearly exposing all she knew of his infamies 
 to the King, when the cool-headed Princess 
 Elizabeth opposed her, from the seeming impru- 
 dence of such an abrupt discovery ; alleging that 
 it might cause an open rupture between the two 
 Courts, as it had already been the source of a 
 reserve and coolness, which had not yet bzen 
 explained. The Queen was determined never more 
 to commit herself by seeing the Cardinal. She 
 accordingly sent for her mother's letter, which he 
 himseh delivered into the hands of her confidential 
 messenger, who advised the Queen not to betray 
 the Cardinal to the King, lest, in so doing, she 
 should never be able to guard herself against the
 
 go CHAPTER III 
 
 domestic spies, by whom, perhaps, she was even 
 yet surrounded 1 The Cardinal, conceiving, from 
 the impunity of his conduct, that he still held the 
 Queen in check, through the influence of her fears 
 of his disclosing her weakness upon the subject of 
 the obstruction she threw in the way of her 
 sister's marriage, did not resign the hope of con- 
 verting that ascendancy to his future profit. 
 
 " The fatal silence to which Her Majesty 
 was thus unfortunately advised I regret from the 
 bottom of my soul ! All the successive vile plots 
 of the Cardinal against the peace and reputation 
 of the Queen may be attributed to this ill- 
 judged prudence 1 Though it resulted from an 
 honest desire of screening Her Majesty from the 
 resentment or revenge to which she might have 
 subjected herself from this villain, who had already 
 injured her in her own estimation for having been 
 credulous enough to have listened to him, yet 
 from this circumstance it is that the Prince de 
 Rohan built the foundation of all the after frauds 
 and machinations with which he blackened the 
 character and destroyed the comfort of his illus- 
 trious victim. It is obvious that a mere exclusion
 
 CHAPTER III 91 
 
 from Court was too mild a punishment for such 
 offences, and it was but too natural that such a 
 mind as his, driven from the royal presence, and, 
 of course, from all the noble societies to which 
 it led (the anti-Court party excepted), should 
 brood over the means of inveigling the Queen 
 into a consent for his re-appearance before her 
 and the gay world, which was his only element, 
 and if her favour should prove unattainable to 
 revenge himself by her ruin. 
 
 " On the Cardinal's return to France, 1 all his 
 numerous and powerful friends beset the King and 
 Queen to allow of his restoration to his embassy ; 
 but though on his arrival at Versailles, finding the 
 Court had removed to Compeigne, he had a short 
 audience there of the King, all efforts in his favour 
 were thrown away. Equally unsuccessful was 
 every intercession with the Empress-mother. She 
 had become thoroughly awakened to his worthless- 
 ness, and she declared she would never more even 
 receive him in her dominions as a visitor. The 
 Cardinal, being apprised of this by some of his 
 
 i This circumstance is mentioned also by Madame 
 Campan.
 
 g2 CHAPTER II 
 
 intimates, was at last persuaded to give up the 
 idea of further importunity ; and, pocketing his 
 disgrace, retired with his hey dukes and his secre- 
 tary, the Abbe" Georgel, to whom may be attributed 
 all the artful intrigues of his disgraceful diplomacy. 1 
 
 " It is evident that Rohan had no idea, during 
 all his schemes to supplant the Dauphiness by 
 marrying her sister to the King, that the secret 
 hope of Louis XV. had been to divorce the 
 Dauphin and marry the slighted bride himself. 
 Perhaps it is fortunate that Rohan did not know 
 this. A brain so fertile in mischief as his might 
 have converted such a circumstance to baneful 
 uses- But the death of Louis XV. put an end to 
 all the then existing schemes for a change in her 
 position. It was to her a real, though but a 
 momentary triumph. From the hour of her arrival 
 she had a powerful party to cope with ; and the 
 fact of her being an Austrian, independent of 
 the jealousy created by her charms, was, in itself, 
 
 i The Abbe Georgel, in his memoirs, justifies the 
 conduct of his superior with great ability ; and it was very 
 politic in him to do so, because he thereby exonerates 
 himself from the imputation he would naturally incur 
 from having been a known party, if not a principal, in all 
 which has dishonoured the Cardinal.
 
 CHAPTER III 93 
 
 a spell to conjure up armies, against which she 
 stood alone, isolated in the face of embattled 
 myriads ! But she now reared her head, and her 
 foes trembled in her presence. Yet she could not 
 guard against the moles busy in the earth secretly 
 to undermine her. Nay, had not Louis XV. died 
 at the moment he did, there is scarcely a doubt, 
 from the number and the quality of the hostile 
 influences working on the credulity of the young 
 Dauphin, that Maria Antoinette would have been 
 very harshly dealt with ; even the more so from 
 the partiality of the dotard who believed himself 
 to be reigning. But she has been preserved from 
 her enemies to become their sovereign ; and if 
 her crowned brow has erewhile been stung by 
 thorns in its coronal, let me not despair ot their 
 being hereafter smothered in yet unblown roses. 1 
 
 i The vain wish of friendship, that has been cruelly 
 disappointed ! Fortunate would it have been for Maria 
 Antoinette had she been sent back to Vienna! What an 
 ocean of blood, what writhings of human misery, it might 
 have prevented ! Had she been sent back, spotless as the 
 first fallen snow, her life might have passed in that domestic 
 bliss which was her sole ambition, and she would have gone 
 down to the peaceful tombs of her august ancestors, leaving, 
 perhaps, the page of history unstained by some of the greatest 
 of its crimes I
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 JOURNAL CONTINUED ACCESSION OF LOUIS XVI. AND 
 
 MARIA ANTOINETTE HAPPY BEGINNING PUBLIC JOY 
 
 THE NEW KING MORE AFFECTIONATE TO HIS QUEEN 
 
 DU BARRY AND PARTY NO LONGER RECEIVED AT 
 
 COURT UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT OF THE QUEEN TO 
 RESTORE CHOISEUL TO THE MINISTRY INSINUATIONS 
 AGAINST THE QUEEN VERMOND AND THE KING THE 
 QUEEN'S MODESTY RESPECTING HER TOILETTE 
 MADEMOISELLE BERTIN, THE MILLINER, INTRODUCED 
 ANECDOTE OF THE ROYAL HAIRDRESSER FALSE CHARGE 
 OF EXTRAVAGANCE AGAINST THE QUEEN REMARKS OF 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 " THE accession of Louis XVI. and Maria 
 Antoinette to the crown of France took place (May 
 10, 1774) under the most propitious auspices ! 
 
 "After the long, corrupt reign of an old de- 
 bauched Prince, whose vices were degrading to 
 himself and to a nation groaning under the lash 
 of prostitution and caprice, the most cheering 
 changes were expected from the known exem- 
 plariness of his successor and the amiableness of 
 his consort. Both were looked up to as models
 
 CHAPTER IV 95 
 
 of goodness. The virtues of Louis XVI. were so 
 generally known that all France hastened to ac- 
 knowledge them, while the Queen's fascinations 
 acted like a charm on all who had not been in- 
 vincibly prejudiced against the many excellent 
 qualities which entitled her to love and admiration. 
 Indeed, I never heard an insinuation against either 
 the King or Queen but from those depraved minds 
 which never possessed virtue enough to imitate 
 theirs, or were jealous of the wonderful powers of 
 pleasing that so eminently distinguished Maria 
 Antoinette from the rest of her sex. 
 
 " On the death of Louis XV. the entire Court 
 removed from Versailles to the palace of La Muette, 
 situate in the Bois de Boulogne, very near Paris. 
 The confluence of Parisians, who came in crowds 
 joyfully to hail the death of the old vitiated 
 Sovereign, and the accession of his adored suc- 
 cessors, became quite annoying to the whole royal 
 family. The enthusiasm with which the Parisians 
 hailed their young King, and in particular his 
 amiable young partner, lasted for many days. 
 These spontaneous evidences of attachment were 
 regarded as prognostics of a long reign of happi-
 
 96 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ness. If any inference can be drawn from public 
 opinion, could there be a stronger assurance than 
 this one of uninterrupted future tranquillity to its 
 objects ? 
 
 " To the Queen herself it was a double triumph. 
 The conspirators, whose depravity had been labour- 
 ing to make her their victim, departed from the 
 scene of power. The husband, who for four years 
 had been callous to her attractions, became 
 awakened to them. A complete change in the 
 domestic system of the palace was wrought sud- 
 denly. The young King, during the interval which 
 elapsed between the death and the interment of his 
 grandfather, from Court etiquette was confined to 
 his apartments. The youthful couple therefore saw 
 each other with less restraint. The marriage was 
 consummated. Maria Antoinette from this moment 
 may date that influence over the heart (would I 
 might add over the head and policy ! ) of the King, 
 which never slackened during the remainder of 
 their lives. 
 
 " Madame Du Barry was much better dealt 
 with by the young King, whom she had always 
 treated with the greatest levity, than she, or her
 
 96 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ness. If any inference can be drawn from public 
 ild there be a stronger as.- ihan 
 
 : of uninterrupted future ti its 
 
 objects ? 
 
 " To the Queen herself it was a double triumph. 
 The conspirators, whose de;^ Deen labour- 
 
 ing to make her their vict^ji, departed from the 
 scene of power. The husluijatl, who for four years 
 had been callous to Mg attractions, became 
 
 awakened to them. A / = >h^plete in the 
 
 2^ 
 
 dom te;n of the . >3 L- sud- 
 
 y. The young Kins, , & ' the interval v 
 
 sed between the deni ofl^d '.be interment 01 
 
 & ^ 
 'her, from Court-etr?Juette was 1 to 
 
 .ipartments. Tl:- \ <$( hjjil couple ti 
 
 " 
 
 . other with less resfi?ai^t. The marriage was 
 :iated. Maria Antoyjette from this moment 
 
 s 
 
 may date that influence oyBr the heart (would I 
 
 pJ 
 Jd over the & policy 1) of the King, 
 
 r slackened during the remainder of 
 lives. 
 
 ladame Du Barry was much better dealt 
 with by the young King, whom she had always 
 treated with the greatest levity, than she, or her
 
 CHAPTER IV 97 
 
 numerous courtiers, expected. She was allowed 
 her pension, and the entire enjoyment of all her 
 ill-gotten and accumulated wealth : but, of course, 
 excluded from ever appearing at Court, and politi- 
 cally exile i from Paris to the Chateau aux Dames. 
 
 " This implacable foe and her infamous coad- 
 jutors being removed from farther interference in 
 matters of state by the expulsion of all their own 
 ministers, their rivals, the Duke de Choiseul and 
 his party, by whom Maria Antoinette had been 
 brought to France, were now in high expectation 
 of finding the direction of the Government, by 
 the Queen's influence, restored to that nobleman. 
 But the King's choice was already made. He 
 had been ruled by his aunts, and appointed the 
 ministers suggested by them and his late grand- 
 father's friends, who feared the preponderance 
 of the Austrian influence. The three ladies, 
 Madame la Mare"chale de Beauveau, the Duchess 
 de Choiseul, and the Duchess de Grammont, 
 who were all well-known to Louis XVI. and 
 stood high in his opinion for many excellent 
 qualities, and especially for their independent 
 
 assertion of their own and the Dauphiness's 
 VOL. i 7
 
 98 CHAPTER IV 
 
 dignity by retiring from Court in consequence of 
 the supper at which Du Barry was introduced, 
 these ladies, though received on their return 
 thither with peculiar welcome, in vain united 
 their efforts with those of the Queen and the 
 Abbe" Vermond, to overcome the prejudice which 
 opposed Choiseul's re-instatement. It was all in 
 vain. The royal aunts, Adelaide especially, hated 
 Choiseul for the sake of Austria, and his agency 
 in bringing Maria Antoinette to France; and so 
 did the King's tutor and governor, the Duke de 
 Vauguyon, who had ever been hostile to any sort of 
 friendship with Vienna ; and these formed a host 
 impenetrable even to the influence of the Queen, 
 which was opposed by all the leaders of the 
 prevailing party, who, though they were beginning 
 externally to court, admire, and idolize her, secretly 
 surrounded her by tfieir noxious and viperous 
 intrigues, and, while they lived in her bosom, 
 fattened on the destruction of her fame ! 
 
 " One of the earliest of the paltry insinua- 
 tions against Maria Antoinette emanated from her 
 not counterfeiting deep affliction at the decease of 
 the old King. A few days after that event, the
 
 CHAPTER IV 99 
 
 Court received the regular visits of condolence 
 and congratulation of the nobility, whose duty 
 prescribes their attendance upon such occasions; 
 and some of them, among whom were the 
 daughters of Louis XV., not finding a young 
 Queen of nineteen hypocritically bathed in tears, 
 on returning to their abodes declared her the 
 most indecorous of Princesses, and diffused a 
 strong impression of her want of feeling. At 
 the head of these detractors were Mesdames de 
 . Gue'me'ne'e and Marsan, rival pretenders to the 
 favours of the Cardinal de Rohan, who, having 
 by the death of Louis XV. lost their influence 
 and their unlimited power to appoint and dismiss 
 ministers, themselves became ministers to their 
 own evil geniuses, in calumniating her whose 
 legitimate elevation annihilated their monstrous 
 pretensions ! 
 
 " The Abbe" Vermond, seeing the defeat of 
 the party of the Duke de Choiseul, by whom he 
 had been sent to the Court of Vienna on the 
 recommendation of Brienne, began to tremble 
 for his own security. As soon as the Court had 
 
 arrived at Choisy and he was assured of the 
 
 72
 
 IOO CHAPTER IV 
 
 marriage having been consummated, he obtained, 
 with the Queen's consent, an audience of the 
 King, for the purpose of soliciting his sanction 
 to his continuing in his situation. On submitting 
 his suit to the King, His Majesty merely gave a 
 shrug of the shoulders and turned to converse 
 with the Duke d'Aiguillon, who at that moment 
 entered the room. The Abbe stood stupefied, and 
 the Queen, seeing the crestfallen humour of her 
 tutor, laughed and cheered him by remarking, 
 ' There is more meaning in the shrug of a King 
 than in the embrace of a minister. The one 
 always promises, but is seldom sincere; the other 
 is generally sincere, but never promises.' The 
 Abbe, not knowing how to interpret the dumb 
 answer, finding the King's back turned and his 
 conversation with d'Aiguillon continuing, was 
 retiring with a shrug of his own shoulders to 
 the Queen, when she exclaimed good-humouredly 
 to Louis, laughing and pointing to the Abbe, 
 ' Look ! look 1 see how readily a Church dignitary 
 can imitate the good Christian King, who is at 
 the head of the Church.' The King, seeing the 
 Abb6 still waiting, said dryly, ' Sir, you are con-
 
 CHAPTER IV 101 
 
 firmed in your situation,' and then resumed his 
 conversation with the Duke. 
 
 "This anecdote is a sufficient proof that 
 Louis XVI. had no prepossession in favour of 
 the Abbe Vermond, and that it was merely not 
 to wound the feelings of the Queen that he was 
 tolerated. The Queen herself was conscious of 
 this, and used frequently to say to me how much 
 she was indebted to the King, for such deference 
 to her private choice, in allowing Vermond to be 
 her secretary, as she did not remember the King's 
 ever having held any communication with the 
 Abbe" during the whole time he was attached to 
 the service, though the Abbe always expressed 
 himself with the greatest respect towards the 
 King. 
 
 "The decorum of Maria Antoinette would not 
 allow her to endure those public exhibitions of 
 the ceremony of dressing herself which had been 
 customary at Court. This reserve was highly 
 approved by His Majesty; and one of the first 
 reforms she introduced, after the accession, was 
 in the internal discipline of her own apartment. 
 
 " It was during one of the visits, apart from
 
 102 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Court etiquette, to the toilet of the Queen, that 
 the Duchess de Chartres, afterwards Duchess 
 of Orleans, introduced the famous Mademoiselle 
 Bertin, who afterwards became so celebrated as 
 the Queen's milliner ; the first that was ever 
 allowed to approach a royal palace ; and it was 
 months before Maria Antoinette had courage to 
 receive her milliner in any other than the private 
 apartment, which, by the alteration Her Majesty 
 had made in the arrangements of the household, 
 she set apart for the purposes of dressing in com- 
 fort by herself and free from all intruders. 
 
 "Till then the Queen was not only very plain 
 in her attire, but very economical ; a circumstance 
 which, I have often heard her say, gave great 
 umbrage to the other Princesses of the Court of 
 Versailles, who never showed themselves, from the 
 moment they rose till they returned to bed, except 
 in full dress ; while she herself made all her 
 morning visits in a simple white cambric gown 
 and straw hat. This simplicity, unfortunately, 
 like many other trifles, whose consequences no 
 foresight would have predicted, tended much to 
 injure Maria Antoinette, not only with the Court
 
 CHAPTER IV 103 
 
 dandies, but the nation ; by whom, though she 
 was always censured, she was as suddenly imitated 
 in all she wore, or did. 
 
 " From the private closet, which Maria 
 Antoinette reserved to herself, and had now 
 opened to her milliner, she would return, after 
 the great points of habiliment were accomplished, 
 to those who were waiting with memorials at her 
 public toilet, where the hairdresser would finish 
 putting the ornaments in Her Majesty's hair. 1 
 
 I The Count de Fersan relates a curious anecdote of an 
 occurrence which caused a great deal of mirth among the 
 visitors of Her Majesty's toilet rendezvous. Mademoiselle 
 Bertin had invented a new head ornament of gauze, ribbons, 
 flowers, beads, and feathers, for the Queen ; but the tire- 
 woman, finding it deficient in the dimensions Her Majesty 
 had ordered, by some folds, directed the gauze architect, 
 Mademoiselle Bertin, to alter it so as to conform thoroughly 
 to the model. This was executed ; and Maria Antoinette 
 went to her morning visitors. The royal hairdresser, accord- 
 ing to custom, was in attendance there, with an embellish- 
 ment, of which she did not perceive the use. "What are 
 these steps for ? " exclaimed she to the tire-woman. The 
 knight of the comb advanced, and, making a most profound 
 reverence, humbly represented to Her Majesty that, Made- 
 moiselle Bertin having so enormously increased the height 
 of the head ornaments, it would be impossible for him to 
 establish them upon a firm foundation, unless he could have 
 a complete command of the head they were to be fixed on
 
 104 CHAPTER IV 
 
 " The King made Maria Antoinette a present 
 of Le Petit Trianon. Much has been said of the 
 extravagant expense lavished by her upon this 
 spot. I can only declare that the greater part of 
 the articles of furniture which had not been worn 
 out by time or were not worm or moth-eaten, and 
 her own bed among them, were taken from the 
 apartments of former Queens, and some of them 
 had actually belonged to Anne of Austria, who, 
 like Maria Antoinette, had purchased them out 
 of her private savings. Hence it is clear that 
 neither oi the two Queens were chargeable to the 
 State even for those little indulgences, which 
 every private lady of property is permitted from 
 her husband, without coming under the lash of 
 censure. 
 
 and, being but of the middle size and Her Majesty very tall, 
 he could not achieve the duty of his office without mounting 
 three or four steps, which he did, to the great amusement ot 
 the Queen and the whole party, and thus placed the ne plus 
 ultra of Mademoiselle Bertin's invention, to the best of his 
 own judgment, on the pinnacle ot the royal head ! As 
 Hamlet says of Yorick " Alas ! where be your flashes of 
 merriment now ? " Who would have dared, at that toilet, 
 and among those smiles, to have prognosticated the cruel 
 fate of the head which then attracted such general 
 admiration !
 
 CHAPTER IV 105 
 
 " Her allowance as Queen of France was no 
 more than 300,000 francs (12,250). It is well 
 known that she was generous, liberal, and very 
 charitable ; that she paid all her expenses regularly, 
 respecting her household, Trianon, her dresses, 
 diamonds, millinery, and everything else ; her 
 Court establishment excepted, and some few 
 articles, which were paid by the civil list. She 
 was one of the first Queens in Europe, had the 
 first establishment in Europe, and was obliged to 
 keep up the most refined and luxurious Court in 
 Europe ; and all upon means no greater than 
 had been assigned to many of the former bigotted 
 Queens, who led a cloistered life, retired from the 
 world without circulating their wealth among 
 the nation which supplied them with so large a 
 revenue; and yet who lived and died uncensured 
 for hoarding from the nation what ought at least 
 to have been in part expended for its advantage. 1 
 
 i The Queens of England, who never had occasion to 
 keep a Court like that of France, besides the revenue allowed 
 them, it is said, and with some authority, have sinecures, 
 resulting merely from the insertion of their names in the 
 liturgy 01 eighty thousand pounds a year; and it is farther 
 added, that Madame Schwallemberg was of no little service
 
 IO6 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "And yet of all the extra expenditure which 
 the dignity and circumstances of Maria Antoinette 
 exacted, not a franc came from the public treasury ; 
 but everything out of her majesty's private purse 
 and savings from the above three hundred 
 thousand francs, which was an infinitely less sum 
 than Louis XIV. had lavished yearly on the 
 Duchess de Montespan, and less than half what 
 Louis XV. had expended on the two last favourites, 
 Pompadour and Du Barry. These two women, as 
 clearly appeared from the private registers, found 
 among the papers of Louis XV. after his death, 
 by Louis XVI. (but which, out of respect for the 
 
 to herself and others, in exercising the brokership of these 
 ecclesiastical benefices. 
 
 Now, then, for all this outcry against the extravagance 
 of the Court of France, levelled in particular against Maria 
 Antoinette, for having lavished the national wealth, upon 
 which pretext her life was made a scene of suffering, and her 
 death a martyrdom ! Let me take a momentary retrospect 
 of the modest expenses of her murderers, the scrupulous 
 sans culottes, who succeeded the Court of Louis XVI. and 
 committed all their horrors in the name of national 
 economy; for here is the record taken from the public 
 register of the 500 tyrants, mountebank ragamuffins, over- 
 throwers of thrones, king-killers, and sworn enemies of 
 royalty, slaves to the five buffoons of leaders, whose only 
 virtue was that of wearing a filthy shirt a month, and then
 
 CHAPTER IV 107 
 
 memory of his grandfather, he destroyed), these 
 two women had amassed more property in dia- 
 monds and other valuables than all the Queens of 
 France from the days of Catherine de Medicis up 
 to those of Maria Antoinette. 1 
 
 turning it for the comfort and enjoyment of clean linen next 
 their polluted bodies! 
 
 MINISTERIAL PUBLIC EXPENSES. 
 30 millions of francs au ministre de la justice. 
 
 goo & celui de 1'interieur. 
 
 200 ,, celui des finances. 
 
 1200 & celui de la guerre. 
 
 50 & celui des relations exterieures. 
 
 600 celui de la marine. 
 
 Nearly three thousand millions, or three milliards, besides two 
 millions of secret service money in that particular year, which 
 sometimes, according to the quantity and quality of their 
 spies, exceeded this sum, but which never was less during this 
 anarchial government of miscreants. I have appended this 
 trifling account, merely to give the reader an idea of what 
 naturally became the farther expenses with which the nation 
 was afterwards overburthened to support these regicide sans 
 culottes, when, in the short time which elapsed between the 
 plundering bloody government of Robespierre and the return 
 to a taste for culottes, no less a sum than 20 louis was expended 
 on the mere embroidery of the flaps of one pair for the 
 public service! 
 
 i The pensions and private landed property which Du 
 Barry was allowed to enjoy unmolested till the fatal period 
 of the Revolution ; besides that of her predecessor ; being 
 divided at her death among different branches of her nearest 
 relations, has continued ever since their legitimate inheritance.
 
 IO8 CHAPTER IV 
 
 " Such was the goodness of heart of the 
 excellent Queen of Louis XVI., such the bene- 
 volence of her character, that not only did she 
 pay all the pensions of the invalids left by her 
 predecessors, but she distributed in public and 
 private charities greater sums than any of the 
 former Queens, thus increasing her expenses with- 
 out any proportionate augmentation of her re- 
 sources. 1 
 
 I Indeed, could Louis XVI. have foreseen when, in 
 order not to expose the character of his predecessor and to 
 honour the dignity of the throne and monarchy of France, 
 he destroyed the papers of his grandfather what an arm of 
 strength he would have possessed in preserving them, against 
 the accusers of his unfortunate Queen and himself, he never 
 could have thrown away such means of establishing a most 
 honourable contrast between his own and former reigns. His 
 career exhibits no superfluous expenditure. Its economy 
 was most rigid. No sovereign was ever more scrupulous 
 with the public money. He never had any public or private 
 predilection ; no dilapidated minister for a favourite ; no 
 courtezan intrigue. For gaming he had no fondness ; and, if 
 his abilities were not splendid, he certainly had no pre- 
 dominating vices.
 
 CHAPTER IV ICQ 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 I must once more quit the journal of the Princess. 
 Her highness here ceases to record particulars of the 
 early part of the reign of Louis XVI. and everything 
 essential upon those times is too well known to render 
 it desirable to detain the reader by an attempt to supply 
 the deficiency. It is enough to state that the secret 
 unhappiness of the Queen at not yet having the assur- 
 ance of an heir was by no means weakened by the 
 impatience of the people, nor by the accouchement 
 of the Countess d'Artois of the Duke d'Angouleme. 
 While the Queen continued the intimacy, and even 
 held her parties at the apartments of the Duchess 
 that she might watch over her friend, even in this 
 triumph over herself the poissardes grossly insulted her 
 in her misfortune, and coarsely called on her to give 
 heirs to the throne! 
 
 A consolation, however, for the unkind feeling of 
 the populace was about to arise in the delights of one 
 of her strongest friendships. I am come to the epoch 
 when Her Majesty first formed an acquaintance with 
 the Princess Lamballe. 
 
 After a few words of my own on the family of her 
 highness, I shall leave her to pursue her beautiful
 
 HO CHAPTER IV 
 
 and artless narrative of her parentage, early sorrows, 
 and introduction to Her Majesty, unbroken. 
 
 The journal of the history of Maria Antoinette, 
 after this slight interruption for the private history 
 of her friend, will become blended with the journal 
 of the Princess Lamballe, and both thenceforward 
 proceed in their course together, like their destinies, 
 which from that moment never became disunited.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 NOTES OF THE EDITOR FAMILY QF THE PRINCESS LAM- 
 
 BALLE JOURNAL RESUMED HER OWN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 HERSELF DUKE AND DUCHESS DE PENTHIEVRE 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE PENTHIEVRE AND PRINCE LAM- 
 BALLE KING OF SARDINIA INGENIOUS AND ROMANTIC 
 ANECDOTES OF THE PRINCESS LAMBALLE*S MARRIAGE 
 THE DUKE DE CHARTRES, AFTERWARDS ORLEANS, 
 MARRIES MADEMOISELLE DE PENTHIEVRE DE CHAR- 
 TRES MAKES APPROACHES TO THE PRINCESS LAMBALLE 
 BEING SCORNED, CORRUPTS HER HUSBAND PRINCE 
 
 LAMBALLE DIES SLEDGE PARTIES THE PRINCESS 
 
 BECOMES ACQUAINTED WITH THE QUEEN IS MADE 
 HER MAJESTY'S SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 MARIA THERESA LOUISA CARIGNAN, Princess 
 of Savoy, was born at Turin on the 8th Septem- 
 ber, 1749. 
 
 She had three sisters : two of them were 
 married at Rome, one to the Prince Doria Pamfili, 
 the other to the Prince Colonna; and the third, at 
 Vienna, to the Prince Lobkowitz, whose son was 
 the great patron of the immortal Haydn, 1 the 
 
 l The celebrated Haydn was, even at the age of 74, when 
 I last saw him at Vienna, still the most good-humoured ban
 
 112 CHAPTER V 
 
 celebrated composer. She had a brother also, the 
 Prince Carignan, who, marrying against the 
 consent of his family, was no longer received by 
 them ; but the unremitting and affectionate 
 attention which the Princess Lamballe paid to 
 him and his new connections was an ample com- 
 
 vivant of his age. He delighted in telling the origin of his 
 good fortune, which he said he entirely owed to a bad wife 1 
 
 When he was first married, he said, finding no remedy 
 against domestic squabbles, he used to quit his bad hah and 
 go and enjoy himself with his good friends, who were Hun- 
 garians and Germans, for weeks together. Once, having 
 returned home after a considerable absence, his wife, while 
 he was in bed next morning, followed her husband's example : 
 she did even more, for she took all his clothes, even to his 
 shoes, stockings, and small clothes, nay, everything he had, 
 along with her I Thus situated, he was under the necessity 
 of doing something to cover his nakedness ; and this, he 
 himself acknowledged, was the first cause of his seriously 
 applying himself to the profession which has since made his 
 name immortal. 
 
 He used to laugh, saying, " I was from that time so 
 habituated to study that my wife, often fearing it would 
 injure me, would threaten me with the same operation 
 if I did not go out and amuse myself; but then," added he, 
 " I was grown old, and she was sick and no longer jealous." 
 He spoke remarkably good Italian, though he had never been 
 in Italy, and on my going to Vienna to hear his " Creation," 
 he promised to accompany me back to Italy ; but he unfor- 
 tunately died before I returned to Vienna from Carlsbad.
 
 CHAPTER V 113 
 
 pensation for the loss he sustained in the severity 
 of his other sisters. 1 
 
 With regard to the early life of the Princess 
 Lamballe, the arranger of these pages must now 
 leave her to pursue her own beautiful and artless 
 narrative unbroken, up to the epoch of her 
 appointment to the household of the Queen. It 
 will be recollected that the papers of which the 
 reception has been already described in the 
 introduction formed the private journal of this 
 most amiable princess ; and those passages 
 relating to her own early life being the most 
 connected part of them, it has been thought that 
 to disturb them would be a kind of sacrilege. 
 After the appointment of her highness to the 
 superintendence of th Queen's household, her 
 manuscripts again become confused, and fall into 
 scraps and fragments, which will require to be 
 once more rendered clear by the recollections of 
 
 i If I mistake not, the present Prince Carignan, famous 
 in the late history of Piedmont, is a son of that marriage, 
 the same who is now distinguished by the title of "Prince 
 of the Epaulets of a French soldier of the Trocadero." 
 
 The Prince Carignan I speak of has been united to the 
 daughter of the late Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is now 
 the only male heir to the crown of Sardinia, Piedmont, 
 Savoy, &c. 
 
 VO!. I. 8
 
 114 CHAPTER V 
 
 events and conversations by which the preceding 
 chapters have been assisted. 
 
 "I was the favourite child of a numerous 
 family, and intended, almost at my birth as is 
 generally the case among princes who are nearly 
 allied to crowned heads to be united to one of 
 the Princes, my near relation, of the royal house 
 of Sardinia. 
 
 " A few years after this, the Duke and Duchess 
 de Penthievre arrived at Turin, on their way to 
 Italy, for the purpose of visiting the different 
 Courts, to make suitable marriage contracts for 
 both their infant children. 
 
 "These two children were Mademoiselle de 
 Penthievre, afterwards the unhappy Duchess of 
 Orleans, and their idolized son, the Prince Lam- 
 balle. 1 
 
 " Happy would it have been both for the 
 Prince who was destined to the former and 
 
 I The father of Louis Alexander Joseph Stanislaus de 
 Bourbon Penthievre, Prince Lamballe, was the son of the 
 Count de Toulouse, himself a natural son of Louis XIV. 
 and Madame de Montespan, who was considered as the 
 most wealthy of all the natural children, in consequence 
 of Madame de Montespan having artfully entrapped the 
 famous Mademoiselle de Montpensier to make over her 
 immense fortune to him as her heir after her death, as the
 
 CHAPTER V 115 
 
 the Princess who was given to the latter, had 
 these unfortunate alliances never taken place. 
 
 " The Duke and Duchess de Penthievre became 
 so singularly attached to my beloved parents, and, 
 in particular, to myself, that the very day they 
 first dined at the Court of Turin, they mentioned 
 the wish they had formed, of uniting me to their 
 young son, the Prince Lamballe. 
 
 " The King of Sardinia, as the head of the 
 house of Savoy and Carignan, said there had been 
 some conversation as to my becoming a member 
 of his royal family ; but, as I was so very young 
 at the time, many political reasons might arise 
 to create motives for a change in the projected 
 alliance. ' If, therefore, the Prince Carignan,' 
 said the King, ' be anxious to settle his daughter's 
 marriage, by any immediate matrimonial alliance, 
 I certainly shall not avail myself of any prior 
 engagement, nor oppose any obstacle in the way 
 of its solemnization.' 
 
 price of liberating her husband from imprisonment in the 
 Bastille, and herself from a ruinous prosecution, for having 
 contracted this marriage contrary to the express commands 
 of her royal cousin, Louis XIV. Vide Histoire de Louis XIV. 
 Par Voltaire. 
 
 82
 
 Il6 CHAPTER V 
 
 " The consent of the King being thus unex- 
 pectedly obtained by the Prince, so desirable did 
 the arrangement seem to the Duke and Duchess 
 that the next day the contract was concluded 
 with my parents for my becoming the wife of 
 their only son, the Prince Lamballe. 
 
 " I was too young to be consulted. Perhaps, 
 had I been older the result would have been the 
 same, for it generally happens in these great 
 family alliances that the parties most interested, 
 and whose happiness is most concerned, are the 
 least thought of. The Prince was, I believe, at 
 Paris, under the tuition of his governess,, and I 
 was in the nursery, heedless, and totally ignorant 
 of my future good or evil destination ! 
 
 " So truly happy and domestic a life as that 
 led by the Duke and Duchess de Penthievre 
 seemed to my family to offer an example too pro- 
 pitious not to secure to me a degree of felicity 
 with a private prince, very rarely the result of 
 royal unions 1 of course, their consent was given 
 with alacrity. When I was called upon to do 
 homage to my future parents, I had so little idea, 
 from my extreme youthfulness, of what was going
 
 CHAPTER V 117 
 
 on that 1 set them all laughing, when, on being 
 asked if I should like to become the consort of the 
 Prince Lamballe, I said, ' Yes, I am very fond 
 of music ! ' ' No, my dear,' resumed the good 
 and tender-hearted Duke de Penthievre, ' I mean, 
 would you have any objection to become his 
 wife?' 'No, nor any other person's!' was the 
 innocent reply, which increased the mirth of all 
 the guests at my expense. 
 
 " Happy, happy days of youthful, thoughtless 
 innocence, luxuriously felt and appreciated under 
 the thatched root of the cottage, but unknown 
 and unattainable beneath the massive pile of a 
 royal palace and a gemmed crown ! Scarcely 
 had I entered my teens when my adopted parents 
 strewed flowers 01 the sweetest fragrance to lead 
 me to the sacred altar, that promised the bliss 
 of blisses, but which, too soon, from the foul 
 machinations of envy, jealousy, avarice, and a 
 still more criminal passion, proved to me the altar 
 of my sacrifice! 
 
 " My misery and my uninterrupted grief may 
 be dated from the day my beloved sister-in-law, 
 Mademoiselle de Penthievre, sullied her hand by its
 
 Il8 CHAPTER V 
 
 union with the Duke de Chartres. 1 From that 
 moment all comfort, all prospect of connubial 
 happiness, left my young and affectionate heart, 
 plucked thence by the very roots, never more 
 again to bloom there. Religion and philosophy 
 were the only remedies remaining. 
 
 " I was a bride when an infant, a wife before 
 I was a woman, a widow before I was a mother, 
 or had the prospect of becoming one ! Our 
 union was, perhaps, an exception to the general 
 rule. We became insensibly the more attached 
 to each other the more we were acquainted, 
 which rendered the more severe the separation, 
 when we were torn asunder never to meet again 
 in this world ! 
 
 " After I left Turin, though everything for my 
 reception at the palaces of Toulouse and Ram- 
 bouillet had been prepared in the most sumptuous 
 style of magnificence, yet such was my agitation 
 that I remained convulsively speechless for many 
 hours, and all the affectionate attention of the 
 
 i Afterwards Duke of Orleans, and the celebrated 
 revolutionary Philip
 
 CHAPTER V 119 
 
 family of the Duke de Penthievre could not calm 
 my feelings. 
 
 "Among those who came about me was the 
 bridegroom himself, whom I had never yet seen. 
 So anxious was he to have his first acquaintance 
 incognito that he set off from Paris the moment he 
 was apprised of my arrival in France and presented 
 himself as the Prince's page. As he had outgrown 
 the figure of his portrait I received him as such ; 
 but the Prince, being better pleased with me than 
 he had apprehended he should be, could scarcely 
 avoid discovering himself. During our journey to 
 Paris I myself disclosed the interest with which 
 the supposed page had inspired me. ' I hope,' 
 exclaimed I, ' my prince will allow his page to 
 attend me, for I like him much.' 
 
 " What was my surprise when the Duke de 
 Penthievre presented me to the Prince and I found 
 in him the page for whom I had already felt such 
 an interest 1 We both laughed and wanted words 
 to express our mutual sentiments. This was really 
 love at first sight. 1 
 
 i The young Prince was enraptured at finding his lovely 
 bride so superior in personal charms to the description which
 
 120 CHAPTER V 
 
 " The Duke de Chartres, then possessing a 
 very handsome person and most insinuating ad- 
 dress, soon gained the affections of the amiable 
 Mademoiselle Penthievre. Becoming thus a mem- 
 ber of the same family, he paid me the most 
 assiduous attention. From my being his sister-in- 
 law, and knowing he was aware of my great 
 attachment to his young wife, I could have no 
 idea that his views were criminally levelled at my 
 honour, my happiness, and my future peace of 
 
 had been given of her, and even to the portrait sent to him 
 from Turin. Indeed, she must have been a most beautiful 
 creature, for when I left her in the year 1792, though then 
 five-and-forty years of age, from the freshness of her com- 
 plexion, the elegance of her figure, and the dignity of her 
 deportment, she certainly did not appear to be more than 
 thirty. She had a fine head of hair, and she took great 
 pleasure in showing it unornamented. I remember one day, 
 on her coming hastily from the bath, as she was putting on 
 her dress, her cap falling off, her hair completely covered her 1 
 The circumstances of her death always make me shudder 
 at the recollection of this incident ! I have been assured by 
 Mesdames Mackau, de Soucle, the Countess de Noailles (not 
 Duchess, as Mademoiselle Bertin has created her in her 
 Memoirs of that name), and others, that the Princess 
 Lamballe was considered the most beautiful and accomplished 
 Princess at the Court of Louis XV., adorned with all the grace, 
 virtue, and elegance of manner which so eminently dis- 
 tinguished her through life.
 
 CHAPTER V 121 
 
 mind. How, therefore, was I astonished and 
 shocked when he discovered to me his desire to 
 supplant the legitimate obiect of my affections, 
 whose love for me equalled mine for him ! I did 
 not expose this baseness of the Duke de Chartres 
 out of filial affection for my adopted father, the 
 Duke de Penthievre ; out of the love I bore his 
 amiable daughter, she being pregnant; and above 
 all in consequence of the fear I was under of 
 compromising the life of the Prince my husband, 
 who I apprehended might be lost to me if I did 
 not suffer in silence. But still, through my silence 
 he was lost and oh, how dreadfully ! The Prince 
 was totally in the dark as to the real character 
 of his brother-in-law. He blindly became every 
 day more and more attached to the man, who 
 was then endeavouring by the foulest means to 
 blast the fairest prospects of his future happiness 
 in life ! But my guardian angel protected me 
 from becoming a victim to seduction, defeating 
 every attack by that prudence which has hitherto 
 been my invincible shield. 
 
 " Guilt unpunished in its first crime, rushes 
 onward, and hurrying from one misdeed to another,
 
 122 CHAPTER V 
 
 like the flood-tide, drives all before it ! My silence 
 and his being defeated without reproach, armed him 
 with courage for fresh daring, and he too well 
 succeeded in embittering the future days of my 
 life, as well as those of his own affectionate wife, 
 and his illustrious father-in-law, the virtuous Duke 
 de Penthievre, who was to all a father. 
 
 " To revenge himself upon me for the repulse 
 he met with, this man inveigled my young, in- 
 experienced husband from his bridal bed to those 
 infected with the nauseous poison of every vice ! 
 Poor youth ! he soon became the prey of every re- 
 finement upon dissipation and studied debauchery, 
 till at length his sufferings made his life a burthen, 
 and he died in the most excruciating agonies both 
 of mind and body, in the arms of a disconsolate 
 wife and a distracted father and thus, in a few 
 short months, at the age of eighteen, was I left a 
 widow to lament my having become a wife ! 
 
 " I was in this situation, retired from the world 
 and absorbed in grief, with the ever beloved and 
 revered illustrious father of my murdered lord, 
 endeavouring to soothe his pangs for the loss of 
 those comforts in a child with which my cruel
 
 CHAPTER V 123 
 
 disappointment forbade my ever being blest 
 though, in the endeavour to soothe, I often only 
 aggravated both his and my own misery at our 
 irretrievable loss when a ray of unexpected light 
 burst upon my dreariness. It was amid this gloom 
 of human agony, these heart-rending scenes of real 
 mourning, that the brilliant star shone to disperse 
 the clouds, which hovered over our drooping heads, 
 to dry the hot briny tears which were parching 
 up our miserable vegetating existence it was in 
 this crisis that Maria Antoinette came, like a 
 messenger sent down from Heaven, graciously to 
 offer the balm of comfort in the sweetest language 
 of human compassion. The pure emotions of her 
 generous soul made her unceasing, unremitting, in 
 her visits to two mortals who must else have 
 perished under the weight of their misfortunes. 
 But for the consolation of her warm friendship 
 we must have sunk into utter despair! 
 
 " From that moment I became seriously attached 
 to the Queen of France. She dedicated a great 
 portion of her time to calm the anguish of my 
 poor heart, though I had not yet accepted the 
 honour of becoming a member of Her Majesty's
 
 124 CHAPTER V 
 
 household. Indeed, I was a considerable time 
 before I could think of undertaking a charge I 
 felt myself so completely incapable of fulfilling. 1 
 I endeavoured to check the tears that were pour- 
 ing down my cheeks, to conceal in the Queen's 
 presence the real feelings of my heart, but the 
 effort only served to increase my anguish when 
 she had departed. Her attachment to me, and 
 the cordiality with which she distinguished herself 
 towards the Duke de Penthievre, gave her a place 
 
 I I am under the necessity of correcting an error of 
 Madame Campan's in vcl i. page 129. The Queen had been 
 long attached to the Princess Lamballe before the sledge 
 parties took place, though it was only during that amusement 
 that the superintendence of the household of the Queen was 
 revived in her favour. It is not at all likely, from the un- 
 limited authority and power which the situation gave a 
 superintendent over Her Majesty, that the Queen, who was 
 so scrupulously particular with respect to the meanest of the 
 persons who held any charge in her household, should have 
 placed herself under the immediate control of one whose 
 office might itself be a check upon her own movements with- 
 out first being thoroughly assured of the principles, morals, 
 character, and general conduct of the. individual destined to 
 a post of such importance. Nothing can be more absurd 
 than to believe that the Queen could have been so heedless 
 as to have nominated the Princess Lamballe her superinten- 
 dent ex abrupta merely because she was the Princess 
 Lamballe.
 
 CHAPTER V 125 
 
 in that heart, which had been chilled by the fatal 
 vacuum left by its first inhabitant ; and Maria 
 Antoinette was the only rival through life that 
 usurped his pretensions, though she could never 
 wean me completely from his memory. 
 
 " My health, from the melancholy life I led, 
 had so much declined that my affectionate father, 
 the Duke de Penthievre, with whom I continued 
 to reside, was anxious that I should emerge from 
 my retirement for the benefit of my health. Sen- 
 sible of his affection, and having always honoured 
 his counsels, I took his advice in this instance. 
 It being in the hard winter, when so many persons 
 were out of bread, the Queen, the Duchess of 
 Orleans, the Duke de Penthievre, and myself, 
 introduced the German sledges, in which we were 
 followed by most of the nobility and the rich 
 citizens. This afforded considerable employment 
 to different artificers. The first use I made of 
 my own new vehicle was to visit, in company 
 of the Duke de Penthievre, the necessitious poor 
 families and our pensioners. In the course of our 
 rounds we met the Queen. 
 
 " ' I suppose,' exclaimed Her Majesty, ' you
 
 126 CHAPTER V 
 
 also are laying a good foundation for my work ! 
 Heavens ! what must the poor feel ! I am 
 wrapped up like a diamond in a box, covered 
 with furs, and yet I am chilled with cold ! * 
 
 " ' That feeling sentiment,' said the Duke, 
 ' will soon warm many a cold family's heart 
 with gratitude to bless your Majesty ! ' 
 
 " ' Why, yes,' replied Her Majesty, showing 
 a long piece of paper containing the names of 
 those to whom she intended to afford relief ' I 
 have only collected two hundred yet on my list, 
 but the cur6 will do the rest and help me to 
 draw the strings of my privy purse ! But I have 
 not half done my rounds. I daresay before I 
 return to Versailles I shall have as many more, 
 and, since we are engaged in the same business, 
 pray come into my sledge and do not take my 
 work out of my hands ! Let me have for once 
 the merit of doing something good ! ' 
 
 " On the coming up of a number of other 
 vehicles belonging to the sledge party, the Queen 
 added, ' Do not say anything about what I have 
 been telling you 1 ' for Her Majesty never wished 
 what she did in the way of charity or donations
 
 CHAPTER V 127 
 
 should be publicly known, the old pensioners 
 excepted, who, being on the list, could not be 
 concealed ; especially as she continued to pay all 
 those she found of the late Queen of Louis XV. 
 She was remarkably delicate and timid with respect 
 to hurting the feelings of anyone; and, fearing the 
 Duke de Penthievre might not be pleased at her 
 pressing me to leave him in order to join her, 
 she said, 'Well, I will let you off, Princess, on 
 your both promising to dine with me at Trianon ; 
 for the King is hunting, not deer, but wood for 
 the poor, and he will see his game off to Paris 
 before he comes back. 1 
 
 " The Duke begged to be excused, but wished 
 me to accept the invitation, which I did, and 
 we parted, each to pursue our different sledge 
 excursions. 
 
 " At the hour appointed, I made my appear- 
 ance at Trianon, and had the honour to dine 
 tete-a-tete with Her Majesty, which was much more 
 congenial to my feelings than if there had been 
 a party, as I was still very low-spirited and 
 unhappy. 
 
 " After dinner, ' My dear Princess,' said the
 
 128 CHAPTER V 
 
 Queen to me, 'at your time of life you must not 
 give yourself up entirely to the dead. You wrong 
 the living. We have not been sent into the world 
 for ourselves. I have felt much for your situation, 
 and still do so, and therefore hope, as long as the 
 weather permits, that you will favour me with your 
 company to < nlar^e our sledge excursions. The 
 King and my dear sister Elizabeth are also 
 much interested about your coming on a visit to 
 Versailles. What think you of our plan ? ' 
 
 " I thanked Her Majesty, the King, and the 
 Princess, for their kindness, but I observed that 
 my state of health and mind could so little corre- 
 spond in any way with the gratitude I should owe 
 them for their royal favours that I trusted a 
 refusal would be attributed to the fact of my 
 consciousness how much rather my society must 
 prove an annoyance and a burthen than a source 
 of pleasure. 
 
 " My tears flowing down my cheeks rapidly 
 while I was speaking, the Queen, with that kind- 
 ness for which she was so eminently distinguished, 
 took me by the hand, and with her handkerchief 
 dried my face.
 
 CHAPTER V 129 
 
 " ' I am,' said the Queen, ' about to renew 
 a situation, which has for some time past lain 
 dormant; and I hope, my dear Princess, there- 
 with to establish my own private views, in form- 
 ing the happiness of a worthy individual.' 
 
 " I replied that such a plan must insure 
 Her Majesty the desired object she had in view, 
 as no individual could be otherwise than happy 
 under the immediate auspices of so benevolent and 
 generous a Sovereign. 
 
 " The Queen, with great affability, as if pleased 
 with my observation, only said, ' If you really think 
 as you speak, my views are accomplished.' 
 
 " My carriage was announced, and I then left 
 Her Majesty, highly pleased at her gracious con- 
 descension, which evidently emanated from the 
 kind wish to raise my drooping spirits from 
 their melancholy. 
 
 "Gratitude would not permit me to continue 
 long without demonstrating to Her Majesty the 
 sentiments her kindness had awakened in my 
 heart. 
 
 " I returned next day with my sister-in-law, 
 the Duchess of Orleans, who was much esteemed 
 
 VOL. I g
 
 130 CHAPTER V 
 
 by the Queen, and we joined the sledge parties 
 with Her Majesty. 
 
 " On the third or fourth day of these excur- 
 sions I again had the honour to dine with Her 
 Majesty, when, in the presence of the Princess 
 Elizabeth, she asked me if I were still of the same 
 opinion with respect to the person it was her 
 intention to add to her household ? 
 
 " I myself had totally forgotten the topic and 
 entreated Her Majesty's pardon for my want of 
 memory, and begged she would signify to what 
 subject she alluded. 
 
 " The Princess Elizabeth laughed. ' I thought,' 
 cried she, ' that you had known it long ago i The 
 Queen, with His Majesty's consent, has nominated 
 you, my dear Princess (embracing me), superin- 
 tendent of her household.' 
 
 " The Queen, also embracing me, said, ' Yes ; 
 it is very true. You said the individual destined 
 to such a situation could not be otherwise than 
 happy ; and I am myself thoroughly happy in 
 being able thus to contribute towards rendering 
 you so.' 
 
 "I was perfectly at a loss for a moment
 
 CHAPTER V 131 
 
 or two, but, recovering myself from the effect of 
 this unexpected and unlocked for preferment, I 
 thanked Her Majesty with the best grace I was 
 able for such an unmerited mark of distinction. 
 
 " The Queen, perceiving my embarrassment, 
 observed, ' I knew I should surprise you ; but I 
 thought your being established at Versailles much 
 more desirable for one of your rank and youth 
 than to be, as you were, with the Duke de 
 Penthievre ; who, much as I esteem his amiable 
 character and numerous great virtues, is by no 
 means the most cheering companion for my 
 charming Princess. From this moment let our 
 friendships be united in the common interest of 
 each other's happiness.' 
 
 " The Queen took me by the hand. The 
 Princess Elizabeth, joining hers, exclaimed to 
 the Queen, ' Oh, my dear sister ! let me make 
 the trio in this happy union of friends ! ' 
 
 " In the society of her adored Majesty and 
 of her saint-like sister Elizabeth I have found 
 my only balm of consolation 1 Their graciously 
 condescending to sympathise in the grief with 
 which I was overwhelmed from the cruel dis- 
 
 9 a
 
 132 CHAPTER V 
 
 appointment of my first love, filled up in some 
 degree the vacuum left by his loss, who was so 
 prematurely ravished from me in the flower of 
 youth, leaving me a widow at eighteen ; and though 
 that loss is one I never can replace or forget, the 
 poignancy of its effect has been in a great degree 
 softened by the kindnesses of my excellent father- 
 in-law, the Duke de Penthievre, and the relations 
 resulting from my situation with, and the never- 
 ceasing attachment of my beloved royal mistress.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 OBSERVATIONS OF THE EDITOR ON THE VARIOUS PARTIES 
 AGAINST LAMBALLE IN CONSEQUENCE OF HER APPOINT- 
 MENT ITS INJURY TO THE QUEEN PARTICULARS OF 
 LAMBALLE, THE DUTIES OF HER OFFICE, AND HER 
 CONDUCT IN IT THE POLIGNACS CHARACTER OF THE 
 
 COUNTESS DIANA. JOURNAL RESUMED ACCOUMT OF 
 
 THE FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THE QUEEN OF THE 
 DUCHESS JULIE DE POLIGNAC THE QUEEN'S SUDDEN 
 AND VIOLENT ATTACHMENT TO HER CALUMNIES RE- 
 SULTING FROM IT REMARK ON FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 LAMBALLE RECEDES FROM THE QUEEN'S INTIMACY 
 
 AT THE DUKE'S (HER FATHER-IN-LAW) is] NEAR 
 
 FALLING A VICTIM TO POISON ALARM OF THE QUEEN, 
 
 WHO GOES TO HER AND FORCES HER BACK TO COURT 
 
 HER MAJESTY ANNOYED AT LAMBALLE's NOT VISITING 
 
 THE POLIGNACS HER REASONS THE ABB]-! VERMOND 
 RETIRES AND RETURNS 
 
 THE connexion of the Princess Lamballe with 
 the Queen, of which she has herself described the 
 origin in the preceding chapter, proved so impor- 
 tant in its influence upon the reputation and fate 
 of both these illustrious victims, that I must once 
 more withdraw the attention of the reader, to
 
 134 CHAPTER VI 
 
 explain, from personal observation and confidential 
 disclosures, the leading causes of the violent dislike 
 which was kindled in the public against an intimacy, 
 that it would have been most fortunate had Her 
 Majesty preferred through life to every other. 
 
 The selection of a friend by the Queen, and 
 the sudden elevation of that friend to the highest 
 station in the royal household could not fail to alarm 
 the selfishness of courtiers, who always feel them- 
 selves injured by the favour shown to others. An 
 obsolete office was revived in favour of the Princess 
 Lamballe. In the time of Maria Leckzinska, wife 
 of Louis XV., the office of superintendent, then 
 held by Mademoiselle de Clermont, was suppressed 
 when its holder died. The office gave a control 
 over the inclinations of queens by which Maria 
 Leckzinska was sometimes inconvenienced ; and 
 it had lain dormant ever since. Its restoration 
 by a queen who it was believed could be guided 
 by no motive but the desire to seek pretexts for 
 showing undue favour, was of course eyed askance, 
 and ere long openly calumniated. 
 
 The Countess de Noailles, who never could 
 forget the title the Queen gave her of Madame
 
 CHAPTER VI 135 
 
 Etiquette, nor forgive the frequent jokes which Her 
 Majesty passed upon her antiquated formality, 
 availed herself of the opportunity offered by her 
 husband's being raised to the dignity of Marshal 
 of France, to resign her situation on the appoint- 
 ment of the Princess Lamballe as superintendent. 
 The Countess retired with feelings embittered 
 against her royal mistress, and her annoyance in 
 the sequel ripened into enmity. The Countess 
 was attached to a very powerful party, not only 
 at Court but scattered throughout the kingdom. 
 Her discontent arose from the circumstance of no 
 longer having to take her orders from the Queen 
 direct but from her superintendent. Ridiculous as 
 this may seem to an impartial observer, it created 
 one of the most powerful hostilities against which 
 Her Majesty had afterwards to contend. 
 
 Though the Queen esteemed the Countess 
 de Noailles for her many good qualities, yet she 
 was so much put out of her w r ay by the rigour 
 with which the Countess enforced forms, which 
 to Her Majesty appeared puerile and absurd, 
 that she felt relieved, and secretly gratified, by 
 her retirement. It will be shown hereafter to
 
 136 CHAPTER VI 
 
 what an excess the Countess was eventually 
 carried by her malice. 
 
 One of the popular objections to the revival 
 of the office of superintendent in favour of the 
 Princess Lamballe arose from its reputed extra- 
 vagance. This was as groundless as the other 
 charges against the Queen, The etiquettes of 
 dress, and the requisite increase of every other 
 expense, from the augmentation of every article 
 of the necessaries as well as the luxuries of life, 
 made a treble difference between the expenditure 
 of the circumscribed Court of Maria Leckzinska 
 and that of Louis XVI. ; yet the Princess Lam- 
 balle received no more salary 1 than had been 
 allotted to Mademoiselle de Clermont in the self- 
 same situation half a century before. 
 
 So far from possessing the slightest pro- 
 pensity either to extravagance in herself or to 
 the encouragement of extravagance in others, the 
 
 i And even that salary she never appropriated to any 
 private use of her own, being amply supplied through the 
 generous bounty of her father-in-law, the Duke de Penthievre ; 
 and latterly, to my knowledge, so far from receiving any pay, 
 she often paid the Queen's and Princess Elizabeth's bills out 
 of her own purse.
 
 CHAPTER VI 137 
 
 Princess Lamballe was a model of prudence, and 
 upon those subjects, as indeed upon all others, 
 the Queen could not have had a more discreet 
 counsellor. She eminently contributed to the 
 charities of the Queen, who was the mother of 
 the fatherless, the support of the widow, and 
 the general protectress and refuge of suffering 
 humanity. Previous to the purchase of any 
 article of luxury, the Princess would call for the 
 list of the pensioners : if anything were due on 
 that account, it was instantly paid, and the luxury 
 dispensed with. 
 
 She never made her appearance in the Queen's 
 apartments except at established hours. This was 
 scrupulously observed till the Revolution. Circum- 
 stances then obliged her to break through forms. 
 The Queen would only receive communications, 
 either written or verbal, upon the subjects growing 
 out of that wretched crisis, in the presence of the 
 Princess; and hence her apartments were open to 
 all who had occasion to see Her Majesty. This 
 made their intercourse more constant and un- 
 ceremonious. But before this, the Princess only 
 went to the royal presence at fixed hours, unless
 
 138 CHAPTER VI 
 
 she had memorials to present to the King, Queen, 
 or ministers, in favour of such as asked for justice 
 or mercy. Hence, whenever the Princess entered 
 before the stated times, the Queen would run and 
 embrace her, and exclaim " Well, my dear 
 Princess Lamballe 1 what widow, what orphan, 
 what suffering, or oppressed petitioner am I to 
 thank for this visit ? for I know you never come 
 to me empty-handed when you come unex- 
 pectedly 1" The Princess, on these occasions, 
 often had the petitioners waiting in an adjoining 
 apartment, that they might instantly avail them- 
 selves of any inclination the Queen might show to 
 see them. 
 
 Once the Princess was deceived by a female 
 painter of doubtful character, who supplicated her 
 to present a work she had executed to the Queen. 
 I myself afterwards returned that work to its owner. 
 Thenceforward, the Princess became very rigid in 
 her inquiries, previous to taking the least interest 
 in any application, or consenting to present 
 anyone personally to the King or Queen. She 
 required thoroughly to be informed of the nature 
 of the request, and of the merit and character of
 
 CHAPTER VI 139 
 
 the applicant, before she would attend to either. 
 Owing to this caution Her Highness scarcely ever 
 after met with a negative. In cases of great 
 importance, though the Queen's compassionate 
 and good heart needed no stimulus to impel her 
 to forward the means of justice, the Princess 
 would call the influence of the Princess Elizabeth 
 to her aid; and Elizabeth never sued in vain. 
 
 Maria Antoinette paid the greatest attention 
 to all memorials. They were regularly collected 
 every week by Her Majesty's private secretary, 
 the Abbe" Vermond. I have myself seen many of 
 them, when returned from the Princess Lamballe, 
 with the Queen's marginal notes in her own hand- 
 writing and the answers dictated by Her Majesty 
 to the different officers of the departments relative 
 to the nature of the respective demands. She 
 always recommended the greatest attention to all 
 public documents, and annexed notes to such as 
 passed through her hands to prevent their being 
 thrown aside or lost. 
 
 One of those who were least satisfied with the 
 appointment of the Princess Lamballe to the office 
 of superintendent was her brother-in-law, the Duke
 
 140 CHAPTER VI 
 
 of Orleans, who, having attempted her virtue on 
 various occasions and been repulsed, became 
 mortified and alarmed at her situation as a check 
 to his future enterprise. 
 
 At one time the Duke and Duchess of 
 Orleans were most constant and assiduous in 
 their attendance on Maria Antoinette. They were 
 at all her parties. The Queen was very fond of 
 the Duchess. It is supposed that the interest 
 Her Majesty took in that lady and the steps to 
 which some time afterwards that interest led, 
 planted the first seeds of the unrelenting and 
 misguided hostility which, in the deadliest times 
 of the Revolution, animated the Orleanists against 
 the throne. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans, then Duke de Chartres, 
 was never a favourite of the Queen. He was only 
 tolerated at Court on account of his wife and of 
 the great intimacy which subsisted between him 
 and Count d'Artois. Louis XVI. had often 
 expressed his disapprobation of the Duke's 
 character, which his conduct daily justified. 
 
 The Princess Lamballe could have no cause 
 to think of her brother-in-law but with horror.
 
 CHAPTER VI 141 
 
 He had insulted her, and in revenge at his defeat, 
 had, it was said, deprived her by the most awful 
 means, of her husband. The Princess was tenderly 
 attached to her sister-in-law, the Duchess. Her 
 attachment could not but make her look very 
 unfavourably upon the circumstance of the Duke's 
 subjecting his wife to the humiliation of residing 
 in the palace with Madame de Genlis, and being 
 forced to receive a person of morals so incorrect 
 as the guardian of her children. The Duchess 
 had complained to her father, the Duke de 
 Penthievre, in the presence of the Princess 
 Lamballe, of the very great ascendancy Madame 
 de Genlis exercised over her husband ; and had 
 even requested the Queen to use her influence 
 in detaching the Duke from this connexion. 1 
 But she had too much gentleness of nature not 
 presently to forget her resentment. Being much 
 devoted to her husband, rather than irritate him 
 to further neglect by personal remonstrance, she 
 determined to make the best of a bad business, 
 
 i It was generally understood that the Duke had a 
 daughter by Madame de Genlis. This daughter, when 
 grown up, was married to the late Irish Lord Robert 
 Fitzgerald.
 
 142 CHAPTER VI 
 
 and tolerated Madame de Genlis, although she 
 made no secret among her friends and relations of 
 the reason why she did so. Nay, so far did her 
 wish not to disoblige her husband prevail over her 
 own feelings as to induce her to yield at last to his 
 importunities by frequently proposing to present 
 Madame de Genlis to the Queen. But Madame 
 de Genlis never could obtain either a public or a 
 private audience. Though the Queen was a great 
 admirer of merit and was fond of encouraging 
 talents, of which Madame de Genlis was by no 
 means deficient, yet even the account the Duchess 
 herself had given, had Her Majesty possessed no 
 other means of knowledge, would have sealed 
 that lady's exclusion from the opportunities of 
 display at Court, which she sought so earnestly. 
 There was another source of exasperation 
 against the Duke of Orleans ; and the great cause 
 of a new and, though less obtrusive, yet perhaps 
 an equally dangerous foe under all the circum- 
 tances, in Madame de Genlis. The anonymous 
 slander of the one was circulated through all 
 France by the other; and spleen and disappoint- 
 ment feathered the venomed arrows shot at the
 
 CHAPTER VI 143 
 
 heart of power by malice and ambition! Be the 
 charge true or false, these anonymous libels were 
 generally considered as the offspring of this lady: 
 they were industriously scattered by the Duke of 
 Orleans; and their frequent refutation by the 
 Queen's friends only increased the malignant 
 industry of their inventor. 
 
 An event which proved the most serious of 
 all that ever happened to the Queen, and the 
 consequences of which were distinctly foreseen 
 by the Princess Lamballe and others of her true 
 friends, was now growing to maturity. 
 
 The deposed Court oracle, the Countess de 
 Noailles, had been succeeded as literary leader 
 by the Countess Diana Polignac. She was a 
 favourite of the Count d'Artois, and was the 
 first lady in attendance upon the Countess, his 
 wife. 1 The Queen's conduct had always been 
 
 I The Countess Diana Polignac had a much better 
 education, and considerably more natural capacity, than 
 her sister-in-law, the Duchess, and the Queen merely disliked 
 her from her prudish affectation. The Countess d'Artois 
 grew jealous of the Count's intimacy with the Countess 
 Diana. While she considered herself as the only one of the 
 royal family likely to be mother of a future sovereign, she 
 was silent, or perhaps too much engrossed by her castles in
 
 144 CHAPTER VI 
 
 very cool to her. She deemed her a self-sufficient 
 coquette. However, the Countess Diana was a 
 constant attendant at the gay parties, which were 
 then the fashion of the Court, though not greatly 
 admired. 
 
 The reader will scarcely need to be informed 
 that the event to which I have just alluded is 
 the introduction by the Countess Diana of her 
 sister-in-law, the Countess Julie Polignac, to the 
 Queen ; and having brought the record up to this 
 point I here once more dismiss my own pen for 
 that of the Princess Lamballe. 
 
 the air to think of anything but diadems ; but when she saw 
 the Queen producing heirs, she grew out of humour at her lost 
 popularity, and began to turn her attention to her husband's 
 Endymionship to this new Diana ! When she had made up 
 her mind to get her rival out of her house, she consulted one 
 of the family ; but being told that the best means for a wife 
 to keep her husband out of harm's way was to provide him 
 with a domestic occupation for his leisure hours at home, 
 than which nothing could be better than a hand-maid under 
 the same roof, she made a merit of necessity and submitted 
 ever after to retain the Countess Diana, as she had been 
 prudently advised. The Countess Diana, in consequence, 
 remained in the family even up to the i7th October, 1789, 
 when she left Versailles in company with the Polignacs and 
 the d'Artois, who all emigrated together from France to 
 Italy and lived at Stria on the Brenta, near Venice, for 
 some time, till the Countess d'Artois went to Turin.
 
 CHAPTER V| 145 
 
 It will be obvious to everyone that I must 
 have been indebted to the conversations of my 
 beloved patroness for most of the sentiments and 
 nearly all the facts I have just been stating; and 
 had the period on which she has written so little 
 as to drive me to the necessity of writing for her 
 been less pregnant with circumstances almost 
 entirely personal to herself, no doubt I should have 
 found more upon that period in her manuscript. 
 But the year of which Her Highness says so little 
 was the year of happiness and exclusive favour ; 
 and the Princess was above the vanity of boasting, 
 even privately in the self-confessional of her diary. 
 She resumes her records with her apprehensions ; 
 and thus proceeds, describing the introduction of 
 the Countess Julie de Polignac, regretting her 
 ascendancy over the Queen and foreseeing its 
 fatal effects. 
 
 "I had only been a twelvemonth in Her 
 Majesty's service, which I believe was the happiest 
 
 period of both our lives, when, at one of the 
 VOL. i 10
 
 146 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Court assemblies, the Countess Julie Polignac was 
 first introduced by her sister-in-law, the Countess 
 Diana Polignac, to the Queen. 
 
 "She had lived in the country, quite a retired 
 life, and appeared to be more the motherly 
 woman, and the domestic wife, than the ambitious 
 Court lady, or royal sycophant. She was easy oi 
 access, and elegantly plain in her dress and 
 deportment. 
 
 " Her appearance at Court was as fatal to 
 the Queen as it was propitious to herself! 
 
 " She seemed formed by nature to become 
 a royal favourite ; unassuming, remarkably com- 
 plaisant, possessing a refined taste, with a good- 
 natured disposition, not handsome, but well 
 formed, and untainted by haughtiness or pom- 
 posity. 
 
 " It would appear, from the effect her intro- 
 duction had on the Queen, that her domestic 
 virtues were written in her countenance ; for she 
 became a royal favourite before she had time to 
 become a candidate for royal favour. 
 
 "The Queen's sudden attachment to the 
 Countess Julie produced no alteration in my
 
 CHAPTER VI 147 
 
 conduct, while I saw nothing extraordinary to 
 alarm me for the consequences of any particular 
 marked partiality, by which the character and 
 popularity of Her Majesty might be endangered. 1 
 
 " But, seeing the progress this lady made in 
 the feelings of the Queen's enemies, it became 
 my duty, from the situation I held, to caution 
 Her Majesty against the risks she ran in making 
 her favourites friends ; for it was very soon 
 apparent how highly the Court disapproved of 
 this intimacy and partiality: and the same feeling 
 soon found its way to the many-headed monster, 
 the people, who only saw the favourite without 
 considering the charge she held. Scarcely had 
 she felt the warm rays of royal favour, than 
 the chilling blasts of envy and malice began to 
 nip it in the bud of all its promised bliss. 
 Even long, before she touched the pinnacle of 
 her grandeur as governess of the royal children 
 
 i The Princess Lamballe was too virtuous, too hand- 
 some, and much too noble in character and sentiment, 
 meanly to nourish jealousy or envy. She was as much 
 above it as her personal and mental qualifications were 
 superior to those of her rival. 
 
 10 2
 
 148 CHAPTER VI 
 
 the blackest calumny began to show itself in 
 prints, caricatures, songs, and pamphlets of every 
 description. 
 
 "A reciprocity of friendship between a queen 
 and a subject, by those who never felt the exis- 
 tence of such a feeling as friendship, could only 
 be considered in a criminal point of view. But 
 by what perversion could suspicion frown upon 
 the ties between two married women, both living 
 in the greatest harmony with their respective 
 husbands, especially when both became mothers 
 and so devoted to their offspring ? This bound- 
 less friendship did glow between this calumniated 
 pair calumniated because the sacredness and 
 peculiarity of the sentiment which united them 
 was too pure to be understood by the grovelling 
 minds who made themselves their sentencers. 
 The friend is the friend's shadow. The real 
 sentiment of friendship, of which disinterested 
 sympathy is the sign, cannot exist unless between 
 two of the same sex, because a physical difference 
 involuntarily modifies the complexion of the 
 intimacy where the sexes are opposite, even 
 though there be no physical relations. The Queen
 
 CHAPTER VI 149 
 
 of France had love in her eyes and Heaven in 
 her soul. The Duchess of Polignac, whose person 
 beamed with every charm, could never have been 
 condemned, like the Friars of La Trappe, to the 
 mere memento mori. 
 
 " When I had made the representations to 
 Her Majesty which duty exacted from me on 
 perceiving her ungovernable partiality for her new 
 favourite, that I might not importune her by the 
 awkwardness naturally arising from my constant 
 exposure to the necessity of witnessing an intimacy 
 she knew I did not sanction, I obtained permission 
 from my royal mistress to visit my father-in-law, 
 the Duke de Penthievre, at Rambouillet, his 
 country seat 
 
 " Soon after I arrived there, I was taken sud- 
 denly ill after dinner with the most excruciating 
 pains in my stomach. I thought myself dying. 
 Indeed, I should have been so but for the for- 
 tunate and timely discovery that I was poisoned: 
 certainly, not intentionally, by anyone belonging 
 to my dear father's household ; but by some 
 execrable hand which had an interest in my 
 death.
 
 150 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " The affair was hushed up with a vague 
 report that some of the made dishes had been 
 prepared in a stew-pan long out of use, which 
 the clerk of the Duke's kitchen had forgotten to 
 get properly tinned. 
 
 "This was a doubtful story for many reasons. 
 Indeed, I firmly believe that the poison given 
 me had been prepared in the salt, for everyone 
 at table had eaten of the same dish without 
 suffering the smallest inconvenience. 1 
 
 "The news of this accident had scarcely ar- 
 rived at Versailles, when the Queen, astounded, 
 and in excessive anxiety, instantly sent off her 
 physician, and her private secretary, the Abb6 
 Vermond, to bring me back to my apartments at 
 Versailles, with strict orders not to leave me a 
 moment at the Duke's, for fear of a second attempt 
 
 i Had not this unfortunate circumstance occurred, it 
 is probable the Duke de Penthievre would have prevailed 
 on the Princess to have renounced her situation at Court. 
 What heart-rending grief would it not have spared the 
 grey hairs of her doting father-in-law, and what a sea of 
 crimes might have been obviated, had it pleased Heaven 
 to have ordained her death under the paternal roof of her 
 second father 1
 
 CHAPTER VI 151 
 
 of the same nature. Her Majesty had imputed 
 the first to the earnestness I had always shown 
 in support of her interests, and she seemed now 
 more ardent in her kindness towards me from the 
 idea of my being exposed through her means to 
 the treachery of assassins in the dark. The Queen 
 awaited our coming impatiently, and, not seeing 
 the carriages return so quickly as she fancied they 
 ought to arrive, she herself set off for Rambouillet, 
 and did not leave me till she had prevailed on 
 me to quit my father-in-law's, and we both re- 
 turned together the same night to Versailles, where 
 the Queen in person dedicated all her attention 
 to the restoration of my health. 
 
 "As yet, however, nothing in particular had 
 discovered that splendour for which the Polignacs 
 were afterwards so conspicuous. 
 
 "Indeed, so little were their circumstances 
 calculated for a Court life, that when the friends 
 of Madame Polignac perceived the growing attach- 
 ment of the young Queen to the palladium of their 
 hopes, in order to impel Her Majesty's friendship 
 to repair the deficiencies of fortune, they advised 
 the magnet to quit the Court abruptly, assigning
 
 152 CHAPTER VI 
 
 the want of means as the motive of her retreat. 
 The story got wind, and proved propitious. 
 
 " The Queen, to secure the society of her friend, 
 soon supplied the resources she required and took 
 away the necessity for her retirement. But the 
 die was cast. In gaining one friend she sacrificed 
 a host. By this act of imprudent preference she 
 lost for ever the affections of the old nobility. 
 This was the gale which drove her back among 
 the breakers. 
 
 " I saw the coming storm, and endeavoured 
 to make my sovereign feel its danger. Presuming 
 that my example would be followed, I withdrew 
 from the Polignac society, and vainly flattered 
 myself that prudence would impel others not to 
 encourage Her Majesty's amiable infatuation till 
 the consequences should be irretrievable. But 
 sovereigns are always surrounded by those who 
 make it a point to reconcile them to their follies, 
 however flagrant ; and keep them on good terms 
 with themselves, however severely they may be 
 censured by the world. 
 
 " If I had read the book of fate I could not 
 have seen more distinctly the fatal results which
 
 CHAPTER VI 153 
 
 actually took place from this unfortunate con- 
 nexion. The Duchess and myself always lived in 
 the greatest harmony, and equally shared the 
 confidence of the Queen ; but it was my duty not 
 to sanction Her Majesty's marked favouritism by 
 my presence. The Queen often expressed her 
 discontent to me upon the subject. She used to 
 tell me how much it grieved her to be denied 
 success in her darling desire of uniting her friends 
 with each other, as they were already united in 
 her own heart. Finding my resolution unalterable, 
 she was mortified, but gave up her pursuit. When 
 she became assured that all importunity was 
 useless, she ever after avoided wounding my 
 feelings by remonstrance, and allowed me to 
 pursue the system I had adopted, rather than 
 deprive herself of my society, which would have 
 been the consequence had I not been left at 
 liberty to follow the dictates of my own sense of 
 propriety in a course from which I was resolved 
 that even Her Majesty's displeasure should not 
 make me swerve. 
 
 " Once in particular, at an entertainment 
 given to the Emperor Joseph at Trianon, I re-
 
 154 CHAPTER VI 
 
 member the Queen took the opportunity to repeat 
 how much she felt herself mortified at the course 
 in which I persisted of never making my appear- 
 ance at the Duchess of Polignac's parties. 
 
 " I replied, ' I believe, madam, we are both 
 of us disappointed ; but your Majesty has your 
 remedy, by replacing me by a lady less scru- 
 pulous.' 
 
 " ' I was too sanguine,' said the Queen, ' in 
 having flattered myself that I had chosen two 
 friends who would form, from their sympathising 
 and uniting their sentiments with each other, a 
 society which would embellish my private life as 
 much as they adorn their public stations.' 
 
 " I said it was by my unalterable friendship 
 and my loyal and dutiful attachment to the sacred 
 person of Her Majesty that I had been prompted 
 to a line of conduct in which the motives whence 
 it arose would impel me to persist while I had the 
 honour to hold a situation under Her Majesty's 
 roof. 
 
 "The Queen, embracing me, exclaimed, 'That 
 will be for life, for death alone can separate us ! ' 
 
 i Good Heaven 1 What must have been the feelings of 
 these true, these sacred friends, the shadow of each other,
 
 CHAPTER VI 155 
 
 "This is the last conversation I recollect to 
 have had with the Queen upon this distressing 
 subject. 
 
 " The Abb6 Vermond, who had been Her 
 Majesty's tutor, but who was now her private 
 secretary, began to dread that his influence over 
 her from having been her confidential adviser from 
 her youth upwards would suffer from the rising 
 authority of the all-predominant new favourite. 
 Consequently, he thought proper to remonstrate, 
 not with Her Majesty, but with those about her 
 royal person. The Queen took no notice of these 
 side-wind complaints, not wishing to enter into any 
 explanation of her conduct. On this the Abb6 
 withdrew from Court. But he only retired for a 
 short time, and that to make better terms for 
 the future. Here was a new spring for those 
 who were supplying the army of calumniators 
 with poison. Happy had it been, perhaps, for 
 France and the Queen if Vermond had never 
 returned. But the Abbe" was something like a 
 distant country cousin of an English minister, a 
 
 on that fatal Tenth of August, which separated them only to 
 meet in a better world 1
 
 156 CHAPTER VI 
 
 V 
 
 man of no talents, but who hoped for employ- 
 ment through the power of his kinsman. ' There 
 is nothing on hand now,' answered the minister, 
 ' but a bishop's mitre or a field-marshal's staff.' 
 ' Oh, very well,' replied the countryman ; ' either 
 will do for me till something better turns up.' 
 The Abbe", in his retirement finding leisure to 
 reflect that there was no probability of anything 
 ' better turning up ' than his post of private 
 secretary, tutor, confidant, and counsellor (and 
 that not always the most correct) of a young 
 and amiable Queen of France, soon made his 
 re-appearance and kept his jealousy of the 
 Polignacs ever after to himself. 1 
 
 " The Abbe" Vermond enjoyed much influence 
 with regard to ecclesiastical preferments. He was 
 too fond of his situation ever to contradict or 
 thwart Her Majesty in any of her plans ; too 
 much of a courtier to assail her ears with the 
 language of truth ; and by far too much a clergy- 
 man to interest himself but for Mother Church. 
 
 i He remained in the same situation till the horrors of 
 the Revolution drove him from it.
 
 CHAPTER VI 157 
 
 " In short, he was more culpable in not 
 doing his duty than in the mischief he occa- 
 sioned, for he certainly oftener misled the Queen 
 by his silence than by his advice."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 JOURNAL CONTINUED SLANDERS AGAINST THE EMPRESS 
 MARIA THERESA, ON ACCOUNT OF METASTASIO, GIVE 
 THE QUEEN A DISTASTE FOR PATRONISING LITERA- 
 TURE PRIVATE PLAYS AND ACTING CENSORIOUSNESS 
 
 OF THOSE WHO WERE EXCLUDED FROM THEM THE 
 
 QUEEN'S LOVE OF MUSIC GLUCK INVITED FROM 
 
 GERMANY ANECDOTES OF GLUCK AND HIS ARMIDA 
 
 GARAT VIOTTI MADAME ST. HUBERTI VESTRIS 
 
 I HAVE already mentioned that Maria Antoi- 
 nette had no decided taste for literature. Her 
 mind rather sought its amusements in the ball- 
 room, the promenade, the theatre, especially when 
 she herself was a performer, and the concert-room, 
 than in her library and among her books. Her 
 coldness towards literary men may in some degree 
 be accounted for by the disgust which she took 
 at the calumnies and caricatures resulting from 
 her mother's partiality for her own revered 
 teacher, the great Metastasio. The resemblance 
 of most of Maria Theresa's children to that poet 
 was coupled with the great patronage he received
 
 CHAPTER VII 159 
 
 from the Empress ; and much less than these 
 circumstances would have been quite enough to 
 furnish a tale for the slanderer, injurious to the 
 reputation ot any exalted personage. 
 
 "The taste of Maria Antoinette for private 
 theatricals was kept up till the clouds ot the 
 Revolution darkened over all her enjoyments. 
 
 " These innocent amusements were made 
 subjects of censure against her by the many 
 courtiers who were denied access to them ; while 
 some, who were permitted to be present, were 
 too well pleased with the opportunity of sneering 
 at her mediocrity in the art, which those, who 
 could not see her, were ready to criticise with 
 the utmost severity. It is believed that Madame 
 de Genlis found this too favourable an opportunity 
 to be slighted. Anonymous satires upon the 
 Queen's performances, which were attributed to 
 the malice of that authoress, were frequently 
 shown to Her Majesty by good-natured friends. 
 The Duke de Fronsac also, from some situation 
 he held at Court, though not included in the 
 private household of Her Majesty at Trianon, 
 conceiving himself highly injured by not being
 
 I GO CHAPTER VII 
 
 suffered to interfere, was much exasperated, and 
 took no pains to prevent others from receiving 
 the infection of his resentment. 
 
 " Of all the arts, music was the only one 
 which Her Majesty ever warmly patronised. For 
 music she was an enthusiast. Had her talents in 
 this art been cultivated, it is certain from her 
 judgment in it that she would have made very 
 considerable progress. She sang little French airs 
 with great taste and feeling. She improved much 
 under the tuition of the great composer, her master, 
 the celebrated Sacchini. After his death, Sapio 1 
 was named his successor; but, between the death 
 of one master and the appointment of another, 
 the revolutionary horrors so increased that her 
 mind was no longer in a state to listen to any- 
 thing but the howlings of the tempest. 
 
 " In her happier days of power, the great 
 Gluck was brought at her request from Germany 
 to Paris. He cost nothing to the public treasury, 
 for Her Majesty paid all his expenses out of her 
 
 i The father of Sapio, the tenor singer, who on coming 
 to England was much patronised by the Duchess of York and 
 the late old Duke of Queensbury.
 
 LOUIS-AUGUST!- 
 .OUIS XVI, KI.\G OF 1-RAXCE 
 
 From a painting in the g 
 
 at Vcrs
 
 I GO CHAPTER 
 
 suffered to interfere, v 
 
 took no pains others from i 
 
 the infer ' utment. 
 
 "Of ail t: its, music was the only one 
 which Her ever warmly patronised. For 
 
 music she was an enthusiast. Had her talents in 
 this art been cultivated, it is certain from her 
 judgment in it that she would have made very 
 
 iderable progress. She sang little French airs 
 
 with great taste and feeling. She improved much 
 
 Vr the tuitiorrorTn^^rVa^^fA^oscr, her master, 
 
 ^Mfe^ami^^ft^^is^W^^ 
 was named his successor; but, between the death 
 
 tionary horrors,., so 
 i was no longer in a state to listen to any- 
 .; but the howlings of the tempest. 
 " In h'.;r happier days of power, the great 
 
 from Germany 
 
 - He i public treasury, 
 
 for Her Majesty p p.ses out of her 
 
 i The father of Sapio, the tenor singer, who on coming 
 to England was much patro ichess of York and 
 
 the late old Duke of Queensbmy.
 
 CHAPTER VII l6l 
 
 own purse, leaving him the profits of his operas, 
 which attracted immense sums to the theatre. 1 
 
 " Maria Antoinette paid for the musical educa- 
 tion of the French singer, Garat, and pensioned 
 him for her private concerts. 
 
 " Her Majesty was the great patroness of the 
 celebrated Viotti, who was also attached to her 
 private musical parties. Before Viotti began to 
 perform his concertos, Her Majesty, with the 
 most amiable condescension, would go round 
 the music saloon, and say, ' Ladies and gentle- 
 men, I request you will be silent, and very 
 attentive, and not enter into conversation, while 
 Mr. Viotti is playing, for it interrupts him in the 
 execution of his fine performance.' 
 
 " Gluck composed his Armida in compliment 
 to the personal charms of Maria Antoinette. I 
 never saw Her Majesty more interested about 
 
 i To this very day the music of Gluck in France, like the 
 works of our immortal Shakespeare in England, stands the 
 test of time even amid that versatile nation. To outlive 
 French caprice, his compositions must possess, like those of 
 the immortal Sacchini, something strikingly extraordinary. 
 If they are less frequently performed than inferior pro- 
 ductions, it is for want of artists equal to their merit. 
 
 VOL. I II
 
 162 CHAPTER VII 
 
 anything than she was for its success. She 
 became a perfect slave to it. She had the 
 gracious condescension to hear all the pieces 
 through, at Gluck's request, before they were 
 submitted to the stage for rehearsal. Gluck said 
 he always improved his music after he saw the 
 effect it had upon Her Majesty. 
 
 " He was coming out of the Queen's apart- 
 ment one day, after he had been performing one 
 of these pieces for Her Majesty's approbation, 
 when I followed and congratulated him on the 
 increased success he had met with from the whole 
 band of the opera at every rehearsal. ' O my 
 dear Princess ! ' cried he, ' it wants nothing to 
 make it be applauded up to the seven skies but 
 two such delightful heads as Her Majesty's and 
 your own.' ' Oh, if that be all,' answered I, ' we'll 
 have them painted for you, Mr. Gluck ! ' ' No, 
 no, no 1 you do not understand me/ replied 
 Gluck, ' I mean real, real heads. 1 My actresses 
 
 i 
 
 How little did Gluck think, when he was paying this 
 compliment, or the Princess, when she recorded it, that 
 these two heads were really to be so cruelly severed from 
 their bodies.
 
 CHAPTER VII 163 
 
 are very ugly, and Armida and her confidential 
 lady ought to be very handsome.' 
 
 " However great the success of the opera of 
 Armida, and certainly it was one of the best 
 productions ever exhibited on the French stage, 
 no one had a better opinion of its composition 
 than Gluck himself. He was quite mad about it. 
 He told the Queen that the air of France had 
 invigorated his musical genius, and that, afur 
 having had the honour of seeing Her Majesty, his 
 ideas were so much inspired that his compositions 
 resembled her, and became alike angelic and 
 sublime ! 
 
 " The first artist who undertook the part of 
 Armida was Madame Saint Huberti. The Queen 
 was very partial to her. She was principal female 
 singer at the French opera, was a German by 
 birth, and strongly recommended by Gluck for her 
 good natural voice. At Her Majesty's request, 
 Gluck himself taught Madame Saint Huberti the 
 part of Armida. Sacchini, also, at the command of 
 Maria Antoinette, instructed her in the style and 
 sublimity of the Italian school, and Mdlle. Bertin, 
 the Queen's dressmaker and milliner, was ordered 
 
 II 2
 
 164 CHAPTER VII 
 
 to furnish the complete dress for the character. 
 
 " The Queen, perhaps, was more liberal to this 
 lady than to any actress upon the stage. She had 
 frequently paid her debts, which were very con- 
 siderable, for. she dressed like a queen whenever 
 she represented one. 
 
 " Gluck's consciousness of the merit of his 
 own works, and of their dignity, excited no 
 small jealousy, during the getting up of Armida, 
 in his rival with the public, the great Vestris, to 
 whom he scarcely left space to exhibit the graces 
 of his art ; and many severe disputes took place 
 between the two rival sharers of the Parisian 
 enthusiasm. Indeed, it was at one time feared 
 that the success of Armida would be endangered, 
 unless an equal share of the performance were 
 conceded to the dancers. But Gluck, whose 
 German obstinacy would not give up a note, told 
 Vestris he might compose a ballet in which he 
 would leave him his own way entirely ; but that 
 an artist whose profession only taught him to 
 reason with his heels should not kick about works 
 like Armida at his pleasure. My subject,' added 
 Gluck, ' is taken from the immortal Tasso. My
 
 CHAPTER VII 165 
 
 music has been logically composed, and with the 
 ideas of my head ; and, of course, there is very 
 little room left for capering. If Tasso had thought 
 proper to make Rinaldo a dancer he never would 
 have designated him a warrior.' 
 
 "Rinaldo was the part Vestris wished to be 
 allotted to his son. However, through the inter- 
 ference of the Queen, Vestris prudently took the 
 part as it had been originally finished by Gluck. 
 
 " The Queen was a great admirer and patroness 
 of Augustus Vestris, the god of dance, as he was 
 styled. Augustus Vestris never lost Her Majesty's 
 favour, though he very often lost his sense ot the 
 respect he owed to the public, and showed airs 
 and refused to dance. Once he did so when Her 
 Majesty was at the opera. Upon some frivolous 
 pretext he refused to appear. He was, in conse- 
 quence, immediately arrested. His father, alarmed 
 at his son's temerity, flew to me and with the 
 most earnest supplications implored I would 
 condescend to endeavour to obtain the pardon of 
 Her Majesty. ' My son,' cried he, ' did not know 
 that Her Majesty had honoured the theatre with 
 her presence. Had he been aware of it, could he
 
 1 66 CHAPTER VII 
 
 have refused to dance for his most bounteous bene- 
 factress ? I, too, am grieved beyond the power of 
 language to describe, by this mal apropos contretemps 
 between the two houses of Vestris and Bourbon, 
 as we have always lived in the greatest harmony 
 ever since we came from Florence to Paris. My 
 son is very sorry and will dance most bewitchingly 
 if Her Majesty will graciously condescend to order 
 his release 1 ' 
 
 " I repeated the conversation verbatim to 
 Her Majesty, who enjoyed the arrogance of the 
 Florentine, and sent her page to order young 
 Vestris to be set immediately at liberty. 
 
 " Having exerted all the wonderful powers of 
 his art, the Queen applauded him very much. 
 When Her Majesty was about leaving her box, 
 old Vestris appeared at the entrance, leading his 
 son to thank the Queen. 
 
 " ' Ah, Monsieur Vestris,' said the Queen to 
 the father, 'you never danced as your son has 
 done this evening ! * 
 
 " ' That's very natural, Madame,' answered 
 old Vestris, ' I never had a Vestris, please your 
 Majesty, for a master.'
 
 CHAPTER VII 167 
 
 " ' Then you have the greater merit,' replied 
 the Queen, turning round to old Vestris ' Ah, 
 I shall never forget you and Mademoiselle Guimard 
 dancing the menuet de la cour.' 
 
 "On this old Vestris held up his head with 
 that peculiar grace for which he was so much 
 distinguished. The old man, though ridiculously 
 vain, was very much of a gentleman in his man- 
 ners. The father of Vestris was a painter of 
 some celebrity at Florence, and originally from 
 Tuscany.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 JOURNAL CONTINUED EMPEROR JOSEPH COMES TO FRANCE 
 INJURIOUS REPORTS OF IMMENSE SUMS OF MONEY 
 GIVEN HIM FROM THE TREASURY PRINCESS LAMBALLE 
 PRESENTED TO HIM ANECDOTES TOLD BY HIM OF HIS 
 
 FAMILY THE KING ANNOYED BY HIS FREEDOMS 
 
 CIRCUMSTANCES THAT OCCURRED WHILE HE WAS 
 SEEKING INFORMATION AMONG THE COMMON PEOPLE 
 NOTE OF THE EDITOR ON CERTAIN MISTAKES OF 
 MADAME CAMPAN 
 
 "THE visit of the favourite brother of Maria 
 Antoinette, the Emperor Joseph the Second, to 
 France, had been long and anxiously expected, 
 and was welcomed by her with delight. The 
 pleasure Her Majesty discovered at having him 
 with her is scarcely credible; and the affectionate 
 tenderness with which the Emperor frequently 
 expressed himself on seeing his favourite sister 
 evinced that their joys were mutual. 
 
 " Like everything else, however, which gratified 
 and obliged the Queen, her evil star converted 
 even this into a misfortune. It was said that 
 the French treasury, which was not overflowing,
 
 CHAPTER VIII l6g 
 
 was still more reduced by the Queen's partiality 
 for her brother. She was accused of having given 
 him immense sums of money; which was utterly 
 false. 
 
 " The finances of Joseph were at that time in 
 a situation too superior to those of France to 
 admit of such extravagance, or even to render it 
 desirable. The circumstance which gave a colour 
 to the charge was this : 
 
 " The Emperor, in order to facilitate the trade 
 of his Brabant subjects, had it in contemplation 
 to open the navigation of the Scheldt. This 
 measure would have been ruinous to many of the 
 skippers, as well as to the internal commerce of 
 France. It was considered equally dangerous to 
 the trade and navigation of the North Hollanders. 
 To prevent it, negotiations were carried on by the 
 French minister, though professedly for the mutual 
 interest of both countries, yet entirely at the 
 instigation and on account of the Dutch. The 
 weighty argument of the Dutch to prevent the 
 Emperor from accomplishing a purpose they so 
 much dreaded was a sum of many millions, which 
 passed by means of some monied speculation in
 
 I7O CHAPTER VIII 
 
 the Exchange through France to its destination 
 at Vienna. It was to see this affair settled that 
 the Emperor declared in Vienna his intention of 
 taking France in his way from Italy, before he 
 should go back to Austria. 
 
 " The certainty of a transmission of money 
 from France to Austria was quite enough to 
 awaken the malevolent, who would have taken 
 care even had they inquired into the source 
 whence the money came, never to have made it 
 public. The opportunity was too favourable not 
 to be made the pretext to raise a clamour against 
 the Queen for robbing France to favour and enrich 
 Austria. 
 
 " The Emperor, who had never seen me, 
 though he had often heard me spoken of at the 
 Court of Turin, expressed a wish, soon after his 
 arrival, that I should be presented to him. The 
 immediate cause of this let me explain. 
 
 " I was very much attached to the Princess 
 Clotilda, whom I had caused to be united to 
 Prince Charles Emanuel of Piedmont. Our 
 family had, indeed, been principally instrumental 
 in the alliances of the two brothers of the King of
 
 CHAPTER VIII 171 
 
 France with the two Piedmontese Princesses, as 
 I had been in the marriage of the Piedmontese 
 Prince with the Princess of France. When the 
 Emperor Joseph visited the Court of Turin he 
 was requested when he saw me in Paris to sig- 
 nify the King of Sardinia's satisfaction at my 
 good offices. Consequently, the Emperor lost no 
 time in delivering his message. 
 
 " When I was just entering the Queen's apart- 
 ment to be presented, ' Here,' said Her Majesty, 
 leading me to the Emperor, ' is the Princess,' and, 
 then turning to me, exclaimed, ' Mercy, how cold 
 you are 1 ' The Emperor answered Her Majesty 
 in German, ' What heat can you expect from the 
 hand of one whose heart resides with -the dead ? 
 and subjoined, in the same language, ' What a pity 
 that so charming a head should be fixed on a dead 
 body 1 ' 
 
 " I affected to understand the Emperor literally, 
 and set him and the Queen laughing by thanking 
 His Imperial Majesty for the compliment. 
 
 " The Emperor was exceedingly affable and full 
 of anecdote. Maria Antoinette resembled him in 
 her general manners. The similitude in their easy
 
 172 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 openness of address towards persons of merit was 
 very striking. Both always endeavoured to en- 
 courage persons of every class to speak their minds 
 freely, with this difference, that Her Majesty in so 
 doing never forgot her dignity or her rank at Court. 
 Sometimes, however, I have seen her, though so 
 perfect in her deportment with inferiors, much 
 intimidated and sometimes embarrassed in the 
 presence of the Princes and Princesses, her equals, 
 who for the first time visited Versailles : indeed, 
 so much so as to give them a very incorrect idea 
 of her capacity. It was by no means an easy 
 matter to cause Her Majesty to unfold her real 
 sentiments or character on a first acquaintance. 
 
 " I remember the Emperor one evening at 
 supper when he was exceedingly good-humoured, 
 talkative, and amusing. He had visited all his 
 Italian relations, and had a word for each, man, 
 woman, or child not a soul was spared. The 
 King scarcely once opened his mouth, except to 
 laugh at some of the Emperor's jokes upon his 
 Italian relations. 
 
 " He began by asking the Queen if she 
 punished her husband by making him keep as
 
 CHAPTER VIII 173 
 
 many Lents in the same year as her sister did 
 the King ot Naples. The Queen not knowing 
 what the Emperor meant, he explained himself, 
 and said, 'When the King of Naples offends his 
 Queen she keeps him on short commons and 
 soupe maigre till he has expiated the offence by 
 the penance of humbling himself; and then, and 
 not till then, permits him to return and share the 
 nuptial rights of her bed.' 
 
 " ' This sister of mine,' said the Emperor, 
 ' is a proficient Queen in the art of man training. 
 My other sister, the Duchess of Parma, is equally 
 scientific in breaking-in horses ; for she is con- 
 stantly in the stables with her grooms, by which 
 she grooms a pretty sum yearly in buying, selling, 
 and breaking-in ; while the simpleton, her husband, 
 is ringing the bells with the Friars of Colorno to 
 call his good subjects to Mass.' 
 
 " ' My brother Leopold, Grand Duke of 
 Tuscany, feeds his subjects with plans of 
 economy, a dish that costs nothing, and not 
 only saves him a multitude of troubles in public 
 buildings and public institutions, but keeps the 
 public money in his private coffers ; which is
 
 174 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 one of the greatest and most classical discoveries 
 a sovereign can possibly accomplish, and I give 
 Leopold much credit for his ingenuity.' 
 
 " ' My dear brother Ferdinand, Arch-duke 
 of Milan, considering he is only Governor of 
 Lombardy, is not without industry; and I am 
 told when out of the glimpse of his dragon the 
 holy Beatrix, his Arch-duchess, sells his corn in 
 the time of war to my enemies, as he does to my 
 friends in the time of peace. So he loses nothing 
 by his speculations 1 ' 
 
 " The Queen checked the Emperor repeatedly, 
 though she could not help smiling at his caricatures. 
 
 " ' As to you, my dear Maria Antoinette,' 
 continued the Emperor, not heeding her, ' I see 
 you have made great progress in the art of paint- 
 ing. You have lavished more colour on one cheek 
 than Rubens would have required for all the figures 
 in his cartoons.' Observing one of the ladies of 
 honour still more highly rouged than the Queen, 
 he said, * I suppose I look like a death's head 
 upon a tombstone, among all these high-coloured 
 furies.' 
 
 "The Queen again tried to interrupt the
 
 CHAPTER VIII 175 
 
 Emperor, but he was not to be put out of 
 countenance. 
 
 " He said he had no doubt, when he arrived 
 at Brussels, that he should hear of the progress 
 of his sister, the Arch-duchess Maria Christina, in 
 her money negotiations with the banker Valkeers, 
 who made a good stock for her husband's jobs. 
 
 " ' If Maria Christina's gardens and palace at 
 Lakin could speak,' observed he, 'what a spectacle 
 of events would they not produce 1 What a number 
 of fine sights my own family would afford 1 ' 
 
 " ' When I get to Cologne,' pursued the 
 Emperor, ' there I shall see my great fat brother 
 Maximilian, in his little electorate, spending his 
 yearly revenue upon an ecclesiastical procession ; 
 for priests, like opposition, never bark but to get 
 into the manger ; never walk empty-handed ; 
 rosaries and good cheer always wind up their 
 holy work ; and my good Maximilian, as head of 
 his Church, has scarcely feet to waddle into it. 
 Feasting and fasting produce the same effect. In 
 wind and food he is quite an adept puffing, from 
 one cause or the other, like a smith's bellows I ' 
 
 " Indeed, the Elector of Cologne was really
 
 176 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 grown so very fat, that, like his Imperial mother, 
 he could scarcely walk. He would so over-eat 
 himself at these ecclesiastical dinners, to make his 
 guests welcome, that, from indigestion, he would 
 be puffing and blowing, an hour afterwards, for 
 breath ! 
 
 " ' As I have begun the family visits,' continued 
 the Emperor, ' I must not pass by the Arch- 
 duchess Mariana and the lady abbess at Clagen- 
 furt ; or, the Lord knows, I shall never hear the 
 end of their klagens. 1 The first, I am told, is 
 grown so ugly, and, of course, so neglected by 
 mankind, that she is become an utter stranger to 
 any attachment, excepting the fleshy embraces of 
 the disgusting wen that encircles her neck and 
 bosom, and makes her head appear like a black 
 spot upon a large sheet of white paper ! Therefore 
 klagen is all I can expect from that quarter of 
 female flesh, and I dare say it will be levelled 
 against the whole race of mankind for their want 
 of taste in not admiring her exuberance of human 
 craw ! 
 
 " ' As to the lady abbess, she is one of my 
 
 i A German word, which signifies complaining.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 177 
 
 best recruiting Serjeants. She is so fond of training 
 cadets for the benefit of the army that they learn 
 more from her system in one month than at the 
 military academy at Neustadt in a whole year. 
 She is her mother's own daughter. She under- 
 stands military tactics thoroughly. She and I 
 never quarrel, except when I garrison her citadel 
 with invalids. She and the canoness, Mariana, 
 would rather see a few young ensigns than all 
 the staffs of the oldest field-marshals 1 ' 
 
 '' The Queen often made signs to the Emperor 
 to desist from thus exposing every member of 
 his family, and seemed to feel mortified ; but the 
 more Her Majesty endeavoured to check his 
 freedom, and make him silent, the more he 
 enlarged upon the subject. He did not even omit 
 Maria Theresa, who, he said, in consequence of 
 some papers found on persons arrested as spies 
 from the Prussian camp, during the seven years' 
 war, was reported to have been greatly surprised 
 to have discovered that her husband, the Emperor 
 Francis I., supplied the enemy's army with all 
 kinds of provision from her stores. 
 
 "The King scarcely ever answered excepting 
 
 VOL. I 12
 
 178 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 when the Emperor told the Queen that her 
 staircase and ante-chamber at Versailles resembled 
 more the Turkish bazars of Constantinople 1 than 
 a royal palace. ' But,' added he, laughing, ' I 
 suppose you would not allow the nuisance of 
 hawkers and pedlars almost under your nose, if 
 the sweet perfumes of a handsome present did 
 not compensate for the disagreeable effluvia 
 exhaling from their filthy traffic.' 
 
 "On this, Louis XVI., in a tone of voice 
 somewhat varying from his usual mildness, assured 
 the Emperor that neither himself nor the Queen 
 derived any advantage from the custom, beyond 
 the convenience of purchasing articles inside the 
 palace at the moment they were wanted; without 
 being forced to send for them elsewhere. 
 
 " ' That is the very reason, my dear brother,' 
 replied Joseph, 'why I would not allow these 
 shops to be where they are. The temptation to 
 lavish money to little purpose is too strong; and 
 women have not philosophy enough to resist 
 
 i It was an old custom, in the passages and staircase of 
 all the royal palaces, for tradespeople to sell their merchan- 
 dise for the accommodation of the Court.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 179 
 
 having things they like, when they can be obtained 
 easily, though they may not be wanted.' 
 
 "'Custom,' answered the King 
 
 "'True,' exclaimed the Queen, interrupting 
 him ; ' custom, my dear brother, obliges us to 
 tolerate in France many things which you, in 
 Austria, have long since abolished ; but the French 
 are not to be treated like the Germans. A 
 Frenchman is a slave to habit. His very caprice 
 in the change of fashion, proceeds more from habit 
 than genius or invention. His very restlessness of 
 character is systematic ; and old customs and 
 national habits in a nation virtually spirituelle 
 must not be trifled with. The tree torn up by 
 the roots dies for want of nourishment ; but, on 
 the contrary, when lopped carefully only of its 
 branches the pruning makes it more valuable tc 
 the cultivator and more pleasing to the beholder 
 So it is with national prejudices, which are often 
 but the excrescenses of national virtues. Root 
 them out and you root out virtue and all. They 
 must only be pruned and turned to profit. A 
 Frenchman is more easily killed than subdued. 
 Even his follies generally spring from a high 
 
 122
 
 ISO CHAPTER VIII 
 
 sense of national dignity and honour, which 
 foreigners cannot but respect.' l 
 
 " The Emperor Joseph while in France mixed 
 in all sorts of society to gain information with 
 respect to the popular feeling towards his sister 
 and instruction as to the manners and modes of 
 life and thinking of the French. To this end 
 he would often associate with the lowest of the 
 common people, and generally gave them a louis 
 for their loss of time in attending to him. 
 
 " One day, when he was walking with the 
 young Princess Elizabeth and myself in the public 
 gardens at Versailles and in deep conversation 
 with us, two or three of these louis ladies came 
 up to my side and, not knowing who I was, 
 whispered, ' There's no use in paying such atten- 
 tion to the stranger : After all, when he has got 
 what he wants, he'll only give you a louis a-piece 
 and then send you about your business.' " 
 
 i Little did she think then that the nation she was 
 eulogizing and so proud of governing would one day cause 
 her to repent her partiality by barbarously dragging her to 
 an ignominious trial and cruel death.
 
 CHAPTER VIII l8l 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Thus far extend the anecdotes which the Princess 
 Lamballe has recorded of the Emperor Joseph ; but I 
 cannot dismiss this part of the subject without noticing 
 some mistakes which Madame Campan has admitted 
 into her account of His Imperial Majesty and his visit. 
 
 Maria Antoinette, and not the Queen of Naples, 
 was the Emperor's favourite. The Queen of Naples 
 was the favourite of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 
 who succeeded the Emperor Joseph in a brief reign. 
 This assertion is substantiated by the Queen of Naples 
 herself, who could never persuade Joseph II. to allow 
 the two marriages to take place between her two 
 daughters and the present Emperor and his brother 
 Ferdinand, the late Duke of Tuscany. On the con- 
 trary, he married the present Emperor, then King of 
 the Romans, when very young, to his first wife, the 
 Princess of Wirtemberg, sister to the Empress 
 Dowager of Russia, to stop the continued importuni- 
 ties of his sister, the Queen of Naples, on that subject ; 
 but this Princess dying at Vienna only a few days 
 previous to the death of the Emperor Joseph II., 
 and Leopold succeeding, the marriages between 
 Francis and Ferdinand and the daughters of the 
 Queen of Naples took place soon after Leopold
 
 l82 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 assumed the imperial diadem, when Carolina and 
 Ferdinand, her husband, the late King of Naples, 
 accompanied both their daughters to their respective 
 husbands. 
 
 Though Joseph II. freely acknowledged his sister 
 Carolina's capacity for governing Naples, he was very 
 much displeased at her instigating Pope Pius VI. to 
 come to Vienna to remonstrate with him on the sup- 
 pression of some of his religious houses. He avoided 
 coming to any explanation with the holy father on 
 this or any other subject by never seeing him but 
 in public ; and though the Pope resided for some 
 months at Vienna, and travelled to that city from the 
 ancient Christian capital of the world for no other 
 purpose, yet His Holiness was unable to get a sight 
 of the Emperor except at public levee days, and was 
 obliged to return to Rome with the mortification 
 of having humiliated himself by an utterly fruitless 
 journey. 
 
 When Joseph II. had been informed that the 
 Queen of Naples had expressed herself hostile to his 
 innovations, he told her Ambassador, "T^ltti son padroni 
 a casa sua." 
 
 From these circumstances I think it seems pretty 
 evident that Madame Campan has been led into an 
 error when she says that Joseph II. and the Queen 
 of Naples idolised each other. The very reverse is 
 the fact ; but it was their mutual interest to keep up
 
 CHAPTER VIII 183 
 
 political appearances from the two extreme situations 
 they held in Italy. 
 
 It was Joseph II., on his leaving Italy and coming 
 to Paris, who interested himself with his favourite 
 sister, the Queen of France, to cause the King, her 
 husband, to settle the differences then subsisting be- 
 tween the Court of Naples and that of Spain; and it 
 was his opinion which some time afterwards influenced 
 the Queen of France to refuse the offer of the Queen 
 of Naples to affiance her daughter, the present Duchess 
 D'Angouleme, to the Crown Prince, son of the Queen 
 of Naples, and to propose as more eligible a marriage 
 which, since the Revolution, has taken place between 
 the house of Orleans and that of Naples. 
 
 I know not whether the individuals since united 
 are the same who were then proposed, but the union 
 of the houses was certainly suggested by Maria 
 Antoinette, with the consent of the Duke and Duchess 
 of Orleans, with whom, or rather with the last of 
 whom, the Queen of France was then upon terms oi 
 intimacy.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 JOURNAL CONTINUED PLEASURE OF HEARING OF THE 
 
 BIRTH OF CHILDREN THE QUEEN'S EXULTATION AT 
 
 FINDING HERSELF PREGNANT FAVOURABLE CHANGE 
 IN THE PUBLIC SENTIMENT THE KING'S AUNTS 
 ANNOYED AT THE QUEEN'S PROSPERITY HER PREG- 
 NANCY ASCRIBED BY DU BARRY TO D'ARTOIS 
 
 LAMBALLE INTERFERES TO PREVENT A PRIVATE 
 MEETING BETWEEN THE QUEEN AND BARON 
 BESENVAL COOLNESS IN CONSEQUENCE THE INTER- 
 VIEW GRANTED, AND THE RESULT AS FEARED THE 
 QUEEN SENSIBLE OF HER ERROR THE POLIGNACS 
 NIGHT PROMENADES ON THE TERRACE AT VERSAILLES 
 
 AND AT TRIANON QUEEN'S REMARK ON HEARING 
 
 OF DU BARRY'S INTRIGUE AGAINST HER PRINCESS 
 LAMBALLE DECLINES GOING TO THE EVENING PROME- 
 NADES VERMOND STRENGTHENS MARIA ANTOINETTE'S 
 
 HATRED OF ETIQUETTE HER GOODNESS OF HEART 
 
 DROLL ANECDOTE OF THE CHEVALIER D*EON 
 
 " I REMEMBER an old lady who could not 
 bear to be told of deaths. ' Psha ! Pshaw I ' she 
 would exclaim. ' Bring me no tales of funerals ! 
 Talk of births and of those who are likely to 
 be blest with them 1 These are the joys which 
 gladden old hearts and fill youthful ones with
 
 CHAPTER IX 185 
 
 ecstasy ! It is our own reproduction in children 
 which makes us quit the world happy and con- 
 tented ; because then we only retire to make room 
 for another race, bringing with them all those 
 faculties which are in us decayed ; and capable, 
 which we ourselves have ceased to be, of taking 
 our parts and figuring on the stage of life so long 
 as it may please the Supreme Manager to busy 
 them in earthly scenes ! Then talk no more to me 
 of weeds and mourning, but show me christenings 
 and all those who give employ to the baptismal 
 font ! f 
 
 " Such also was the exulting feeling of Maria 
 Antoinette when she no longer doubted of her 
 wished-for pregnancy. The idea of becoming a 
 mother filled her soul with an exuberant delight, 
 which made the very pavement on which she trod 
 vibrate with the words ' I shall be a mother ! 
 I shall be a mother ! ' She was so overjoyed 
 that she not only made it public throughout 
 France but despatches were sent off to all her 
 royal relatives. And was not her rapture natural ? 
 so long as she had waited for the result of every 
 youthful union, and so coarsely 0s she had been
 
 l86 CHAPTER IX 
 
 reproached with her misfortune ! Now came her 
 triumph. She could now prove to the world, 
 like all the descendants oi the house of Austria, 
 that there was no defect with her. The satirists 
 and the malevolent were silenced. Louis XVI., 
 from the cold, insensible bridegroom, became the 
 infatuated admirer of his long-neglected wife. 
 The enthusiasm with which the event was hailed 
 by all France atoned for the partial insults she 
 had received before it. The splendid fetes, balls, 
 and entertainments, indiscriminately lavished by 
 all ranks throughout the kingdom on this occasion, 
 augmented those of the Queen and the Court to 
 a pitch of magnificence surpassing the most 
 luxurious and voluptuous times of the great and 
 brilliant Louis XIV. Entertainments were given 
 even to the domestics of every description belonging 
 to the royal establishments. Indeed, so general 
 was the joy that, among those who could do 
 no more, there could scarcely be found a father 
 or mother in France who, before they took their 
 wine, did not first offer up a prayer for the 
 prosperous pregnancy of their beloved Queen. 
 
 " And yet, though the situation of Maria
 
 CHAPTER IX 187 
 
 Antoinette was now become the theme of a whole 
 nation's exultation, she herself, the owner of the 
 precious burthen, selected by Heaven as its special 
 depositary, was the only one censured for expressing 
 all her happiness 1 
 
 "Those models of decorum, the virtuous 
 Princesses, her aunts, deemed it highly indelicate 
 in Her Majesty to have given public marks of her 
 satisfaction to those deputed to compliment her 
 on her prosperous situation. To avow the joy 
 she felt was in their eyes indecent and unqueenly. 
 Where was the shrinking bashfulness of that one 
 of these Princesses who had herself been so 
 clamorous to Louis XV. against her husband, the 
 Duke of Modena, for not having consummated 
 her own marriage ? 
 
 "The party of the dismissed favourite Du 
 Barry were still working underground. Their 
 pestiferous vapours issued from the recesses of 
 the earth, to obscure the brightness of the rising 
 sun, which was now rapidly towering to its climax, 
 to obliterate the little planets which had once 
 endeavoured to eclipse its beautiful rays, but were 
 now incapable of competition, and unable to
 
 1 88 CHAPTER IX 
 
 endure its lustre. This malignant nest of serpents 
 began to poison the minds of the courtiers, as 
 soon as the pregnancy was obvious, by inuendos 
 on the partiality of the Count d'Artois for the 
 Queen ; and at length, infamously, and openly, 
 dared to point him out as the cause ! 
 
 " Thus, in the heart of the Court itself, origi- 
 nated this most atrocious slander, long before it 
 reached the nation, and so much assisted to 
 destroy Her Majesty's popularity with a people, 
 who now adored her amiableness, her general 
 kind-heartedness, and her unbounded charity. 
 
 " I have repeatedly seen the Queen and the 
 Count d'Artois together under circumstances in 
 which there could have been no concealment of 
 her real feelings; and I can firmly and boldly 
 assert the falsehood of this allegation against 
 my royal mistress. The only attentions Maria 
 Antoinette received in the earlier part of her 
 residence in France were from her grandfather 
 and her brothers-in-law. Of these, the Count 
 d'Artois was the only one who, from youth and 
 liveliness of character, thoroughly sympathised with 
 his sister. But, beyond the little freedoms of two
 
 CHAPTER IX 189 
 
 young and innocent playmates, nothing can be 
 charged upon their intimacy ; no familiarity 
 whatever farther than was warranted by their 
 relationship. I can bear witness that Her 
 Majesty's attachment for the Count d'Artois never 
 differed in its nature from what she felt for her 
 brother the Emperor Joseph. 1 
 
 "It is very likely that the slander of which 
 I speak, derived some colour of probability 
 afterwards with the million, from the Queen's 
 thoughtlessness, relative to the challenge which 
 passed between the Count d'Artois and the Duke 
 de Bourbon. In right of my station, I was one 
 of Her Majesty's confidential counsellors, and if. 
 became my duty to put restraint upon her inclina- 
 tions, whenever I conceived they led her wrong. 
 
 I When the King thought proper to be reconciled to 
 the Queen after the death of his grandfather, Louis XV., and 
 that she became a mother, she really was very much 
 attached to Louis XVI., as may be proved from her never 
 quitting him, and suffering all the horrid sacrifices she 
 endured, through the whole period of the Revolution, 
 rather than leave her husband, her children, or her 
 sister. Maria Antoinette might have saved her life twenty 
 times, had not the King's safety, united with her own and 
 that of her family, impelled her to reject every proposition 
 of selt-preservation.
 
 1 9O CHAPTER IX 
 
 In this instance, I exercised my prerogative 
 decidedly, and even so much so as to create 
 displeasure ; but I anticipated the consequences, 
 which actually ensued, and preferred to risk my 
 royal mistress's displeasure rather than her repu- 
 tation. The dispute, which led to the duel, was 
 on some point of etiquette ; and the Baron de 
 Besenval was to attend as second to one of the 
 parties. From the Queen's attachment for her 
 royal brother, she wished the affair to be amicably 
 arranged, without the knowledge either of the 
 King, who was ignorant of what had taken place, 
 or of the parties ; which could only be effected 
 by her seeing the baron in the most private 
 manner. I opposed Her Majesty's allowing any 
 interview with the baron upon any terms, unless 
 sanctioned by the King. This unexpected and 
 peremptory refusal obliged the Queen to transfer 
 her confidence to the librarian, who introduced 
 the baron into one of the private apartments of 
 Her Majesty's women, communicating with that 
 of the Queen, where Her Majesty could see the 
 baron without the exposure of passing any of the 
 other attendants. The baron was quite gray, and
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 upwards of sixty years of age! But the self- 
 conceited dotard soon caused the Queen to repent 
 her misplaced confidence, and from his unwarrant- 
 able impudence on that occasion, when he found 
 himself alone with the Queen, Her Majesty, though 
 he was a constant member of the societies of the 
 Polignacs, ever after treated him with sovereign 
 contempt. 
 
 "The Queen herself afterwards described to 
 me the baron's presumptuous attack upon her 
 credulity. From this circumstance I thenceforward 
 totally excluded him from my parties, where Her 
 Majesty was always a regular visitor. 
 
 "The coolness to which my determination 
 not to allow the interview gave rise between Her 
 Majesty and myself was but momentary. The 
 Queen had too much discernment not to appre- 
 ciate the basis upon which my denial was grounded, 
 even before she was convinced by the result how 
 correct had been my reflections. She felt her 
 error, and,, by the mediation of the Duke of 
 Dorset, we were reunited more closely than ever, 
 and so, I trust, we shall remain till death I 
 
 "There was much more attempted to be made
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 of another instance, in which I exercised the duty 
 of my office, than the truth justified the nightly 
 promenades on the terrace at Versailles, or at 
 Trianon. Though no amusement could have been 
 more harmless or innocent for a private individual, 
 yet I certainly disapproved of it for a queen, and 
 therefore withheld the sanction of my attendance. 
 My sole objection was on the score of dignity. I 
 well knew that Du Barry and her infamous party 
 were constant spies upon the Queen on every 
 occasion of such a nature; and that they would 
 not fail to exaggerate her every movement to her 
 prejudice. Though Du Barry could not form 
 one of the party, which was a great source of 
 heart-burning, it was easy for her, under the 
 circumstances, to mingle with the throng. When 
 I suggested these objections to the Queen, Her 
 Majesty, feeling no inward cause of reproach, and 
 being sanctioned in what she did by the King 
 himself, laughed at the idea of these little excur- 
 sions affording food for scandal. I assured Her 
 Majesty that I had every reason to be convinced 
 that Du Barry was often in disguise not far from 
 the. seat where Her Majesty and the Princess
 
 CHAPTER IX 193 
 
 Elizabeth could be overheard in their most secret 
 conversations with each other. ' Listeners,' replied 
 the Queen, ' never hear any good of themselves.' 
 
 " ' My dear Lamballe,' she continued, ' you 
 have taken such a dislike to this woman that you 
 cannot conceive she can be occupied but in mis- 
 chief. This is uncharitable. She certainly has 
 no reason to be dissatisfied with either the King or 
 myself. We have both left her in the full enjoy- 
 ment of all she possessed except the right of 
 appearing at Court or continuing in the society 
 her conduct had too long disgraced.' 
 
 " I said it was very true, but that I should 
 be happier to find Her Majesty so scrupulous as 
 never to give an opportunity even for the false- 
 hoods of her enemies. 
 
 " Her Majesty turned the matter off, as usual, 
 by saying she had no idea of injuring others, and 
 could not believe that anyone would wantonly 
 injure her, adding, 'The Duchess and the Princess 
 Elizabeth, my two sisters, and all the other ladies, 
 are coming to hear the concert this evening, and 
 you will be delighted.' 
 
 " I excused myself under the plea of the night 
 VOL. i 13
 
 IQ4 CHAPTER IX 
 
 air disagreeing with my health, and returned to 
 Versailles without ever making myself one of the 
 nocturnal members of Her Majesty's society, well 
 knowing she could dispense with my presence, 
 there being more than enough ever ready to hurry 
 her by their own imprudence into the folly of 
 despising criticisms, which I always endeavoured 
 to avoid, though I did not fear them. Of these I 
 cannot but consider her secretary as one. The 
 following circumstance connected with the pro- 
 menades is a proof: 
 
 " The Abbe" Vermond was present one day 
 when Maria Antoinette observed that she felt 
 rather indisposed. I attributed it to Her Majesty's 
 having lightened her dress and exposed herself 
 too much to the night air. ' Heavens, madame ! ' 
 cried the Abbe", ' would you always have Her 
 Majesty cased up in steel armour and not take 
 the fresh air without being surrounded by a 
 troop of horse and foot, as a field-marshal is 
 when going to storm a fortress ? Pray, Princess, 
 now that Her Majesty has freed herself from 
 the annoying shackles of Madame Etiquette (the 
 Countess de Noailles), let her enjoy the pleasure
 
 CHAPTER IX 195 
 
 of a simple robe and breathe freely the fresh 
 morning dew, as has been her custom all her 
 life (and as her mother before her, the Empress 
 Maria Theresa, has done and continues to do, even 
 to this day), unfettered by antiquated absurdities 1 
 Let me be anything rather than a Queen of 
 France, if I must be doomed to the slavery of 
 such tyrannical rules I ' 
 
 " ' True ; but, sir,' replied I, ' you should 
 reflect that if you were a Queen of France, 
 France, in making you mistress of her destinies, 
 and placing you at the head of her nation, would 
 in return look for respect from you to her cus- 
 toms and manners. I am born an Italian, but 
 I renounced all national peculiarities of thinking 
 and acting the moment I set my foot on French 
 ground.' 
 
 " ' And so did I,' said Maria Antoinette. 
 
 " ' I know you did, madame,' I answered ; 
 'but I am replying to your preceptor ; and I 
 only wish he saw things in the same light I do. 
 When we are at Rome, we should do as Rome does. 
 You have never had a regicide Bertrand de 
 
 Gurdon, a Ravillac, or a Damiens in Germany ; 
 
 132
 
 196 CHAPTER IX 
 
 but they have been common in France, and the 
 sovereigns of France cannot be too circumspect 
 in their maintenance of ancient etiquette to com- 
 mand the dignified respect of a frivolous and 
 versatile people.' 
 
 " The Queen, though she did not strictly 
 adhere to my counsels or the Abb6's advice, had 
 too much good sense to allow herself to be 
 prejudiced against me by her preceptor; but the 
 Abbe" never entered on the propriety or impro- 
 priety of the Queen's conduct before me, and 
 from the moment I have mentioned studiously 
 avoided, in my presence, anything which could 
 lead to discussion on the change of dress and 
 amusements introduced by Her Majesty. 
 
 "Although I disapproved of Her Majesty's 
 deviations from established forms in this, or, 
 indeed, any respect, yet I never, before or after, 
 expressed my opinion before a third person. 
 
 " Never should I have been so firmly and 
 so long attached to Maria Antoinette, had I not 
 known that her native thorough goodness of 
 heart had been warped and misguided, though 
 acting at the same time with the best intentions,
 
 CHAPTER IX 197 
 
 by a false notion of her real innocence being a 
 sufficient shield against the public censure of 
 such innovations upon national prejudices, as she 
 thought proper to introduce ; the fatal error of 
 conscious rectitude, encouraged in its regardless- 
 ness of appearances by those very persons who 
 well knew that it is only by appearances a nation 
 can judge of its rulers. 
 
 " I remember a ludicrous circumstance arising 
 from the Queen's innocent curiosity, in which, if 
 there were anything to blame, I myself am to 
 be censured for lending myself to it so heartily 
 to satisfy Her Majesty. 
 
 " When the Chevalier d'Eon was allowed to 
 return to France, Her Majesty expressed a 
 particular inclination to see this extraordinary 
 character. From prudential as well as political 
 motives, she was at first easily persuaded to re- 
 press her desire. However, by a most ludicrous 
 occurrence, it was revived, and nothing would do 
 but she must have a sight of the being who had 
 for some time been the talk of every society, and 
 at the period to which I allude was become the 
 mirth of all Paris.
 
 198 CHAPTER IX 
 
 " The Chevalier being one day in a very large 
 party of both sexes, in which, though his appear- 
 ance had more of the old soldier in it than of the 
 character he was compelled malgre lui 1 to adopt, 
 many of the guests having no idea to what sex 
 this nondescript animal really belonged, the con- 
 versation after dinner happened to turn on the 
 manly exercise of fencing. Heated by a subject 
 to him so interesting, the Chevalier, forgetful of 
 the respect due to his assumed garb, started from 
 his seat, and pulling up his petticoats, threw him- 
 self on guard. Though dressed in male attire 
 underneath, this sudden freak sent all the ladies 
 and many of the gentlemen out of the room in 
 double quick time. The Chevalier, however, in- 
 stantly recovering from the first impulse, quietly 
 put down his upper garment, and begged pardon 
 in a gentlemanly manner for having for a moment 
 deviated from the forms of his imposed situation. 
 
 I It may be necessary to observe here that the 
 Chevalier, having from some particular motives been 
 banished from France, was afterward permitted to return 
 only on condition of never appearing but in the disguised 
 dress of a female, though he was always habited in the 
 male costume underneath it.
 
 CHAPTER IX 199 
 
 All the gossips of Paris were presently amused 
 with the story, which, of course, reached the 
 Court, with every droll particular of the pulling 
 up and clapping down the cumbrous paraphernalia 
 of a hoop petticoat. 
 
 "The King and Queen, from the manner in 
 which they enjoyed the tale when told them (and 
 certainly it lost nothing in the report), would not 
 have been the least amused of the party had they 
 been present. His Majesty shook the room with 
 laughing, and the Queen, the Princess Elizabeth, 
 and the other ladies were convulsed at the 
 description. 
 
 " When we were alone, ' How I should like,' 
 said the Queen, ' to see this curious man-woman ! ' 
 ' Indeed,' replied I, ' I have not less curiosity than 
 yourself, and I think we may contrive to let Your 
 Majesty have a peep at him her, I mean ! 
 without compromising your dignity, or offending 
 the minister who interdicted the Chevalier from 
 appearing in your presence. I know he has ex- 
 pressed the greatest mortification, and that his 
 wish to see Your Majesty is almost irrepressible.' 
 
 " ' But how will you be able to contrive this
 
 200 CHAPTER IX 
 
 without its being known to the King, or to the 
 Count de Vergennes, who would never forgive 
 me ? ' exclaimed Her Majesty. 
 
 " ' Why, on Sunday, when you go to chapel, 
 I will cause him, by some means or other, to 
 make his appearance, en grande costume, among the 
 group of ladies who are generally waiting there 
 to be presented to Your Majesty.' 
 
 " ' Oh, you charming creature ! ' said the 
 Queen. ' But won't the minister banish or exile 
 him for it ? ' 
 
 " ' No, no ! He has only been forbidden an 
 audience of Your Majesty at Court,' I replied. 
 
 " ' In good earnest, on the Sunday following, 
 the Chevalier was dressed en costume, with a large 
 hoop, very long train, sack, five rows of ruffles, 
 an immensely high powdered female wig, very 
 beautiful lappets, white gloves, an elegant fan in 
 his hand, his beard closely shaved, his neck and 
 ears adorned with diamond rings and necklaces, 
 and assuming all the airs and graces of a fine lady ! 
 
 " But, unluckily, his anxiety was so great, the 
 moment the Queen made her appearance, to get 
 a sight of Her Majesty, that, on rushing before
 
 CHAPTER IX 201 
 
 the other ladies, his wig and head-dress fell off 
 his head; and, before they could be well replaced, 
 he made so ridiculous a figure, by clapping them, 
 in his confusion, hind part before, that the King, 
 the Queen, and the whole suite, could scarcely 
 refrain from laughing aloud in the church. 
 
 "Thus ended the long longed-for sight of this 
 famous man-woman I 
 
 " As to me, it was a great while before I 
 could recover myself. Even now, I laugh whenever 
 I think of this great lady deprived of her head 
 ornaments, with her bald pate laid bare, to the 
 derision of such a multitude of Parisians, always 
 prompt to divert themselves at the expense of 
 others. However, the affair passed off unheeded, 
 and no one but the Queen and myself ever knew 
 that we ourselves had been innocently the cause 
 of this comical adventure. When we met after 
 Mass, we were so overpowered, that neither of us 
 could speak for laughing. The bishop who 
 officiated, said it was lucky he had no sermon to 
 preach that day, for it would have been difficult 
 for him to have recollected himself, or to have 
 maintained his gravity. The ridiculous appearance
 
 202 CHAPTER IX 
 
 of the Chevalier, he added, was so continually 
 presenting itself before him during the service 
 that it was as much as he could do to restrain 
 himself from laughing, by keeping his eyes con- 
 stantly riveted on the book. Indeed, the oddity 
 of the affair was greatly heightened when, in the 
 middle of the Mass, some charitable hand having 
 adjusted the wig of the Chevalier, he re-entered 
 the chapel as if nothing had happened, and, 
 placing himself exactly opposite the altar, with 
 his train upon his arm, stood fanning himself, 
 a la coquette, with an inflexible self-possession 
 which only rendered it the more difficult for those 
 around him to maintain their composure. 
 
 " Thus ended the Queen's curiosity. The 
 result only made the Chevalier's company in 
 greater request, for everyone became more anxious 
 than ever to know the masculine lady who had 
 lost her wig 1 "
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 OBSERVATIONS OF THE EDITOR JOURNAL CONTINUED 
 BIRTH OP THE DUCHESS D*ANGOULEME MARIA 
 ANTOINETTE DELIVERED OF A DAUPHIN INCREASING 
 INFLUENCE OF THE DUCHESS DE POLIGNAC THE 
 
 ABBA VERMOND HEADS AN INTRIGUE AGAINST IT 
 
 POLIGNAC MADE GOVERNESS OF THE ROYAL CHILDREN 
 HER SPLENDOUR AND INCREASING UNPOPULARITY 
 ENVY AND RESENTMENT OF THE NOBILITY BIRTH OF 
 THE DUKE OF NORMANDY THE QUEEN ACCOMPLISHES 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE DUCHESS DE POLIGNAC's 
 DAUGHTER WITH THE DUKE DE GUICIIE CABALS OF 
 THE COURT MARIA ANTOINETTE'S PARTIALITY FOR 
 THE ENGLISH LIBELS ON THE QUEEN PRIVATE COM- 
 MISSIONS TO SUPPRESS THEM MOTIVES OF THE 
 DUKE DE LAUZUN FOR JOINING THE CALUMNIATORS 
 DROLL CONVERSATION BETWEEN MARIA ANTOINETTE, 
 LADY SPENCER, THE DUKE OF DORSET, ETC., AT 
 
 VERSAILLES INTERESTING VISIT OF THE GRAND 
 
 DUKE OF THE NORTH (AFTERWARDS THE EMPEROR 
 
 PAUL) AND HIS DUCHESS MARIA ANTOINETTE'S 
 
 DISGUST AT THE KING OF SWEDEN AUDACITY OF 
 THE CARDINAL DE ROHAN 
 
 FROM the time that the Princess Lamballe 
 saw the ties between the Queen and her favourite 
 Polignac drawing closer she became less assiduous
 
 204 CHAPTER X 
 
 in her attendance at Court, being reluctant to 
 importune the friends by her presence at an 
 intimacy which she did not approve. She could 
 not, however, withhold her accustomed attentions, 
 as the period of Her Majesty's accouchement 
 approached ; and she has thus noted the circum- 
 stance of the birth of the Duchess d'Angouleme, 
 on the igth of December, 1778. 
 
 ' " The moment for the accomplishment of the 
 Queen's darling hope was now at hand : she was 
 about to become a mother. 
 
 " It had been agreed between Her Majesty 
 and myself, that I was to place myself so near 
 the accoucheur, Vermond, 1 as to be the first to 
 distinguish the sex of the new-born infant, and if 
 she should be delivered of a Dauphin to say, in 
 Italian, II figlio e nato. 
 
 " Her Majesty was, however, foiled even in 
 this the most blissful of her desires. She was 
 delivered of a daughter instead of a Dauphin. 
 
 " From the immense crowd that burst into 
 
 i Brother to the Abb6, whose pride was so great at 
 this honour conferred on his relative, that he never spoke 
 of him without denominating him Monsieur mon frere, 
 I'accoucher de sa Majeste, Vermond.
 
 CHAPTER X 2O5 
 
 the apartment the instant Vermond said, The Queen 
 is happily delivered, Her Majesty was nearly suffo- 
 cated. I had hold of her hand, and as I said La 
 regina e andato, mistaking andato for nato, between 
 the joy of giving birth to a son and the pressure 
 of the crowd, Her Majesty fainted. Overcome by 
 the dangerous situation in which I saw my royal 
 mistress I myself was carried out of the room in 
 a lifeless state. The situation of Her Majesty 
 was for some time very doubtful till the people 
 were dragged with violence from about her, that 
 she might have air. On her recovering, the King 
 was the first person who told her that she was 
 the mother of a very fine Princess. 
 
 " ' Well, then,' said the Queen, ' I am like my 
 mother, for at my birth she also wished for a son 
 instead of a daughter ; and you have lost your 
 wager ' : for the King had betted with Maria 
 Theresa that it would be a son. 
 
 " The King answered her by repeating the 
 lines Metastasio had written on that occasion : 
 lo perdei : 1'augusta figlia 
 
 A pagar, m'a condemnato : 
 Ma s'6 ver che a voi somiglia 
 Tutto il mondo ha guadagnato."
 
 206 CHAPTER X 
 
 The Princess Lamballe again ceased to be 
 constantly about the Queen. Her danger was 
 over, she was a mother, and the attentions of 
 disinterested friendship were no longer indis- 
 pensable. She herself about this time met with 
 a deep affliction. She lost both of her own 
 parents ; and to her sorrows may, in a great 
 degree, be ascribed her silence upon the events 
 which intervened between the birth of Madame 
 and that of the Dauphin. She was as assiduous 
 as ever in her attentions to Her Majesty on her 
 second lying-in. The circumstances of the death 
 of Maria Theresa, the Queen's mother, in the 
 interval which divided the two accouchements, 
 and Her Majesty's anguish, and refusal to see 
 any but Lamballe and Polignac, are too well- 
 known to detain us longer from the notes of the 
 Princess. It is enough for the reader to know 
 that the friendship of Her Majesty for her super- 
 intendent seemed to be gradually reviving in all 
 its early enthusiasm, by her unremitting kindness 
 during the confinements of the Queen ; till, at 
 length, they became more attached than ever. 
 But, not to anticipate, let me return to the 
 narrative.
 
 CHAPTER X 207 
 
 " The public feeling had undergone a great 
 change with respect to Her Majesty from the 
 time of her first accouchement. Still, she was 
 not the mother of a future King. The people 
 looked upon her as belonging to them more than 
 she had done before, and faction was silenced by 
 the general delight. But she had not yet attained 
 the climax of her felicity. A second pregnancy 
 gave a new excitement to the nation ; and, at 
 length, on the 22nd October, 1781, dawned the 
 day of hope. 
 
 "In consequence of what happened on the 
 first accouchement, measures were taken to pre- 
 vent similar disasters on the second. The number 
 admitted into the apartment was circumscribed. 
 The silence observed left the Queen in uncertainty 
 of the sex to which she had given birth, till, 
 with tears of joy, the King said to her ' Madame, 
 the hopes of the nation, and mine, are fulfilled. 
 You are the mother of a Dauphin.' 
 
 " The Princess Elizabeth and myself were so 
 overjoyed that we embraced everyone in the 
 room. 
 
 " At this time Their Majesties were adored.
 
 208 CHAPTER X 
 
 Maria Antoinette, with all her beauty and amiable- 
 ness, was a mere cipher in the eyes of France 
 previous to her becoming the mother of an heir to 
 the Crown ; but her popularity now arose to a 
 pitch of unequalled enthusiasm. 
 
 " I have heard of but one expression to Her 
 Majesty upon this occasion in any way savouring 
 of discontent. This came from the royal aunts. 
 On Maria Antoinette's expressing to them her joy 
 in having brought a Dauphin to the nation, they 
 replied, ' We will only repeat our father's obser- 
 vation on a similar subject. When one of our 
 sisters complained to his late Majesty that, as her 
 Italian husband had copied the Dauphin's whim, 
 she could not, though long a bride, boast of being 
 a wife, or hope to become a mother ' ' a prudent 
 Princess,' replied Louis XV., ' never wants heirs 1 ' 
 But the feeling of the royal aunts was an exception 
 to the general sentiment, which really seemed like 
 madness. 
 
 " I remember a proof of this which happened 
 at the time. Chancing to cross the King's path 
 as he was going to Marly and I coming from 
 Rambouillet, my two postillions jumped from their
 
 
 'ARIE- 
 
 SA 
 PRIXCESSE DE LAMBALLE 
 
 After a painting by Claude Hoin 

 
 208 CHAPTER X 
 
 Maria Antoinette, with all her beauty c ble- 
 
 ness, was a mere cipher in the eyes of France 
 previous to her becoming the mother of an heir to 
 the Crown ; but her popularity now arose to a 
 pitch of unequalled enthusiasm. 
 
 " I have heard of but one expression to Her 
 Majesty upon this occasion in any way savouring 
 of discontent. This came from the royal aunts. 
 On Maria Antoinette's expressing to them her joy 
 
 in having brought a Dauphin to the nation, they 
 repho.^^e^fJW^^^W^^g obser . 
 
 M on t^&M^fei^9^Hfofl one of our 
 
 :lAAU<c\\kkA m ^^VAT^hat, as her 
 
 )a.uphin's whim, 
 
 iwto'&wsYS ^ -sttrt^fc ^A\k : ' ast f bcing 
 me a mother ' * a prudent 
 
 XV., ' never wants heirs ! ' 
 
 the feeling of the royal aunts was an exception 
 
 .t, which really seemed like 
 
 " 1 remember a proof of t h happened 
 
 at the time. Chancing to cross the King's path 
 as he was going to Marly and I coming from 
 Rambouillet, my two postillions jumped from their
 
 CHAPTER X 20Q 
 
 horses, threw themselves on the high road upon 
 their knees, though it was very dirty, and remained 
 there, offering up their benedictions, till he was 
 out of sight. 1 
 
 " The felicity of the Queen was too great not 
 to be soon overcast. The unbounded influence of 
 the Polignacs was now at its zenith. It could not 
 fail of being attacked. Every engine of malice, 
 envy, and detraction was let loose ; and in the 
 vilest calumnies against the character of the 
 Duchess, her Royal mistress was included. 
 
 " It was, in truth, a most singular fatality in 
 the life of Maria Antoinette that she could do 
 nothing, however beneficial or disinterested, for 
 which she was not either criticised or censured. 
 She had a tenacity of character which made her 
 cling more closely to attachments from which she 
 saw others desirous of estranging her ; and this 
 firmness, however excellent in principle, was, in 
 her case, fatal in its effects. The Abbe Vermond, 
 Her Majesty's confessor and tutor, and, unfor- 
 
 i These very men, perhaps, but a short time after, 
 were among the regicides who caused him to be butchered 
 on the scaffold ! What a lesson for Princes I 
 
 VOL. I 14
 
 2IO CHAPTER X 
 
 tunately, in many respects, her ambitious guide, 
 was really alarmed at the rising favour of the 
 Duchess ; and though he knew the very obstacles 
 thrown in her way only strengthened her resolution 
 as to any favourite object, yet he ventured to head 
 an intrigue to destroy the great influence of the 
 Polignacs, which, as he might have foreseen, only 
 served to hasten their aggrandisement. 
 
 " At this crisis the dissipation of the Duke 
 de Guemene'e caused him to become a bankrupt. 
 I know not whether it can be said in principle, 
 but certainly it may in property, ' It is an ill 
 wind that blows no one any good.' The Princess, 
 his wife, having been obliged to leave her residence 
 at Versailles, in consequence of the Duke's dis- 
 missal from the King's service on account of the 
 disordered state of his pecuniary circumstances, 
 the situation of governess to the royal children 
 became necessarily vacant, and was immediately 
 transferred to the Duchess de Polignac. The 
 Queen, to enable her friend to support her station 
 with all the eclat suitable to its dignity, took 
 care to supply ample means from her own private 
 purse. A most magnificent suite of apartments
 
 CHAPTER X 211 
 
 was ordered to be arranged, under the immediate 
 inspection of the Queen's maitre d'hotel, at Her 
 Majesty's expense. 
 
 " Is there anything on earth more natural 
 than the lively interest which inspires a mother 
 towards those who have the care of her offspring ? 
 What then, must have been the feelings of a Queen 
 of France who had been deprived of that blessing 
 for which connubial attachments are formed, and 
 which, vice versa, constitutes the only real happiness 
 of every young female. What must have been, I 
 say, the ecstasy of Maria Antoinette when she not 
 only found herself a mother, but the dear pledges 
 of all her future bliss in the hands of one whose 
 friendship allowed her the unrestrained exercise of 
 maternal affection : a climax of felicity combining 
 not only the pleasures of an ordinary mother, but 
 the greatness, the dignity, and the flattering popu- 
 larity of a Queen of France. 
 
 " Though the pension of the Duchess de 
 Polignac was no more than that usually allotted 
 to all former governesses of the royal children of 
 France, yet circumstances tempted her to a display 
 
 not a little injurious to her popularity as well as 
 
 142
 
 212 CHAPTER X 
 
 to that of her royal mistress. She gave too many 
 pretexts to imputations of extravagance. Yet she 
 had neither patronage, nor sinecures, nor immuni- 
 ties beyond the few inseparable from the office she 
 held, and which had been the same for centuries 
 under the Monarchy of France. But it must be 
 remembered, as an excuse for the splendour of her 
 establishment, that she entered her office upon a 
 footing very different from that of any of her 
 predecessors. Her mansion was not the quiet, 
 retired, simple household of the governess of the 
 royal children, as formerly : it had become the 
 magnificent resort of the first Queen in Europe ; 
 the daily haunt of Her Majesty. The Queen 
 certainly visited the former governess, as she had 
 done the Duchess de Duras and many other 
 frequenters of her Court parties ; but she made 
 the Duchess de Polignac's her Court ; and all the 
 courtiers of that Court, and I may say, the great 
 personages of all France, as well as the ministers 
 and all foreigners of distinction, held there their 
 usual rendezvous ; consequently, there was nothing 
 wanting but the guards in attendance in the 
 Queen's apartments to have made it a royal
 
 CHAPTER X 213 
 
 residence suitable for the reception of the illustrious 
 personages that were, in the constant habit of 
 visiting these levees, assemblies, balls, routs, pic- 
 nics, dinner, supper, and card parties. 1 
 
 " Much as some of the higher classes of the 
 nobility felt aggrieved at the preference given by 
 
 i I have seen ladies at the Princess Lamballe's come 
 from these card parties with their laps so blackened by 
 the quantities of gold received in them, that they have been 
 obliged to change their dresses to go to supper. Many a 
 chevalier d'industrie and young military spendthrift has made 
 his harvest here. Thousands were won and lost, and the 
 ladies were generally the dupes of all those who were the 
 constant speculative attendants. The Princess Lamballe did 
 not like play, but when it was necessary she did play, and 
 won or lost to a limited extent ; but the prescribed sum 
 once exhausted or gained she left off. In set parties, such 
 as those of whist, she never played except when one was 
 wanted, often excusing herself on the score of its requiring 
 more attention than it was in her power to give to it and 
 her reluctance to sacrifice her partner ; though I have heard 
 Beau Dillon, the Duke of Dorset, Lord Edward Dillon, and 
 many others say that she understood and played the game 
 much better than many who had a higher opinion of their 
 skill in it. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was admitted to the 
 parties at the Duchess de Polignac's on his first coming 
 to Paris ; but when his connection with the Duke of Orleans 
 and Madame de Genlis became known he was informed 
 that his society would be dispensed with. The famous, or 
 rather the infamous, Beckford was also excluded.
 
 214 CHAPTER X 
 
 the Queen to the Duchess de Polignac, that which 
 raised against Her Majesty the most implacable 
 resentment was her frequenting the parties of her 
 favourite more than those of any other of the 
 haut ton. These assemblies, from the situation 
 held by the Duchess, could not always be the 
 most select. Many of the guests who chanced to 
 get access to them from a mere glimpse of the 
 Queen whose general good humour, vivacity, and 
 constant wish to please all around her would 
 often make her commit herself unconsciously and 
 unintentionally would fabricate anecdotes of things 
 they had neither seen nor heard ; and which 
 never had existence, except in their own wicked 
 imaginations. The scene of the inventions, circu- 
 lated against Her Majesty through France, was, 
 in consequence, generally placed at the Duchess's ; 
 but they were usually so distinctly and obviously 
 false that no notice was taken of them, nor was 
 any attempt made to check their promulgation. 
 
 " Exemplary as was the friendship between 
 this enthusiastic pair, how much more fortunate 
 for both would it have been had it never hap- 
 pened 1 I foresaw the results long, long before
 
 CHAPTER X 215 
 
 they took place ; but the Queen was not to be 
 thwarted. Fearful she might attribute my anxiety 
 for her general safety to unworthy personal views, 
 I was often silent, even when duty bade me 
 speak. I was, perhaps, too scrupulous about 
 seeming officious or jealous of the predilection 
 shown to the Duchess. Experience had taught 
 me the inutility of representing consequences, 
 and I had no wish to quarrel with the Queen. 
 Indeed, there was a degree of coldness towards 
 me on the part of Her Majesty for having gone 
 so far as I had done. It was not till after the 
 birth of the Duke of Normandy, her third child, 
 in March, 1785, that her friendship resumed its 
 primitive warmth. 
 
 " As the children grew, Her Majesty's attach- 
 ment for their governess grew with them. All that 
 has been said of Tasso's Armida was nothing to 
 this luxurious temple of maternal affection. Never 
 was female friendship more strongly cemented, or 
 less disturbed by the nauseous poison of envy, 
 malice, or mean jealousy. The Queen was in 
 the plenitude of every earthly enjoyment, from 
 being able to see and contribute to the education
 
 2l6 CHAPTER X 
 
 of the children she tenderly loved, unrestrained 
 by the gothic etiquette, with which all former 
 royal mothers had been fettered, but which the 
 kind indulgence of the Duchess de Polignac broke 
 through, as unnatural and unworthy of the en- 
 lightened and affectionate. The Duchess was 
 herself an attentive, careful mother. She felt for 
 the Queen, and encouraged her maternal sym- 
 pathies, so doubly endeared by the long, long 
 disappointment which had preceded their gratifi- 
 cation. The sacrifice of all the cold forms of 
 state policy by the new governess, and the free 
 access she gave the royal mother to her children, 
 so unprecedented in the Court of France, rendered 
 Maria Antoinette so grateful that it may justly 
 be said she divided her heart between the gover- 
 ness and the governed. Habit soon made it 
 necessary for her existence that she should dedi- 
 cate the whole of her time, not taken up in public 
 ceremonies or parties, to the cultivation of the 
 minds of her children. Conscious of her own 
 deficiency in this respect, she determined to re- 
 deem this error in her offspring. The love of the 
 frivolous amusements of society, for which the
 
 CHAPTER X 217 
 
 want of higher cultivation left room in her mind, 
 was humoured by the gaieties of the Duchess de 
 Polignac's assemblies ; while her nobler dispositions 
 were encouraged by the privileges of the favourite's 
 station. Thus, all her inclinations harmonising 
 with the habits and position of her friend, Maria 
 Antoinette literally passed the greatest part of 
 some years in company with the Duchess de 
 Polignac; either amidst the glare and bustle of 
 public recreation, or in the private apartment of 
 the governess and her children, increasing as much 
 as possible the kindness of the one for the benefit 
 and comfort of the others. The attachment of 
 the Duchess to the royal children was returned 
 by the Queen's affection for the offspring of the 
 Duchess. So much was Her Majesty interested 
 in favour of the daughter of the Duchess, that, 
 before that young lady was fifteen years of age, 
 she herself contrived and accomplished her mar- 
 riage with the Duke de Guiche, then maitre de 
 cere"monie to Her Majesty, and whose interests 
 were essentially promoted by this alliance. 1 
 
 I The Duke de Guiche, since Duke de Grammont, has 
 proved how much he merited the distinctions he received,
 
 2l8 CHAPTER X 
 
 " The great cabals, which agitated the Court 
 in consequence of the favour shown to the 
 Polignacs, were not slow in declaring themselves. 
 The Countess de Noailles was one of the fore- 
 most among the discontented. Her resignation, 
 upon the appointment of a superintendent, was 
 a sufficient evidence of her real feeling; but when 
 she now saw a place filled, to which she conceived 
 her family had a claim, her displeasure could not 
 be silent, and her dislike to the Queen began to 
 express itself without reserve. 
 
 " Another source of dissatisfaction against the 
 
 in consequence of the attachment between the Queen and 
 his mother-in-law, by the devotedness with which he followed 
 the fallen fortunes of the Bourbons till their restoration, 
 since which he has not been forgotten. The Duchess, his 
 wife, who at her marriage was beaming with all the beauties 
 of her age, and adorned by art and nature with every accom- 
 plishment, though she came into notice at a time when 
 the Court had scarcely recovered itself from the debauched 
 morals by which it had been so long degraded by a Pom- 
 padour and a Du Barry, has yet preserved her character, 
 by the strictness of her conduct, free from the censorious 
 criticisms of an epoch in which some of the purest could 
 not escape unassailed. I saw her at Pyrmont in 1803 ; and 
 even then, though the mother of many children, she looked 
 as young and beautiful as ever. She was remarkably 
 well educated and accomplished, a profound musician on 
 the harp and pianoforte, graceful in her conversation, and 
 a most charming dancer. She seemed to bear the vicissi-
 
 CHAPTER X 2ig 
 
 Queen was her extreme partiality for the English. 
 After the peace of Versailles, in 1783, the English 
 flocked into France, and I believe if a poodle dog 
 had come from England it would have met with 
 a good reception from Her Majesty. This was 
 natural enough. The American war had been 
 carried on entirely against her wish; though, from 
 the influence she was supposed to exercise in the 
 cabinet, it was presumed to have been managed 
 entirely by herself. This odious opinion she wished 
 personally to destroy; and it could only be done 
 by the distinction with which, after the peace, she 
 treated the whole English nation. 1 
 
 tudes of fortune with a philosophical courage and resignation 
 not often to be met with in light-headed French women. 
 She was amiable in her manners, easy of access, always 
 lively and cheerful, and enthusiastically attached to the 
 country whence she was then excluded. She constantly 
 accompanied the wife of the late Louis XVIII. during her 
 travels in Germany, as her husband the Duke did His 
 Majesty during his residence at Mittau, in Courland, &c. 
 I have had the honour of seeing the Duke twice since the 
 Revolution ; once, on my coming from Russia, at General 
 Binkingdroff's, Governor of Mittau, and since, in Portland 
 Place, at the French Ambassador's, on his coming to 
 England hi the name of his sovereign, to congratulate the 
 King of England on his accession to the throne. 
 
 i The daughter of the Duchess de Polignac (of my 
 meeting with whom I have already spoken in a note),
 
 22O CHAPTER X 
 
 "Several of the English nobility were on a 
 familiar footing at the parties of the Duchess de 
 Polignac. This was quite enough for the slan- 
 derers. They were all ranked, and that publicly, 
 as lovers of Her Majesty. I recollect when there 
 were no less than five different private commis- 
 sioners out, to suppress the libels that were in 
 
 entering with me upon the subject of France and of old 
 times, observed that had the Queen limited her attachment 
 to the person of her mother, she would not have given all 
 the annoyance which she did, to the nobility. It was to 
 these partialities to the English, the Duchess de Guiche 
 Grammont alluded. I do not know the lady's name dis- 
 tinctly, but I am certain I have heard the beautiful Lady 
 Sarah Bunbury mentioned by the Princess Lamballe as 
 having received particular attention from the Queen ; for the 
 Princess had heard much about this lady and "a certain 
 great personage " in England ; but, on discovering her 
 acquaintance with the Duke of Lauzun, Her Majesty with- 
 drew from the intimacy, though not soon enough to prevent 
 its having given food for scandal. " You must remember," 
 added the Duchess de Guiche Grammont, " how much the 
 Queen was censured for her enthusiasm about Lady 
 Spencer." I replied that I did remember the much-ado 
 about nothing there was regarding some English lady, to 
 whom the Queen took a liking, whose name I could not 
 exactly recall; but I knew well she studied to please the 
 English in general. Of this Lady Spencer it is that the 
 Princess speaks in one of the following pages of this 
 chapter.
 
 CHAPTER X 221 
 
 circulation over all France, against the Queen and 
 Lord Edward Dillon, the Duke of Dorset, Lord 
 George Conway, Arthur Dillon, as well as Count 
 Fersen, the Duke de Lauzun, and the Count 
 d'Artois, who were all not only constant fre- 
 quenters of Polignac's but visitors of Maria 
 Antoinette. 
 
 " By the false policy of Her Majesty's advisers, 
 these enemies and libellers, instead of being brought 
 to the condign punishment their infamy deserved, 
 were privately hushed into silence, out of delicacy 
 to the Queen's feelings, by large sums of money 
 and pensions, which encouraged numbers to com- 
 mit the same enormity in the hope of obtaining 
 the same recompense. 
 
 " But these were mercenary wretches, from 
 whom no better could have been expected. A 
 legitimate mode of robbery had been pressed upon 
 their notice by the Government itself, and they 
 thought it only a matter of fair speculation to 
 make the best of it. There were some libellers, 
 however, of a higher order, in comparison with 
 whose motives for slander, those of the mere 
 scandal-jobbers were white as the driven snow.
 
 222 CHAPTER X 
 
 Of these, one of the worst was the Duke de 
 Lauzun. 
 
 " The first motive of the Queen's strong dislike 
 to the Duke de Lauzun sprang from Her Majesty's 
 attachment to the Duchess of Orleans, whom she 
 really loved. She was greatly displeased at the 
 injury inflicted upon her valued friend by Lauzun, 
 in estranging the affection of the Duke of Orleans 
 from his wife by introducing him to depraved 
 society. Among the associates to which this con- 
 nection led the Duke of Orleans were a certain 
 Madame Duthee and Madame Buffon. 
 
 " When Lauzun, after having been expelled 
 from the drawing-room of the Queen for his inso- 
 lent presumption, 1 meeting with coolness at the 
 King's levee, sought to cover his disgrace by 
 appearing at the assemblies of the Duchess de 
 Polignac, her grace was too sincerely the friend 
 of her sovereign and benefactress not to perceive 
 the drift of his conduct. She consequently signified 
 to the self-sufficient coxcomb that her assemblies 
 were not open to the public. Being thus shut 
 out from Their Majesties, and, as a natural result, 
 
 i The allusion here is to the affair of the heron plume.
 
 CHAPTER X 223 
 
 excluded from the most brilliant societies of Paris, 
 Lauzun, from a most diabolical spirit of revenge, 
 joined the nefarious party which had succeeded in 
 poisoning the mind of the Duke of Orleans, and 
 from the hordes of which, like the burning lava 
 from Etna, issued calumnies which swept the most 
 virtuous and innocent victims that ever breathed, 
 to their destruction ! l 
 
 "Among the Queen's favourites, and those 
 most in request at the Polignac parties, was the 
 good Lady Spencer, with whom I became most 
 intimately acquainted when I first went to England ; 
 and from whom, as well as from her two charming 
 daughters, the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady 
 Duncannon, since Lady Besborough, I received 
 the greatest marks of cordial hospitality. In 
 
 i These vicious rivals in killing characters and 
 blackening virtue with imputations of every vice, never 
 lost sight of their victims till fate, cutting the thread of 
 their own execrable existence, terminated a long career of 
 crime too horrible to dwell upon ! The whole story of the 
 Princess Czartsorinski, to whom I have the honour of being 
 allied, related by Lauzun, is totally destitute of any shadow 
 of truth. This one instance will show how much credit is 
 due to the rest of his infamous assertions against the honour 
 and character of many others of the illustrious persons 
 whom his venomous tongue has traduced.
 
 224 CHAPTER X 
 
 consequence, when her ladyship came to France, 
 I hastened to present her to the Queen. Her 
 Majesty, taking a great liking to the amiable 
 Englishwoman and wishing to profit by her private 
 conversations and society, gave orders that Lady 
 Spencer should pass to her private closet when- 
 ever she came to Versailles, without the formal 
 ceremony of waiting in the ante-chamber to be 
 announced. 
 
 " One day, Her Majesty, Lady Spencer, and 
 myself were observing the difficulty there was in 
 acquiring a correct pronunciation of the English 
 language, when Lady Spencer remarked that it 
 only required a little attention. 
 
 " ' I beg your pardon,' said the Queen, 
 ' that's not all, because there are many things 
 you do not call by their proper names, as they 
 are in the dictionary.' 
 
 " ' Pray what are they, please your Majesty ? ' 
 
 " ' Well, I will give you an instance. For 
 example, les culottes what do you call them ? ' 
 
 " ' Small clothes,' replied her ladyship. 
 
 " ' Ma foi 1 how can they be call small 
 clothes for one large man ? Now I do look in
 
 CHAPTER X 225 
 
 the dictionary, and I find, pour le mot culottes- 
 breeches.' 
 
 " ' Oh, please your Majesty, we never call 
 them by that name in England. 1 
 
 " ' Voila done, j'ai raison ! ' 
 
 "'We say inexpressibles I ' 
 
 " ' Ah, c'est mieux ! Dat do please me ver 
 much better. II y a du bon sens la dedans. C'est 
 une autre chose ! ' 
 
 " In the midst of this curious dialogue, in 
 came the Duke of Dorset, Lord Edward Dillon, 
 Count Fersen, and several English gentlemen, 
 who, as they were going to the King's hunt, were 
 all dressed in new buckskin breeches. 
 
 " ' I do not like,' exclaimed the Queen to 
 them, ' dem yellow irresistibles 1 * 
 
 " Lady Spencer nearly fainted. ' Vat make you 
 so frightful, my dear lady ? ' said the Queen to her 
 ladyship, who was covering her face with her 
 hands. ' I am terrified at Your Majesty's mistake.' 
 ' Comment ? did you no tell me just now, dat in 
 England de lady call de culottes irresistibles ? ' ' O 
 mercy ! I never could have made such a mistake, 
 
 as to have applied to that part of the male dress 
 VOL. i 15
 
 226 CHAPTER X 
 
 such a word, I said, please Your Majesty, inex- 
 pressibles. 
 
 "On this the gentlemen all laughed most 
 heartily. 
 
 "'Veil, veil,' replied the Queen, 'do, my dear 
 lady, discompose yourself. I vill no more call de 
 breeches irresistibles, but say small clothes, if even 
 elles sont upon a giant ! ' 
 
 "At the repetition of the naughty word breeches, 
 poor Lady Spencer's English delicacy quite over- 
 came her. Forgetting where she was, and also 
 the company she was in, she ran from the room 
 with her cross stick in her hand, ready to lay it 
 on the shoulders of anyone who should attempt 
 to obstruct her passage, flew into her carriage, 
 and drove off full speed, as if fearful of being con- 
 taminated : all to the no small amusement of the 
 male guests. 
 
 " Her Majesty and I laughed till the very 
 tears ran down our cheeks. The Duke of Dorset, 
 to keep up the joke, said there really were some 
 counties in England where they called culottes 
 irresistibles. 
 
 " Now that I am upon the subject of England,
 
 CHAPTER X 227 
 
 and the peace of 1783, which brought such throngs 
 of English over to France, there occurs to me a 
 circumstance, relating to the treaty of commerce 
 signed at that time, which exhibits the Count de 
 Vergennes to some advantage; and with that let 
 me dismiss the topic. 
 
 " The Count de Vergennes was one of the 
 most distinguished ministers of France. I was 
 intimately acquainted with him. His general 
 character for uprightness prompted his sovereign 
 to govern in a manner congenial to his own good- 
 ness of heart, which was certainly most for the 
 advantage of his subjects. Vergennes cautioned 
 Louis against the hypocritical adulations of his 
 privileged courtiers. The Count had been schooled 
 in state policy by the great Venetian senator, 
 Francis Foscari, the subtlest politician of his age, 
 whom he consulted during his life on every im- 
 portant matter; and he was not very easily to be 
 deceived. 
 
 " When the treaty of commerce took place, 
 at the period I mention, the experienced Vergennes 
 foresaw what afterwards really happened that 
 France would be inundated with British manu- 
 
 152
 
 228 CHAPTER X 
 
 factures ; but Calonne obstinately maintained the 
 contrary; till he was severely reminded of the 
 consequence of his misguided policy, in the insults 
 inflicted on him by enraged mobs of thousands 
 of French artificers, whenever he appeared in 
 public. But though the mania for British goods 
 had literally caused an entire stagnation of busi- 
 ness in the French manufacturing towns, and 
 thrown throngs upon the pave" for want of employ- 
 ment, yet M. de Calonne either did not see, or 
 pretended not to see, the errors he had com- 
 mitted. Being informed that the Count de 
 Vergennes had justly attributed the public dis- 
 orders to his fallacious policy, M. de Calonne 
 sent a friend to the Count demanding satisfaction 
 for the charge of having caused the riots. The 
 Count calmly replied that he was too much of a 
 man of honour to take so great an advantage, as 
 to avail himself of the opportunity offered, by 
 killing a man who had only one life to dispose 
 of, when there were so many with a prior claim, 
 who were anxious to destroy him en societe. ' Bid 
 M. de Calonne,' continued the Count, ' first get 
 out of that scrape, as the English boxers do
 
 CHAPTER X 229 
 
 when their eyes are closed up after a pitched 
 battle. He has been playing at blind man's buff, 
 but the poverty to which he has reduced so 
 many of our trades-people has torn the English 
 bandage from his eyes ! ' For three or four days 
 the Count de Vergennes visited publicly, and 
 showed himself everywhere in and about Paris ; 
 but M. de Calonne was so well convinced of the 
 truth of the old fox's satire that he pocketed 
 his annoyance, and no more was said about fighting. 
 Indeed, the Count de Vergennes gave hints of 
 being able to show that M. de Calonne had been 
 bribed into the treaty." 
 
 The Princess Lamballe has alluded in a former 
 page to the happiness which the Queen enjoyed 
 during the visits of the foreign princes to the 
 Court of France. Her papers contain a few 
 passages upon the opinions Her Majesty enter- 
 tained of the royal travellers ; which, although 
 in the order of time they should have been men- 
 tioned before the peace with England, yet, not to 
 disturb the chain of the narrative, respecting the 
 connexion with the Princess Lamballe, of the pre-
 
 230 CHAPTER X 
 
 vailing libels, and the partiality shown towards 
 the English, I have reserved them for the con- 
 clusion of the present chapter. The timidity 
 of the Queen in the presence of the illustrious 
 strangers, and her agitation when about to receive 
 them, have, I think, been already spoken of. Upon 
 the subject of the royal travellers themselves, and 
 other personages, the Princess expresses herself 
 thus. 
 
 " The Queen had never been an admirer of 
 Catharine II. Notwithstanding her studied policy 
 for the advancement of civilization in her internal 
 empire, the means w!iich, aided by the Princess 
 Dashkoff, she made use of to seat herself on the 
 imperial throne of her weak husband, Peter the 
 Third, had made her more understood than 
 esteemed. Yet when her son, the Grand Duke of 
 the North, 1 and the Grand Duchess, his wife, came 
 to France, their description of Catharine's real 
 character so shocked the maternal sensibility ol 
 
 i Afterwards the unhappy Emperor Paul.
 
 CHAPTER X 231 
 
 Maria Antoinette that she could scarcely hear the 
 name of the Empress without shuddering. The 
 Grand Duke spoke of Catharine without the least 
 disguise. He said he travelled merely for the security 
 of his life from his mother, who had surrounded 
 him with creatures that were his sworn enemies, 
 her own spies and infamous favourites, to whose 
 caprices they were utterly subordinate. He was 
 aware that the dangerous credulity of the Empress 
 might be every hour excited by these wretches to 
 the destruction of himself and his Duchess, and, 
 therefore, he had in absence sought the only 
 refuge. He had no wish, he said, ever to return 
 to his native country, till Heaven should check 
 his mother's doubts respecting his dutiful filial 
 affection towards her, or till God should be pleased 
 to take her into his sacred keeping. 
 
 "The King was petrified at the Duke's des- 
 cription of his situation, and the Queen could not 
 refrain from tears when the Duchess, his wife, 
 confirmed all her husband had uttered on the 
 subject. The Duchess said she had been warned 
 by the untimely fate of the Princess d'Armstadt, 
 her predecessor, the first wife of the Grand Duke,
 
 232 CHAPTER X 
 
 to elude similar jealousy and suspicion on the part 
 of her mother-in-law, by seclusion from the Court, 
 in a country residence with her husband; indeed, 
 that she had made it a point never to visit Peters- 
 burg, except on the express invitation of the 
 Empress, as if she had been a foreigner. 
 
 " In this system the Grand Duchess perse- 
 vered, even after her return from her travels. 
 When she became pregnant, and drew near her 
 accouchement, the Empress-mother permitted her 
 to come to Petersburg for that purpose ; but, as 
 soon as the ceremony required by the etiquette of 
 the Imperial Court on those occasions ended, the 
 Duchess immediately returned to her hermitage. 
 
 " This Princess was remarkably well-educa- 
 ted ; she possessed a great deal of good, sound 
 sense, and had profited by the instructions of some 
 of the best German tutors during her very early 
 years. It was the policy of her father, the Duke 
 of Wirtemberg, who had a large family, to educate 
 his children as quietists in matters of religion. He 
 foresaw that the natural charms and acquired 
 abilities of his daughters would one day call them 
 to be the ornaments of the most distinguished
 
 CHAPTER X 233 
 
 Courts in Europe, and he thought it prudent 
 not to instil early prejudices in favour of peculiar 
 forms of religion which might afterwards present 
 an obstacle to their aggrandisement. 1 
 
 " The notorious vices of the King of Denmark, 
 and his total neglect both of his young Queen, 
 Carolina Matilda, and of the interest of his distant 
 dominions, while in Paris, created a feeling in the 
 
 i The first daughter of the Duke of Wirtemberg was 
 the first wife of the present Emperor of Austria. She 
 embraced the Catholic faith and died very young, two 
 days before the Emperor Joseph the Second, at Vienna. 
 The present Empress Dowager, late wife to Paul, became a 
 proselyte to the Greek religion on her arrival at Petersburg. 
 The son of the Duke of Wirtemberg, who succeeded him 
 in the Dukedom, was a Protestant, it being his interest to 
 profess that religion for the security of his inheritance. 
 Prince Ferdinand, who was in the Austrian service, and 
 a long time Governor of Vienna, was a Catholic, as he 
 could not otherwise have enjoyed that office. He was of 
 a very superior character to the Duke, his brother. Prince 
 Louis, who held a commission under the Prussian Monarch, 
 foUowed the religion of the country where he served, and 
 the other Princes, who were in the employment of Sweden 
 and other countries, found no difficulty in conforming them- 
 selves to the religion of the sovereigns under whom they 
 served. None of them having any established forms of 
 worship, they naturally embraced that which conduced 
 most to their aggrandisement, emolument, or dignity.
 
 234 CHAPTER :: 
 
 Queen's mind towards that house which was not 
 a little heightened by her disgust at the King of 
 Sweden, when he visited the Court of Versailles. 
 This King, though much more crafty than his 
 brother-in-law, the King of Denmark, who revelled 
 openly in his depravities, was not less vicious. 
 The deception he made use of in usurping part 
 of the rights of his people, combined with the 
 worthlessness and duplicity of his private conduct, 
 excited a strong indignation in the mind of Maria 
 Antoinette, of which she was scarcely capable of 
 withholding the expression in his presence. 
 
 " It was during the visit of the Duke and 
 Duchess of the North, that the Cardinal de Rohan 
 again appeared upon the scene. For eight or ten 
 years he had never been allowed to show himself 
 at Court, and had been totally shut out of every 
 society where the Queen visited. On the arrival oJ 
 the illustrious travellers at Versailles, the Queen, 
 at her own expense, gave them a grand fete at 
 her private palace, in the gardens of Trianon, 
 similar to the one given by the Count de Provence 1 
 
 x Afterwards Louis XVIII,
 
 CHAPTER X 235 
 
 to Her Majesty, in the gardens of Brunoi. 
 
 " On the eve of the fete, the Cardinal waited 
 upon me to know if he would be permitted to 
 appear there in the character he had the honour 
 to hold at Court. I replied that I had made it 
 a rule never to interfere in the private or public 
 amusements of the Court, and that his Eminence 
 must be the best judge how far he could obtrude 
 himself upon the Queen's private parties, to which 
 only a select number had been invited, in conse- 
 quence of the confined spot where the fete was 
 to be given. 
 
 "The Cardinal left me, not much satisfied at 
 his reception. Determined to follow, as usual, his 
 own misguided passion, he immediately went to 
 Trianonj disguised with a large cloak. He saw 
 the porter, and bribed him. He only wished, he 
 said, to be placed in a situation whence he might 
 see the Duke and Duchess of the North without 
 being seen ; but no sooner did he perceive the 
 porter engaged at some distance than he left his 
 cloak at the lodge, and went forward in his 
 cardinal's dress, as if he had been one of the 
 invited guests, placing himself purposely in the
 
 236 CHAPTER X 
 
 Queen's path to attract her attention as she rode 
 by in the carriage with the Duke and Duchess. 
 
 " The Queen was shocked and thunderstruck 
 at seeing him. But, great as was her annoyance, 
 knowing the Cardinal had not been invited and 
 ought not to have been there, she only discharged 
 the porter who had been seduced to let him in; 
 and though the King, on being made acquainted 
 with his treachery, would have banished his Emi- 
 nence a hundred leagues from the capital, yet the 
 Queen, the royal aunts, the Princess Elizabeth, 
 and myself, not to make the affair public, and 
 thereby disgrace the high order of his ecclesias- 
 tical dignity, prevented the King from exercising 
 his authority by commanding instant exile. 
 
 " Indeed, the Queen could never get the better 
 of her fears of being some day, or in some way 
 or other, betrayed by the Cardinal, for having 
 made him the confidant of the mortification she 
 would have suffered if the projected marriage of 
 Louis XV. and her sister had been solemnized. 
 On this account she uniformly opposed whatever 
 harshness the King at any time intended against 
 the Cardinal.
 
 CHAPTER X 237 
 
 " Thus was this wicked prelate left at leisure 
 to premeditate the horrid plot of the famous neck- 
 lace, the ever memorable fraud, which so fatally 
 verified the presentiments ol the Queen."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 EDITOR'S OBSERVATIONS, AND RECAPITULATION OF THE 
 LEADING PARTICULARS OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE 
 PLOT JOURNAL RESUMED PRINCESS LAMBALLE's RE- 
 MARKS ON THAT DARK TRANSACTION VERGENNES 
 OPPOSES JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION THE QUEEN'S 
 PARTY PREVAIL IN BRINGING THE AFFAIR BEFORE 
 THE COUNCIL GROUNDLESSNESS OF THE CHARGE 
 
 AGAINST MARIA ANTOINETTE CONFUSION OF ROHAN 
 
 WHEN CONFRONTED WITH THE QUEEN HE PROCURES 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL THE LETTERS OF THE 
 OTHER CONSPIRATORS MEANS RESORTED TO BY 
 ROHAN'S FRIENDS TO OBTAIN HIS ACQUITTAL THE 
 PRINCESS CONDfi EXPENDS LARGE SUMS FOR THAT 
 PURPOSE HER CONFUSION WHEN THE PROOFS OF 
 HER BRIBERY ARE EXHIBITED THE KING'S IMPAR- 
 TIALITY MR. SHERIDAN DISCOVERS THE TREACHERY 
 OF M. DE CALONNE CALONNE's ABJECT BEHAVIOUR, 
 DISMISSAL, AND DISGRACE NOTE OF THE EDITOR 
 
 THE production of The Marriage of Figaro, 
 by Beaumarchais, upon the stage at Paris, so 
 replete with indecorous and slanderous allusions 
 to the royal family, had spread the prejudices 
 against the Queen through the whole kingdom 
 and every rank of France, j'ust in time to prepare
 
 CHAPTER XI 239 
 
 all minds for the deadly blow which her Majesty 
 received from the infamous plot of the diamond 
 necklace. From this year, 1785, crimes and mis- 
 fortunes trod closely on each others' heels in the 
 history of the ill-starred Queen ; and one calamity 
 only disappeared to make way for the greater. 
 
 The destruction of the papers, which would 
 have thoroughly explained the transaction, has still 
 left all its essential particulars in some degree of 
 mystery; and the interest of the clergy, who 
 supported one of their own body, coupled with 
 the arts and bribes of the high houses connected 
 with the plotting prelate, must, of course, have 
 discoloured greatly even what was well known. 
 
 It will be recollected that before the accession 
 of Louis XVI. the Cardinal de Rohan was dis- 
 graced in consequence of his intrigues that all 
 his ingenuity was afterwards unremittingly exerted 
 to obtain renewed favour that he once obtruded 
 himself upon the notice of the Queen in the 
 gardens of Trianon and that his conduct in so 
 doing excited the indignation it deserved, but was 
 left unpunished owing to the entreaties of the best 
 friends of the Queen, and her own secret horror
 
 240 CHAPTER XI 
 
 of a man who had already caused her so much 
 anguish. 
 
 With the histories of the fraud everyone is 
 acquainted. That of Madame Campan, as far as 
 it goes, is sufficiently detailed and correct to spare 
 me the necessity of expatiating upon this theme of 
 villainy. Yet, to assist the reader's memory, before 
 returning to the Journal of the Princess Lamballe, 
 I shall recapitulate the leading particulars. 
 
 The Cardinal had become connected with a 
 young, but artful and necessitous, woman, of the 
 name of Lamotte. It was known that the darling 
 ambition of the Cardinal was to regain the favour 
 of the Queen. 
 
 The necklace, which has been already spoken 
 of, and which was originally destined by Louis XV. 
 for Maria Antoinette had her hand, by divorce, 
 been transferred to him, but which, though after- 
 wards intended by Louis XV. for his mistress, 
 Du Barry, never came to her in consequence of 
 his death this fatal necklace was still in existence, 
 and in the possession of the crown jewellers, 
 Bcehmer and Bassange. It was valued at eighteen 
 hundred thousand livres. The jewellers had often
 
 CHAPTER XI 241 
 
 pressed it upon the Queen, and even the King 
 himself had enforced its acceptance. But the 
 Queen dreaded the expense, especially at an epoch 
 of pecuniary difficulty in the state, much more than 
 she coveted the jewels, and uniformly and reso- 
 lutely declined them, although they had been 
 proposed to her on very easy terms of payment, 
 as she really did not like ornaments. 
 
 It was made to appear at the parliamentary 
 investigation that the artful Lamotte had impelled 
 the Cardinal to believe that she herself was in 
 communication with the Queen ; that she had 
 interested Her Majesty in favour of the long 
 slighted Cardinal ; that she had fabricated a cor- 
 respondence, in which professions of penitence on 
 the part of Rohan were answered by assurances of 
 forgiveness from the Queen. The result of this 
 correspondence was represented to be the engage- 
 ment of the Cardinal to negociate the purchase of 
 the necklace secretly, by a contract for periodical 
 payments. To the forgery of papers was added, 
 it was declared, the substitution of the Queen's 
 person, by dressing up a girl of the Palais Royal 
 
 to represent Her Majesty, whom she in some 
 VOL. i 1 6
 
 242 CHAPTER XI 
 
 degree resembled, in a secret and rapid interview 
 with Rohan in a dark grove of the gardens of 
 Versailles, where she was to give the Cardinal a 
 rose, in token of her royal approbation, and then 
 hastily disappear. The importunity of the jewel- 
 lers, on the failure of the stipulated payment, 
 disclosed the plot. A direct appeal of theirs to 
 the Queen, to save them from ruin, was the 
 immediate source of detection. The Cardinal 
 was arrested, and all the parties tried. But 
 the Cardinal was acquitted, and Lamotte and a 
 subordinate agent alone punished. The quack 
 Cagliostro was also in the plot, but he, too, 
 escaped, like his confederate the Cardinal, who 
 was made to appear as the dupe of Lamotte. 
 
 The Queen never got over the effect of this 
 affair. Her friends well knew the danger of severe 
 measures towards one capable of collecting around 
 him strong support against a power already so 
 much weakened by faction and discord. But the 
 indignation of conscious innocence insulted, pre- 
 vailed, though to its ruin 1 
 
 But it is time to let the Princess Lamballe 
 give her own impressions upon this fatal subject, 
 and in her own words.
 
 CHAPTER XI 243 
 
 " How could Messieurs Bcehmer and Bassange 
 presume that the Queen would have employed 
 any third person to obtain- an article of such 
 value, without enabling them to produce an un- 
 equivocal document signed by her own hand and 
 countersigned by mine, as had ever been the rule 
 during my superintendence of the household, when- 
 ever anything was ordered from the jewellers by 
 Her Majesty ? Why did not Messieurs Bcehmer 
 and Bassange wait on me, when they saw a 
 document unauthorised by me, and so widely 
 departing from the established forms ? I must 
 still think, as I have often said to the King, that 
 Bcehmer and Bassange wished to get rid of this 
 dead weight of diamonds in any way, and the 
 Queen having unfortunately been led by me to 
 hush up many foul libels against her reputation, 
 as I then thought it prudent she should do, 
 rather than compromise her character with wretches 
 capable of doing anything to injure her, these jewel- 
 lers, judging from this erroneous policy of the 
 past, imagined that in this instance, also, rather 
 than hazard exposure, Her Majesty would pay 
 
 them for the necklace. This was a compromise 
 
 1 6 2
 
 244 CHAPTER XI 
 
 which I myself resisted, though so decidedly ad- 
 verse to bringing the affair before the nation by 
 a public trial. Of such an explosion, I foresaw 
 the consequences, and I ardently entreated the 
 King and Queen to take other measures. But, 
 though till now so hostile to severity with the 
 Cardinal, the Queen felt herself so insulted by the 
 proceeding that she gave up every other consider- 
 ation to make manifest her innocence. 
 
 "The wary Count de Vergennes did all he 
 could to prevent the affair from getting before the 
 public. Against the opinion of the King and the 
 whole council of ministers he opposed judicial pro- 
 ceedings. Not that he conceived the Cardinal 
 altogether guiltless; but he foresaw the fatal con- 
 sequences that must result to Her Majesty, from 
 bringing to trial an ecclesiastic of such rank ; for 
 he well knew that the host of the higher orders 
 of the nobility, to whom the prelate was allied, 
 would naturally strain every point to blacken the 
 character of the King and Queen, as the only 
 means of exonerating their kinsman in the eyes 
 of the world from the criminal mystery attached 
 to that most diabolical intrigue against the fair
 
 CHAPTER XI 245 
 
 fame of Maria Antoinette. The Count could not 
 bear the idea of the Queen's name being coupled 
 with those of the vile wretches, Lamotte and the 
 mountebank Cagliostro, and therefore wished the 
 King to chastise the Cardinal by a partial exile, 
 which might have been removed at pleasure. But 
 the Queen's party too fatally seconded her feelings, 
 and prevailed. 
 
 " I sat by Her Majesty's bedside the whole of 
 the night, after I heard what had been determined 
 against the Cardinal by the council of ministers, 
 to beg her to use all her interest with the King 
 to persuade him to revoke the order of the war- 
 rant for the prelate's arrest. To this the Queen 
 replied, ' Then the King, the ministers, and the 
 people, will all deem me guilty.' 
 
 " Her Majesty's remark stopped all farther 
 argument upon the subject, and I had the incon- 
 solable grief to see my royal mistress rushing upon 
 dangers which I had no power of preventing her 
 from bringing upon herself. 
 
 " The slanderers who had imputed such 
 unbounded influence to the Queen over the mind 
 of Louis XVI. should have been consistent enough
 
 246 CHAPTER XI 
 
 to consider that with but a twentieth part of the 
 tithe of her imputed power, uncontrolled as she 
 then was by national authority, she might, without 
 any exposure to third persons, have at once sent 
 one of her pages to the garde-meuble and other 
 royal depositaries, replete with hidden treasures of 
 precious stones which never saw the light, and 
 thence have supplied herself with more than 
 enough to form ten necklaces, or to have fully 
 satisfied, in any way she liked, the most un- 
 bounded passion for diamonds, for the use of 
 which she would never have been called to ac- 
 count. 
 
 " But the truth is, the Queen had no love of 
 ornaments. A proof occurred very soon after I 
 had the honour to be nominated Her Majesty's 
 superintendent. On the day of the great fete of 
 the Cordon Bleu, when it was the etiquette to 
 wear diamonds and pearls, the Queen had omitted 
 putting them on. As there had been a greater 
 affluence of visitors than usual that morning, and 
 Her Majesty's 'toilet was overthronged by Princes 
 and Princesses, I fancied in the bustle that the 
 omission proceeded from forgetfulness. Conse-
 
 CHAPTER XI 247 
 
 quently, I sent the tire woman, in the Queen's 
 hearing, to order the jewels to be brought in. 
 Smilingly, Her Majesty replied, ' No, no 1 I have 
 not forgotten these gaudy things ; but I do not 
 intend that the lustre of my eyes should be out- 
 shone by the one, or the whiteness of my teeth 
 by the other; however, as you wish art to eclipse 
 nature, I'll wear them to satisfy you, ma belle 
 dame 1 ' 
 
 " The King was always so thoroughly indulgent 
 to Her Majesty with regard both to her public 
 and private conduct that she never had any pretext 
 for those reserves which sometimes tempt Queens 
 as well as the wives of private individuals to 
 commit themselves to third persons for articles of 
 high value, which their caprice indiscreetly impels 
 them to procure unknown to their natural guardians. 
 Maria Antoinette had no reproach or censure for 
 plunging into expenses beyond her means to appre- 
 hend from her royal husband. On the contrary, 
 the King himself had spontaneously offered to pur- 
 chase the necklace from the jewellers, who had 
 urged it on him without limiting any time for 
 payment. It was the intention of His Majesty
 
 248 CHAPTER XI 
 
 to have liquidated it out of his private purse. 
 But Maria Antoinette declined the gift. Twice 
 in my presence was the refusal repeated before 
 Messieurs Bcehmer and Bassange. Who, then, can 
 for a moment presume, after all these circumstances, 
 that the Queen of France, with a nation's wealth 
 at her feet and thousands of individuals offering 
 her millions, which she never accepted, would 
 have so far degraded herself and the honour of 
 the nation, of which she was born to be the 
 ornament, as to place herself gratuitously in the 
 power of a knot of wretches, headed by a man 
 whose general bad character for years had excluded 
 him from Court and every respectable society, and 
 had made the Queen herself mark him as an object 
 of the utmost aversion. 
 
 " If these circumstances be not sufficient 
 adequately to open the eyes of those whom 
 prejudice has blinded, and whose ears have been 
 deafened against truth, by the clamours of sinister 
 conspirators against the monarchy instead of the 
 monarchs ; if all these circumstances, I repeat, 
 do not completely acquit the Queen, argument, or 
 even ocular demonstration itself, would be thrown
 
 CHAPTER XI 249 
 
 away. Posterity will judge impartially, and with 
 impartial judges the integrity of Maria Antoinette 
 needs no defender. 
 
 " When the natural tendency of the character 
 of Rohan to romantic and extraordinary intrigue 
 is considered in connection with the associates 
 he had gathered around him, the plot of the 
 necklace ceases to be a source of wonder. At 
 the time the Cardinal was most at a loss for 
 means to meet the necessities of his extravagance, 
 and to obtain some means of access to the Queen, 
 the mounteback quack, Cagliostro, made his ap- 
 pearance in France. His fame had soon flown 
 from Strasburg to Paris, the magnet of vices and 
 the seat of criminals. The Prince-Cardinal, known 
 of old as a seeker after everything of notoriety, 
 soon became the intimate of one who flattered 
 him with the accomplishment of all his dreams 
 in the realization of the philosopher's stone ; con- 
 verting puffs and French paste into brilliants ; 
 Roman pearls into Oriental ones ; and turning 
 earth to gold. The Cardinal, always in want of 
 means to supply the insatiable exigencies of his 
 ungovernable vices, had been the dupe through life
 
 250 CHAPTER XI 
 
 of his own credulity a drowning man catching 
 at a straw ! But instead of making gold of base 
 materials, Cagliostro's brass soon relieved his blind 
 adherent of all his sterling metal. As many needy 
 persons enlisted under the banners of this nostrum 
 speculator, it is not to be wondered at that the 
 infamous name of the Countess de Lamotte, and 
 others of the same stamp, should have thus fallen 
 into an association of the Prince-Cardinal ; or 
 that her libellous stories of the Queen of France 
 should have found eager promulgators, where the 
 real diamonds of the famous necklace being taken 
 apart were divided piecemeal among a horde of 
 the most depraved sharpers that ever existed to 
 make human nature blush at its own degradation ! l 
 
 i Cagliostro, when he came to Rome, for I know not 
 whether there had been any previous intimacy, got acquainted 
 with a certain Marchese Vivaldi, a Roman, whose wife had 
 been for years the chere amis of the last Venetian ambas- 
 sador, Peter Pesaro, a noble patrician, and who has ever 
 since his embassy at Rome been his constant companion 
 and now resides with him in England. No men in Europe 
 are more constant in their attachments than the Venetians. 
 Pesaro is the sole proprietor of one of the most beautiful 
 and magnificent palaces on the Grand Canal at Venice, 
 though he now lives in the outskirts of London, in a small 
 house, not so large as one of the offices of his immense
 
 CHAPTER XI 251 
 
 " Eight or ten years had elapsed from the 
 time Her Majesty had last seen the Cardinal to 
 speak to him, with the exception of the casual 
 glance as she drove by when he furtively intro- 
 duced himself into the garden at the fete at 
 
 noble palace, where his agent transacts his business. The 
 husband of Pesaro's chere amie, the Marchese Vivaldi, when 
 Cagliostro was arrested and sent to the Castello Santo 
 Angelo at Rome, was obliged to fly his country, and went to 
 Venice, where he was kept secreted and maintained by the 
 Marquis Solari, and it was only through his means and those 
 of the Cardinal Consalvi, then known only as the musical' 
 Abbe Consalvi, from his great attachment to the immortal 
 Cimarosa, that Vivaldi was ever allowed to return to his 
 native country ; but Consalvi, who was the friend of Vivaldi, 
 feeling with the Marquis Solari much interested for his 
 situation, they together contrived to convince Pius VI. that 
 he was more to be pitied than blamed, and thus obtained his 
 recall. I have merely given this note as a further warning 
 to be drawn from the connections of the Cardinal de Rohan, 
 to deter hunters after novelty from forming ties with innova- 
 tors and impostors. Cagliostro was ultimately condemned, 
 by the Roman laws under Pope Pius VI. for life, to the 
 galleys, where he died. 
 
 Proverbs ought to be respected ; for it is said that no 
 phrase becomes a proverb until after a century's experience 
 of its truth. In England, it is proverbial to judge of men 
 by the company they keep. To judge of the Cardinal de 
 Rohan from his most intimate friend, the galley-slave, 
 Cagliostro, what shall we say of his dignity as a prince, and 
 his purity as a prelate?
 
 252 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Trianon, till he was brought to the King's cabinet 
 when arrested, and interrogated, and confronted 
 with her face to face. The Prince started when 
 he saw her. The comparison of her features with 
 those of the guilty wretch who had dared to 
 personate her in the garden at Versailles com- 
 pletely destroyed his self-possession. Her Majesty's 
 person was become fuller, and her face was much 
 longer than that of the infamous d'Oliva. He 
 could neither speak nor write an intelligible reply 
 to the questions put to him. All he could utter, 
 and that only in broken accents, was, ' I'll pay ! 
 I'll pay Messieurs Bassange.' 
 
 " Had he not speedily recovered himself, all 
 the mystery in which this affair has been left, so 
 injuriously to the Queen, might have been prevented. 
 His papers would have declared the history of 
 every particular, and distinctly established the 
 extent of his crime and the thorough innocence 
 of Maria Antoinette of any connivance at the 
 fraud, or any knowledge of the necklace. But 
 when the Cardinal was ordered by the King's 
 council to be put under arrest, his self-possession 
 returned. He was given in charge to an officer
 
 CHAPTER XI 253 
 
 totally unacquainted with the nature of the accu- 
 sation. Considering only the character of his 
 prisoner as one of the highest dignitaries of the 
 Church, from ignorance and inexperience, he left 
 the Cardinal an opportunity to write a German 
 note to his factotum, the Abb Georgel. In this 
 note the trusty secretary was ordered to destroy 
 all the letters of Cagliostro, Madame de Lamotte, 
 and the other wretched associates of the infamous 
 conspiracy ; and the traitor was scarcely in custody 
 when every evidence of his treason had disappeared. 
 The note to Georgel saved his master from expiating 
 his offence at the Place de Greve. 
 
 " The consequences of the affair would have 
 been less injurious, however, had it been managed, 
 even as it stood, with better judgment and temper. 
 But it was improperly entrusted to the Baron de 
 Brteuil and the Abb6 Vermond, both sworn ene- 
 mies of the Cardinal. Their main object was the 
 ruin of him they hated, and they listened only to 
 their resentments. They never weighed the danger 
 of publicly prosecuting an individual whose con- 
 demnation would involve the first families in 
 France, for he was allied even to many of the
 
 254 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Princes of the blood. They should have considered 
 that exalted personages, naturally feeling as if any 
 crime proved against their kinsman would be a 
 stain upon themselves, would of course resort to 
 every artifice to exonerate the accused. To 
 criminate the Queen was the only and the obvious 
 method. Few are those nearest the Crown who 
 are not most jealous of its wearers ! Look at the 
 long civil wars of York and Lancaster, and the 
 short reign of Richard. The downfall of Kings 
 meets less resistance than that of their inferiors. 
 
 " Still, notwithstanding all the deplorable 
 blunders committed in this business of Rohan, 
 justice was not smothered without great difficulty. 
 His acquittal cost the families of Rohan and 
 Conde more than a million of livres, distributed 
 amorg all ranks of the clergy ; besides immense 
 sums sent to the Court of Rome to make it 
 invalidate the judgment of the civil authority of 
 France upon so high a member of the Church, 
 and to induce it to order the Cardinal's being 
 sent to Rome by way of screening him from the 
 prosecution, under the plausible pretext of more 
 rigid justice.
 
 CHAPTER XI 255 
 
 "Considerable sums in money and jewels were 
 also lavished on all the female relatives of the 
 peers of France, who were destined to sit on the 
 trial. The Abbe" Georgel bribed the press, and 
 extravagantly paid all the literary pens in France 
 to produce the most Jesuitical and sophisticated 
 arguments in his patron's justification. Though 
 these writers dared not accuse or in any way 
 criminate the Queen, yet the respectful doubts, 
 with which their defence of her were seasoned, 
 did infinitely more mischief than any direct attack, 
 which could have been directly answered. 
 
 " The long cherished, but till now smothered, 
 resentment of the Countess de Noailles, the scrupu- 
 lous Madame Etiquette, burst forth on this occa- 
 sion. Openly joining the Cardinal's party against 
 her former mistress and sovereign, she recruited 
 and armed all in favour of her prote"g6 ; for it was 
 by her intrigues Rohan had been nominated 
 ambassador to Vienna. Mesdames de Gue'me'ne'e 
 and Marsan, rival pretenders to favours of His 
 Eminence, were equally earnest to support him 
 against the Queen. In short, there was scarcely 
 a family of distinction in France that, from the
 
 256 CHAPTER XI 
 
 libels which then inundated the kingdom, did 
 not consider the King as having infringed on 
 their prerogatives and privileges in accusing the 
 Cardinal. 
 
 " Shortly after the acquittal of this most artful, 
 and, in the present instance, certainly too fortunate 
 prelate, the Princess Conde came to congratulate 
 me on the Queen's innocence, and her kinsman's 
 liberation from the Bastille. 
 
 " Without the slightest observation, I pro- 
 duced to the Princess documents in proof of the 
 immense sums she alone had expended in bribing 
 the judges and other persons, to save her relation, 
 the Cardinal, by criminating Her Majesty. 
 
 " The Princess Conde" instantly fell into 
 violent hysterics, and was carried home apparently 
 lifeless. 
 
 " I have often reproached myself for having 
 given that sudden shock and poignant anguish to 
 her highness, but I could not have supposed that 
 one who came so barefacedly to impress me with 
 the Cardinal's innocence, could have been less firm 
 in refuting her own guilt. 
 
 " I never mentioned the circumstance to the
 
 CHAPTER XI 257 
 
 Queen. Had I done so, her highness would 
 have been for ever excluded from the Court and 
 the royal presence. This was no time to increase 
 the enemies of Her Majesty, and the affair of the 
 trial being ended, I thought it best to prevent any 
 further breach from a discord between the Court 
 and the house of Conde. However, from a cold- 
 ness subsisting ever after between the Princess and 
 myself, I doubt not that the Queen had her sus- 
 picions that all was not as it should be in that 
 quarter. Indeed, though Her Majesty never con- 
 fessed it, I think she herself had discovered some- 
 thing at that very time not altogether to the credit 
 of the Princess Conde", for she ceased going, from 
 that period, to any of the fetes given at Chantilly. 
 " These were but a small portion of the 
 various instruments successfully levelled by parties, 
 even the least suspected, to blacken and destroy 
 the fair fame of Maria Antoinette. 
 
 " The document which so justly alarmed the 
 Princess Conde when I showed it to her came 
 into my hands in the following manner : 
 
 " Whenever a distressed family, or any par- 
 ticular individual, applied to me for relief, or was 
 VOL. i 17
 
 258 CHAPTER XI 
 
 otherwise recommended for charitable purposes, I 
 generally sent my little English prote'ge'e on 
 whose veracity, well knowing the goodness of her 
 heart, I could rely, 1 to ascertain whether their 
 claims were really well grounded. 
 
 " One day, I received an earnest memorial 
 from a family, desiring to make some private 
 communications of peculiar delicacy. I sent my 
 usual ambassadress to inquire into its import. On 
 making her mission known, she found no difficulty 
 in ascertaining the object of the application. It 
 proceeded from conscientious distress of mind. A 
 relation of this family had been the regular con- 
 fessor of a convent. With the Lady Abbess of 
 this convent and her trusty nuns the Princess 
 Cond6 had deposited considerable sums of money, 
 to be bestowed in creating influence in favour of 
 the Cardinal de Rohan. The confessor, being a 
 man of some consideration among the clergy, was 
 
 i Indeed, I never deceived the Princess on these occa- 
 sions. She was so generously charitable that I should have 
 conceived it a crime. When I could get no satisfactory 
 information, I said I could not trace anything undeserving 
 her charity, and left her highness to exercise her own 
 discretion.
 
 CHAPTER XI 259 
 
 applied to, to use his influence with the needier 
 members of the Church more immediately about 
 him, as well as those of higher station, to whom 
 he had access, in furthering the purposes of the 
 Princess Cond6. The bribes were applied as 
 intended. But, at the near approach of death, the 
 confessor was struck with remorse. He begged 
 his family, without mentioning his name, to send 
 the accounts and vouchers of the sums he had so 
 distributed, to me, as a proof of his contrition, 
 that I might make what use of them I should 
 think proper. The papers were handed to my 
 messenger, who pledged her word of honour that 
 I would certainly adhere to the dying man's last 
 injunctions. She desired they might be sealed up 
 by the family, and by them directed to me. 1 She 
 then hastened back to our place of rendezvous, 
 where I waited for her, and where she consigned 
 the packet into my own hands. 
 
 " That part of the papers which compromised 
 only the Princess Cond was shown by me to the 
 Princess on the occasion I have mentioned. It 
 
 I To this day, I neither know the name of the con- 
 vent or the confessor. 
 
 172
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 shocked at the detection of having suborned the 
 clergy and others with heavy bribes to avert the 
 deserved fate of the Cardinal. I kept this part 
 of the packet secret till the King's two aunts, who 
 had also been warm advocates in favour of the 
 prelate, left Paris for Rome. Then, as Pius VI. 
 had interested himself as head of the Church for 
 the honour of one of its members, I gave them 
 these very papers to deliver to His Holiness for 
 his private perusal. I was desirous of enabling 
 this truly charitable and Christian head of our 
 sacred religion to judge how far his interference 
 was justified by facts. I am thoroughly convinced, 
 that had he been sooner furnished with these 
 evidences, instead of blaming the royal proceeding 
 he would have urged it on, nay, would himself 
 have been the first to advise that the foul con- 
 spiracy should be dragged into open day. 1 
 
 "The Count de Vergennes told me that the 
 
 I But these proofs came too late to redeem the cha- 
 racter of her, whom fate, cruel fate 1 had written in the book 
 of destinies a victim in this world, for her immortal salva- 
 tion in the next. Never saint more merited to be ranked 
 in the long list of martyrs than Maria Antoinette.
 
 CHAPTER XI 26l 
 
 King displayed the greatest impartiality throughout 
 the whole investigation for the exculpation of the 
 Queen, and made good his title on this, as he 
 did on every occasion where his own unbiassed 
 feelings and opinions were called into action, to 
 great esteem for much higher qualities than the 
 world has usually given him credit for. 
 
 " I have been accused of having opened the 
 prison doors of the culprit Lamotte for her escape; 
 but the charge is false. I interested myself, as 
 was my duty, to shield the Queen from public 
 reproach by having Lamotte sent to a place of 
 penitence ; but I never interfered, except to lessen 
 her punishment, after the judicial proceedings. The 
 diamonds, in the hands of her vile associates at 
 Paris, procured her ample means to escape. I 
 should have been the Queen's greatest enemy had 
 I been the cause of giving liberty to one who 
 acted, and might naturally have been expected to 
 act, as this depraved woman did. 
 
 " Through the private correspondence which 
 was carried on between this country and England, 
 after I had left it, I was informed that M. de 
 Calonne, whom the Queen never liked, and who
 
 202 CHAPTER XI 
 
 was called to the administration against her will 
 which he knew, and consequently became one of 
 her secret enemies in the affair of the necklace 
 was discovered to have been actively employed 
 against Her Majesty in the work published in 
 London by Lamotte. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan was the gentleman who first 
 gave me this information. 
 
 " I immediately sent a trusty person by the 
 Queen's orders to London, to buy up the whole 
 work. It was too late. It had been already so 
 widely circulated that its consequences could no 
 longer be prevented. I was lucky enough, how- 
 ever, for a considerable sum to get a copy from a 
 person intimate with the author, the margin of 
 which, in the hand-writing of M. de Calonne, 
 actually contained numerous additional circum- 
 stances which were to have been published in a 
 second edition 1 This publication my agent, aided 
 by some English gentlemen, arrived in time to 
 suppress. 
 
 "The copy I allude to was brought to Paris 
 and shown to the Queen. She instantly flew with 
 it in her hands to the King's cabinet.
 
 CHAPTER XI 263 
 
 " ' Now, sire/ exclaimed she, ' I hope you will 
 be convinced that my enemies are those whom I 
 have long considered as the most pernicious of 
 Your Majesty's councillors your own cabinet 
 ministers your M. de Calonne ! respecting 
 whom I have often given you my opinion, 
 which, unfortunately, has always been attributed 
 to mere female caprice, or as having been biassed 
 by the intrigues of Court favourites 1 This, I 
 hope, Your Majesty will now be able to con- 
 tradict 1 ' 
 
 " The King all this time was looking over 
 the different pages containing M. de Calonne's 
 additions on their margins. On recognising the 
 hand-writing, His Majesty was so affected by this 
 discovered treachery of his minister and the agi- 
 tation of his calumniated Queen that he could 
 scarcely articulate. 
 
 " ' Where,' said he, ' did you procure this ? ' 
 
 " ' Through the means, sire, of some of the 
 worthy members of that nation your treacherous 
 ministers made our enemy from England 1 where 
 your unfortunate Queen, your injured wife, is com- 
 passionated 1 '
 
 264 CHAPTER XI 
 
 " ' Who got it for you ? ' 
 
 " * My dearest, my real, and my only sincere 
 friend, the Princess Lamballe ! ' 
 
 " The King requested I should be sent for. 
 I came. As may be imagined, I was received 
 with the warmest sentiments of affection by both 
 Their Majesties. I then laid before the King the 
 letter of Mr. Sheridan, which was, in substance, 
 as follows 1 : 
 
 ' ' MADAM, 
 
 '"A work of mine, which I did not choose 
 should be printed, was published in Dublin and trans- 
 mitted to be sold in London. As soon as I was informed 
 of it, and had procured a spurious copy, I went to the 
 bookseller to put a stop to its circulation. I there met 
 with a copy of the work of Madame de Lamotte, which 
 has been corrected by someone at Paris and sent back 
 to the bookseller for a second edition. Though not in 
 time to suppress the first edition, owing to its rapid 
 circulation, I have had interest enough, through the 
 means of the bookseller of whom I speak, to remit 
 you the copy which has been sent as the basis of a 
 new one. The corrections, I am told, are by one of 
 
 i The letter was, of course, translated in the Journal 
 of the Princess into Italian ; and is thence here restored 
 into English. The original letter probably shared the fate 
 of other papers of her highness in the revolutionary riots.
 
 CHAPTER XI 265 
 
 the King's ministers. If true, I should imagine the 
 writer will be easily traced. 
 
 " I am happy that it has been in my power to 
 make this discovery, and I hope it will be the means 
 of putting a stop tc this most scandalous publication. 
 I feel myself honoured in having contributed thus far 
 to the wishes of Her Majesty, which I hope I have 
 fulfilled to the entire satisfaction of your highness. 
 
 " ' Should anything further transpire on this sub- 
 ject, I will give you the earliest information. 
 
 " ' I remain, madam, with profound respect, your 
 highness' most devoted, 
 
 very humble servant, 
 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.'* 
 
 " M. de Calonne immediately received the 
 King's mandate to resign the portfolio. The min- 
 ister desired that he might be allowed to give his 
 resignation to the King himself. His request was 
 granted. The Queen was present at the interview. 
 
 i Madame Campan mentions in her work that the 
 Queen had informed her of the treachery of the minister, 
 but did not enter into particulars, nor explain the mode or 
 source of its detection. Notwithstanding the parties had 
 bound themselves for the sums they received not to reprint 
 the work, a second edition appeared a short time afterwards 
 in London. This, which was again bought up by the 
 French ambassador, was the same which was to have been 
 burned by the King's command at the china manufactory 
 at Sevres.
 
 266 CHAPTER XI 
 
 The work in question was produced. On behold- 
 ing it, the minister nearly fainted. The King got 
 up and left the room. The Queen, who remained, 
 told M. de Calonne that His Majesty had no 
 further occasion for his services. He fell on his 
 knees. He was not allowed to speak, but was 
 desired to leave Paris. 
 
 "The dismissal and disgrace of M. de Calonne 
 were scarcely known before all Paris vociferated 
 that they were owing to the intrigues of the 
 favourite, Polignac, in consequence of his having 
 refused to administer to her own superfluous 
 extravagance and the Queen's repeated demands 
 on the treasury to satisfy the numerous depen- 
 dants of the Duchess. 
 
 " This, however, was soon officially disproved 
 by the exhibition of a written proposition of 
 Calonne's to the Queen, to supply an additional 
 hundred thousand francs that year to her annual 
 revenue, which Her Majesty refused. As for the 
 Duchess de Polignac, so far from having caused 
 the disgrace, she was not even aware of the 
 circumstance from which it arose ; nor did the 
 minister himself ever know how, or by what agency 
 his falsehood was so thoroughly unmasked."
 
 CHAPTER XI 267 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The work which is here spoken of the Queen 
 kept, as a proof of the treachery of Calonne towards 
 her and his sovereign, till the storming of the Tuileries 
 on the loth of August, 1792, when, with the rest of 
 the papers and property plundered on that memorable 
 occasion, it fell into the hands of the ferocious mob. 
 
 M. de Calonne soon after left France for Italy. 
 There he lived for some time in the palace of a par- 
 ticular friend of mine and the Marquis, my husband, 
 the Countess Francese Tressino, at Vicenza. 
 
 In consequence of our going every season to take 
 the mineral waters and use the baths at Valdagno, we 
 had often occasion to be in company with M. de Calonne, 
 both at Vicenza and Valdagno, where I must do him 
 the justice to say he conducted himself with the greatest 
 circumspection in speaking of the Revolution. 
 
 Though he evidently avoided the topic which ter- 
 minates this chapter, yet one day, being closely pressed 
 upon the subject, he said forgeries were daily com- 
 mitted on ministers, and were most particularly so in 
 France at the period in question ; that he had borne 
 the blame of various imprudencies neither authorised 
 nor executed by him; that much had been done and 
 supposed to have been done with his sanction, of
 
 268 CHAPTER XI 
 
 which .he had not the slightest knowledge. This he 
 observed generally, without specifying any express 
 instance. 
 
 He was then asked whether he did not consider 
 himself responsible for the mischief he occasioned by 
 declaring the nation in a state of bankruptcy. He said, 
 " No, not in the least. There was no other way of 
 preventing enormous sums from being daily lavished, 
 as they then were, on herds of worthless beings; that 
 the Queen had sought to cultivate a state of private 
 domestic society, but that, in the attempt, she only 
 warmed in her bosom domestic vipers, who fed on the 
 vital spirit of her generosity." He mentioned no names. 
 
 I then took the liberty of asking him his opinion 
 of the Princess Lamballe. 
 
 " Oh, madam ! had the rest of Her Majesty's 
 numerous attendants possessed the tenth part of that 
 unfortunate victim's virtues, Her Majesty would never 
 have been led into the errors which all France must 
 deplore ! 
 
 " I shall never forget her," continued he, " the day 
 I went to take leave of her. She was sitting on a sofa 
 when I entered. On seeing me, she rose immediately. 
 Before I could utter a syllable, ' Sir,' said the Princess, 
 ' you are accused of being the Queen's enemy. Acquit 
 yourself of the foul deed imputed to you, and I shall be 
 happy to serve you as far as lies in my power. Till 
 then, I must decline holding any communication with
 
 CHAPTER XI 269 
 
 an individual thus situated. I am her friend, and 
 cannot receive anyone known to be otherwise."' 
 
 " There was something," added he, " so sublime, 
 so dignified, and altogether so firm, though mild in her 
 manner, that she appeared not to belong to a race of 
 earthly beings 1 " 
 
 Seeing the tears fall from his eyes, while be was 
 thus eulogising her whose memory I shall ever venerate, 
 I almost forgave him the mischief of his imprudence, 
 which led to her untimely end. I therefore carefully 
 avoided wounding his few gray hairs and latter days, 
 and left him still untold that it was by her, of whom 
 he thought so highly, that his uncontradicted treachery 
 had been discovered.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 JOURNAL CONTINUED ARCHBISHOP OF SENS MADE 
 
 MINISTER, DISMISSED, AND HIS EFFIGY BURNED 
 THE QUEEN IMPRUDENTLY PATRONISES HIS RELATIONS 
 
 MOBS DANGEROUS UNRESERVE OF THE QUEEN 
 
 APOLOGY FOR THE ARCHBISHOP OF SENS THE QUEEN 
 
 FORCED TO TAKE A PART IN THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 MEETING OF THE STATES GENERAL ANONYMOUS 
 
 LETTER TO THE PRINCESS LAMBALLE SIGNIFICANT 
 VISIT OF THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS DISASTROUS 
 PROCESSION BARNAVE GIVES HIS OPINION OF PUBLIC 
 AFFAIRS TO THE PRINCESS LAMBALLE, WHO COMMUNI- 
 CATES WITH THE QUEEN BRIBERIES BY ORLEANS ON 
 THE DAY OF THE PROCESSION HE FAINTS IN THE 
 ASSEMBLY NECKAR SUSPECTED OF AN UNDERSTANDING 
 
 WITH HIM IS DISMISSED NO COMMUNICATION ON 
 
 PUBLIC BUSINESS WITH THE QUEEN BUT THROUGH 
 
 THE PRINCESS LAMBALLE POLITICAL INFLUENCE 
 
 FALSELY ASCRIBED TO THE DUCHESS DE POLIGNAC 
 HER UNPOPULARITY DUKE OF HARCOURT AND THE 
 FIRST DAUPHIN DEATH OF THE FIRST DAUPHIN 
 CAUSE OF HARCOURT'S HARSH TREATMENT OF POLIGNAC 
 
 SECOND INTERVIEW OF BARNAVE WITH THE PRINCESS 
 
 LAMBALLE HE SOLICITS AN AUDIENCE OF THE QUEEN, 
 WHICH IS REFUSED DIALOGUE BETWEEN LAMBALLE 
 AND THE PRINCE DE CONTI REMARKS ON THE 
 POLIGNACS MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, A POLITICAL SATIRE 
 
 " OF the many instances in which the Queen's 
 exertions to serve those whom she conceived likely
 
 CHAPTER XII 271 
 
 to benefit and relieve the nation, turned to the 
 injury, not only of herself, but those whom she 
 patronised and the cause she would strengthen, 
 one of the most unpopular was that of the pro- 
 motion of Brienne, Archbishop of Sens, to the 
 ministry. Her interest in his favour was entirely 
 created by the Abbe" Vermond, himself too super- 
 ficial to pronounce upon any qualities, and especially 
 such as were requisite for so high a station. By 
 many, the partiality which prompted Vermond to 
 espouse the interests of the Archbishop was 
 ascribed to the amiable sentiment of gratitude 
 for the recommendation of that dignitary, by 
 which Vermond himself first obtained his situation 
 at Court ; but there were others, who have been 
 deemed deeper in the secret, who impute it to 
 the less honourable source of self-interest, to the 
 mere spirit of ostentation, to the hope of its 
 enabling him to bring about the destruction of 
 the Polignacs. Be this as it may, the Abbe" well 
 knew that a minister indebted for his elevation 
 solely to the Queen would be supported by her 
 to the last. 
 
 " This, unluckily, proved the case. Maria
 
 2/2 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Antoinette persisted in upholding every act of 
 Brienne, till his ignorance and unpardonable 
 blunders drew down the general indignation of the 
 people against Her Majesty and her protege", with 
 whom she was identified. The King had assented 
 to the appointment with no other view than that 
 of not being utterly isolated and to show a respect 
 for his consort's choice. But the incapable minister 
 was presently compelled to retire, not only from 
 office but from Paris. Never was a minister more 
 detested while in power, or a people more enthusi- 
 astically satisfied at his going out. His effigy was 
 burnt in every town of France, and the general 
 illuminations and bonfires in the capital were 
 accompanied by hooting and hissing the deposed 
 statesman to the barriers. 
 
 " The Queen, prompted by the Abbe" Vermond, 
 even after Brienne's dismission, gave him tokens 
 of her royal munificence. Her Majesty feared 
 that her acting otherwise to a minister, who had 
 been honoured by her confidence, would operate 
 as a check to prevent all men of celebrity from 
 exposing their fortunes to so ungracious a return 
 for lending their best services to the state, which
 
 CHARLOTTl "-\7: B ERA I'D DE LA 
 
 HAVE, MARQl'ISE DE MOXT1LSSOX 
 
 ontemporarv cngri> 
 
 ^.
 
 272 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Antoinette persisted in upholding every act of 
 Brienne, till his ignorance and unpardonable 
 blunders drew down the general indignation of the 
 people against Her Majesty and her prote'ge', with 
 whom she was identified. The King had assented 
 to the appointment with no other view than that 
 of not being utterly isolated and to show a respect 
 for his consort's choice. But the incapable minister 
 was presently compelled to retire, not only from 
 office but from Paris. Never was a minister more 
 
 3N k\\ 
 burnt in c 
 
 illuminations e capital were 
 
 accompl^^^o^^M^^ the , 
 statesman to the barriers. 
 
 "The Queen, prompted by the Abb Vermond, 
 even after Brienne's dismission, gave him tokens 
 of her royal munificence. Her Majesty feared 
 that ht. i otherwise to a minister, who had 
 
 been honoured by her confidence, would operate 
 as a check to pn '. men of celebrity from 
 
 exposing their forti racious a return 
 
 for lending their best I the state, which
 
 CHAPTER XII 273 
 
 now stood in need of the most skilful pilots. Such 
 were the motives assigned by Her Majesty herself 
 to me, when I took the liberty of expostulating 
 with her respecting the dangers which threatened 
 herself and family, from this continued devoted- 
 ness to a minister against whom the nation had 
 pronounced so strongly. I could not but applaud 
 the delicacy of the feeling upon which her conduct 
 had been grounded ; nor could I blame her, in my 
 heart, for the uprightness of her principle, in 
 showing that what she had once undertaken 
 should not be abandoned through female caprice. 
 I told Her Majesty that the system upon which 
 she acted was praiseworthy; and that its applica- 
 tion in the present instance would have been so 
 had the Archbishop possessed as much talent as 
 he lacked; but that now it was quite requisite for 
 her to stop the public clamour by renouncing her 
 protection of a man who had so seriously en- 
 dangered the public tranquility and her own 
 reputation. 1 
 
 i The Princess Lamballe had no particularly shining 
 talents; but her understanding was sound, and she seldom 
 gave her opinion without mature reflection, and never with- 
 out being called upon, or when she distinctly foresaw the 
 
 VOL. i 1 8
 
 274 CHAPTER XII 
 
 "As a proof how far my caution was well 
 founded, there was an immense riotous mob raised 
 about this time against the Queen, in consequence 
 of her having appointed the dismissed minister's 
 niece, Madame de Canisy, to a place at Court, 
 and having given her picture, set in diamonds, 
 to the Archbishop himself. 
 
 "The Queen, in many cases, was by far too 
 communicative to some of her household, who 
 immediately divulged all they gathered from her 
 unreserve. How could these circumstances have 
 transpired to the people but from those nearest 
 the person of Her Majesty, who, knowing the 
 public feeling better than their royal mistress could 
 be supposed to know it, did their own feeling little 
 credit by the mischievous exposure. The people 
 were exasperated beyond all conception. The 
 Abbe" Vermond placed before Her Majesty the 
 consequences of her communicativeness, and from 
 this time forward she never repeated the error. 
 After the lesson she had received, none of her 
 
 danger which must accrue from its being withheld. Would 
 to Heaven the Queen had had more advisers like her, who 
 felt so little for herself and so much for the welfare of her 
 royal mistress 1
 
 CHAPTER XII 275 
 
 female attendants, not even the Duchess de 
 Polignac, to whom she would have confided her 
 very existence, could, had they been ever so much 
 disposed, have drawn anything upon public matters 
 from her. With me, as her superintendent and 
 entitled by my situation to interrogate and give 
 her counsel, she was not, of course, under the 
 same restriction. To his other representations of 
 the consequences of the Queen's indiscreet open- 
 ness, the Abbe" Vermond added that, being obliged 
 to write all the letters, private and public, he often 
 found himself greatly embarrassed by affairs having 
 gone forth to the world beforehand. One mis- 
 fortune of putting this seal upon the lips of Her 
 Majesty was that it placed her more thoroughly in 
 the Abbess power. She was, of course, obliged to 
 rely implicitly upon him concerning many points, 
 which, had they undergone the discussion neces- 
 sarily resulting from free conversation, would have 
 been shown to her under very different aspects. 
 A man with a better heart, less Jesuitical, and not 
 so much interested as Vermond was to keep his 
 place, would have been a safer monitor. 
 
 " Though the Archbishop of Sens was so 
 
 1 3 2
 
 276 CHAPTER XII 
 
 much hated and despised, much may be said in 
 apology for his disasters. His unpopularity, and 
 the Queen's support of him against the people, 
 was certainly a vital blow to the monarchy. 
 There is no doubt of his having been a poor 
 substitute for the great men who had so gloriously 
 beaten the political paths of administration, par- 
 ticularly the Count de Vergennes and Neckar. 
 But at that time, when France was threatened 
 by its great convulsion, where is the genius which 
 might not have committed itself ? And here is a 
 man coming to rule amidst revolutionary feelings, 
 with no knowledge whatever of revolutionary 
 principles ; a pilot steering into one harbour by 
 the chart of another. I am by no means a 
 vindicator of the Archbishop's obstinacy in offer- 
 ing himself a candidate for a situation entirely 
 foreign to the occupations, habits, and studies 
 of his whole life ; but his intentions may have 
 been good enough, and we must not charge the 
 physician with murder who has only mistaken 
 the disease, and, though wrong in his judgment, 
 has been zealous and conscientious ; nor must we 
 blame the comedians for the faults of the comedy.
 
 CHAPTER XII 277 
 
 The errors were not so much in the men who did 
 not succeed, as in the manners of the times. 
 
 " The part which the Queen was now openly 
 compelled to bear in the management of public 
 affairs, increased the public feeling against her from 
 dislike to hatred. Her Majesty was unhappy, not 
 only from the necessity which called her out of 
 the sphere to which she thought her sex ought 
 to be confined, but from the divisions which existed 
 in the royal family upon points in which their 
 common safety required a common scheme of 
 action. Her favourite brother-in-law, d'Artois, 
 had espoused the side of d'Orleans, and the 
 popular party seemed to prevail against her, even 
 with the King. 
 
 " The various parliamentary assemblies, which 
 had swept on their course, under various denomi- 
 nations, in rapid and stormy succession, were now 
 followed by one which, like Aaron's rod, was to 
 swallow up the rest. Its approach was regarded 
 by the Queen with ominous reluctance. At length, 
 however, the moment for the meeting of the States- 
 General at Versailles arrived. Neckar was once 
 more in favour, and a sort of forlorn hope of
 
 278 CHAPTER XII 
 
 better times dawned upon the perplexed monarch, 
 in his anticipations from this assembly. 
 
 " The night before the procession of the in- 
 stalment of the States-General was to take place, 
 it being my duty to attend Her Majesty, I received 
 an anonymous letter, cautioning me not to be seen 
 that day by her side. I immediately went to the 
 King's apartments and showed him the letter. 
 His Majesty humanely enjoined me to abide by its 
 counsels. I told him I hoped he would for once 
 permit me to exercise my own discretion ; for if 
 my royal sovereign were in danger, it was then 
 that her attendants should be most eager to rally 
 round her, in order to watch over her safety and 
 encourage her fortitude. 
 
 " While we were thus occupied, the Queen 
 and my sister-in-law, the Duchess of Orleans, 
 entered the King's apartment, to settle some part 
 of the etiquette respecting the procession. 
 
 " ' I wish,' exclaimed the Duchess, ' that this 
 procession were over; or that it were never to 
 take place ; or that none of us had to be there ; 
 or else, being obliged, that we had all passed, and 
 were comfortably at home again.'
 
 CHAPTER XII 279 
 
 " ' Its taking place,' answered the Queen, 
 ' never had my sanction, especially at Versailles. 
 M. Neckar appears to be in its favour, and 
 answers for its success. I wish he may not be 
 deceived; but I much fear that he is guided more 
 by the mistaken hope of maintaining his own 
 popularity by this impolitic meeting, than by any 
 conscientious confidence in its advantage to the 
 King's authority.' 
 
 " The King, having in his hand the letter 
 which I had just brought him, presented it to 
 the Queen. 
 
 " ' This, my dear Duchess,' cried the Queen, 
 ' comes from the Palais Royal manufactory, to 
 poison the very first sentiments of delight at the 
 union expected between the King and his subjects, 
 by inuendos of the danger which must result from 
 my being present at it. Look at the insidiousness 
 of the thing 1 Under a pretext of kindness, cautions 
 against the effect of their attachment are given to 
 my most sincere and affectionate attendants, whose 
 fidelity none dare attack openly. I am, however, 
 rejoiced that Lamballe has been cautioned.' 
 
 " ' Against what ? ' replied I.
 
 28O CHAPTER XII 
 
 " ' Against appearing in the procession,' 
 answered the Queen. 
 
 " ' It is only,' I exclaimed, ' by putting me in 
 the grave they can ever withdraw me from Your 
 Majesty. While I have life and Your Majesty's 
 sanction, force only will prevent me from doing 
 my duty. Fifty thousand daggers, Madame, were 
 they all raised against me, would have no power 
 to shake the firmness of my character or the 
 earnestness of my attachment. I pity the wretches 
 who have so little penetration. Victim or no 
 victim, nothing shall ever induce me to quit Your 
 Majesty.' 
 
 " The Queen and the Duchess, both in tears, 
 embraced me. After the Duchess had taken her 
 leave, the King and Queen hinted their suspicions 
 that she had been apprised of the letter and had 
 made this visit expressly to observe what effect 
 it had produced, well knowing at the time that 
 some attempt was meditated by the hired mob 
 and purchased deputies already brought over to 
 the Orleans faction. Not that the slightest sus- 
 picion of collusion could ever be attached to the 
 good Duchess of Orleans against the Queen. The
 
 CHAPTER XII 28l 
 
 intentions of the Duchess were known to be as 
 virtuous and pure as those of her husband's party 
 were criminal and mischievous. But, no doubt, 
 she had intimations of the result intended ; and, 
 unable to avert the storm or prevent its cause, 
 had been instigated by her strong attachment to 
 me, as well as the paternal affection her father, 
 the Duke de Penthievre, bore me, to attempt to 
 lessen the exasperation of the Palais Royal party 
 and the Duke, her husband, against me, by 
 dissuading me from running any risk upon the 
 occasion. 
 
 "The next day, May 5, 1789, at the very 
 moment when all the resources of nature and art 
 seemed exhausted to render the Queen a paragon 
 of loveliness beyond anything I had ever before 
 witnessed, even in her; when every impartial eye 
 was eager to behold and feast on that form whose 
 beauty warmed every heart in her favour; at that 
 moment a horde of miscreants, just as she came 
 within sight of the Assembly thundered in her 
 ears, "Orleans for ever!" three or four times, 1 while 
 
 i At that moment her loveliness received its blight. 
 From the instant she heard that cry, her severest sorrows 
 and their effects began. It proved her death cry.
 
 282 CHAPTER XII 
 
 she and the King were left to pass unheeded 
 Even the warning of the letter, from which she 
 had reason to expect some commotions, suggested 
 to her imagination nothing like this, and she was 
 dreadfully shaken. I sprang forward to support 
 her. The King's party, prepared for the attack, 
 shouted " Vive le roil vive la reine /" As I turned, 
 I saw some of the members lividly pale, as if 
 fearing their machinations had been discovered ; 
 but, as they passed, they said in the hearing of 
 Her Majesty, " Remember, you are the daughter of 
 Maria Theresa" " True" answered the Queen. 
 The Duke de Biron, Orleans, La Fayette, Mirabeau, 
 and the Mayor of Paris, seeing Her Majesty's emo- 
 tion, came up, and were going to stop the pro- 
 cession. All, in apparent agitation, cried out 
 "Halt!" The Queen, sternly looking at them, 
 made a sign with her head to proceed, recovered 
 herself, and moved forward in the train, with all 
 the dignity and self-possession for which she was 
 so eminently distinguished. 
 
 " But this self-command in public proved nearly 
 fatal to Her Majesty on her return to her apart- 
 ment. There her real feelings broke forth, and
 
 CHAPTER XII 283 
 
 their violence was so great as to cause the brace- 
 lets on her wrists and the pearls in her necklace 
 to burst from the threads and settings, before her 
 women and the ladies in attendance could have 
 time to take them off. She remained many hours 
 in a most alarming state of strong convulsions. 
 Her clothes were obliged to be cut from her body, 
 to give her ease ; but as soon as she was un- 
 dressed, and tears came to her relief, she flew 
 alternately to the Princess Elizabeth and to myself; 
 but we were both too much overwhelmed to give 
 her the consolation of which she stood so much 
 in need. 
 
 "Barnave that very evening came to my pri- 
 vate apartment, and tendered his services to the 
 Queen. He told me he wished Her Majesty to 
 be convinced that he was a Frenchman ; that he 
 only desired his country might be governed by 
 salutary laws, and not by the caprice of weak 
 sovereigns, or a vitiated, corrupt, ministry; that 
 the clergy and nobility ought to contribute to the 
 wants of the state equally with every other class 
 of the King's subjects; that when this was ac- 
 complished, and abuses were removed, by such
 
 284 CHAPTER XII 
 
 a national representation as would enable the 
 minister, Neckar, to accomplish his plans for the 
 liquidation of the national debt, I might assure 
 Her Majesty that both the King and herself 
 would find themselves happier in a constitutional 
 government than they had ever yet been ; for 
 such a government would set them free from all 
 dependence on the caprice of ministers, and lessen 
 a responsibility of which they now experienced 
 the misery; that if the King sincerely entered 
 into the spirit of regenerating the French nation, 
 he would find among the present representatives 
 many members of probity, loyal and honourable 
 in their intentions, who would never become the 
 destroyers of a limited legitimate monarchy, or 
 the corrupt regicides of a rump parliament, such 
 as brought the wayward Charles the First, of 
 England, to the fatal block. 
 
 " I attempted to relate the conversation to 
 the Queen. She listened with the greatest atten- 
 tion till I came to the part concerning the con- 
 stitutional King, when Her Majesty lost her 
 patience, and prevented me from proceeding. 1 
 
 i This and other conversations, which will be found in 
 subsequent pages, will prove that Barnave's sentiments in
 
 CHAPTER XII 285 
 
 "The expense of the insulting scene, which 
 had so overcome Her Majesty, was five hundred 
 thousand francs ! This sum was paid by the 
 agents of the Palais Royal, and its execution en- 
 trusted principally to Mirabeau, Bailly, the Mayor 
 of Paris, and another individual, who was after- 
 wards brought over to the Court party. 
 
 " The history of the assembly itself on the 
 day following, the 6th of May, is too well known. 
 The sudden perturbation of a guilty conscience, 
 which overcame the Duke of Orleans, seemed like 
 
 favour of the royal family long preceded the affair at 
 Varennes, the beginning of which Madame Campan assigns 
 to it. Indeed it must by this time be evident to the reader, 
 that Madame Campan, though very correct in relating all 
 she knew, with respect to the history of Maria Antoinette, 
 was not in possession of matters foreign to her occupation 
 about the person of the Queen, and, in particular, that she 
 could communicate little concerning those important in- 
 trigues carried on respecting the different deputies of the 
 first assembly, till, in the latter days of the Revolution, when 
 it became necessary, from the pressure of events, that she 
 should be made a sort of confidante, in order to prevent 
 her from compromising the persons of the Queen and the 
 Princess Lamballe : a trust, of her claim to which her un- 
 doubted fidelity was an ample pledge. Still, however, she 
 was often absent from Court at moments of great importance, 
 and was obliged to take her information, upon much which 
 she has recorded, from hearsay, which has led her, as I 
 have before stated, into frequent mistakes.
 
 286 CHAPTER XII 
 
 an awful warning. He had scarcely commenced 
 his inflammatory address to the assembly, when 
 someone, who felt incommoded by the stifling 
 heat of the hall, exclaimed, " Throw open the 
 windows ! " The conspirator fancied he heard in 
 this his death sentence. He fainted, and was con- 
 ducted home in the greatest agitation. Madame 
 de Bouffon was at the Palais Royal when the Duke 
 was taken thither. The Duchess of Orleans was 
 at the palace of the Duke de Penthievre, her 
 father, while the Duke himself was at the Hotel 
 Thoulouse with me, where he was to dine, and 
 where we were waiting for the Duchess to come 
 and join us, by appointment. But Madame de 
 Bouffon was so alarmed by the state in which she 
 saw the Duke of Orleans that she instantly left 
 the Palais Royal, and despatched his valet express 
 to bring her thither. My sister-in-law sent an 
 excuse to me for not coming to dinner, and an 
 explanation to her father for so abruptly leaving 
 his palace, and hastened home to her husband. 
 It was some days before he recovered ; and his 
 father-in-law, his wife, and myself were not with- 
 out hopes that he would see in this an omen to
 
 CHAPTER XII 287 
 
 prevent him from persisting any longer in his 
 opposition to the royal family. 
 
 " The effects of the recall of the popular 
 minister, Neckar, did not satisfy the King. Neckar 
 soon became an object of suspicion to the Court 
 party, and especially to His Majesty and the 
 Queen. He was known to have maintained an 
 understanding with Orleans. The miscarriage of 
 many plans and the misfortunes which succeeded 
 were the result of this connection, though it was 
 openly disavowed. The first suspicion of the 
 coalition arose thus : 
 
 " When the Duke had his bust carried about 
 Paris, after his unworthy schemes against the King 
 had been discovered, it was thrown into the mire. 
 Neckar passing, perhaps by mere accident, stopped 
 his carriage, and expressing himself with some 
 resentment for such treatment to a Prince of the 
 blood and a friend of the people, ordered the bust 
 to be taken to the Palais Royal, where it was 
 washed, crowned with laurel, and thence, with 
 Neckar's own bust, carried to Versailles. The 
 King's aunts, coming from Belvue as the proces- 
 sion was upon the road, ordered the guards to
 
 288 CHAPTER XII 
 
 send the men away who bore the busts, that the 
 King and Queen might not be insulted with the 
 sight. This circumstance caused another riot, 
 which was attributed to Their Majesties. The 
 dismission of the minister was the obvious result. 
 It is certain, however, that, in obeying the man- 
 date of exile, Neckar had no wish to exercise 
 the advantage he possessed from his great popu- 
 larity. His retirement was sudden and secret ; 
 and, although it was mentioned that very evening 
 by the Baroness de Stael to the Count de Chinon, 
 so little bustle was made about his withdrawing 
 from France, that it was even stated at the time 
 to have been utterly unknown, even to his daughter. 
 " Neckar himself ascribed his dismission to 
 the influence of the Polignacs; but he was totally 
 mistaken, for the Duchess de Polignac was the 
 last person to have had any influence in matters 
 of state, whatever might have been the case with 
 those who surrounded her. She was devoid of 
 ambition or capacity to give her weight ; and the 
 Queen was not so pliant in points of high import 
 as to allow herself to be governed or overruled, 
 unless her mind was thoroughly convinced. In
 
 CHAPTER XII 289 
 
 that respect, she was something like Catharine II., 
 who always distinguished her favourites from her 
 ministers ; but in the present case she had no 
 choice, and was under the necessity of yielding 
 to the boisterous voice of a faction. 
 
 " From 'this epoch, I saw all the persons who 
 had any wish to communicate with the Queen on 
 matters relative to the public business, and Her 
 Majesty was generally present when they came, 
 and received them in my apartments. The Duchess 
 de Polignac never, to my knowledge, entered into 
 any of these state questions ; yet there was no 
 promotion in the civil, military, or ministerial de- 
 partment, which she has not been charged with 
 having influenced the Queen to make, though 
 there were few of them who were not nominated 
 by the King and his ministers, even unknown to 
 the Queen herself. 
 
 " The prevailing dissatisfaction against Her 
 Majesty and the favourite Polignac now began 
 to take so many forms, and produce effects so 
 dreadful, as to wring her own feelings, as well 
 as those of her royal mistress, with the most 
 
 intense anguish. Let me mention one gross and 
 VOL. i 19
 
 290 CHAPTER XII 
 
 barbarous instance in proof of what I say 
 "After the birth of the Queen's second son, 
 the Duke of Normandy, who was afterwards Dau- 
 phin, the Duke and Duchess of Harcourt, out- 
 rageously jealous of the ascendancy of the gover- 
 ness of the Dauphin, excited the young prince's 
 hatred toward Madame de Polignac to such a 
 pitch that he would take nothing from her hands, 
 but often, young as he was at the time, order her 
 out of the apartment, and treat her remonstrances 
 with the utmost contempt. The Duchess bitterly 
 complained of the Harcourts to the Queen; for 
 she really sacrificed the whole of her time to the 
 care and attention required by this young prince, 
 and she did so from sincere attachment, and that 
 he might not be irritated in his declining state of 
 health. The Queen was deeply hurt at these dis- 
 sensions between the governor and governess. Her 
 Majesty endeavoured to pacify the mind of the 
 young prince, by literally making herself a slave 
 to his childish caprices, which in all probability 
 would have created the confidence so desired, 
 when a most cruel, unnatural, I may say diabolical, 
 report prevailed, to alienate the child's affections
 
 CHAPTER XII 291 
 
 even from his mother, in making him believe 
 that, owing to his deformity and growing ugliness, 
 she had transferred all her tenderness to his younger 
 brother, who certainly was very superior in health 
 and beauty to the puny Dauphin. Making a pre- 
 text of this calumny, the governor of the heir- 
 apparent was malicious enough to prohibit him 
 from eating or drinking anything but what first 
 passed through the hands of his physicians ; and 
 so strong was the impression made by this inter- 
 dict on the mind of the young Dauphin that he 
 never after saw the Queen but with the greatest 
 terror. The feelings of his disconsolate parent 
 may be more readily conceived than described. 
 So may the mortification of his governess, the 
 Duchess de Polignac, herself so tender, so affec- 
 tionate a mother. Fortunately for himself, and 
 happily for his wretched parents, this royal youth, 
 whose life, though short, had been so full of 
 suffering, died at Versailles on the 4th of June, 
 1789, and, though only between seven and eight 
 years of age at the time of his decease, he had 
 given proofs of intellectual precocity, which would 
 
 probably have made continued life, amidst the 
 
 19 2
 
 2Q2 CHAPTER XII 
 
 scenes of wretchedness which succeeded, anything 
 to him but a blessing. 
 
 " The cabals of the Duke of Harcourt, to 
 which I have just adverted, against the Duchess 
 de Polignac, were the mere result of foul malice 
 and ambition. Harcourt wished to get his wife, 
 who was the sworn enemy of Polignac, created 
 governess to the Dauphin instead of the Queen's 
 favourite. Most of the criminal stories against 
 the Duchess de Polignac, and which did equal 
 injury to the Queen, were fabricated by the 
 Harcourts, for the purpose of excluding their 
 rival from her situation. 
 
 " Barnave, meanwhile, continued faithful to 
 his liberal principles, but equally faithful to his 
 desire of bringing Their Majesties over to those 
 principles, and making them republican sovereigns. 
 He lost no opportunity of availing himself of my 
 permission for him to call whenever he chose on 
 public business ; and he continued to urge the 
 same points, upon which he had before been so 
 much in earnest, although with no better effect. 
 Both the King and Queen looked with suspicion 
 upon Barnave, and with still more suspicion upon 
 his politics.
 
 CHAPTER XII 293 
 
 " The next time I received him, ' Madam,' 
 exclaimed the deputy to me, ' since our last inter- 
 view I have pondered well on the situation of the 
 King; and, as an honest Frenchman, attached to 
 my lawful sovereign, and anxious for his future 
 prosperous reign, I am decidedly of opinion that 
 his own safety, as well as the dignity of the 
 crown of France, and the happiness of his sub- 
 jects, can only be secured by his giving his country 
 a constitution, which will at once place his estab- 
 lishment beyond the caprice and the tyranny of 
 corrupt administrations, and secure hereafter the 
 first monarchy in Europe from the possibility of 
 sinking under weak princes, by whom the royal 
 splendour of France has too often been debased 
 into the mere tool of vicious and mercenary 
 noblesse, and sycophantic courtiers. A King, 
 protected by a constitution, can do no wrong. 
 He is unshackled with responsibility. He is 
 empowered with the comfort of exercising the 
 executive authority for the benefit of the nation, 
 while all the harsher duties, and all the censures 
 they create, devolve on others. It is, therefore, 
 madam, through your means, and the well known 
 friendship you have ever evinced for the royal
 
 294 CHAPTER XII 
 
 family, and the general welfare of the French 
 nation, that I wish to obtain a private audience 
 of Her Majesty, the Queen, in order to induce 
 her to exert the never-failing ascendancy she has 
 ever possessed over the mind of our good King, 
 in persuading him to the sacrifice of a small 
 proportion of his power, for the sake of preserving 
 the monarchy to his heirs ; and posterity will 
 record the virtues of a prince who has been 
 magnanimous enough, of his own free will, to 
 resign the unlawful part of his prerogatives, 
 usurped by his predecessors, for the blessing and 
 pleasure of giving liberty to a beloved people, 
 among whom both the King and Queen will find 
 many Hampdens and Sidneys, but very few 
 Cromwells. Besides, madam, we must make a 
 merit of necessity. The times are pregnant with 
 events, and it is more prudent to support the 
 palladium of the ancient monarchy than risk its 
 total overthrow; and fall it must, if the diseased 
 excrescences, of which the people complain, and 
 which threaten to carry death into the very heart 
 of the tree, be not lopped away in time by the 
 sovereign himself.'
 
 CHAPTER XII 295 
 
 " I heard the deputy with the greatest atten- 
 tion. I promised to fulfil his commission. The 
 better to execute my task, I retired the moment 
 he left me, and wrote down all I could recollect 
 of his discourse, that it might be thoroughly placed 
 before the Queen the first opportunity. 
 
 " When I communicated the conversation to 
 Her Majesty, she listened with the most gracious 
 condescension, till I came to the part wherein 
 Barnave so forcibly impressed the necessity of 
 adopting a constitutional monarchy. Here, as she 
 had done once before, when I repeated some 
 former observations of Barnave to her, Maria 
 Antoinette somewhat lost her equanimity. She 
 rose from her seat, and exclaimed : 
 
 " ' What I is an absolute prince, and the heredi- 
 tary sovereign of the ancient monarchy of France, 
 to become the tool of a plebeian faction, who will, 
 their point once gained, dethrone him for his im- 
 becile complaisance ? Do they wish to imitate the 
 English Revolution of 1648, and reproduce the 
 sanguinary times of the unfortunate and weak 
 Charles the First ? To make France a common- 
 wealth 1 Well! be it so! But before I advise the
 
 296 CHAPTER XII 
 
 King to such a step, or give my consent to it, they 
 shall bury me under the ruins of the monarchy.' 
 
 " ' But what answer,' said I, ' does Your 
 Majesty wish me to return to the deputy's request 
 for a private audience ? ' 
 
 " ' What answer ? ' exclaimed the Queen. ' No 
 answer at all is the best answer to such a pre- 
 sumptuous proposition ! I tremble for the conse- 
 quences of the impression their disloyal manreuvres 
 have made upon the minds of the people, and I 
 have no faith whatever in their proffered services to 
 the King. However, on reflection, it may be ex- 
 pedient to temporise. Continue to see him. Learn, 
 if possible, how far he may be trusted ; but do not 
 fix any time, as yet, for the desired audience. 
 I wish to apprise the King, first, of his interview 
 with you, Princess. This conversation does not 
 agree with what he and Mirabeau proposed about 
 the King's recovering his prerogatives. Are these 
 the prerogatives with which he flattered the King ? 
 Binding him hand and foot, and excluding him 
 from every privilege, and then casting him a help- 
 less dependant on the caprice of a volatile plebeian 
 faction 1 The French nation is very different from
 
 CHAPTER XII 297 
 
 the English. The first rules of the established 
 ancient order of the government broken through, 
 they will violate twenty others, and the King will 
 be sacrificed, before this frivolous people again 
 organise themselves with any sort of regular 
 government.' 
 
 " Agreeably to Her Majesty's commands, I 
 continued to see Barnave. I communicated with 
 him by letter, 1 at his private lodgings at Passy, 
 and at Vitry; but it was long before the Queen 
 could be brought to consent to the audience he 
 solicited. 
 
 " Indeed, Her Majesty had such an aversion 
 to all who had declared themselves for any inno- 
 vation upon the existing power of the monarchy, 
 that she was very reluctant to give audience upon 
 the subject to any person, not even excepting the 
 Princes of the blood. The Count d'Artois himself, 
 leaning as he did to the popular side, had ceased 
 to be welcome. Expressions he had made use of, 
 concerning the necessity for some change, had 
 occasioned the coolness, which was already of 
 considerable standing. 
 
 i Of these letters I was generally the bearer.
 
 298 CHAPTER XII 
 
 " One day the Prince of Conti came to me, 
 to complain of the Queen's refusing to receive him, 
 because he had expressed himself to the same 
 effect as had the Count d'Artois on the subject 
 of the Tiers Etats. 1 
 
 I I recollect that day perfectly. I was copying some 
 letters for the Princess Lamballe, when the Prince of Conti 
 came in. The Prince lived not only to see, but to feel the 
 errors of his system. He attained a great age. He out- 
 lived the glory of his country. Like many others, the first 
 gleam of political regeneration led him into a system, which 
 drove him out of France, to implore the shelter of a foreign 
 asylum, that he might not fall a victim to his own credulity. 
 I had an opportunity of witnessing in his latter days his 
 sincere repentance; and to this it is fit that I should bear 
 testimony. There were no bounds to the execration with 
 which he expressed himself towards the murderers of those 
 victims, whose death he lamented with a bitterness, in which 
 some remorse was mingled, from the impression that his 
 own early errors in favour of the Revolution had unintention- 
 ally accelerated their untimely end. This was a source to 
 him of deep and perpetual self-reproach. 
 
 There was an eccentricity in the appearance, dress, and 
 manners of the Prince of Conti, which well deserves re- 
 cording. 
 
 He wore, to the very last and it was in Barcelona, so 
 late as 1803, that I last had the honour of conversing with 
 him a white rich stuff dress frock coat, of the cut and 
 fashion of Louis XIV. which, being without any collar, had 
 buttons and button-holes from the neck to the bottom of the 
 skirt, and was padded and stiffened with buckram. The 
 cuffs were very large, of a different colour, and turned up to
 
 CHAPTER XII 299 
 
 " ' And does your highness,' replied I, 
 'imagine that the Queen is less displeased with 
 the conduct of the Count d'Artois on that head, 
 
 the elbows. The whole was lined with white satin, which, 
 from its being very much moth-eaten, appeared as if it had 
 been dotted on purpose to show the buckram between the 
 satin lining. His waistcoat was of rich green striped silk, 
 bound with gold lace ; the buttons and button-holes of gold ; 
 the flaps very large, and completely covering his small 
 clothes ; which happened very Apropos, for they scarcely 
 reached his knees, over which he wore large striped silk 
 stockings, that came half-way up his thighs. His shoes had 
 high heels, and reached half up his legs ; the buckles were 
 small, and set round with paste. A very narrow stiff stock 
 decorated his neck. He carried a hat, with a white feather 
 on the inside, under his arm. His ruffles were of very hand- 
 some point lace. His few gray hairs were gathered in a 
 little round bag. The wig alone was wanting to make him 
 a thorough picture of the polished age of the founder of 
 Versailles and Marly. 
 
 He had all that princely politeness of manner which so 
 eminently distinguished the old school of French nobility, 
 previous to the Revolution. He was the thorough gentleman, 
 a character by no means so readily to be met with in these 
 days of refinement as one would imagine. He never 
 addressed the softer sex but with ease and elegance, and 
 admiration of their persons. 
 
 Could Louis XIV. have believed, had it been told to 
 him when he placed this branch of the Bourbons on the 
 throne of Iberia, that it would one day refuse to give shelter 
 at the Court of Madrid to one of his family, for fear of 
 offending a Corsican usurper 1
 
 300 CHAPTER XII 
 
 than she is with you, Prince ? I can assure your 
 highness, that at this moment there subsists a 
 very great degree of coolness between Her Majesty 
 and her royal brother-in-law, whom she loves as 
 if he were her own brother. Though she makes 
 every allowance for his political inexperience, and 
 well knows the goodness of his heart and the 
 rectitude of his intentions, yet policy will not 
 permit her to change her sentiments.' 
 
 " ' That may be,' said the Prince, ' but while 
 Her Majesty continues to honour with her royal 
 presence the Duchess de Polignac, whose friends, 
 as well as herself, are all enthusiastically mad in 
 favour of the constitutional system, she shows an 
 undue partiality, by countenancing one branch of 
 the party and not the other; particularly so, as 
 the great and notorious leader of the opposition, 
 which the Queen frowns upon, is the sister-in- 
 law of this very Duchess de Polignac, and the 
 avowed favourite of the Count d'Artois, by whom, 
 and the councils of the Palais Royal, he is sup- 
 posed to be totally governed in his political 
 career.' 
 
 " ' The Queen,' replied I, ' is certainly her own
 
 CHAPTER XII 301 
 
 mistress. She sees, I believe, many persons more 
 from habit than any other motive ; to which, your 
 highness is aware, many princes often make sacri- 
 fices. Your highness cannot suppose I can have 
 the temerity to control Her Majesty in the selec- 
 tion of her friends, or in her sentiments respecting 
 them.' 
 
 " ' No,' exclaimed the Prince, ' I imagine not. 
 But she might just as well see any of us ; for we 
 are no more enemies of the crown than the party 
 she is cherishing by constantly appearing among 
 them; which, according to her avowed maxims 
 concerning the not sanctioning any but supporters 
 of the absolute monarchy, is in direct opposition 
 to her own sentiments. 
 
 " ' Who,' continued his highness, ' caused that 
 infernal comedy, The Marriage of Figaro, to be 
 brought out, but the party of the Duchess de 
 Polignac P 1 The play is a critique on the whole 
 
 i Note of the Princess Lamballe. The Prince of Conti 
 never could speak of Beaumarchais but with the greatest 
 contempt. There was something personal in this exaspera- 
 tion. Beaumarchais had satirized the Prince. The Spanish 
 Barber was founded on a circumstance which happened at 
 a country house between Conti and a young lady, during
 
 302 CHAPTER XII 
 
 royal family, from the drawing up of the curtain 
 to its fall. It burlesques the ways and manners 
 of every individual connected with the Court of 
 Versailles. Not a scene but touches some of their 
 characters. Are not the Queen herself and the 
 Count d'Artois lampooned and caricatured in the 
 garden scenes, and the most slanderous ridicule 
 cast upon their innocent evening walks on the 
 terrace ? Does not Beaumarchais plainly show in 
 it, to every impartial eye, the means which the 
 Countess Diana has taken publicly to demonstrate 
 her jealousy of the Queen's ascendancy over the 
 Count d'Artois ? Is it not from the same senti- 
 ment that she has roused the jealousy of the 
 Countess d'Artois against Her Majesty ? ' 
 
 " ' All these circumstances,' observed I, ' the 
 King prudently foresaw when he read the manu- 
 script, and caused it to be read to the Queen, to 
 convince her of the nature of its characters and 
 
 the reign of Louis XV., when intrigues of every kind were 
 practised and almost sanctioned. The poet has exposed 
 the Prince by making him the Doctor Bartolo of his play. 
 The affair which supplied the story was hushed up at 
 Court, and the Prince was only punished by the loss of 
 his mistress, who became the wife of another.
 
 CHAPTER XII 303 
 
 the dangerous tendency likely to arise from its 
 performance. Of this your highness is aware. It 
 is not for me to apprise you that, to avert the 
 excitement inevitable from its being brought upon 
 the stage, and under a thorough conviction of the 
 mischief it would produce in turning the minds 
 of the people against the Queen, His Majesty 
 solemnly declared that the comedy should not be 
 performed in Paris ; and that he would never 
 sanction its being brought before the public on 
 any stage in France.' 
 
 " ' Bah 1 bah 1 madam 1 ' exclaimed Conti. 
 ' The Queen has acted like a child in this affair, 
 as in many others. In defiance of His Majesty's 
 determination, did not the Queen herself, through 
 the fatal influence of her favourite, whose party 
 wearied her out by continued importunities, cause 
 the King to revoke his express mandate ? And 
 what has been the consequence of Her Majesty's 
 ungovernable partiality for these Polignacs ? ' 
 
 " ' You know, Prince,' said I, ' better than 
 I do.' 
 
 " ' The proofs of its bad consequences,' pur- 
 sued his highness, ' are more strongly verified
 
 304 CHAPTER XII 
 
 than ever by your own withdrawing from the 
 Queen's parties since her unreserved acknowledg- 
 ment of her partiality (fatal partiality !) for those 
 who will be her ruin ; for they are her worst 
 enemies.' 
 
 " ' Pardon me, Prince,' answered I, ' I have 
 not withdrawn myself from the Queen, but from 
 the new parties, with whose politics I cannot 
 identify myself, besides some exceptions I have 
 taken against those who frequent them.' 
 
 " ' Bah ! bah 1 ' exclaimed Conti, ' your 
 sagacity has got the better of your curiosity. All 
 the wit and humour of that traitor Beaumarchais 
 never seduced you to cultivate his society, as all 
 the rest of the Queen's party have done.' 
 
 " ' I never knew him to be accused of treason.' 
 
 " ' Why, what do you call a fellow, who sent 
 arms to the Americans before the war was de- 
 clared, without his sovereign's consent ? ' 
 
 " ' In that affair, I consider the ministers as 
 criminal as himself; for the Queen, to this day, 
 believes that Beaumarchais was sanctioned by 
 them ; and, you know, Her Majesty has ever 
 since had an insuperable dislike to both De Man-
 
 the portrait by
 
 " ' 
 
 304 CHAPTER XII 
 
 by your own withdrawing from the 
 ties since her unreserved acknowk 
 t of her partiality (fatal partiality !) for those 
 will be her ruin ; for they are her worst 
 enemies/ 
 
 " ' Pardon me, Prince,' answered I, ' I have 
 not withdrawn myself from the Queen, but from 
 the new parties, \vith whose politics I cannot 
 
 identify myself, besides some exceptions I have 
 
 .V\\4^WVK5VA ^\\Lk\W&$V . 
 taken against those wlto ireqtfefttH&ftm. 
 
 Bah ! bah 1 ' exclaimed Conti, ' your 
 J^ c^y^curiosit^ 
 
 the ^*l|Ui*M4K-*(<4)j -^^ inan 
 
 r seduc- his society, a:- 
 
 tht ne.' 
 
 ".n to be accused of treason.' 
 do you call a fellow, who sent 
 the Americans before the war was de- 
 clared, hib sovereign's consent ? ' 
 
 " ' In or the mir. 
 
 criminal as ;e Queen, to t; 
 
 believes that Beaumarchais was sanctioned by 
 them ; and, you know, Her Majesty has ever 
 since had an insuperable dislike to both De Man-
 
 CHAPTER XII 305 
 
 repas and De Vergennes. But I have nothing to 
 do with these things.' 
 
 " * Yes, yes, I understand you, Princess. Let 
 her romp and play with the compate vous, 1 but who 
 will compatire* (make allowance for) her folly. Bah ! 
 bah ! bah 1 She is inconsistent, Princess. Not that 
 I mean by this to insinuate that the Duchess is 
 not the sincere friend and well-wisher of the 
 Queen Her immediate existence, her interest, 
 and that ol her family, are all dependent on the 
 royal bounty. But can the Duchess answer for 
 the same sincerity towards the Queen, with respect 
 to her innumerable guests ? No ! Are not the 
 sentiments ol the Duchess's sister-in-law, the 
 Countess Diana, in direct opposition to the abso- 
 lute monarchy ? Has she not always been an 
 enthusiastic advocate for all those that have sup- 
 ported the American war ? Who was it that 
 crowned, at a public assembly, the democratical 
 straight hairs of Dr. Franklin? Why the same 
 Madame Countess Diana ! Who was capa turpa 
 
 1 A kind of game of forfeits, introduced for the diversion 
 of the royal children and those of the Duchess de Polignac. 
 
 2 This play upon the words is untranslateable. 
 VOL. I 20
 
 306 CHAPTER XII 
 
 in applauding the men who were forming the 
 American constitution at Paris ? Madame 
 Countess Diana ! Who was it, in like manner, 
 that opposed all the Queen's arguments against 
 the political conduct of France and Spain, relative 
 to the war with England, in favour of the 
 American Independence ? The Countess Diana ! 
 Not for the love of that rising nation, or for the 
 sacred cause of liberty; but from a taste for 
 notoriety, a spirit of envy and jealousy, an appre- 
 hension lest the personal charms ot the Queen 
 might rob her of a part of those affections, which 
 she herself exclusively hoped to alienate from that 
 abortion, the Countess d'Artois, in whose service 
 she is maid ot honour, and hand-maid to the 
 Count. My dear Princess, these are facts proved. 
 Beaumarchais has delineated them all. Why, then, 
 refuse to see me ? Why withdraw her former 
 confidence from the Count d'Artois, when she 
 lives in the society which promulgates anti- 
 monarchical principles ? These are sad evidences 
 ot Her Majesty's inconsistency. She might as 
 
 well see the Duke of Orleans' 
 
 " Here my feelings overwhelmed me. I could
 
 CHAPTER XII 307 
 
 contain myself no longer. The tears gushed from 
 my eyes. 
 
 " ' Oh, Prince ! ' exclaimed I, in a bitter agony 
 of grief ' Oh Prince ! touch not that fatal string. 
 For how many years has he not caused these 
 briny tears of mine to flow from my burning eyes ! 
 The scalding drops have nearly parched up the 
 spring of life 1 ' "
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LOUIS xvii Fronts. 
 
 BEDROOM OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE 96 
 
 LOUIS XVI l6o 
 
 PRINCESSE DE LAMBALLE 2o8 
 
 MARQUISE DE MONTESSON ; DUCHESSE D'ORLEANS 272 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 304 
 
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