France in the Nineteenth CenturyLatimer, Elizabeth Wormeley
History
France in the Nineteenth Century
Latimer, Elizabeth Wormeley
France -- History -- 1789-1900
"We returned to the drawing-room a little late. A great many people
had arrived. He remained with us talking until ten o'clock, when
on going away he came to bid me good-night. I gave him my hand,
and said: 'You will come and see us tomorrow before going away?'
He replied: 'Perhaps so.'
"On the next day, July 13, about eleven o'clock, we were about
to get into the carriage to go to the Tuileries. As I followed
the king to the red drawing-room, I saw Troussart, the commissary
of police, with a terrified countenance whispering something to
General Gourgaud, who made a gesture of horror, and went to speak
in a low voice to the king. The king cried out: 'Oh, my God!'
Then I cried: 'Something has happened to one of my children! Let
nothing be kept from me!' The king replied: 'Yes, my dear; Chartres
has had a fall on his way here, and has been carried into a house
at Sablonville.' Hearing this, I began to run like a madwoman,
in spite of the cries of the king and the remonstrances of M. de
Chabannes, who followed me. But my strength was not equal to my
impulses, and on getting as far as the farm, I was exhausted. Happily
the king came up in the carriage with my sister, and I got in with
them. Our carriage stopped. We got out in haste, and went into the
_cabaret_, where in a small room, stretched upon a mattress on
the floor, we found Chartres, who was at that moment being bled....
The death-rattle had begun. 'What is that?' said the king to me. I
replied: '_Mon ami_, this is death. For pity's sake let some one
fetch a priest, that my poor child may not die like a dog!' and
I went for a moment into a little side room, where I fell on my
knees and implored God from my inmost soul, if He needed a victim,
to take me and spare so dear a child....
"Dr. Pasquier arrived soon after. I said to him: 'Sir, you are
a man of honor; if you think the danger imminent, I beseech you
tell me so, that my child may receive extreme unction.' He hung
his head, and said: 'Madame, it is true.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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