[105] One of the most accredited calumnies against the unfortunate Marie Antoinette pretends, that she was on this occasion surprised in the arms of a paramour. Buonaparte is said to have mentioned this as a fact, upon the authority of Madame Campan. [O'MEARA'S _Napoleon in Exile_, vol. ii., p. 172.] We have now Madame Campan's own account, [Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 78.] describing the conduct of the Queen on this dreadful occasion as that of a heroine, and totally excluding the possibility of the pretended anecdote. But let it be farther considered, under what circumstances the Queen was placed--at two in the morning, retired to a privacy liable to be interrupted (as it was) not only by the irruption of the furious banditti who surrounded the palace, demanding her life, but by the entrance of the King, or of others, in whom circumstances might have rendered the intrusion duty; and let it then be judged, whether the dangers of the moment, and the risk of discovery, would not have prevented Messalina herself from choosing such a time for an assignation.--S. [106] The miscreant's real name was Jourdan, afterwards called _Coupe-Tête_, distinguished in the massacres of Avignon. He gained his bread by sitting as an academy-model to painters, and for that reason cultivated his long beard. In the depositions before the Chatelet, he is called _L'Homme à la barbe_--an epithet which might distinguish the ogre or goblin of some ancient legend.--S. [107] Lacretelle, tom. vii., p. 238. [108] Thiers, tom. i., p. 182; Lacretelle, tom. vii., p. 241. [109] Rivarol, p. 312; Campan, vol. ii., p. 81. [110] Mémoires de Weber, vol. ii., p. 457.--S. [111] "The Queen, on returning from the balcony, approached my mother, and said to her, with stifled sobs, 'They are going to force the King and me to Paris, with the heads of our body-guards carried before us, on the point of their pikes.' Her prediction was accomplished."--M. DE STAËL, vol. i., p. 344. [112] It has been said that they were borne immediately before the royal carriage; but this is an exaggeration where exaggeration is unnecessary. These bloody trophies preceded the royal family a great way on the march to Paris.--S. [113] "Nous ne manquerons plus de pain; nous amenons le boulanger, la boulangère, et le petit mitron!"--PRUDHOMME, tom. i., p. 244. [114] Prudhomme, tom. i., p. 243. [115] "The King said to the mayor, 'I come with pleasure to my good city of Paris;' the Queen added, 'and with confidence.' The expression was happy, but the event, alas! did not justify it."--M. DE STAËL, vol. i., p. 344.