Lives of the most eminent literary and scientific men of France, Vol. 2 (of 2)Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Science
Lives of the most eminent literary and scientific men of France, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Authors, French -- Biography
The resignation and departure of Necker, some months after, was a
circumstance full of mortification for his daughter. He traversed the
France which had hailed him with such transport on his return from
Basle, and found himself surrounded by enemies. Execrations followed his
steps, and he was arrested at Arcis-sur-Aube, and obliged to wait for a
decree, of the national assembly before he was suffered to proceed; his
name was held in detestation--his acts reviled. He did not deserve
this; for, though weak as a politician, his acts were those of an
honourable and generous man. The immediate cause of his resignation of
office was the issue of the assignats, which he looked on as the ruin of
the public credit; yet he left 2,000,000 of francs, the half of his
fortune, in the funds, to run a risk of loss, which he himself deemed,
as indeed it proved, inevitable. He retired to Coppet, while his
daughter was detained in Paris by illness.
[Sidenote: 1791.
Ætat.
25.]
She continued to remain there, and, according to French manners, mingled
deeply in various political intrigues. Her friend M. de Narbonne was
named minister of war, and many of his projects were discussed in her
drawing-room. She shared in the project set afoot by Lafayette, of
facilitating the escape of the king to the army at Metz. Narbonne, at
the head of the royal guard, and several thousand national guards
belonging to the department of Jura, were to carry off Louis by force
from the Tuileries. Talleyrand was informed of the plan, and approved,
but the king rejected it; he was averse to any project that needed the
co-operation of Lafayette, whom he hated. Soon after Narbonne was
dismissed, and the nomination of Dumouriez and Roland placed the power
in the hands of the girondists.
[Sidenote: 1792.
Ætat.
26.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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