Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 1: Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the QueenCampan, Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette)
History
Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 1: Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
Campan, Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette)
France -- Court and courtiers; Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793
When Madame Campan related this circumstance she added: "After the 30th of
March, 1814, some officers of the army of Conde presumed to say to certain
French marshals that it was a pity they were not more nobly connected. In
answer to this, one of them said, 'True nobility, gentlemen, consists in
giving proofs of it. The field of honour has witnessed ours; but where
are we to look for yours? Your swords have rusted in their scabbards.
Our laurels may well excite envy; we have earned them nobly, and we owe
them solely to our valour. You have merely inherited a name. This is the
distinction between us."
[When one of the princes of the smaller German States was showing Marechal
Lannes, with a contemptuous superiority of manner but ill concealed, the
portraits of his ancestors, and covertly alluding to the absence of
Lannes's, that general turned the tables on him by haughtily remarking,
"But I am an ancestor."]
Napoleon used to observe that if he had had two such field-marshals as
Suchet in Spain he would have not only conquered but kept the Peninsula.
Suchet's sound judgment, his governing yet conciliating spirit, his
military tact, and his bravery, had procured him astonishing success. "It
is to be regretted," added he, "that a sovereign cannot improvise men of
his stamp."
On the 19th of March, 1815, a number of papers were left in the King's
closet. Napoleon ordered them to be examined, and among them was found
the letter written by Madame Campan to Louis XVIII., immediately after the
first restoration. In this letter she enumerated the contents of the
portfolio which Louis XVI. had placed under her care. When Napoleon read
this letter, he said, "Let it be sent to the office of Foreign Affairs; it
is an historical document."
Madame Campan thus described a visit from the Czar of Russia: "A few days
after the battle of Paris the Emperor Alexander came to Ecouen, and he did
me the honour to breakfast with me. After showing him over the
establishment I conducted him to the park, the most elevated point of
which overlooked the plain of St. Denis. 'Sire,' said I, 'from this point
I saw the battle of Paris'--'If,' replied the Emperor, 'that battle had
lasted two hours longer we should not have had a single cartridge at our
disposal. We feared that we had been betrayed; for on arriving so
precipitately before Paris all our plans were laid, and we did not expect
the firm resistance we experienced.' I next conducted the Emperor to the
chapel, and showed him the seats occupied by 'le connetable' (the
constable) of Montmorency, and 'la connetable' (the constable's lady),
when they went to hear mass. 'Barbarians like us,' observed the Emperor,
'would say la connetable and le connetable.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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