Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 7: 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 7: 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
After the new decree the prisoners were treated with increased harshness.
Pens, paper, ink, and pencils were taken from them. The King and Madame
Elisabeth gave up all, but the Queen and her daughter each concealed a
pencil. "In the beginning of October," says Madame Royale, "after my
father had supped, he was told to stop, that he was not to return to his
former apartments, and that he was to be separated from his family. At
this dreadful sentence the Queen lost her usual courage. We parted from
him with abundance of tears, though we expected to see him again in the
morning.
[At nine o'clock, says Clery, the King asked to be taken to his family,
but the municipal officers replied that they had "no orders for that."
Shortly afterwards a boy brought the King some bread and a decanter of
lemonade for his breakfast. The King gave half the bread to Clery,
saying, "It seems they have forgotten your breakfast; take this, the rest
is enough for me." Clery refused, but the King insisted. "I could not
contain my tears," he adds; "the King perceived them, and his own fell
also."]
They brought in our breakfast separately from his, however. My mother
would take nothing. The officers, alarmed at her silent and concentrated
sorrow, allowed us to see the King, but at meal-times only, and on
condition that we should not speak low, nor in any foreign language, but
loud and in 'good French.' We went down, therefore, with the greatest joy
to dine with my father. In the evening, when my brother was in bed, my
mother and my aunt alternately sat with him or went with me to sup with my
father. In the morning, after breakfast, we remained in the King's
apartments while Clery dressed our hair, as he was no longer allowed to
come to my mother's room, and this arrangement gave us the pleasure of
spending a few moments more with my father."
[When the first deputation from the Council of the Commune visited the
Temple, and formally inquired whether the King had any complaint to make,
he replied, "No; while he was permitted to remain with his family he was
happy."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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