Memoirs of the Princesse de Ligne, Vol. 1 (of 2)Massalska, Apolonia Helena
History
Memoirs of the Princesse de Ligne, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Massalska, Apolonia Helena
Ligne, Charles Joseph, prince de, 1735-1814; Massalska, Apolonia Helena, 1763-1815
however, she said in a severe manner: ‘Your faults are very great,
and your punishment is not great enough.’ Then she called in the two
sisters who were at the door, and she said: ‘I order Mademoiselle to
be reconducted to the schoolroom, and to go without dessert for eight
days; and tell the head-mistress of the blue class to come and speak to
me.’ Madame de Rochechouart, moreover, asked if I had met any one on my
way to her, and I said I had met the doctor Monsieur Bordeu, and Madame
la Duchesse de Chatillon, who had come to see one of her daughters
who was sick. I was brought back to the classroom, but I heard,
shortly after, some of the red class young ladies say that Madame de
Rochechouart had said it was stupid to make such a guy of me, and that
she had soundly rated Mother Quatre Temps, requesting her to punish
her scholars without disfiguring them; that a few days before she had
entered the schoolroom and thought she must be looking at Egyptian
idols, on seeing five or six of us with asses ears and three tongues,
and as the Convent was constantly full of strangers, it might throw a
ridicule on the education of the pupils. From that time forth these
punishments were abolished, and instead we were made to go on our knees
in the middle of the choir, we were deprived of dessert, given dry
bread at breakfast and collation, or made to copy out the _Privilège du
Roi_[27] during play-time, which was very tedious.”
Hélène, however, was not at the end of her tribulations, and her quick
temper naturally brought her into a few more.
“About that time I experienced from all the class a bodily punishment
which I resolved long to remember. I was in the habit of repeating to
Madame de Sainte Euphrasie everything that took place in the class,
and as I saw it met with success, I listened to all the pupils said,
so as to repeat it to her, so much so that all the classes had taken a
dislike to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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