The Idler in FranceBlessington, Marguerite, Countess of
History
The Idler in France
Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of
France -- Description and travel; France -- Social life and customs
I was reminded of this anecdote by the face of the Duchesse
d'Angoulême; for though I do not pretend to a prescience as to her
future fate, I cannot help arguing from it that, even should a peaceful
reign await her, the fearful trials of her youth have destroyed in her
the power of enjoyment; and that on a throne she can never forget the
father and mother she saw hurried from it, to meet every insult that
malice could invent, or cruelty could devise, before a violent death
freed them from their sufferings.
Who can look on this heroic woman without astonishment at the power of
endurance that has enabled her to live on under such trials? Martyr is
written in legible characters on that brow, and on those lips; and her
attempt to smile made me more sad than the tears of a mourner would
have done, because it revealed "a grief too deep for tears."
Must she not tremble for the future, if not for the present, among a
people so versatile as those among whom she is now thrown? And can she
look from the windows of the palace she has been recalled to inhabit,
without seeing the spot where the fearful guillotine was reared that
made her an orphan?
The very plaudits that now rend the skies for her uncle must remind her
of the shouts that followed her father to the scaffold: no wonder,
then, that she grows pale as she hears them; and that the memory of the
terrible past, written in characters of blood, gives a sombre hue to
the present and to the future.
The sight of her, too, must awaken disagreeable recollections in those
over whom her husband may be soon called to reign, for the history of
the crimes of the Revolution is stamped on her face, whose pallid lint
and rigid muscles tell of the horror and affliction imprinted on her
youth; the reminiscence of which cannot be pleasant to them.
The French not only love their country passionately, but are
inordinately proud of it; hence, aught that reminds them of its
sins--and cruelty is one of a deep dye--must be humiliating to them; so
that the presence of the Duchesse d'Angoulême cannot be flattering to
their _amor patriæ_ or _amour propre_. I thought of all this to-day, as
I looked on the face of Madame la Dauphine; and breathed a hope that
the peace of her life's evening may console her for the misfortunes of
its morning and its noon.
The Duchesse de Berri has an animated and peculiarly good-natured
expression of countenance. Her restored gaiety makes the French forget
why it was long and cruelly overclouded, and aids the many good
qualities which she possesses, in securing the popularity she has so
generally acquired in the country of her adoption.
House-hunting again, and still unsuited. Dined yesterday at the
Duchesse de Guiche's; a very pleasant party, increased by some
agreeable people in the evening. Our old acquaintance, William Lock,
was among the guests at dinner, and is as good-looking and
light-hearted as ever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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