“On the 21st of _Brumaire_ [Nov. 12] my mother received the intelligence that she was to be arrested on the following day. She kept this news from us till the next morning. The hours passed away in cruel expectation. M. Granchier, commissary of the Revolutionary Committee, arrived at the château in the evening of the same day, with a detachment of the National Guard of Paulhaguet. We all collected in my mother’s room, where the order of the Committee for her arrest was read aloud. She presented the certificate of civism given her by the _commune_. M. Granchier answered that it was too old, and that it was of no use, not having been countersigned by the Committee. “‘Citoyen,’ my sister then asked, ‘are daughters prevented from following their mother?’ “‘Yes, mademoiselle,’ answered the commissary. “She insisted, adding that, being sixteen, she was included in the law. He seemed moved, but changed the subject. My mother kept up everybody’s courage. She tried to persuade us that the separation would not be a long one. “The jail at Brioude was already full. The newly arrived prisoners were, nevertheless, crammed into it. My mother found herself in the midst of all the ladies of the nobility, with whom she had had no intercourse since the Revolution. At first they were impertinent, but they soon shared in the admiration my mother inspired in all those who approached her. The society of the prison was divided into _coteries_, which cordially hated each other; but for my mother every one professed attachment. “My mother soon became aware that she could do nothing for her deliverance, and that, to escape greater misfortunes, her best plan was to avoid attracting attention. One day she ventured to suggest the necessity of giving more air to a sick woman confined in a small room with eleven other people. This brought down on her a volley of abuse impossible to describe. My mother was happy to find place in a room which served as a passageway, and where three _bourgeoises_ of Brioude were already established. By these persons she was received in a very touching manner. “The news my mother received at that time from Paris caused her most painful agitation. My grandmother and my aunt de Noailles were put under arrest in their own house, at the Hôtel de Noailles. We had occasional opportunities of communicating with my mother. We used to send her clean linen every week. The list was sewn on the parcel, and each time we wrote on the back of the page, which nobody ever thought of unsewing. She would answer us in the same way. But this mode of correspondence was not safe enough to be employed in giving any other details than those concerning our health. “The innkeeper’s daughter, a child of thirteen, sometimes managed, when carrying the prisoners’ dinner, to approach my mother. Blows, abuse of language, all was indifferent to that courageous girl, so that she could succeed in beholding my mother, and in letting us know that she was in good health.