Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England The Peasant and the Prince, by Harriet Martineau. ________________________________________________________________________ This short novel describes in great detail the last months of the French Royal family. The book starts with four chapters describing the apalling lives that some of the French nobility were forcing their peasantry to live. Every last bit of value was extorted from these noblemen's estates, to finance their extravagant life styles, and the poor people suffered greatly as a result. There then follow fifteen chapters of harrowing detail, as the Royal Family were treated with contempt and rudeness, interspersed with episodes of great kindness. There had been a revolution, and the cry was for the nobility to be hanged or guillotined, but for the Royals the process was a long drawn out period of torture and torment. Particularly sad was the story of the last few months of the boy Louis, the Prince of the title, who at one stage was left on his own for months on end with no friendly face to comfort him, while he lay in a dirty and unmade bed. A kind tutor was ordered for him, and he was cleaned up and comforted a little, but soon after died, having not been allowed to see his relatives for years. You can't help feeling that the French nobility had it coming, that their fate was one of their own making. Their behaviour during the eighteenth century made the Revolution inevitable. ________________________________________________________________________ THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ONE. THE LOVER IN THE WOOD.