The Life of Marie Antoinette

[5] 'Gustave III. et la Cour de France,' i., p. 349.

[6] An order known as that 'du Merite' had been recently distributed for foreign Protestant officers, whose religion prevented them from taking the oath required of the Knights of the Grand Order of St. Louis.

[7] 'Sa figure et son air convenaient parfaitement a un heros de roman, mais non pas d'un roman francais; il n'en avait ni le brillant ni legerete.'-Souvenirs et Portraits, par M. de Levis, p. 130.

[8] 'La Marck et Mirabeau,' p. 32.

[9] See his letter to Lord North proposing peace, date December 1st, 1780. Lord Stanhope's 'History of England,' vol. vii., Appendix, p. 13.

CHAPTER XVI. [1] 'Gustave III. et la Cour de France,' i., p. 357.

[2] Chambrier, i., p. 430; 'Gustave III.,' etc., i., p. 353.

[3] 'Gustave III.,' etc., i., p. 353.

[4] 'Memoires de Weber,' i., p. 50.

[5] 'On s'arretait dans les rues, on se parlait sans se connaitre.'- Madame de Campan, ch. ix.

[6] L'Oeil de Boeuf.

[7] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.; 'Marie Antoinette, Louis XII., et la Famille Royale,' p. 238.

[8] 'Un soleil d'ete'-Weber, i., p. 53.

[9] La Muette derived its name from les mues of the deer who were reared there. It had been enlarged by the Regent d'Orleans, who gave it to his daughter, the Duchess de Berri; and it, was the frequent scene of the orgies of that infamous father and daughter, while more recently it had been known as the Parc aux Cerfs, under which title it had acquired a still more infamous reputation.

[10] 'Apres le diner il y eut appartement jeu, et la fete fut terminee par un feu d'artifice.'-Weber, i., p. 57, from whom the greater part of those details are taken. For the etiquette of the 'jeu,' see Madame de Campan, ch. ix., p. 17, and 2 ed. 1858.

CHAPTER XVII. [1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 18th, 1780, Arneth iii., p. 440.

[2] Le tabouret. See St. Simon.

[3] See infra, the queen's letter to Madame de Tourzel, date July 25th, 1789.

[4] 'Souvenirs de Quarante Ans,' by Mademoiselle de Tourzel, p. 20.

[5] 'Filia dolorosa.'-Chateaubriand.

[6] Napoleon, in 1814, called her the only man of her family.

[7] Madame de Campan, ch. x.

[8] Memoires de Madame d'Oberkirch, i., p. 279

[9] The Marshal Prince de Soubise, whose incapacity and cowardice caused the disgraceful rout of Rosbach, was the head of this family; his sister, Madame Marsan, as governess of the 'children of France', had brought up Louis XVI.

[10] 'Il [Rohan] a meme menace, si on ne veut pas prendre le bon chemin qui lui indique, que ma fille s'en ressentira.'-Marie-Therese a Mercy, August 28th, 1774, Arneth, ii., p. 226.

[11] 'Ils paraissent si excedes du grand monde et des fetes, qu'avec d'autres petites difficultes qui se sont elevees, nous avons decide qu'il n'y aurait rien a Marly.'-Marie Antoinette to Mercy; Marie Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II., p. 27.

[12] 'No fewer than five actions were fought in 1782, and the spring of 1783, by those unwearied foes. De Suffrein's force was materially the stronger of the two; it consisted of ten sail of the line, one fifty-gun ship, and four frigates; while Sir E. Hughes had but eight sail of the line, a fifty-gun ship, and one frigate,' See the author's 'History of the British Navy,' i., p. 400.

[13] Weber, i., p. 77. For the importance at this time attached to a reception at court, see Chateaubriand, 'Memoires d'Outre-tombe,' i., p. 221.

CHAPTER XVIII. [1] Joseph to Marie Antoinette, date September 9th, 1783.-Marie Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II., p.30, which, to save such a lengthened reference, will hereafter be referred to as 'Arneth.'

[2] She was again expecting a confinement; but, as had happened between the birth of Madame Royale and that of the dauphin, an accident disappointed her hope, and her third child was not born till 1785.

[3] Date September 29th, 1783, Arneth, p. 35.

[4] Ministre de la maison du roi.

[5] Arneth, p. 38.

CHAPTER XIX. [1] 'Le roi signa une lettre de cachet qui defendait cette representation.'-Madame de Campan, ch. xi.; see the whole chapter. Madame de Campan's account of the queen's inclinations on the subject differs from that given by M. de Lomenie, in his 'Beaumarchais et son Temps,' but seems more to be relied on, as she had certainly better means of information.

[2] See M. Gaillard's report to the lieutenant of police.-Beaumarchais et son Temps, ii., p. 313.

[3] 'Il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits ecrits.'- Act v., scene 3.

[4] 'Avec Goddam en, Angleterre on ne manque de rien nulle part. Voulez- vous tater un bon poulet gras ... Goddam ... Aimez-vous a boire un coup d'excellent Bourgogne ou de clairet? rien que celui-ci Goddam. Les Anglais a la verite ajoutent par-ci par-la autres mots en conversant, mais il est bien aise de voir que Goddam est le fond de la langue.'- Act iii., scene 5.

[5] 'Gustave III. et la Cour de France,' ii., p.22

[6] Ibid., p. 35.

CHAPTER XX. [1] 'De par la reine.'

[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xi.

[3] ''La legerete a tout croire et a tout dire des souverains,' ecrit tres justement M. Nisard (Moniteur du 22 Janvier, 1886), 'est un des travers de notre pays, et comme le defaut de notre qualite de nation monarchique. C'est ce travers qui a tue Marie Antoinette par la main des furieux qui eurent peut-etre des honnetes gens pour complices. Sa mort devait rendre a jamais impossible en France la calomnie politique.''-Chambrier, i., p. 494.

[4] 'Memoires de la Reine de France,' par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42.

[5] See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor, December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, et seq.

[6] 'J'ai ete reellement touchee, de la raison et de la fermete que le roi a mises dans cette rude seance.'- Marie Antoinette to Joseph II., August 22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.

[7] 'La calomnie s'est attachee a poursuivre la reine, meme avant cette epoque ou l'esprit de parti a fait disparaitre la verite de la terre.'- Madame de Stael, Proces de la Reine, p. 2

[8] Madame de Campan, 'Eclaircissements Historiques,' p. 461; 'Marie Antoinette et le Proces du Collier,' par M. Emile Campardon, p. 144, seq.

[9] 'Permet au Cardinal de Rohan et au dit de Cagliostro de faire imprimer et afficher le present arret partout ou bon leur semblera.'-Campardon, p. 152.

[10] 'Sans doute le cardinal avait les mains pures de toute fraude; sans doute il n'etait pour rien dans l'escroquerie commise par les epoux de La Mothe.'-Campardon, p. 155.

[11] Campardon, p. 153, quoting Madame de Campan.

[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation. 'L'impression qui en resulte pour nous est l'impossibilite que la reine ait ete coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigees contre elle etaient vraisemblables, plus la creance accordee a ces imputations etait caracteristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'etait l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles.'-Histoire de France, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.

[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.

[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. l62. Some of the critics of M.F. de Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose; while his statement really was that Oliva,