“Plenty, Sire. And I can get more. The rabble which marched on Versailles was strongly augmented by men in women’s clothes. They were not the women of Paris as we were meant to believe. They were paid agitators, many of them, and one of those who organised the march was Monsieur d’Orleans.”
“It is incredible,” insisted the King; but I pointed out to him that it was not incredible at all. Orleans had been my enemy from the days when I had first come to France; and I could well believe this of him.
The King looked at me helplessly, but La Fayette, sure now of my support, went on: “Sire, some heard the cry ” Vive Orleans, notre roi d’orleans I think that makes it clear. He plans to destroy you and the Queen and set himself up in your place. He should be sent out of the country. “
“Let him go to England,” said the King.
“But I think it should be said that he goes on a mission for me. I would not wish publicly to accuse my cousin of treachery.”
So to London went Orleans; and there he met Madame de la Motte and together they planned what further calumnies they could pile upon me.
Those long winter days! Those draughty corridors ! Those smoking lamps! And our privacy continually disturbed by the guards!
I do not think I could have endured that winter but for Axel’s presence. I missed Gabrielle sadly. The Princesse de Lamballe was a good friend and I loved her dearly, but she had never had the place in my feelings which I-gave to Gabrielle. Elisabeth was a constant consolation—and of course the children. My daughter was growing into a sweet-natured girl. She was resigned and accepted hardship without complaint. She was greatly influenced by the attitude of her Aunt Elisabeth, and the two were always together. Sometimes when I was particularly sad I would send for my little Chou d’Amour and he would enliven me with his precocious sayings. Like the child he was, he had quickly adapted himself to the life at the Tuileries, and I sometimes thought that he had forgotten the splendours of the Trianon and Versailles.
We must be careful not to spoil him,” I told Madame de Tourzel, ” but he is such a darling, it is difficult. We must remember, though, that we should bring him up to be a King. “
She agreed with me, and I often thought how fortunate I was to be surrounded by so many true friends; and that it could only be in times of misfortune that we could discover them.
The King was relying more and more on my judgment. He seemed aware of the change in me and I remembered how in the beginning he had declared he would never allow a woman to advise him. We had both changed.
But there was one quality in him which never altered—that unnatural calm. It almost seemed that he lacked interest in his own affairs.
I heard (me of his ministers say that to discuss affairs with him made him feel that be was discussing matters concerning the Emperor of China instead of the King of France.
For this reason I found myself being drawn more and more into affairs.
I had tried to keep out of them, but Mercy had warned me that if I did not play a part in them no one would. Someone must be at the helm of a ship which was being buffeted by a fierce storm. This was said by Mirabeau, who, now that Orleans was no longer in France, was the one man who could hold back the revolution.
That man was right. He was brilliant, I knew. Mercy wrote of him often; Axel spoke of him. He was a rascal, said Axel, and-we should not trust him; but at this time he was the most important man in France and we should not ignore him.
It was noticed that I was taking a part in affairs. The King would never agree to anything without, as he openly said, ‘consulting the Queen. ” The new person I had become, although ignorant of much, at least had a firm opinion on what should be done, and this was better than the attitude of the King, which was never the same for two days running. I was for standing firm against the revolutionaries. We had conceded enough, I declared. We should concede no more. Axel confirmed me in my opinions. Perhaps I drew on him for them. He was not only my lover; he was my adviser; and the fact that he and Mercy were in agreement on so many points pleased me.
Mirabeau began to change his mind. He now remarked:
“The King has only one man with him—his wife.”
And this meant that Mirabeau considered me a greater power in France than the King.
“When one undertakes to direct a revolution,” Mirabeau was reported to me as having said, “the difficulty is not to spur it on but restrain it.”
I gathered from that remark that he wished to restrain it.
In February my brother Joseph died. I felt numbed when I read the letter from Leopold, who had succeeded him. There had been a bond between Joseph and myself, although his criticism had irritated me; but I realised now that he had meant to help me, and how much wisdom there had been behind his comments.
Leopold and I had never been so close, so now I felt even the links with Vienna slipping away from me.
We were all suffering from colds; the King had put on more weight, for he missed the violent exercise he had been accustomed to take, and an occasional game of billiards could not make up for it. I myself was far from well and I could not contemplate a long summer in the unhealthy atmosphere of the Tuileries. When I suggested that we go to Saint-Cloud for the summer there was only the mildest dissension. I felt very relieved and in lighter spirits than I had been for a long time, because when we got into our carriages in order to make the journey only a small hostile crowd tried to stop us and a much bigger crowd shouted that we needed the more salubrious air and called out “Bon voyage au ban Papa!” which delighted the King and raised my spirits even higher. I really believed that the revolution was over and that in time we should be allowed to return to Versailles—to a different life, it was true, but a dignified one.
What a joy to be at Saint-Cloud! The air was invigorating, and how beautiful it seemed compared with the gloomy Tuileries which I hated.
I felt the old days were almost back. It was not the Trianon, of course, but it was the next best thing.
Mercy, who was in Brussels, was writing to me urging me not to ignore the advances of Mirabeau who was eager to bring about a rapprochement and was the one man in the whole of France who could end the revolution and put the King back on the throne.
I considered the man—an aristocrat by birth who had not been received well by the nobility and had no doubt for this reason allied himself with the Third Estate. He had given his talents to Orleans, but Orleans was now an exile; and Mirabeau wished to turn around and end the revolution which he had helped to start. Perhaps he had not intended it should go the way it did. Perhaps he had really wished to make changes constitutionally. In any case that was what he apparently wished now.
He had written letters to the King, who had not answered them. I had read these letters and had not persuaded my husband to pay attention to them for I believed that any man who could have been responsible for setting the whole tragedy in motion should be shunned for evermore.
“I shall henceforth be what I have always been,” he wrote, ‘the defender of monarchical power regulated by the laws, and the champion of liberty as guaranteed by monarchical authority. My heart will follow the road which reason has already pointed out to me. “
I heard a great deal of this man. Axel talked of him continually. He was too important to be ignored, he said. We could use him. He had led the people once; he would lead them again. He and he alone was able to put an end to this intolerable situation.
“And you suggest that we should make terms with such a man?” I asked.
“I do,” answered Axel.
“Why does he wish to join us now?” I demanded.
“Only because he will want to be the President of the National Assembly, at the King’s right hand, the first minister. In truth, he wishes to be the ruler of France.”
Axel smiled at me tenderly.
“When he has restored the Monarchy the King and the Queen will be in a strong enough position to deal with him, perhaps.”
“I see how your mind works.”
And because Axel was in favour of employing this man, he was gradually making me realise that it would be an excellent idea. Perhaps Mirabeau himself touched my vanity, for it was to me he wished to make known his plan not to the King.
I wanted that summer to go on and on. I dreaded our return to the Tuileries. Axel was staying nearby in the
