MADAME DE CUSTINE.
25
CHAP. III.
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF MADAME DE CUSTINE. HER
ARREST.PROVIDENTIAL CONCEALMENT OF HER PAPERS.DE
VOTION OF NANETTE. SCENE AT THE TOMB OF 3IARAT.
MADAME DE BEAUHARNAIS IN PRISON.ANECDOTES OF PRISON
LIFE. INTERROGATION OF MADAME DE CUSTINE. INSPIRES
ONE OF HER JUDGES WITH THE DESIRE OF SAVING HER. THE
MEANS WHICH HE USES DURING SIX MONTHS TO RETARD HER
EXECUTION.END OF THE REIGN OF TERROR.CHARACTER OF
ROBESPIERRE. THE PRISONS AFTER HIS FALL. PETITION OF
NANETTE.EXTRAORDINARY DELIVERANCE OF MADAME DE CUS
TINE. RETURNS TO HER HOUSE. SICKNESS AND POVERTY. —
NOBLE CONDUCT OF JEROME. HIS AFTER HISTORY. JOURNEY
OF MADAME DE CUSTINE TO SWITZERLAND. BALLAD OF LE
ROSIER. LAVATER.MADAME DE CUSTINE UNDER THE EM
PIRE. HER FRIENDS.DEATH IN 1826.
As I have begun to relate the misfortunes of my family, I will finish the recitaL Perhaps tliis episode of our revolution, as recounted by the son of two individuals who performed conspicuous parts in it, will not be found altogether without interest.
My mother having lost all that could attach her to her country, had now no duty to perform but that of saving her life, and watching over the welfare of her child.
Her situation was, in fact, much worse than that of the other French fugitives. Our name, tainted with Liberalism, was as odious to the aristocrats of that period as to the Jacobins. The prejudiced and intolerant partisans of the old regime, could as little
VOL. I.С
26
MADAME DE CUSTINE
forgive my parents for the part they had taken at the commencement of the revolution, as could the Terrorists for the moderation of their republican patriotism.
The Girondists, who were the Doctrinaires of this era, would have defended the cause of my father ; but that party was annihilated, or had, at least, disappeared since the triumph of Robespierre.
My mother, therefore, found herself in a more isolated position than most of the Jacobin victims. Having devotedly embraced the opinions of her husband, she had been obliged to renounce the society in which her life had been passed, and she had not sought entrance into any other. The remains of those circles which had constituted the
The moderate reform party—the men whose love of France exists independently of the form of government adopted by the French — tin's party, which is now a nation, was not then represented in the country. My father died a martyr in the cause of that unborn nation; and my mother, when only twenty-two years old, had to undergo all the fatal consequences of her husband's virtue — a virtue too lofty to be appreciated by men who could not understand its motives. The energetic moderation of my father was ill understood by his cotemporaries, and his wronged memory attached to the person of his wife, and followed her even to the tomb. Identified
CONCEALING HER PAPEBS.27
with a name which, in the midst of a world torn by conflicting passions, represented the principle of impartiality, she was abandoned by all parties. Others had the consolation of mourning over their wrongs in company, my mother could only weep alone !
Soon after the catastrophe which rendered her a widow, she became aware of the necessity of leaving France. This, however, required a passport, which it was very difficult to obtain. By means of money she procured a false one, under the name of a dealer in lace about to visit Belgium. It was arranged that my nurse, a faithful servant of our family in Lorraine, and who had brought me to Paris, should proceed with me by way of Alsace to Pyrmont in Westphalia, where we were to meet my mother, and from thence journey together to Berlin, in which city she expected to join her own mother and her brother also. To no other servant but the nurse herself was this plan confided. All preliminary arrangements having been made, Nanette departed with me for the office of the Strasburg diligence, leaving my mother, who was to set out immediately after us on her journey to Flanders, at her lodging in the Rue de Bourbon. She was employing the last minutes that were to precede her departure, in her cabinet, assorting papers and burning such as might compromise others; for among these papers were letters from officers in the army, and from parties already suspected of being aristocrats, of a character that would have sufficed to bring to the guillotine, in four and twenty hours, herself and fifty other individuals.
Seated on a large sofa near to the fire-place, she was busy burning the most dangerous letters, and с 2
28MADAME DE CUSTINE ;
placing others, which, as having been written by her parents and dearest friends she felt unwilling to destroy, in a separate box, when suddenly she heard the door of the outer apartment open, and forewarned by one of those jiresentiments which had never failed to admonish her in moments of danger, she said within herself, ' I am betrayed; they are coming to arrest me ;' whereupon, without further deliberation, for it was too late to burn the heaps of dangerous documents by which she was surrounded, she gathered them hastily together and stuffed them, with the box also, under the sofa, the hangings of which fortunately reached to the floor.
This accomplished, she arose, and received, with an air of perfect com?iosure, the persons who instantly after entered her cabinet. They were the members of the Committee of General Safety, with their attendants. These beings, whose external appearance was at once ridiculous and terrible, surrounded her with muskets and drawn swords.
' You are under arrest,' said the president.
My mother made no answer.
