At this moment my mother observed that her servants had followed the members of the committee into the room. A single glance sufficed to show her by whom she had been denounced ; the face of her
HER AREEST.29
' I pity yon,' said my mother, addressing this person, who began to cry and to ask for pardon, pleading that she had acted through fear for herself,
?? Had you watched me better,' replied her mistress, ' you would have found that I did not expose you to any risk.'
' To which prison will you be conducted ?' asked one of the members of the committee; ' you are free to choose,'
' I have no choice.'
Before departing they examined the drawers, cabinets, and each piece of furniture in the room, and searched every where except beneath the sofa. The papers remained where they had been placed. My mother was conveyed to the Carmelite convent, which had been converted into a prison, and on whose walls was still to be seen the blood of the victims of the 2d September, 1792.
Meanwhile the friend who waited for her at the barrier, convinced from her non-appearance that she had been arrested, hurried to the office of the diligence to prevent Xanette from proceeding with me to Strasburg. He arrived in time, and I was taken back to our residence. My mother was no longer there ; the seals had already been affixed upon the doors of her apartments; all the servants had been dismissed ; not, however, before they had found time to plunder the plate and linen. The house was robbed of all its valuables, and deserted, except by the civic guard, who kept the door. The kitchen was the only room left to us. Here my poor nurse made her bed close to my cradle, and tended me for eight months with the affection of a mother; and с 3
30DEVOTION OF NANETTE.
with a devotion that could not have been exceeded had I been a great nobleman.
After the money, which had been destined for our journey, was expended, she supported me by selling, one by one, the articles of her dress. If my mother perished, her intention was to carry me to her own country, and to bring me up among the little peasants of her family. I was at that time two years old. Falling dangerously ill of a malignant fever, she found means to procure for me the attendance of three of the first medical men in Pans. Poor Nanette ! she had, indeed, both a generous heart and an energetic character, though the strength of her feel-ings may not have been equalled by the powers of her intellect.
Her fearlessness made her often very imprudent. During the trial of my grandfather, the people in the streets would often inveigh, in the most violent language, against the
On one occasion, passing with me in her arms across the Place du Carrousel, she observed the women on their knees paying their orisons before the revolutionary shrine of Marat, the martyr of atheism and inhumanity.
SCENE AT MARAT'S TOMB.31
By a confusion of ideas, which strikingly exhibits the disorder into which minds were plunged at this epoch, the women, after finisliing their prayers, rose, paying a deep reverence to their new saint, and making the sign of the cross.
Nanette was so indignant at this exhibition, that, forgetting I was in her arms, she began to load these new devotees with abuse, and from words soon came to blows. During the struggle she continued faith-fully to hold me to her bosom, the fear of my suffering in the contest being her chief care. At length she fell, and the ery of ' to the lantern with the aristocrat ' resounded from all sides. A woman snatched me from her arms, and she was being dragged along by the hair of her head, when a man, who appeared among the most furious of the crowd, pressed near to her, and contrived to hint in her ear that she should counterfeit insanity, and that he would take care of her child. Nanette began immediately to sing and make many strange grimaces; whereupon her friendly adviser called out 'she is mad.'—'She is mad; she is mad; let her go,' was re-echoed by other voices. Availing herself of this means of escape, she retreated, singing and dancing, towards the Pont Royal, and in the Rue du Вас received me again from the hands of her deliverer.
This lesson served to render Nanette (chiefly through fear for me) more circumspect, but her imprudenee became a source of constant alarm to my mother.
The latter, in her prison, derived some consolation from the society of several distinguished female fellow prisoners, who evinced for her the sincerest sympathy. с 4
32ANECDOTES OF PRISON LIFE.
Among others were Mademoiselle Picot, and Mes-dames de Lameth, d'Aiguillon, and de Beauharnais, aftenvards the Empress Josephine. This last named lady was placed in the same room with my mother, and they mutually performed for each other the offices of
With the exception of Madame de Beauharnais, these young and beautiful women took a pride in maintaining a high decree of courage and fortitude. The former exhibited all the thoughtlessness of the ereole, and often betrayed a pusillanimity and peevish restlessness that made her companions in misfortune blush. But though she had no magnanimity of character, she was naturally graceful; and gracefulness can dispense with every other rpialification. Her mien, her manner, and, above all, her way of speaking, possessed a peculiar charm.
Many curious details connected with the prison life of this period have been written. Had my mother left any memoirs, they would have revealed to the public traits and occurrences still unknown. In the ancient Carmelite convent, among other female prisoners, was an English woman, very old, deaf, and almost blind. She had never been able to learn the reason of her imprisonment; to ascertain which she constantly addressed every one with whom she had an opportunity of speaking. The executioner was the last person who replied to her inquiry.
In the same chamber with this last was the wife of a man who exhibited a puppet-show. They had been arrested, they said, because their puppets were too aristocratic. The woman had a profound respect for the fallen great; and, thanks to this feeling ! the
ANECDOTES OF PRISON LIFE.33
prisoners of noble birth received from her a homage greater than they had ever met with in their own houses.
The plebeian voluntarily waited upon them, and was continually performing little obliging offices, actuated by the pure pleasure of the service: she never approached their persons without testifying marks of the most profound respect; and in finally bidding farewell to these illustrious companions, to proceed with her husband to the place of execution, the poor woman did not for a moment forget to use all those antiquated forms of obeisance with which she was accustomed to address them at other times.
The prisoners, both male and female, used to meet at certain hours in a kind of garden, where the men
